We are so excited to have the opportunity to share the farm, our garden to glass drinks, and our story with the King 5 viewers and to have hosted the fabulous host, Kim Holcomb for the afternoon. We've followed her on TV and on Instagram and obviously related with her great sense of humor and love of cocktails. To hang out with her for a few hours making cocktails was a super laid back experience that made us feel really comfortable and hopefully (time will tell!) brought out our less awkward sides as we shared our stories.
In the segment we resisted best we could our habit of laughing together inaudibly, just awkwardly shaking our shoulders in our weird way of noiseless laughter. We resisted inside jokes or kvetching over the latest business decision to put forward our best selves for Miss Kim. Instead, we walked her through our cocktail garden and why growing garden to glass cocktails is important to us. We answer the age old question "why does farm to table matter" in our own terms and values and by way of example with a few tasty cocktails. We retell our origin story: the corporate jobs, the exit, the children born two weeks apart who inspired a switch to an intentionally more integrated, slower lifestyle, the family members who way back when inspired our loves of farms, food, and hosting, and the 2016 Happy Camper Cocktail Company launch that led us to think about bringing our garden to glass drink mixers to the world, beyond local catering events.
And then, we made cocktails. From Rhubarb Vanilla Vodka Collins to Lemon Herb Gin and Tonics, there really isn't a craft cocktail out there that doesn't taste incredible with a little flip of a variation using Simple Goodness Sisters syrups. We also made sure to make a mocktail, since allowing everyone to be a part of this party we're throwing is a big deal to us.
During this part of the filming, it was a fun touch to line up our whole line of Simple Goodness Sisters syrup flavors in rainbow order, our little nod to Seattle Pride month. Seeing them all end to end still delights me, and not just in my usual OCD, obsessed with crisp towers of perfectly folded sweaters in ombre color stacks kind of way. It delighted me to see all of the hard work, the hours of painful problem solving, packaging sourcing, and actual tears and blood shed just to put these six pretty little flavors online, on shelves and into your hands and drinks.
You'll have to watch the piece for the rest, and we really hope you do!Simple Goodness Sisters syrups have been shipped to households across the nation in the last year, entered drinks from here to Maine, and that makes us proud. Now to have our story broadcasted to living rooms all across our state is the kind of thing we thought we could only dream of.
Watch Evening Magazine at 7:30 PM PDT on KING 5 TV, or streaming live on http://king5.com #K5Evening!
It's been a while since I (Venise) blogged. When it comes to our strengths Belinda is the stronger writer so I generally let her shine on the blog while I dig in the dirt. But, I am excited to share some gardening tips with you so I taking a break from the dirt to try to put some words on a "page". Since Ross and I have been feverishly working to rebuild our raised garden beds and get everything installed in time for the busy growing season it is a great time to share 5 tips for building raised garden beds.
Leave enough room for your equipment
I am making this my first tip because if you skip over the rest of this post and learn nothing else, I hope you remember this. This was the BIGGEST mistake I made the first time I built the beds in our cocktail garden three years ago. I built four beds with only 3' in between the rows. While it was enough room for a wheelbarrow, it was way too small for the John Deere Gator that I use more than any other piece of equipment on our farm. This time when we laid out the beds, my number one priority was to give myself plenty of space so that every rolling piece of equipment we own can access each bed. It means we have what feels like a lot of wasted space, but let me tell you, weeding via mini excavator is WAY easier than weeding by hand! So, regardless of whether you have a simple wheelbarrow, a lawn mower or a big tractor, make sure you measure the full width of your gardening equipment and leave it plenty of room to get around. If you hope to one day upgrade your equipment, lay out your beds with the upgrade in mind so you don't have to rip them all out and rebuild like we did.
Don't forget about weed control outside of the beds
Planting in raised beds is a great way to control weed pressure. The walls on the bed help to keep weeds from creeping into the planting area. But don't think that just because you build a wall that those weeds won't find their way in. The first time we built our beds I only laid weed fabric in the beds and in between the beds, but not on the outer perimeter of the beds. It wasn't long before the weeds on the outside of the beds were taller than my beds and dropping all their ever-loving weed seeds into my lush, organic soil. In three years time my beds had been taken over by the weeds and I was pulling out more hair than weeds. By the end of the third year I was sure that if my husband didn't bulldoze them immediately I was going to lose my mind. Don't risk your sanity, lay the weed barrier far and wide.
Use materials that will last
Our first beds were made of cedar posts, fir 2x6 rails and metal roofing in between. It worked, but the metal roofing started bowing and the untreated boards started rotting after the first year. In hindsight I am happy we didn't spend more money on the materials because I ended up ripping them all out after just three years, but this time I made sure my beds will last forever (because I am not sure I will ever be able to convince Ross to build them for me again). In true Cunningham fashion we probably overdid it in the engineering of these beds, but they will last forever. We used 2x6 metal studs that a friend helped us get for free and Ross spent many late nights in the barn welding them together. I recognize that the normal cost of metal studs put them out of budget for most people, but if you do happen to stumble upon metal you can use to build your beds I would highly recommend it. They last way longer than wood and the metal helps heat up the soil which helps speed seed germination. Regardless of what you use think about how it will hold up over the years because it can be incredibly frustrating to put all the hours into building the beds to see them look like crap after a single season.
Size Matters
While you may be tempted to go big or go home when you start planning your beds, don't. I did the first time and it meant I spent way too much time inside the bed trying not to step on the plants harvesting my crops. You should be able to reach the middle of the bed without getting inside the bed. I suggest measuring your arm and not making it any wider than twice that length. Using smaller metal containers or old water troughs is also a a great way to create raised beds.
Start with a clean slate
When it comes time to fill your beds with dirt, be picky. You have put so much time and energy into making the beds and it will be tempting to just fill it with any old dirt, but don't. Ask for local recommendations on where to buy dirt. The real gardeners will have tried a couple of companies and have their favorite. Take their advice. For us, this is always the most expensive part of adding a new bed to the farm but one I am unwilling to compromise on. We use a mixture of sterilized digestate from a local dairy and screened top soil from the same place every year. At the end of the season after you clean out your beds, cover them with a dark plastic so that you can protect your dirt from the air-born weed seeds over the winter and can start with a clean slate next year.
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!
