This weekend the Simple Goodness Sisters will be making our debut on NATIONAL television on the RFDTV network, on season 3 of FarmHer. It's nothing short of incredible that this opportunity to be profiled by the network for our work as female farmers and food producers came our way, as it is one of Venise's "bucket list" accomplishments and a pretty dang big deal! We are super honored to be featured among the hardworking, tenacious, and incredibly intelligent women that Marj, founder of Farmher, has interviewed on her show.
FarmHer was founded in 2013 to change the image of agriculture, depicting women taking an active role in the industry through photographs and by sharing their stories. It quickly became clear that women in agriculture not only appreciated FarmHer, but they needed it. And they asked for more. Today, FarmHer has grown into much more than just a gallery of images; it is changing the way people perceive a farmer. Through an online community, events, and a weekly TV show, FarmHer continues to update the image of agriculture to include women.
So how did we get to be so lucky as to be featured? It's a modern day story of women helping other women. When Venise first joined Instagram she found the @farmher1 account and fell in love! The account features amazing women who farm and ranch around the country and Venise and I followed it closely, inspired. After the release of the television show Venise instantly knew she wanted to be among the elite group of official FarmHers! So, she applied to be on the show right away and never heard anything. It wasn't until later, when another Instagram friend Carey Portell, @cp_sty posted that she was filming an episode at her ranch and Venise commented about how much she wanted to be on the show one day that fate and friends intervened. Carey tagged the host in a reply to Venise's comment and recommended us, and it just so happened they were coming out to Washington State for the first time within the next couple of weeks! Somehow they were able to fit us in on their trip between seeing the amazing ladies over at Lost Peacock Creamery (a goat cheese creamery) @lostpeacockcreamery and Double R Hop Ranches @doublerhop.
Filming was a whirlwind of a day because it was our first time ever hosting camera crews on the farm and because all our kids were with us, including baby Cash who was only about 10 days old. We decided to be as authentic as possible so, as usual, the kids are roaming the farm most of the day and we're wearing the same grey crewneck sweatshirts we tend to wear 5 days out of every week! In our segment, we tour the herb garden, plant with all the kids, harvest apples, press some cider, test syrups and turn all that work into a delicious garden to glass cocktail.
You can watch our Farmher Episode on the RFDTV network this Friday and Sunday at 6:30pm PST or Saturday at 8:00am PST. Unfortunately RFD-TV is not available on Xfinity. If you are a Dish subscriber you can find it on channel 231 at 6:30pm PST tonight, Friday, May 4th. Direct TV folks can see it on channel 345 at the same time. They also do a few encore viewings throughout the weekend in case you miss it!
In addition, we were also profiled just this month on Farmher's Shining Bright podcast (now Farmher Talks), on the topic of branding. The podcast will be available wherever you find your podcasts, and will also air on SiriusXM channel 147 at 5 pm PST Thursday and 9 am PST Saturday.
Speaking with Marj again for Shining Bright was a lot of fun, as our company has come a long way since we filmed the FarmHer episode last Fall, and branding has played a large role for us. Branding is important because we're interested in not just sharing our drink mixers with folks, but sharing with everyone who supports us a little taste of our farm life as well. With every bottle that leaves the farm, we want the drinker to understand where and who it came from, and know the story of how our syrups go from garden to glass. We think its important as consumers and producers to understand our role in America's food systems, because from understanding comes improvement and empowerment. And we think its fun to see that there are real people behind our product. We're "just" two moms chasing their kids around a 10 acre Puget Sound herb and flower farm, learning as we go and often by Google, how to farm and how to be parents, co-founders, and food producers, and many of you can relate to this life.
We're thrilled and humbled to have these opportunities to share our story to a greater audience. AND, since Oprah says we need to extend into the universe our goals in order to make them realities, we'll say this: we certainly hope it is not the last time! We love bringing people into our Simple Goodness Sisters lives and letting you all become a part of our story! We will be sure to update this post with any direct links we get also. Happy viewing and listening, and THANK YOU ALL for your support along our path! We'll be lifting a drink to you in celebration tonight!
PSSSTTT! Secret time: Share a picture of you drinking and watching this weekend on social media and tag us in it for a chance to win some awesome FarmHer swag like drink coozies and t-shirts!
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