Homesteading Hacks and Sourdough Secrets

I promise you this, Raised in the Woods is gonna cover some topics you never thought and really probably wouldn't care

to hear otherwise.

My name's Joel Clayfish and this is Raised in the Woods, the show.

about the great outdoors of the great states of Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa, and Wisconsin.

I almost forgot Wisconsin,

the seat of the Midwest.

You should note that on your diaper, your pocket diaper.

Okay, just listen.

You know,

during the break, we were just talking about the different states that those

of us had to.

No, we weren't.

You didn't even let him finish.

This is a

segue.

Okay.

Brandy Raffinelli.

I didn't leave nothing nowhere.

And she is a worldwide, fame acclaimed homesteader with more than a million followers on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and there's probably some other new ones that I don't even know about yet.

I think those are probably it, right?

You covered

them.

But she is with us today, and we are having a blast talking to her about...

homesteading and where it starts.

And we're going to go, we're going to do

it.

We don't really know where to start with it, to

be honest.

No, it's

such a huge category.

So

I'm going to take, I'm going to take us out.

I'm going to just slow things down and start with my wild of the week, which the middle of summer.

Most people say now is the doldrums of summer.

There's not much to do.

Oh, I

am telling

you the geese are already on the move.

The wheat fields are down.

I'm scouting, scouting, scouting, taking video, noticing bands on their legs, GPS backpacks, neck collars.

I haven't seen any of that yet.

But we're even seeing those.

That's my mile of the week.

Beat the heat.

Stay in your car.

Put in some windshield time.

It will definitely

pay off.

And I want to shout out to the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association and the Waterfowlers Academy, who are running the Fowl Life Scouting Series, which I

can do

with them.

Check that out.

You will see Chef Lawton, and you will see Northwood's taxidermies,

Kyle Schmidt's

son on segment three of the Scouting Series.

which is how to ingratiate yourself to farmers and landowners, which is a very important thing that

people

don't always think about during scouting.

So

we're excited about that.

We whipped up some really lovely pot pies.

Yes, wild goose-pop eyes.

The coolest thing ever is bringing to a farmer or landowner a dish made with something you harvested on their land.

They probably

appreciate that too so much.

Yes, they do.

It's awesome.

A small token of appreciation.

What's really cool is that you knock on doors to try to get permissions and then you get to start to learn about the people.

who manage the land and grow the products that we eat and the farmers.

And it's just wonderful.

It really is a great crossroad.

That's my Wild of the Week.

Dan, Tim, what have you got?

Well, related, strangely, I was golfing this week.

I get out maybe three or four times a year.

I don't understand golfing.

It's easy, Joel.

You take your club,

you

hit the ball, and you try and get towards the pin.

Get in the hole.

And then eventually, you just hit it in the hole.

But I think it's a great excuse to get outside, be outside for three or four hours.

On these days again, when there's not that much to do comfortably, it's fun.

Golf courses are beautiful.

And

what's on golf

courses?

See, that's the thing.

I snapped a pic.

I must have seen probably six or seven dozen geese.

And I just snapped a pic of it and sent it to Joel via text message.

I said, they look delicious.

I didn't expect them to zoom in and notice, but like three or four of these birds had bands on

them.

You don't know me well enough.

Now I know.

Now I know.

So yeah, that was my wild of the week getting out, getting golfing, good times and a side scouting mission for.

My friend Joel here.

Yeah, I appreciate

that.

I'm already asking permissions around that golf

course.

You said you were one short of a goal for bands.

Yeah, I'm

one short of 20 bands.

So

that I

try all last year.

It's rare.

I go an entire year without a band, but I didn't last year.

So

now we know.

We know where they're hanging out for that.

Ron Danelli, what do you got?

I actually took an herbal mocktail class outdoors.

What?

It was the coolest thing ever, honestly.

Oh my goodness.

Mocktails are.

my jam.

Well, and just like to know where it, like we were

in a garden

outside

in the garden.

Oh, then you should come.

I had a mocktail.

I made a natural coconut milk, lime, alcohol-free margarita.

Oh my gosh.

This

afternoon

and I had it.

Why aren't we having those?

With

Taheen rims.

It would be my pleasure to make that.

Awesome.

It was so cool.

And we literally got to go in the garden, pick the herbs that we were using, mix them up.

It was so fun.

And it was a beautiful day.

a bunch of girls and men were there too.

And we all just learned and- Do you like how she said that, Dan?

Men

were there too.

A bunch of girls and

men

were there too.

Well,

because

really, it's more like- I mean, like sometimes you guys can drag things down a little bit.

Yeah, you guys are bummers, man.

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

You know, I was a little worried that without Megan here, I wouldn't get beat up enough today,

but that's

fine.

You gotta wear a flowy dress so you won't fit in.

He's got one on right now.

Oh, yeah.

Love that color on you.

And a matching dipey.

Wow.

Oh,

circle.

Sorry, Joel.

Sorry, Joel.

I was really ganging up on you, Joel.

You got to hit him

with

the

mustache.

What is happening?

What are

you doing with your bro code?

I think you know what it is.

I'm in Megan's seat.

Oh, I feel that energy.

Honestly,

that

makes

sense.

Hey,

Dan, your beard's not that cool.

Oh, man.

It's a pretty legit mustache, though.

Thank you.

It really is.

Thank you.

I think cutting jumps off at night and

steals things.

It's like the Lorax.

It's got

its own life.

Oh, my goodness.

It is like the Lorax.

Is it really?

You know what really is?

He's going to

come back next week with like beard shaved off or something.

Oh, the Lorax is cool.

Yeah.

Is it?

He

speaks for the trees.

Okay, I like that.

He makes mocktails.

Yes,

in a flowy dress.

You should go as him for Halloween.

Okay.

We're

on to

something.

Usually it's a theme and I don't have much of a say in it, so.

Pitch

that

idea.

You know, I met

your lover and I can see how that could be the case.

She's a creative one.

She's a

driven woman too, yeah.

She's not afraid to, yeah, she's great.

She's gonna be back on the show too.

Chef Lawton, did

you get

out in the woods or in the wild?

Well, if the horse pasture counts as the woods or the wild, it

can

get.

really Western in there sometimes.

You know what?

We had, the other day we did have a lovely day.

I think it was like 75 or 78 for a high and it wasn't humid, it wasn't smoky.

We

had two beautiful days.

I took total advantage of that and I went, got my horses out, I groomed them, spent time with them and I just sat in the grass and enjoyed the awesome weather.

That was

my thing.

I would like to join

you someday.

Absolutely.

It sounds majestic.

That would be amazing.

It's mainly just girls, there's sometimes guys.

Here we

go again.

Here we go again.

We'll bring diaper and

mustache

with us.

Wait a minute.

Dipey and Lorax.

All right, we're going to change the subject really

quick from that.

Oh my goodness.

Before that

one

sticks.

Yeah.

And I thought clay face was bad

in high

school.

Hey, you gave it to yourself.

That's true.

Dan Tim didn't have a choice,

though.

No, I was born like this.

You were born with a mustache.

You should see the pictures.

Oh, my goodness.

Brandy.

Oh, where does somebody even start if they want to start homesteading?

Oh,

well, they'd have to decide on.

what they want to start with.

Is it more they want to be closer to where their food comes from?

Is it more that they want to get away from toxic cleaning chemicals, environmental chemicals, or just beneficial?

Was that really your

motive?

Yes.

Was

your motive to get

away from all the crap they put in junk?

Unfortunately, yes.

I mean, I feel like we shouldn't have to.

Isn't it

surprising, too, I feel like the more natural, fewer ingredient cleaning supplies

work just as well, if not better.

Right.

But sometimes they greenwash and there's hidden crap in them and it doesn't come out until years later.

What does that mean greenwash?

Greenwash means like they will mix up the wording on the package saying that it is real cheese.

But in reality, they it's real cheese, but they also have a bunch of fillers and chemicals in there.

It's sure.

And it's just like a stir of

Woodrozen.

What's that?

That's one of the things they put in shredded cheese, so

it doesn't stick together.

Yes.

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

Never ever buy pre-shredded cheese.

You always get the block yourself and try it.

That sounds

like a great first step.

But also... It's a great first step.

Also, it doesn't... See, mustache nose.

You guys are like, mustache nose.

We don't buy shredded cheese.

Okay, but doesn't it taste better when it's right off the block?

Oh,

yes, I think so.

I just bite it off the block.

Honestly.

Who needs a protein

bar?

Block of Colby in your purse.

Parmesan

has the most.

It has the most protein.

Yes.

It's been like the trending thing.

Yes.

So back to the question that Joel asked you, because somebody has to keep us back on the tracks.

Get us back sometimes.

I'm

stuck on purse Parmesan.

Oh, yes.

Oh my goodness.

We should make it a thing.

It should

be a thing.

It definitely should be a thing.

Well, in my 20s, I'd keep a burger in my purse for a drink and night.

Stop it.

So, Brandy, you have a huge online presence in the homesteading community.

What I have noticed in the wee bit of time I've spent online is that the sourdough bread thing

like really went off and went crazy.

So was that maybe something that sparked this kind of

I don't know, sparked or maybe kept the homestead ball rolling or what have you seen?

Because you've been doing it for 12 years.

So that was pre-COVID.

Yeah.

Because I feel like COVID or right around there is really when it sparked a lot of stuff.

I'm using Spark a lot.

Yeah.

That's OK.

Am I like sparky?

So now I was in Mustache Day.

I think Sparky is fine.

Everything's fine.

So what have you noticed?

Because you can take us back over a decade.

Yeah.

What was?

popular trending when you started doing it or did you not really pay attention then?

It was a little bit different back then, but definitely you are right on the money with the sourdough.

Yeah, it's better for your gut.

Yeah.

The only thing is it takes legit two days to make.

Yeah, it does.

It's like a and it's like the humidity plays a role.

It is such a big task.

So I never

advise people that are just starting out to jump into sourdough.

It's very

hard.

So sourdough would be like homesteading level three.

Like a brown

belt.

Yeah, it's up there.

It's like a brown

belt.

So

I. Yes.

It's

a brown, it's a sourdough belt.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, listen, you don't, you can start somewhere else and get there at yeast.

That one landed well.

Thank you.

I

appreciate

it.

That stuck like my sourdough to the jar that I killed when I was on vacation.

Did you?

Yes.

You got to put it in the fridge.

I know.

There's

so

many learning things.

People take these things with them.

They make us sourdoughs.

I literally had my friend come over and feed my sourdough starter.

I

was traveling

all the time.

And then

I'm like, this sourdough is running my life.

I ended

up with like 10 jars of stuff because I didn't want to throw any of it out.

But you have to keep feeding it.

You get more.

They make hotels.

literally take care

of your sourdough.

Yes, it's a sourdough.

It

is a that weird.

I spent nine months with this.

If it's on the Internet, it's

real, Joel.

Do you

know what a sourdough starter is?

Damn.

Yeah, we have.

Yeah, of course.

He has

one at the whole time right

now.

He does.

Yeah.

It's getting baby sad while he's here.

I also know there are

generational

sourdough.

My sourdough

stays only at the best

sourdough dose.

It stays

at

the dose inn.

It does.

Do you get it?

Dose in instead of dose in?

But there are some sourdough starters that are 100 years old.

Oh my gosh.

You

can order them and they'll ship it to you.

What is a sourdough

starter?

I'm just

going to

say.

I know a lot about a lot of things, but I do not know exactly what a sourdough starter is other than I'm

going

to guess it is some kind of combination of yeast and cultures that make the basis of the bread.

Am I even close?

Kind of.

Not

really that dish.

But sourdough is like its own living thing.

Yes.

And you can kill it.

Yes.

And it has to be active or you can't use it, right?

Do

people get mad at theirs and kill them?

I'm sure they do.

On

purpose?

Maybe.

Oh my gosh.

Well, I'm going to... This show is flying like a lear jet.

The

sourdough starter, we're

going to get into how you can make your sourdough starter.

And Brandy is going to bring us our recipe of the week with Chef Lawton.

This is race to the woods.

This is raised in the woods, the segment I hold my breath for.

My stomach yearns for the cooking segment of the Raised in the Woods show.

Of course, Shelley Shelley

Shelley.

I mixed up Chef and Ellie.

OK, just simmer down.

Simmer down.

Good one.

Hey, simmer down.

And we wait a minute.

You called Dan Tim's Tim's lover.

That's yeah Okay

She told me people call her Macy and then she put that in the universe and I called her Macy five minutes

later We've got Brandy Rodden here is the

Oh, they don't all it land.

Brandy, I love that

one.

That one was good.

Brandy Rodinelli is a world famous, one of the most followed homesteaders on all of the world.

And all of the land.

Internet, interweb.

I

don't think that's true.

No, it's fine.

It's fine.

This isn't a new show.

Brandy, can I

tell you something?

I don't know anybody personally that has

a million followers on social media.

That is quite the accomplishment because I know a lot of people that act like they have a million followers and it's kind of off-putting.

And to sit

here with you, you are lovely and you walked us through your journey a little bit on the show and in between on the breaks.

And you're a wonderful person.

Well, thank you.

A lot of my followers, well, maybe not followers.

A lot of the comments section would probably disagree.

Well,

hey, Brandy, you know what?

Envy is hate, you know?

And it's all

engagement at the end

of the day.

Envy is a green-eyed monster, and those folks sitting in their parents'

downstairs in their underpass.

Keyboard worrying can save it because I wish I

didn't just envision that.

Brandy Rondinelli is we're going to do our cooking segment today and we're going to talk about the sourdough starter, which I am naive to.

I don't know how to make a sourdough starter.

Yes.

Now I do, but I feel like Brandy is probably more of an expert in this area.

you know something that's interesting is I actually took a keen interest on sourdough and I made it almost I felt like every single day because it takes two days to make that yeah and I did it for so long and then being just like a health lifestyle right

you kind of start realizing that eating bread every day and baking every day and all that stuff isn't really good for you.

So I

started doing it a whole lot less.

That was me.

I hit it hard for probably a year.

I was putting sourdough starter and muffins and cookies and bread and everything.

I was like, you guys need something made?

I'll bring bread.

I'll bring muffins.

And it's like, I can't with the, I couldn't.

I gave it up and I do it occasionally now and that is the good balance to

have.

Absolutely and it's the same and that's why homesteading takes so much time.

So if you're really not going to eat that much bread which

gee whiz yeah maybe focus more on a chance of thing else but i do have a really cool recipe it's a sourdough starter from scratch which is pretty cool

yes

um and this is like back in the vintage days you

know because now you

just you have to find somebody you're like phone a friend a phone a friend hey who's got a sourdough starter that's

been a

long live long enough yeah but i can

Grab some,

but

what you need is just one gallon glass jar and you choose a flour of your choice.

Get some filtered water and a wooden spoon.

And then what you do is you add one cup of flour and one cup of water to your glass jar and you stir in the flour.

and make sure that it's super soaked and incorporated, and it kind of like ferments.

And it's

super

crazy because it starts getting like a sour smell,

and then the

bubbles come, and all of that good

stuff.

And that's the good bacteria is reproducing.

That's the good stuff.

And you know what's crazy, and I learned this on my sourdough journey, is that you know when you see restaurants and pizza, mostly pizza, that's like,

baked today fresh, that's actually worse for you.

Your bread is supposed to ferment for at least one to two days in order to break down some sort of enzyme that can cause upset stomach.

And so when

it says fresh, you

really don't want that.

Really look for the pizza parlor that says we use we go That is fantastic and you were talking you had talked during the break about

There's this massive trend, you know, a few years ago, the fastest growing market in beer across the country was non-alcoholic beers.

It still is.

Still is.

And mocktails are not growing.

And the realm of deliciousness is just crazy.

I was saying, I had a mocktail today.

I took a coconut.

I drilled holes in the coconut.

Took the coconut milk and mixed it with lime.

I see

Dan, he's envisioning you doing this

right now.

He's making it.

Very good.

Very good at climbing coconut trees.

I

need to see a video on this.

Oh, let's do Joe in the

wild coconut tree.

I just want to know if you put a lime in your coconut.

I mix them together and now they've got these delicious

herbal replicas of alcohol flavors that are actually just tinctures, if you will, with no alcohol in them.

And I made a delicious coconut lime mocktail margarita.

You know, what I love about

that is you didn't say sugar.

So

a

lot of these mocktails that you buy have a lot of sugar

in them.

Yeah.

And when they have

sugar in them, that's just,

it's just bad.

Yeah, it's

terrible.

yes sugar is the body's enemy there's no doubt about

honey though

honey is i make

all of my my cooking all of my breads all of my treats and desserts all of it is with honey or syrup

Oh,

my goodness.

I wish we

had four more hours

to get into that.

I want to know, will you come back next week?

100%.

All right.

We're going to dive in again and get done what we can in an hour.

Sorry, Dan.

Dan will be here.

I'm not worried about Dan.

Dan, what's he got better to do?

He didn't ask me.

I'm just moving in.

Well, you're the co-host.

You have to.

You're obligated to show up.

Noah's here.

What a fantastic show this has been.

Brandy, who's homesteading.

Queen on the internet.

Tell us real quick where people can find you.

Mother Hens Homestead on all social platforms and I am there and can't wait to see you.

And you're gonna hear a lot more from her next week.

This is Raised in the Woods.

What's up, everybody?

This is Raised in the Woods, the show about the outdoors, how to bring what you feel and forage to the table, what to do in the great states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa.

My name is Joel Clayfish.

Man, it's been a while since I've been in this seat, in this kind of heat.

It's hot throughout the Midwest, but that's not a problem because the falls right around the corner

sit next to me.

It's a problem now.

Sorry.

Well,

there she is.

Even

before

her

introduction, running the rudder of this ship, the co-hostess with the most is the chef, the acclaimed award winning chef, Ellie Lawton.

by my side, jumping in, interrupting.

It's hotter than my oven in here.

Yes, it is.

And if you can't take the heat, get out of the Midwest, but that's

not

actually true, because we're about as north as it gets in the United States.

Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty spicy outside.

Yeah, no doubt about it, but...

There's some great things about the heat.

But we're so cool.

It's cool in here.

Wow.

Did you

just log a dad

joke?

I think I did.

I think you logged a dad joke.

Brandy's slapping her knees.

So I think it's a dad joke.

It's a knee slapper.

It's a knee

slapper at any rate.

I'm going to get up.

I'm telling you what, if this is your first time listening to Raised in the Woods, you are very fortunate.

And it's not because Dan Tim is, I'm kidding, Dan.

Dan Tim

is here, a

resident adventurer and archer and the expert along for your outfitting needs and discussions.

I'm jacked to have you here as

usual.

I have to say something.

Go ahead.

Dan Tim is in Megan, the Somalia pirates seat this.

And so I have a different view this week, but it's good to see you, Dan.

It's not like that, Dan, okay?

It seems like a big seat to fill, though, too.

Yeah.

Well, you've got the beard

to

do it.

Thank

you.

Thank you.

And the mustache.

Maybe it doesn't have a beard.

Well, that's true.

I had to make a comment about his beard.

I know.

Pirates

have beards,

though.

Pirates, yes.

She's the pirate.

That is true.

I

have the beard.

But either way, shout out to Megan.

Shout out to Megan.

She is on the road most of this month, actually, for work.

So I'm sure she'll be back in the fall.

Yes.

And I think what's fascinating is Megan's a cook.

She loves cooking very

high level,

fantastic cook,

a baker.

She's a great outdoorsman.

I mean, she's out there hunting and fishing and actually living the lifestyle.

She's on the Wisconsin Waterfall Association board.

putting her money where her mouth is, getting folks

interested.

Volunteering, getting women out to the outdoors.

But I don't think many people actually know what Megan really does.

Yeah, and I don't think that's something we talk about on the radio show on

purpose.

I don't know what she does.

That's fine.

I'm going to say Megan is...

Something nobody needs to know.

Well, I'm gonna say this we're gonna get it out of Megan on the show You're gonna have to listen.

Yes the next

time she's

on because I'm just gonna tease it with this Megan does something that Professionally that I'm telling you you don't want to make her your enemy.

That's very true.

That's fair What is easier?

Yes, and I don't think we're gonna

not want to make Megan your enemy.

Yeah, we're not gonna give any more hints because

that's maybe something we're not actually gonna ever talk

about.

We're

gonna see.

But shout out to Megan, safe travels to Megan and we'll be here when she gets back.

Yes and I have to say I, you know, we

have had unbelievable fortune with the guests who've been

on this show

lately.

Patrick Durkin for Meat Eater.

Still

buzzing about that.

That

was fantastic.

What a

great man.

I could listen to his stories for days.

Yes, so could I. And Dan Tim definitely had a man crush on him.

Well, he had a man crush on his calf of his truck.

Yeah.

And maybe his boat, but we didn't see the boat.

I

saw pictures on Instagram of his boat.

You did.

I actually

I DM'd him, I slid into his DMs.

With a picture

of

my theater strip, yeah.

Like this is how I, that's how I used to get girls.

Married now.

Well, he's seven years

old and he was very confident about the fact that his craftsmanship and woodworking got him.

That's

right.

At least conversations.

Gets the chicks.

That's a

fact.

No doubt about it.

He's like, well,

let's introduce the other laugh.

Trust me.

I'm just the creep over here.

Greatness of our guests

because

we have Brandy Rondinelli here,

which I love that last night.

You nailed

that.

Yeah.

That's well, of course, I'm Italian.

It would have

been embarrassing if he didn't.

Hello, Pozzano.

What

do you want?

You guys, no joke.

I mean, we get one week, we got meat eater.

We've got Chad Belding, national host of The Fowl Life on the show.

We have Brandi Rondinelli who has more than, I'm not joking about this, more than a million followers combined in her social media platforms.

She

is literally the queen of homesteading in all the world of social media.

I think she might be actually.

Oh boy.

Have you ever been called a queen of homesteading?

But I bet it's a seat you make yourself.

Well, we

could call you the Tsar S or

the Tsar.

Yeah.

Well,

I don't know.

We already have a Tsar.

The

Zarina, I think is the Tsar and the Zarina.