you
We're deep in the ship.
ship out
here.
OK, let's get our ship together.
Come on, Dan.
You got one more.
That's it.
I'm tired.
I don't think I've
Or just straight up stalk you.
Either way,
you.
You were talking about the
I swear on there a lot.
swear, I swear.
I do.
The stuff
Keep going, I post every day.
I really didn't, to be honest.
I had no idea it was going to be like this.
Um, I actually don't really like to be the center of attention.
So it's kind of weird.
Um, for me, I'm more like the person behind the camera type.
Um, so honestly, I just started sharing little bits of my life as like a creative outlet.
something that I find fun and enjoyable.
I think it's pretty.
And I thought other people might think it's cool too.
And honestly, I was like, if you don't, whatever.
And I think that's why I made it as far as I did.
Because you didn't care.
I didn't care.
I was authentic to myself.
And I was every bit of myself.
I am more than just what people normally see.
And I wanted them
start seeing that part too.
So I made sure that I was just 100% myself.
And I just happened to share really good information, I guess.
that again, I was like,
people probably already know this, but whatever, I'll post it anyways.
And that's just how that went.
And now I actually am creating ebooks for kids specifically because I have two of my own and I find that it is so important to have kids learn these skills as well.
So I actually teach kids how to garden and the ebooks and how to raise backyard chickens and all of that fun stuff.
So it's all on my Instagram page at Mother Hen's Homestead and it's right linked in my bio.
cool.
That's really awesome.
I think
Or weird dances.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I think I'm the opposite.
Yeah, I really don't get it.
I don't, because I look at myself, I'm like, I don't know why you guys like me or follow me.
Maybe childhood trauma, I don't know.
I don't get it, but hey.
That's a whole different child, Brandy.
But I love it,
So a lot of people think that one viral video is going to change their life and it doesn't.
Unfortunately, with the algorithm nowadays, it's really like you have to be consistent.
People, it can't just be a one and done.
A one hit wonder, should you say.
You really have to be consistent and continuously making good original content.
Everything has been done on the internet, it feels like.
It is saturated.
So the algorithm knows if something has been posted or not.
And sometimes, you know, it does well and sometimes it doesn't.
For the most part though, being original, being funny, being authentic, being yourself, something I never ever did was I never
boosted up posts.
I've never paid for followers.
I've never paid for ads or marketing.
I've 100% organic and authentically grown my page.
And I do think if people do dabble in that, I think it ruins them in the long run.
You don't see original poetry, original writing.
AI can write it for you now.
You put in a couple of thoughts.
I've always said in life, if you are a good writer and a creative writer, you can accomplish anything because you're digging into yourself to find a creative way to explain something or to do something.
I think maybe you've tapped into that a little bit.
And I think authenticity is a big part of it as well.
And people certainly see that I'm
really excited because we're going to hear a lot more about Brandi's journey, how she became this internet celebrity in homesteading.
And we're going to talk about homesteading too.
And of course, our recipe of the week.
This is Raised in the Woods.
This is raised in the woods.
My name's Joel Clayfish, sitting alongside co-host Ali Lawton.
This show will blow your mind.
I'm telling you, it's going to blow
And with the storms we've been having lately, that is a possibility.
A tornado watches and warnings in the Midwest.
So be safe out there, folks.
This is the time of the year to get prepared.
I'm talking about getting prepared for the fall, the fall harvest of animals.
Hunting seasons are around the corner.
Get prepared for the harvest in your gardens.
And this week, lucky enough to have her back.
Brandy Rondinelli is here, the world famous homesteader with more than a million followers across all social media platforms.
My
Dan's always important to some people.
these states.
I
Yep.
it.
I liked
bread from breaking bread from baking bread.
Oh my gosh.
What was
Brandy, you.
are one of the largest homesteaders on all of the internet.
And you reside right in the middle of the Midwest.
We're going to get into how you grew your following, what you do.
We had John last week really appreciate you coming back.
I want to start with the show with our Wilds of the Week.
Oh yeah, let's get wild.
Let's get wild.
The thing that I did this week was got my bow out of its bow case.
Wow.
getting ready to start shooting it because I think too many people wait to the last minute.
And now in the middle of the summer is the time you should be scouting, meeting landowners, making those connections and relationships.
So I got the bow out because you need to actually physically do some of these things or they never happen until the day before.
And then you're screwed.
Damn.
I'm so proud of you, Joel.
What
My wild of the week is I went with a crew, traveled up to Sparta, Wisconsin.
Sparta.
Home of Matthews Archery.
Sparta Rod and Gun Club.
They hosted a 100 target archery shoot.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
It's
normally like a two day thing.
You get a pin if you score over a thousand.
Wow.
How
but here's the thing.
So I only got to go Sunday.
We work Saturdays at the shop, at the archery shop.
I got up there Sunday, and the group that I was shooting with also went out Saturday.
They shot half of each course Saturday.
So if I was going to join them, I shot half of each course.
I didn't get a full score on either course.
So I know I couldn't turn in my scorecard.
really well.
Yeah, I did really well.
And it's a lot of fun.
That's 100 unique targets.
So it's fun to be able to look at.
different
Tyrannosaurus rex, Stegosaurus.
Yeah,
impossible.
Yeah.
They tipped
know.
I don't think they know the Flintstone reference.
I know the
was like tipped
they did that too.
I think it was a
I think it was marbling.
It was
asks adults anymore.
What's your favorite dinosaur?
to know, Joel.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Your
tyrant lizard.
Yeah.
That's right.
Yeah.
I love dinosaurs.
Although I love the Mosasaurus as well.
That's the predecessor to the alligator.
And that's that's fun for me.
But we're off we were way off track what I was gonna say is we've got a homesteader on the show And I'm sure she would be happy to make you one of the pins that you didn't obtain at your That
would be amazing Maybe
There was actually a leather vendor there
I love
it.
Brandy, did you get wild?
I did in my garden.
That was my wild.
I am growing so many cucumbers and zucchinis.
It's coming out of my ears.
So what tomatoes are just a couple of weeks away to really come in.
So right now it's just all the cucumber salads, all the pickles, all of the zucchini bread.
Wow.
Well, you can that freezes really well.
It does.
Besides the fact that I made two
ginormous loaves, and within a week, my family ate them both.
I'm like, oh, okay.
That's good.
I was like, one was supposed to be for the freezer.
and it's hard to stop.
Yeah, that's good.
So good.
And you're still hungry.
Calories don't count when you make it yourself,
They just don't.
I
me.
nine
Isn't that called a
a foopa.
That's a foopa.
That's a foopa.
That's
a foopa.
That's a foopa.
That's a foopa.
That's a foopa.
That's
a
a foopa.
That's a foopa.
That's a foopa.
That's a foopa.
That's a
Don't do that.
Your algorithm will be screwed forever.
Now I'm trying to find out how to spell this.
Please do not read that out loud when you find out.
Okay, correction, folks.
Food, belly.
The third trimester
wild of the
Like the age
over?
Yes, so they have kids shooting 3D archery.
They have hot dogs and brats for lunch.
Every kid gets a raffle prize, so they register when they get there.
And then near the end, they have a ton of sponsors donate cool gifts, like outdoor stuff, and all the kids get a gift.
So that's really cool.
There's different activities.
Did you
I had the pleasure of helping the kids paint t-shirts.
Okay.
So my job was to, now I volunteered with the Women's Hunting and Sporting Association.
So there was about a half dozen ladies from our group that was there volunteering.
And I got to be at the table and help the kids stamp their t-shirts with paint.
So we give each child six bowls of paints.
and paintbrushes.
And then the Ojibwa has all these really cool stamps.
all different woodland creatures, tracks, like turkey tracks and deer tracks and everything and trees and leaves from the state of Wisconsin.
So the kids would come up and design their own t-shirts and it was so fun.
That's cool.
And I was lucky enough to have one boy come to my station and he stayed for 45 minutes because he wanted to stamp all of the stamps on one t-shirt.
And you know what?
He did and his t-shirt looked really cool and all the kids were having a great time.
It was a great event.
So if you missed it this year with your kids, look online and come next year because there was not an upset child there.
They were having just the time of their life
running
screens.
No
I
That reminds me though, one of the reasons we do this show is to help you get into the outdoors, get off the couch, get off the TV, turn the TV off, put your phone down and experience life in three dimensions.
That is what it is about.
Learning a new skill.
And we're losing.
Fishermen were losing anglers and hunters and outdoors folks by the dozens and dozens of thousands every year and Events like this as simple as that event is really can spark an interest take
a kid hunting, take a kid fishing, show a kid how to grow a vegetable or pick some wild vegetable and make food out of it.
That's one of the cool things about raising the woods.
When we come back, I'm really excited to continue talking to Brandy.
We're going to learn how she grew her following and what are some of the greatest things you can do with homesteading?
This is Raised in the Woods.
Raised in the woods is the biggest outdoor show in all of the Midwest.
I think it could be.
It's the biggest to somebody.
Gary Fluid, our number one fan, thinks it's the best
and the
I think it's the best.
live.
Be
the
Yes.
I do.
It's from Garden to Table Cookbook.
So it's super easy.
Super simple recipes.
How can people find your cookbook?
Go to Mother Hen's Homestead on Instagram and it is linked right in the bio.
I love it.
Super easy.
All my e-books are in there.
Brandy Rondinelli is not just somebody who's got a cookbook.
She is one of the largest internet presence
In the world when it comes to homesteading she's got a million followers across social media and she is out there being herself doing her thing and Helping folks learn actually learn how to homestead how to do it yourself and What a great thing to have on raised
overused nomenclature in the area of the outdoors.
But I can't think of a better way to say it.
I can't either.
And I can't be more excited about the fact that now people are talking about hunting and angling and foraging.
And they're focusing on using what you kill, which is the ethical way to do
it, which is
So I want to talk for a minute about some of the homesteading ideas you have.
You're one of the biggest homesteaders on the internet.
Last week you talked about starting sourdough.
What are some of those things that the average person doesn't realize they can just do themselves but they can do it fairly simply?
Growing your own food is more simple than people think and you can do it anywhere.
I taught high schoolers a 13 week summer course last year on this specifically because everybody thinks that to grow your own food you need land.
You need lots of land, and that's just not the truth.
First off, my whole homestead is on one acre.
One acre, my whole homestead on.
My ducks, my chickens, my meat birds, my garden, everything.
Wow, don't tell the town that.
Right.
don't.
Yeah.
And you butcher them within eight weeks.
so
Nope.
The male birds are the roosters.
That's so this is a little thing that people don't understand is chickens, all hens lay that lay eggs.
Not all of the eggs are fertilized, but when a rooster fertilizes them, they still lay like normal and you can still eat them like that.
Sure.
It's only if you, you know, incubate them or let the broody hand sit on them for a long period of time, actually 21 days, then they become a chick.
But some people really think that in order to get eggs, you have to have a rooster first and that's not the same.
It's think about like a woman's cycle.
Really?
It's the same.
See, Joel, you
the egg.
right because they also.
sit on shelves for a long, long period of time.
I can see by the look on your face.
He
And then to like stop it there.
Yeah, it does bother me a lot because chickens are so easy.
They're so easy.
They give you food.
It's getting in touch with that.
It's not harmful to the birds at all.
But it's getting in touch with nature and how the world is intended to be and becoming more self-sufficient, which is like,
what I think everybody should learn to do.
They're good
Listen, I could talk about this and learn from this.
I could put on my education cap and learn from this for hours on end.
If you had to give three basic tenets, if I say, I'm not really a homesteader, I buy everything from the store, from cleaning supplies to every piece of food that I put in my mouth.
And that's not me.
I eat
the only meat I eat is meat I harvest fish that way too but what if somebody has no idea how to start what are like three things that they should consider doing if they want to start you just said they don't need a lot of space
they don't you can container garden in an apartment and still grow your own food because vertical gardening would be really useful in situations like that you can grow start strawberries from any ceiling
or
She's looking at your ceiling here in the studio, so I think you can get some strawberries up there.
But my number one thing would be to, if that's not something you do yet, befriend a local farmer.
You need to be going to your local farmer.
We need to start normalizing instead of going to a grocery store.
Why wouldn't people go to their local farmer?
They have everything you need.
You can
I buy a half cow.
I don't raise cows.
So whatever I don't raise myself.
And if I do hunt, so I do eat, you know, what I catch.
But also, I get a half cow from my local farmer.
Tour your farms.
You obviously want to make sure it's, you know, a good one to your standards
That is really great advice.
I hadn't even thought of the fact that we're living here in the Midwest in the heartland of agriculture.
I get to meet so many farmers through scouting, knocking on doors, trying to get permissions to hunt and fish and forage.
But that is something that's right in your backyard, and it's really easily accessible to you.
But I don't think
I think there are two things that stop people from a much more natural lifestyle that one is not knowing and one is the fear of rejection.
I think people are always afraid to ask people for things because they're afraid of being told no.
And what I always say is if you don't ask, the answers automatically no.
I think it's intimidating for people to pull in a random driveway and go knock on a door to your farmer and start discussing these things.
So.
I've had a couple situations like this and people have asked me because I grew up on a farm.
I always tell people, go to one of your local farmers markets.
In the summer in Wisconsin in the Midwest, we have fantastic farmers markets.
It's less intimidating to go to a farmer's market and walk up to somebody's tent or booth and say, hey, can you tell me about your lamb here or your goat or your beef that you're selling, things like that.
Go there, network that way, get your connections that way because then number one, you can hit more spots at one place.
You don't have to drive everywhere.
and you don't have that intimidation of going up or knocking on the door if you're worried about that.
But a lot of farmers have country stores.
Yes, they do.
A lot of them have little markets.
Or they're like
if
you can just, a community.
I'm all about community.
So being able to reach out in your community, hey, where did you go for this?
Do you know of anyone that does this, you know, and just branching out and figuring it out?
Yeah.
Absolutely not.
I trade in barter all the time.
Come on.
I love trading stuff.
I give my neighbor eggs.
No, she's not trading baseball cards, Joel.
don't.
I trade services as well.
So I trade eggs for raw milk.
and we switch.
And then I also trade like things in my community to help support other local businesses.
I'll trade my photography skills and I'll trade them with that or I'll bake something or if they don't have cucumbers and my zucchinis did good or whatever, we'll trade.
So say my tomatoes did terrible, but somebody else's had so much more, but I did well in cucumbers and they didn't, we switch.
The weirdest trade.
You
ever.
Oh
it.
Well, how much meat
It
And I met this woman, and she actually had been diagnosed with an illness, and she needed to start walking more at home.
And she couldn't drive anymore, but she and her husband raised alpacas.
And I don't even remember how we got connected, but she's like, yeah, I'm looking for a treadmill.
And I'm like, you have alpacas.
I have a
She got to
Yeah.
They feel embarrassed.
Yeah, I don't know why.
It's so interesting.
It's like, you know, when you go shopping at Goodwill, I still do that.
Thrifting all the way.
Yes,
People just,
i don't know if they think it's i think
what has happened and part of it is to blame social media not you of course you're the golden gem of social media but but what has happened is we are so afraid of what everybody else thinks of us all the time that uh because we're afraid it can be exposed to other people so we're kind of afraid but one of the biggest lessons i've learned in life is
be okay laughing at yourself, be okay with exposing yourself because you will never take those adventures and you will never be on your death bed and say, I'm glad I didn't do it.
So take those kind of opportunities.
you're more open to things and you're willing to when you're when you admit, hey, I'm learning, then it's not so embarrassing when you're not the expert, right?
When you don't know the answer and that's okay.
And a lot of
A lot of people, myself included, you know, sometimes it's embarrassing to say, well, I don't know that.
Well, then we're all learning.
You should always learn for your entire life.
Yes, your whole entire life.
The more
Hey, the cooking segment's coming up.
I'm really excited to get a homesteader cooking segment.
And I somehow think that it's going to relate to something that Chef Lawton already talked about.
We're going to do that.
And we're also going to poke down Tim real quick about what you need to do to get ready for the bow season, which is definitely right around the corner.
Dan, Tim, are
you ready?
I'm ready.
This is
Raised in the woods, what to do in the outdoors, how to bring it inside.
Those freezers should be getting empty right now, but that's all right because bow seasons right around the corner.
My name's Joel Clayfish, Ellie Lawton's here.
Brandy Rondinelli, world famous homesteader is here, but so also is Dan the archery man.
Tim,
I love it.
I
So archery is a year round hobby.
Bow hunting is the reward.
Now, I know that's
the case
was very,
legit.
I live it and I tell people that all the time because this time of year we get people coming in.
I've never shot a bow before I want to get into bow hunting.
It's like, hold on, step back.
You want to get into archery first and foremost.
Bow hunting is the reward for preparation with your hobby and your new skill to translate to harvesting an animal.
And it's only a small part of
Yeah.
It's real.
As Joel did, you pull your equipment out, wipe the dust off of it, familiarize yourself with it, quick visual inspection, make sure everything looks like it where it should be.
And if you feel comfortable, take it out, set up your target, flex, test your arrows.
That's something I think almost nobody does.
But every arrow manufacturer will tell you, give it a little bend, make sure there's no noises.
Check your knocks, make sure there's no cracks.
Throw it away.
OK.
Right?
If your arrow is compromised and you go to shoot that arrow, it acts as a dry fire in the bow and complete catastrophe.
Really?
That's
to know.
I never realized that.
Check your knocks, too, because that is the exact contact point between the arrow and the bow string.
And if something goes wrong there, it's the same thing.
It acts as a dry fire, which is also like never pull your bow back without an arrow in it, which
frequently.
If something looks off or you're just not comfortable with it, bring it to your local archery shop, bring it to Whale Tales Archery.
We're happy to help you.
Put it on the draw board, pull it back, ensure you everything is safe.
You know, we've got a range right there.
Most shops do.
You can shoot it there.
Make sure everything feels good.
If something feels off, something likely is off.
So if you've never changed the strings on your bow or crossbow.
and it's been more than a few years, it might be time.
You know, it's not necessarily things are going to go terribly wrong, but for maximum performance, I think we owe it to the animals to make sure that the equipment is working top notch.
Why not?
You get that one chance at the deer and for me harvesting that dough is as gratifying important and fantastic as the 30 point buck for me because appreciating that harvest on the dinner table is
went essentially the full circle of life, and it is my most satisfying existence is taking something from field to table.
And Brandy, you are kind of an expert on taking things from field to table.
You've got the recipe of the week this week.
I want to hear it.
What is the homestead
recipe of the week?
do.
OK.
cookbook?
from my
yes.
So I just came out with this Garden to Table cookbook.
So the recipe of the week is homemade basil pesto pasta.
And I
renamed it as the besto pesto.
Forget about the resto.
This is your pesto.
And it's the
besto.
And you know what I love about it?
It's so fresh, and you can actually
Make it and then it can sit in the fridge for a long period of time too.
But the ingredients are super simple and most people have them in their garden and it's basil So two cups of basil leaves one fourth cup Parmesan cheese.
Oh, we love that.
So there's a lot of protein
One fourth cup of nuts.
So this can be pine nuts or walnuts.
Can you do it without?
You can okay.
I have done it without before I
easy to grow
so easy and you know what you can do the same exact recipe with lemon balm so
Okay,
also you get one garlic clove one fourth cup olive oil and then you can either let that stand and have
Pesto or you can also do the cooked pasta Which you then just blend all the basil the cheese the nuts the garlic the olive oil and you toss it with warm cooked pasta
the parmesan cheese extra right on top
and it
so refreshing and so good.
eat that right now.
just ate them hungry
I
and chiladas.
amazing.
without
I couldn't help it.
Folks, we're about a month away from the hunting seasons throughout the Midwest, and we are definitely in the harvest seasons here.
Try something new.
Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself because goodness knows you listen to the show and laugh at us and we're good with that.
Get off the couch.
Get into the outdoors.
Brandy, you've been fantastic.
I hope you come back to be on the show again with us.
Learned a great deal.
Want to learn a lot more.
Dan Tim, our outdoor adventurist and archery expert.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you.
Chef Lawton, great food before the show.
Fantastic job.
If you haven't caught us live Saturdays at 11 a.m.
on your Civic Media stations, check us out on civicmedia.us.
You will have a great time.
Get into the outdoors.
This is Raised in the Woods.