← Simple Farmhouse Life
Simple Farmhouse Life
255. Healing Through Food: Herbs, Ferments, Probiotics | CeAnne of Farmhouse Teas
01:05:55
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- [00:01]
Lisa
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- [00:08]
Sian
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Lisa
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- [00:41]
Sian
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- [00:46]
Lisa
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- [00:59]
Sian
Com I think a lot of people are afraid of ferments and stuff because it's an alive thing and we live in a society so much where everything's predictable and the same every time. You know, we go to the grocery store and they always have the same food. When you're processing at home, you're not a facility that has this regulated thing. You know, you're living life in your house and there's life in the jar of your kombucha or your vegetable ferment and you know, live things just take attention and time.
- [01:27]
Lisa
It's not super predictable, it's not sanitized, it's very creative, it's messy and it's delicious and it's worth it. My name is Lisa, mother of eight and creator of the blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse on Boone. Join me as I share with you my love for creating a handmade home from scratch cooking and a little mom and entrepreneur life along the way. Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life Podcast. In June I had the opportunity to go to the Homesteading Expo, the modern homesteading expo up in Idaho. And there I met Sian from Farmhouse Teas and her husband and all of her children. And we got to chat family business and herbs and had a great time. And I thought, I really want to get her on the podcast because I think that a lot of you will find inspiration not only in the herbal knowledge she has in kombucha and fermentation, but also the family business aspect because they work together as a family. I was talking to her husband Luke, was talking to him for quite a while. They enjoyed chatting but he and their son do a lot of the packaging and then Sian does a lot of the marketing. So it's a family affair and it was very inspiring. So I think you will enjoy this discussion. Welcome on Sian. I'm so glad to have you on. I actually did think of this when we met at the Homeset Expo. And then you reach out about it later, but I was already planning to at some point, so. C.N. for those of you who don't know, is the owner of Farmhouse Teas. It's a lovely family business and I thought we could chat not only about herbs and teas and kombucha and all that good stuff, but then also family business and what that is like. So for those who don't know, you can introduce yourself.
- [03:11]
Sian
Yeah, I'm co owner with my husband of Farmhouse Teas and we just celebrated our 10 year business anniversary yesterday. So that's exciting. We blend loose leaf teas using organic herbs and we focus more on herbal teas that are naturally caffeine free. And most people will think of tea as the camellia sinosis plant. The teas that we blend are mostly from different herbs and not that plant so much. But my husband started. We both work full time. This is our full time income. He started full time in 2020 during the pandemic and we've been going strong ever since then.
- [03:53]
Lisa
So since you did the business for what, six years before you did it full time as a family, what did that look like for you as you were home with little kids and you were trying to run this business in the margins? How did that look? And then what was the transition like when you brought the family? Cause I know now your son packs tees along with your husband. They're mostly over in the warehouse or whatever you want to call it. And then you and some of the girls work on marketing. So. Yeah. What did that look like when it was all you? And then how was the transition?
- [04:24]
Sian
Crazy busy.
- [04:26]
Lisa
Yes.
- [04:27]
Sian
We started out doing local farmers markets. So it looked like, you know, normal homeschool wife and mom duties during the week and then packing like crazy at night to haul it off early Saturday morning to the market and spend all day there trying to sell tea and then come home and then be mom again. That didn't work very well for very long. Yeah, I mean, we tried. It was really slow those six years. And I would spend all day at the farmers market sitting there waiting for someone to come up going, I can probably do a lot more on the Internet for this amount of time that I'm spending sitting here and get further than if I was, you know, just at the farmer's market. We also did the grocery store gamut wholesale, the grocery stores. And that took me out of the house, had to do demos, had to go meet with the, you know, the big wigs at the grocery store that were in bigger cities. And so I was never home. And that was never. Our goal was for me to work out of the house. So we took it online and we applied a lot of marketing bits that bloggers would probably use more than like product sales to get our business going. And that really helped take it off. We weren't quite making full time income and my husband came home, but he got laid off during the pandemic because he was outside sales. And of course we couldn't go visit anybody, you know, during COVID even if you're selling stuff or whatever. So we decided I had hit my max at what I could pack. My son was helping, but he was much younger and still in school. And so we decided not only to bring it home on, put it on the Internet, but also he came home. So it changed a lot to have the extra help.
- [06:16]
Lisa
Oh, yeah.
- [06:18]
Sian
As you know, I'm sure.
- [06:19]
Lisa
Oh, oh, yes. Do I ever. It's something that I have to remind myself of all the time because after a while, what situation you are in becomes the new normal. No matter what that is, whether that is a harder situation or an easier situation. I have a team that helps me and it's easy to quickly adapt to. Okay, I no longer have to do this task now and not really remember what it was like when you did have to do everything yourself, you know?
- [06:45]
Sian
Yeah. Fortunately, it was smaller back then when it was just me. But you can only get so far by yourself. You have to have a team and have help to get any further.
- [06:55]
Lisa
Yeah, that is so true too. So have you always been like, the entrepreneurial type? Was this your vision originally that you wanted to market these tees or. And then like, kind of brought the family along for the ride or. How'd you like, cast this vision?
- [07:11]
Sian
Yeah, I grew up with two entrepreneurial parents. So they're both in real estate. They still are both in real estate. And I think I was trying to sell something since I was eight. I go, you know, starting from the door to door, selling the gift wrap out of the catalog to win the prize, you know, to like, little crafty things at garage sales. And I grew up with aunts and my mom that did occasional Christmas bazaars. And so they would make stuff. So I was really familiar with, you know, making things and then taking them and selling them somewhere. The Internet bit was kind of a new thing to learn. So, you know, growing up with entrepreneurial parents in real estate isn't really translate into Internet marketing sales. Yeah, so that was. Yeah, that was something I taught myself.
- [08:05]
Lisa
Yeah. I think it kind of doesn't necessarily take having knowledge prior necessarily. It takes drive and a belief in your idea. Because whenever you have a little bit of doubt with your idea, then all of these late nights or learning a whole new thing like you were taking something that you never were taught and then learning how it works, like setting up an Internet store, probably figuring out like keywords to market different places, reaching out to influencers. I know you do some of that in affiliate sales, but if you didn't think it was going to work, you probably weren't going to take that much effort.
- [08:44]
Sian
Right? Yeah. You have to be persistent and almost stubborn. Just keep going. When we started out at the farmer's market, we do herbal salves and bulk herbs and other herbal supply stuff. Now when we originally started, we did teas and we did salves and we weren't really focused on any one particular item. It was just herbal care. And nobody at the market knew what herbal fabs were. And like the second day that we took them out there, it was really hot and they're in metal tins and they melted all over the place. And you know, all of the hard work that I had to do all myself because I didn't have any help yet, just had ruined all the labels, made a big mess, no one knew what they wore. You know, we could have just quit right there. Yeah. And over trial and error at the farmers market, we learned, well, people know what tea is. That's, you know, you don't have to explain it to them what it.
- [09:41]
Lisa
Right.
- [09:42]
Sian
It does. And so we focused more on that and that's how we ended up farmhouse teas. And over time, as we get more people coming in, we get, you know, rather than random people at the farmers market, we get people coming online that are doing direct searches for things like salves and so they know what it is. And I. It's easier online to find that. Right. Niche market than to just have this, you know, general population at the farmers market. And so now we sell more salves even though, you know, we intended on starting that way. And then we kind of cut them back. And now as we go on, we're back to where we started. So well.
- [10:21]
Lisa
And today there's more knowledge about herbal remedies and teas than I think there was 10 years ago. I think you had to start first with the education piece back then. Now, like you said, I think people, at least people who are following you on the Internet most likely are following people that you work with, are educated on that. And so it's. Maybe you're not having to educate as much.
- [10:44]
Sian
We work a lot with the homestead community, and they're, you know, they know more about those things than just, you know, throwing yourself out in the general population. You don't even know who the people are. You know, what they already know.
- [10:58]
Lisa
Yeah. Yeah. So where did your interest in herbs and ferments and salves and all of this stuff? Where did that come from?
- [11:07]
Sian
Yeah, I've spent my whole life with a chronic disease, has no name yet. Nobody's been able to figure out what it is. And I grew up typical American diet with lots of sides of antibiotics, going to doctor after doctor who could never find any help. And so, you know, eventually that wears on a person. You keep going and they're like, oh, we don't know what's wrong with you. We'll just give you another antibiotic. And so I got into natural medicine and found that changing my diet helped some. You know, using herbs instead of antibiotics helped some. I mean, gave some sort of answers. And then, you know, fermenting and all of that kind of came. Came along with those things. Learning to make my own salves and my own teas about the same time, learning to do sourdough and milk kefir. And, you know, you just start adding one after the other and go down the rabbit hole.
- [12:10]
Lisa
Yeah. So were you able to see results pretty quickly or over time from making some of these changes?
- [12:18]
Sian
Yeah, over time. Just getting, well, a little bit sooner than usual or realizing that sugar was really making me sick. I actually have a sugar allergy, and that just came over a process of eliminating things and then trying to eat something, realizing, oh, that thing makes me a lot more sick than if I just skip, skip it, you know, or substitute honey or maple syrup. White flowers making me sick. So, you know, we do whole wheat or einkorn and so just little bits over time. And there were no dramatic changes because it was a really gentle progression.
- [12:55]
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- [15:37]
Lisa
I think that's a realistic expectation because a lot of this stuff, if it's not a long term lifestyle type change, probably going to be disappointed with the results. But I have to say too, yeah. Over time, a lot of it becomes easier. It becomes very second nature. Like you don't probably feel like it's a ton of time spent making your kombucha or whatever other ferments you're making. And you don't have to research each herb anymore. You know, their properties. What is the most popular product? I'm just so curious. I've been wanting to ask you that.
- [16:12]
Sian
I have to look at the numbers. The top two are elderberry syrup mix.
- [16:17]
Lisa
Okay.
- [16:17]
Sian
Which was an unexpected unintended item.
- [16:20]
Lisa
Yeah.
- [16:23]
Sian
And then our chocolate conniption. Not coffee. Coffee replacement.
- [16:30]
Lisa
Okay.
- [16:31]
Sian
Our herbal tea. We get. The bulk of our customers end up finding us because they're like me. So I used to be a coffee drinker. We'll go back a little bit there. When I met my husband, I was like on a coffee diet. I didn't eat food, I just drank coffee.
- [16:47]
Lisa
Just drink coffee. That sounds about like. No, I'm just kidding.
- [16:50]
Sian
But a lot of creamer. I miss it sometimes, you know, the caffeine's beneficial. But I ended up with adrenal fatigue, which caffeine's really bad for. And just, you know, you have to eat at some point. You can't just do coffee, right?
- [17:07]
Lisa
No.
- [17:08]
Sian
But so, you know, I started eating food and, you know, actual food. I was young, in college, you know, and it was just, you know, college and work and coffee and whatever. So anyway, I figured out that it was crashing the caffeine was crashing my adrenals. I eventually went to a decaf and then learned about the chemicals that they used to process the decaf. And also found that the astringency of the coffee was causing my mouth to get dried out, causing me to get sick more often. Just because when your mouth's dried out, you're more prone to catch stuff.
- [17:43]
Lisa
Okay.
- [17:44]
Sian
But I like the bold thickness of coffee. When I went to get tea, it all tasted like weeds. It was just gross. You know, it was whatever was at the college cafe at the time. And it just wasn't exciting. So I kind of gave up. I gave up coffee. I didn't really take on tea. And then years later, we adopted our youngest. So our four kids are all adopted and our youngest was the only infant. And I was Trying. I was hoping to be able to nurse her because I understood the value of that. The other three kids were all two and a half, three and a half. When they came home. I didn't have a choice as they were raised on formula or worse at the orphanage. So I wanted to give her the best. And she had lactose intolerance, but I was trying to get it so I could nurse her. But I've never given birth before, and so I didn't have the necessary hormones and my health wasn't good enough for that. But I tried and I drank a lot of a nursing tea with red raspberry leaf nettle by like, gallons and gallons, hoping to, like, stimulate some something. And then I pumped for, like, months before she was born. We knew she was coming, and that didn't work for me. So I used. I kept trying drinking all the tea, and it got really expensive because, you know, start drinking by gallons and gallons. So I decided I'd blend it myself and save a bunch of money with the pounds I was going through. And that just led to, you know, other people. Can you blend me this? Can you blend me that? How about this kind? How about that kind? And so most of our teas are actually request from people. And the chocolate conniption not coffee was my. Well, our original is the mountain hazelnut coffee is where it started. And that was my replacement for coffee because I wanted that thick thickness that tea doesn't really have.
- [19:56]
Lisa
Yep.
- [19:56]
Sian
And I still like my cream and my maple syrup in there, and that holds it really well. So we did that, and then, you know, he got coffee in different flavors. So we made the not coffee in different flavors. And the chocolate conniption is meant to, like, mimic a German chocolate cake.
- [20:13]
Lisa
Okay.
- [20:14]
Sian
And my dad is a huge fan of German chocolate cake and coffee, but he doesn't eat that anymore, and he's trying to cut back on coffee. So I made that flavor for him, and it just ended up being the most popular of the. We have five different flavors now.
- [20:32]
Lisa
So tell me about that. What makes it more bold and more like coffee than like, a typical tea?
- [20:39]
Sian
Right? Yeah. So a normal herbal tea is usually made out of leaves and flowers, those parts of the plants. And these teas, the base is chicory and dandelion root. So if you think of like, dandy blend or toshino, those kinds of things, they are made with a similar base. And the chicory and dandelion root just gives it its full flavor. It has a lot of nutrients in it because they're tap Roots and so they go way down and pull tons of nutrients out. They're great liver detoxifiers. They have a lot of prebiotics for your digestive health. Those are all side benefits of it just tasting similar to coffee. And actually before coffee was really popular, they used to drink a lot of especially chicory root. Especially down in the South. They'll still actually put it in coffee blends.
- [21:28]
Lisa
Okay, interesting. Yeah, I, I am definitely a coffee person for sure. So it would, it would take some.
- [21:37]
Sian
It always looks so good when you make it.
- [21:40]
Lisa
It would take some serious convincing that it was bad for me. Like.
- [21:44]
Sian
Right.
- [21:45]
Lisa
It'd have to be so bad. Life altering.
- [21:48]
Sian
Right. We find a lot of people will they still drink coffee, but they drink it, you know, an alternative or an herbal caffeine free tea at nighttime. So that if they're caffeine sensitive or we get a lot of people who have stomach issues because of sometimes coffee consumption, the acid in there can mess with your stomach acid and cause ulcers or they have headaches from caffeine. So everybody's different. Everybody's tolerances level is a lot different.
- [22:22]
Lisa
Yes, absolutely.
- [22:23]
Sian
I mean there's no replacing coffee. It doesn't taste exactly like coffee, but it's.
- [22:28]
Lisa
Yeah, it's. I understand what you're saying. It's. It's something that can carry your, your spice and your cream. Like if you want to make like a pumpkin spice latte, you wouldn't put that in a black tea. That just wouldn't be right. Something like your not coffee or even I've found like robots or I don't know. Can you tell me how to pronounce that? That also has that same. I don't even know what I'm trying to describe, but it definitely has a coffee alternative vibe to it versus something that would lend itself more to like fruit and lemon and citrus. It's like creamy.
- [23:04]
Sian
Yeah, it's just a boulder. It's kind of like a chai, which is another.
- [23:08]
Lisa
Yes, I love chai.
- [23:09]
Sian
Yeah.
- [23:11]
Lisa
Yep. Absolutely. All right, let's talk a little bit about fermentation. So at the Homestead Expo that you and I met recently in June, you did a demonstration on kombucha. And lately you've started offering flavorings for kombucha that you blend with herbs and everything. And I think this is a popular concept, but also I think a lot of people are really intimidated by it and unsure of the safety or the benefits. So let's talk a bit about that. Like why, why kombucha? Where'd you start with that?
- [23:41]
Sian
Yeah. Well, kombucha was the ferment that involved tea. So that was kind of.
- [23:46]
Lisa
That makes sense.
- [23:47]
Sian
Easy crossover for us. I didn't start with kombucha. I'm trying to remember. I think we did milk kefir. I might have tried water kefir a little bit ginger buds. Like, you know, like I said, you go down the rabbit hole, and it's like, I got all these things, and then you have to keep them all alive, right?
- [24:08]
Lisa
Yeah. That's why I always recommend to people, just get your favorite and then keep that going. You can't keep them all going. Stick with that.
- [24:15]
Sian
So eventually, some of those had to go, or they just sat in the refrigerator and nothing happened. Like the ginger bug. I mean, it's fairly simple and worked fine. And the kombucha, I like all the options. You could change the flavor with, like, you can flavor all of, you know, water kefir with. With anything, but, like, you have the base flavor. You're making the kombucha with the tea, and it could be black tea, it could be green tea, it could be white tea. If you get really advanced, you can do herbal teas like hibiscus. You can use coffee. To me, I didn't like the flavor of that. If I'm gonna drink coffee, I want it to taste like coffee. And kombucha. Kombucha, but not together. It was interesting. I don't know. So the kombucha, we found one. We had all. You know, we have tea all over the place, so that was easy and. Right. There's actually some benefits to those who have arthritis and joint pains. And my husband had a lot of that going on. Still does. But found that kombucha can actually help a lot with that because of the different probiotics and acids that the other ferments don't have. And he liked that. He used to be a soda drinker. And so it's. And I was. Got a different. It's like trying to explain the viscosity of the. Not coffee with regular coffee. It's just kombucha has a different, like, boldness to it than water kefir. I think a water kefir is more light, you know?
- [25:56]
Lisa
Yeah, I would agree with that for sure. Yeah.
- [25:58]
Sian
And you can make kombucha more light with, like, a green tea, but, like, a black tea. Gives it that bold kind of flavor that makes sense.
- [26:07]
Lisa
So for those who aren't familiar or who want to try it, a quick rundown of the process for making kombucha.
- [26:13]
Sian
Yeah. So basically you make sweet tea and you let it cool off and then you add your scoby and your starter liquid. So you have like your sourdough starter. A similar process, you have your kombucha starter. And so you put your scoby and your starter in that sweet tea that's cooled down because you don't want to kill off your good bacteria. And then you let it ferment for seven to 14 days. So it's pretty simple. It's a couple more steps from like watered kefir because you got to brew the tea and then let it cool and then add that versus just adding the sugar water to the. The water kefir. And then, you know, it takes longer. So water keeper is a few. Is like 24 or 48 hours. Right.
- [27:02]
Lisa
Which could be a pro. But then also in some ways it's a. Sometimes we're like, we have to keep.
- [27:08]
Sian
Taking care of it, right?
- [27:09]
Lisa
Yeah, yeah. Like, it's. It's something that you're constantly doing. Like every single day pretty much, it's, hey, turn over the. Put them into the jars for the second ferment. Start the new. The blast jars with the grains. Like, I have one of my children, that's her job. And it's always like, hey, water kefir. I just did that. Yep. Do it again.
- [27:27]
Sian
Time to do it again. Yeah, we did a lot of milk kefir. He's like, I do that every day too again. Yeah, every day, a week or two, depending on the weather and temperature in your house. But yeah, you know, like, mine's been sitting there. I haven't made any since the conference. I just haven't got there yet for playing catch up. And it's been sitting there the whole time, and it's fine. Whereas, like, if it was milk kefir, that would be really gross after two months.
- [27:54]
Lisa
Yes. That would not work at all.
- [27:57]
Sian
And you'd have a hard time getting those grains out of your. Your milk. And this just kind of camps out. I've had to try and ruin it to experiment, to see, you know, what are the things that usually it just gets dried out and then it'll mold on top, you know, if it gets neglected. But if you just push the scoby under the. The bottom and keep it moist, as long as it doesn't run out of liquid, it's still alive. So it's just.
- [28:21]
Lisa
Yeah, it's just camping out there. Like, you won't drink what it's sitting in right now, but the Scoby itself will be fine.
- [28:28]
Sian
Yeah, you could use it as vinegar. Just like apple cider vinegar. You can make salad dressings with it. Actually use it in a margarita instead of alcohol and it tastes really similar. So we had a lot of, a lot of those when we got back because I had three gallons it needed fed before we left for the conference. And I just didn't have time for everything, so it just had to scent. So I had three gallons of kombucha vinegar.
- [28:51]
Lisa
Yeah. Yeah.
- [28:52]
Sian
But it was, it was hot when we got back. So basically make like a strawberry smoothie or daiquiri and put that in there and it, you know, it's a little tart, but it's still, you can consume it. It's not bad. So.
- [29:07]
Lisa
Okay. So I'm sure people who have never done this are wondering, how do you know if you can't consume it like it. This sounds very laid back and I understand because I've been fermenting for so long too that I take so many liberties. Like the recipe might say 48 hours for something and I might do a week, but I know it's fine because I've done it. But how do you describe that?
- [29:27]
Sian
Yeah. How do you know it's safe? Well, generally with kombucha the only. Well, there's two things. The main thing with the process of taking care of it is going to.
- [29:36]
Lisa
Be mold and which you can see.
- [29:39]
Sian
Yeah. And it'll be fuzzy and it'll look black or green and it'll be mold. We get, we field a ton of questions about it because the scobies tend to look really weird and they. Do you have yeast in there? And they'll kind of hang and dangle and. Yep.
- [29:54]
Lisa
People know what the yeast looks like. People think it's mold if they're not used to seeing the film of.
- [29:59]
Sian
Yeah.
- [30:00]
Lisa
Yeah.
- [30:01]
Sian
So generally, like, I had to work really hard to find someone that could give me a picture of their moldy kombucha. I have lots of pictures of very strange looking ones that are healthy.
- [30:10]
Lisa
Uh huh. We actually had the same thing. We were writing an article about moldy sourdough and I was. My va and I, we were like, we cannot get our starter to mold. I had to leave it out for like a month and then it just smelled dead. But it still didn't mold. Like, can somebody. I tried to crowdsource one. I'm like somebody else. It's not that easy to make it go bad. Help me find a moldy Starter.
- [30:32]
Sian
The only picture I found was actually a friend who randomly came up to me and she's like, I think I killed it. And I'm like, well, send me a picture because I have to see it. Usually you don't. Well, bugs got in it. You know, sometimes the kids will come, lift the fabric off or, you know, fruit flies somehow get in there. They really like the smell of kombucha.
- [30:51]
Lisa
This time of year, fruit flies are on everything.
- [30:54]
Sian
I know, right?
- [30:54]
Lisa
I've been dipping them out. Like every Firmin I have.
- [30:57]
Sian
I have a little container of apple cider vinegar in one of those little bottles at the pointy tub.
- [31:02]
Lisa
Yes. The funnel.
- [31:03]
Sian
And right now it's a fruit fly collector. And I'm just gonna leave it. Dump it when they're done.
- [31:09]
Lisa
Yeah, there you go.
- [31:10]
Sian
They go in and they can't get out. Actually worked really well, but it was an accident.
- [31:14]
Lisa
I forgot about that trick. I need to do that because I just feel like they're everywhere because we have, like, baskets of stuff from the garden. And then apples now and then our ferments, the sourdough, the water kefir.
- [31:24]
Sian
Yeah, yeah.
- [31:25]
Lisa
They're just really loving our onions from the garden.
- [31:28]
Sian
Yeah. I actually have pickles fermenting behind my screen here. I'm in our old tea studio. This is actually the wall from the conference booth. But there was no room for the pickles and the tomatoes and the elderberries and the zucchini and everything on the counter. So there's food all over the house. But, yeah, so fruit flies, you know, any contaminant like that, but you're gonna know if you have fruit flies in there, you don't want to drink that. And then the mold. And then, like, health wise, you know, there's a lot of concern about the alcohol and kombucha. So kombucha, if you're brewing at home, will have two and a half to three and a half percent alcohol. And you, you know, that's going to vary based on your brewing methods at home. And you can get a meter to test that if you're really concerned about it. I'm sorry, kombucha was. I wrote it down over here and was looking at the wrong thing. One to two and a half percent alcohol. It's really low.
- [32:22]
Lisa
Okay.
- [32:23]
Sian
Water kefir is 0.02 to 2%, and milk kefir was a half to two and a half percent. Whereas beer and wine is like five to 15. So.
- [32:35]
Lisa
Right.
- [32:35]
Sian
You know, it's in there, but it's relative. You know, it's very small. It's also going to be dependent on how much you drink. You know, if you're drinking a 16 ounce bottle of kombucha versus a 16 ounce beer, you have a lot less alcohol. Still, I think maybe the people that should be more concerned is if you have a liver issue.
- [32:55]
Lisa
Right, okay, that makes sense.
- [32:57]
Sian
Any amount of alcohol or if you're, you know, have alcoholism in your past.
- [33:02]
Lisa
Right, right.
- [33:03]
Sian
If you're pregnant, you know, Google land tells you not to touch anything that resembles alcohol. But you know, looking at these numbers, I went, well, then it looks like I shouldn't drink water kefir either because it's really not that different. Maybe.
- [33:17]
Lisa
Well, that was one of the questions we got from the audience was what about. I get this question nonstop. Is fermented foods or fermented water kefir, milk kefir and kombucha while pregnant.
- [33:31]
Sian
Right. Yeah.
- [33:32]
Lisa
And I can tell you personally, I'm comfortable with it, but that, you know, again, everybody has their different comfort levels. So I drink, I'll drink like a quart smoothie of milk kefir every day when I'm pregnant. And again, I'm telling you, if there was very much alcohol in it, I would notice. I really would.
- [33:51]
Sian
Yeah, well, you know, anytime you have sugar in a ferment, you're going to have some kind of an alcohol and I think it's a level. Are you going to take a tincture while you're pregnant? Because that's alcohol too. And that's straight, you know, straight alcohol.
- [34:01]
Lisa
But it's like straight alcohol, right?
- [34:04]
Sian
Yeah, I think it's what you're.
- [34:05]
Lisa
Yeah.
- [34:05]
Sian
You're comfortable with. I can't offer any personal experience because I've never given birth. So, you know, I haven't, haven't had to dive into that other than helping other people way through that. And the other thing to remember is that a lot of that information is based on studies and there just aren't any because no one wants to volunteer to be the pregnant lady that sees if their child is affected by alcohol and ends up with fetal alcohol syndrome.
- [34:32]
Lisa
You know, I would think that'd be such a stretch with fermented foods. Like you're really overdoing it if you've done that. I mean, I give my children water kefir even after the second ferment with the grape juice. Now, do you give. I'm sure all your children drink kombucha.
- [34:50]
Sian
Yeah, all of our kids. Yeah. And my youngest infant, she grew up on Milk kefir. And she could tolerate that a lot more because she can drink the milk straight. And they haven't had, you know, all their issues are from past experiences. But my daughter, who is youngest, who is always with us, she doesn't have any. Any issues. So, yeah, I personally don't have concerns giving it to my kids. If I were to ever be pregnant, I would probably still drink some. Maybe you start with a little bit and you drink like a shot glass and maybe wouldn't drink 16 ounces a day. But, you know, that's just based on what you're comfortable with. Yeah, but, yeah, there's no, like, there's not much science there. And so the precaution always is. Don't. The other concern with kombucha is that because it does, it has been scientifically proven to help detox your liver. Those toxins are coming out and going into your body. So there is a possibility that that could pass on to the womb and the baby becomes maybe a filter and gets stuck with some of those. So generally, most people will say to not drink it during pregnancy just in case. Again, there's not heavy science on that because your liver is always detoxing itself. There's lots of dandelion, chicory root, or detox. And those actually will detox more than kombucha. So it's all, you know, what you're comfortable with and your own, your own health, you know, Like, I'm more sensitive to a lot of things than many people, like alcohol. Take one sip of wine and I'll be asleep.
- [36:29]
Lisa
So you feel like that. But then, like, you, you drink kombucha and you're. It doesn't affect your energy levels?
- [36:36]
Sian
No, I. The caffeine does not bother me in there because it will bother me. Like if I drink black or green tea, I try not to. I am really sensitive to the caffeine in those, even though they're lower than coffee. But in kombucha, I don't find that it bothers me. And the same with the sugar, because you're making kombucha with sugar, but the ferment is eating the sugar. And so while I have a sugar allergy, I can still drink kombucha.
- [37:01]
Lisa
Okay. I've always wondered that, like, what sugar content is left because it's hard, you know, it's not a controlled experiment because the house temperature changes. I'll ferment it for a lot longer sometimes. And then the second ferment, you know, is it consuming all of the grape Juice, well, it still tastes sweet, but it's also very carbonated. When I do a second ferment for water, kefir. Have you ever tested that with kombucha?
- [37:26]
Sian
Like you said, when you're in a home environment, it's really hard to do. You would need to be in, like, a commercial environment where it's totally controlled and regulated and on a schedule, you know, like a science lab, to be able to do that. And when you're brewing at home, it just doesn't work that way. But the sugar level. In the first seven days, the sugar level stays the same as when you made the sweet tea. From day seven to, I think it's 20, it starts dropping. How much sugar is in it? Because what's happening is it's basically the same process of making a vinegar. The vinegar is eating the sweet, you know, and so it. The sugar level will drop as it gets more tart. So the goal is to find that sweet spot where it's still sweet enough to drink it, and it's not vinegar, but it's not so sweet that, you know, it still tastes like sweet tea, which usually means it hasn't fermented yet. And that would be where you have a higher alcohol content and versus where it gets down towards the vinegar side of things. So the sugar level does drop because your ferment is eating the sugar. It's the food for the ferment versus it being food for us.
- [38:38]
Lisa
Right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, so much of this, too, like you said, there's just. It's. It's something that you get the flow of the rhythm of, but not necessarily the exacts on how much sugar, how much alcohol, how I'm tolerating it. And like you said, you're more sensitive to just about everything. And so you have to test things and then see how you're reacting with sugar, with caffeine.
- [39:03]
Sian
How did that go? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, if you're flavoring your kombucha, your water kefir, and you're using fruit, that changes your sugar content because it's also in there for a shorter time. So it's not fermenting as long, so it's not consuming the sugars, and so you're consuming the sugar. So maybe, you know, if you're really concerned about the sugar, you get kombucha from the store rather than make it, because they have to have all of that on the label and they have.
- [39:31]
Lisa
To have it tested, really dialed in.
- [39:33]
Sian
Yeah, yeah. It also has to have a lower alcohol point, which sometimes means that they mess with the natural fermentation process to get those numbers. Most kombucha at the store is not going to be trying to your kombucha, maybe GTs, but a lot of them lately are adding carbonation. There's kombucha in there, but I have a feeling it's like kombucha vinegar where they don't have to monitor the, you know, the fizziness because otherwise, you know, sitting on a shelf for several days, their bottle might explode or, you know.
- [40:08]
Lisa
Exactly. I've always wondered this because I have water kefir here. You know, if I let it go too long, it's going to literally explode. I've had that happen. So clearly something's up like this. It just can't be real because they.
- [40:23]
Sian
Have a different process. I think their alcohol limit on the store bought is 0.5, which is not a natural alcohol limit. Otherwise they have to market as a hard kombucha, which they do make.
- [40:34]
Lisa
Yep. They'd have to get IDs and everything else.
- [40:37]
Sian
Yeah. I think is maybe the only one I've seen that's still, you know, unless you have a local, small, local brand.
- [40:44]
Lisa
Well, and it's so expensive and it's. It's not super hard to make at all. Like, once you get it in your rhythm, you're brewing tea, you're sweetening it, you're adding your scoby. And then also it's probably encouraging to a lot of people that yours has been sitting out for like two months now and you haven't got back into doing it. And it's okay. It's like a sourdough starter. You can sit it in the fridge if it's a robust starter for a couple months and then get back to it, feed it and all is well again. And I've done the same thing with milk kefir grains, with water kefir grains. So it doesn't have to be this overwhelming thing. It can be a very seasonal thing when you and your family are able to have like a lot of time in your kitchen, you know, keeping up.
- [41:22]
Sian
With time to put on it. Or, you know, some people might drink more in the summer when it's hot and less in the winter. Like, sourdough's the opposite, probably.
- [41:32]
Lisa
Yep. I'm same with like water kefir. We've definitely already started doing it less than we were because having like a cold, bubbly drink was so desirable. And then now we've been pausing it in the fridge more often. And easing out of it. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.
- [41:50]
Sian
Yeah. Like with tea, people drink iced tea and we still sell tea in the summer, but we sell way more tea in the fall. Just because people think of it as a hot drink. Yes. And kombucha tends to be cold. There's plenty of people like cold kombucha in the wintertime, but this seems like they do more in the summer.
- [42:08]
Lisa
Oh, yeah, it's just. It's definitely. Yeah, more of a. It just. It's so delicious to have a cold, fizzy, bubbly, carbonated drink. And that's when we tend to reach for it a ton. Now, what is your favorite flavoring for your kombucha? There's a root beer one for everybody. Listening.
- [42:27]
Sian
Yes. Everybody likes the root beers. My kids like it and the one we released last, so it's quite popular. The strawberry mojito is a favorite and that's probably our second, second top seller. So it's like a strawberry lime tropical mango is another one. My husband really likes that one. Trying to think we all like different ones. We kind of use what we have from our flavor mixes. Because if I go down to the seventh, decide what to call it, I call it cafe because that's what it was. If it's in a bag and I have to open it, they get mad at me because they're like, just pack that. So I'm like looking for the bulk stash. They haven't what's happening? I'll use that. But yeah, my husband likes the peach tumeric and the mango. Like the really like fruity, fruity ones. The like underrated one is the rosemary citrus. Those two flavors I know are hard for people to put together, but it tastes like a creamsicle with like a hint of rosemary.
- [43:38]
Lisa
It's actually really good with the rosemary. Okay, remind me again with the flavoring with kombucha. At what point are you using that?
- [43:48]
Sian
Yeah, so you'll make your initial ferment with the sweet tea and you'll let that go the seven to 14 days and then you'll want to bottle it. You probably want to pull it off when it's a little bit sweeter than you would drink it at, so it still has some food in there. And then you'll bottle it. And that's where you get your fizz from. Trapping it in the wash style bottle. And you can flavor with all sorts of things. You can use fruit juice, maybe something with sugar. The less sugar it has, the less fizz you're going to get. So, like, we have an apple pie flavoring which is popular. It normally needs a little bit of sugar or like, some raisins. I probably should just put raisins in it. Because the clove and the cinnamon have antimicrobial properties and so it fights against your fizz.
- [44:33]
Lisa
Okay.
- [44:34]
Sian
Because you're trying to grow bugs to make them fizzy. And now you've got these herbs that are fighting bugs. And so they just. It won't make as much fizz as, like, something with just a fruit base. So you can use fruit juice, you can use frozen fruit, fresh fruit, dried fruit, freeze dried fruit. So these mixes are all dried dried herbs and dried fruit. They're super handy for just like having in your pantry and grabbing it when you're ready. And you don't have to plan and think about, oh, I don't have any fruit anywhere to stick in here or the right kind. So. And that's why we made them to just a super simple. So that's when you would put your flavoring in, is when you're putting it in the bottle. And then you're going to let that bottle sit for 12 to 24 hours, and then you're going to want to put it in the refrigerator so that it doesn't explode when you open it. Some people will just burp their bottles along the way. I don't like to lose the fizz because sometimes it's harder to get fizz than to, you know, tell them if it's. Just tone my fist down. So if you put. We have more people that have troubles getting it fizzy. So I don't like to tell people, like, burp their bottle because that might have just been all the fizz you were going to get from your particular batch. So I just like to say put in the refrigerator so it'll settle down. Because when it's warm, the bacteria are active and they're eating. When it's cold, they're, you know, sleep or not as active. And so if you put it in the fridge, it'll generally be good. I did have an experience lately. I put a lot of ginger in something like fresh ginger. They essentially combined a ginger bud with a kombucha. And it had been in the refrigerator a really long time. I thought it was flat. This particular bottle was a cheap, like from the craft store, just something I had. And the lid was like, not on all the way. And I thought, well, it's totally flat. There's no way there's fizz in there. And I opened that bottle and it went all.
- [46:29]
Lisa
You opened it with confidence. It's the worst when you think something's fine. Instead of like this, you know, I'm gonna cautiously open. You're like, this one's not gonna be fizzy.
- [46:39]
Sian
I've done that.
- [46:40]
Lisa
Yep.
- [46:41]
Sian
Yeah.
- [46:42]
Lisa
Yeah.
- [46:42]
Sian
So I said, next time I do that, I'm opening them. Everyone in the sink and I'm turning the camera on. I must have went 10ft. It was all over the place. And I'm like, oh, my goodness. I thought. And I'm looking at the bottom of the bottle. You should label them. That might help. Must have been in a hurry or something. But I'm like, there's a lot of ginger in there. No wonder I didn't look at that first. Because everyone's like, that's apple pie. And like I said, it doesn't always get super fizzy. And I'm like, so it'll be fine. It'll be fine.
- [47:16]
Lisa
You weren't expecting that. Yep. So then you take the bottle and do you then pour it through a strainer to get, like the herbs out? Yes. Okay.
- [47:25]
Sian
Yeah. So I don't generally drink straight from the bottle. If you didn't like fruit juice, that'd be fine. Or if you want to, you know, chew the things up as you drink it. I don't know. That's not my thing. Yeah, Just have a little strainer. Yeah. Over a glass or, you know, if you want to get fancy a wine glass and just strain it out as you're going to drink it. If you were going to take it with you somewhere, that might be a little harder to do. You could potentially strain it beforehand, but you're going to lose some of your fizz opening it. So might just be the one time. Use juice if you're going to travel with it. I don't generally travel with it because you have to keep it cool. If you're going to let it sit in a car while you go do something, it could potentially explode from the.
- [48:09]
Lisa
Yeah.
- [48:11]
Sian
And not that that should scare anybody from.
- [48:13]
Lisa
I know. I'm like, hopefully you're not scared of this because it's just. Yeah. Just basically, I think understanding the science of what is happening with fermentation and what your goal is and what is the. Like, what's happening scientifically will help you to not feel intimidated by it because you'll understand what's going on.
- [48:34]
Sian
Yeah. I mean, you might. It don't have that many explode, you.
- [48:39]
Lisa
Know, it's only happened to me a couple times. And it's never happened, even in the last five years.
- [48:44]
Sian
Great. Yeah. So I. My first one exploded, but that's because I didn't understand what was going on.
- [48:51]
Lisa
Yes, exactly.
- [48:52]
Sian
Half of it. So if, you know, ahead of time to just, like, you know, chill it in the refrigerator, put it over the sink, just in case, you know, pay attention to what you're fermenting with. If you have a ton of ginger in there. Ginger is very. It has a lot of the right bugs on it. So it makes kombucha very happy. We filmed an E course on kombucha, and it felt like. Because I was in the. In the mode of filming and making. And so my timing got off with a lot of the kombucha, and I needed one to pop and make, you know, the glorious pop sound. And a bunch of them went flat because my timing was bad, because I wasn't focused on.
- [49:33]
Lisa
You're more focused on filming that.
- [49:35]
Sian
Yeah, Right. Getting all the details. Except explained. Right. And all of that stuff. And then so I kept being determined, so I left one out intentionally and did all the things wrong so that it would fizz. And it. It was so explosive, it scared me because I'd gone through, like, 10 bottles, and they're like, you know, this one I wasn't. And I had it, like, tilted. And it was up here at the time. We have all of the tea, all the totes and the tia kombucha all over them because it, like, just. I've got a great. And it was on camera that time. It was great. So I have a little. Little blooper of, you know what? It worth it?
- [50:13]
Lisa
Yeah. Yeah. The other day, we were in the pantry where we brew our kombucha, or, sorry, our water kefir. And my son was like, are there any ready right now? And I'm like, no, no, no. I just checked two, and they weren't ready at all. And so sometimes I'll only check two and then just leave the rest because I know that they were all done at the same time. And he's like, well, check that one. And I was like, jude, they're not ready. And I just did it, like, really without, you know, with all confidence in the world. And for whatever reason, that one bottle either got extra grape juice or it had a better seal. Don't know. But it was like, how'd you know?
- [50:48]
Sian
Right? I had a friend, she was making grape soda, and they had put the bottles up is in the laundry room or something to get them out of the way. And they were up late, and they had some kind of crazy neighbors. And all of a sudden they heard this, like, almost sounded like guns going on.
- [51:07]
Lisa
Yeah.
- [51:07]
Sian
And so they're staring out the window, like, looking at the neighbors, thinking something's going on. And they didn't see anything. And then all of a sudden, she remembered that they had this fermented grape juice, and it had the metal lids, not the attached ones, just. And they had shot up into the ceiling and left holes in the ceiling.
- [51:26]
Lisa
Oh, we're really scaring people now, Sienna.
- [51:30]
Sian
I know we're probably not helping.
- [51:32]
Lisa
The key is you just. You do have to check them. Like I said, it hasn't happened to me in so many years because I know that if you kind of halfway, like, pop the bottle and you feel resistance, like it's gonna go, put it in the fridge. The fridge will mellow it. And then you can open it.
- [51:48]
Sian
And then you can open it.
- [51:49]
Lisa
Yeah. And I know to check them. I'm very aware that that can happen. And so it doesn't happen to me anymore. And I say that, and hopefully it won't, but it's, you know, unless you just completely forget about it, it's not going to happen to you. Especially as we approach colder months, it takes a really long time. I mean, you could be checking them every day and just get barely a little pop, you know, because it's. It's a. It's a longer process.
- [52:11]
Sian
I think a lot of people are afraid of ferments and stuff because it's an alive thing. And we live in a society so much where everything's predictable and the same every time, you know, we go to the grocery store and they always have the same food and.
- [52:25]
Lisa
Yep, yep.
- [52:26]
Sian
You know, we get pickles that are canned, and so they're always the same.
- [52:30]
Lisa
They taste the same, they look the same, the same crunch. There's no off batches.
- [52:35]
Sian
Right. And when you're just, you know, when you're processing at home, you're not a. You're not a facility that has this regulated thing. You know, you're living life in your house, and there's life in the jar of your kombucha or your vegetable ferment. And, you know, live things just take attention and time, and it's more of just a mentality adjustment.
- [52:58]
Lisa
Yes. I love that. That is exactly it. It's not super predictable. It's not sanitized. It's. It's very creative. It's messy, and it's delicious, and it's worth it. But, yeah, it's not going to be.
- [53:13]
Sian
So you get to put a lot of artistic value into it rather than it being. I mean, it's a science project to some degree. But, you know, and a lot of it's just our culture because, like, so our boys are from Russia and they're. All the eggs are on the shelf. They're not refrigerated. They. They sell, you know, herbal medicine on the street side. There's just all these things that we don't even think about that a lot of different cultures do all of the time.
- [53:43]
Lisa
Right. Yeah. And once it becomes your family culture, it becomes comfortable and easy. And it's a process, but it does start by changing your mindset about everything needing to be so regulated, so precise.
- [54:02]
Sian
Yeah. It's quite different from canning. I hate canning.
- [54:05]
Lisa
Same. I completely agree.
- [54:09]
Sian
We can green beans. Just because I'm not, you know, I only have so much freezer space and you're going to cook them anyway. But.
- [54:16]
Lisa
Right.
- [54:16]
Sian
Like tomato sauce. I dehydrate all my tomatoes and I just blend it for sauce when I need it. I want canned tomato sauce. Like, and, you know, if you're coming from a canning kind of mind frame, it's the opposite of fermenting.
- [54:29]
Lisa
Oh, complete opposite. Sterilized. If anything gets in, the defenses are gone. And it will. It'll go bad bad. I mean, it's going to go botulism bad. Whereas, like, fermentation's alive.
- [54:39]
Sian
Right. I feel like fermentation's safer. Like, if it's bad, you're gonna know. Your nose is gonna tell you.
- [54:45]
Lisa
Oh, I definitely consider it safer.
- [54:47]
Sian
Yeah.
- [54:47]
Lisa
I'm still scared of canned stuff. Like, I can things, and then when we first open them, I always eat a couple bites and wait a few hours. Cause I'm just like, what if botulism got in there? Like, I'm not feeding the baby this.
- [54:58]
Sian
Right. Or it changes color. Like, is it still okay? Or. Yeah, I can.
- [55:04]
Lisa
Yeah.
- [55:05]
Sian
The most I ever can was during COVID because I'm like, well, I'm putting whatever food on the shelf, wherever I can get the food. I had, you know, food every. Well, we had all those shortages, you know, like you didn't know. Huh?
- [55:15]
Lisa
Yep.
- [55:16]
Sian
Yeah. I'm like, okay, well, I can see the benefit of canning from, like, it's on the shelf, it's ready to go. I do extras, and that's great, but I just would rather freeze and ferment and dehydrate before any of those. Any of the canning.
- [55:32]
Lisa
Same. Same. It's. Yeah. I Mean, it's. It definitely is working in a whole different way. So with canning, you're sterilizing it. You're taking away every good and bad thing that's in it that could take it over and ruin it.
- [55:47]
Sian
Right.
- [55:47]
Lisa
But also the goods, the defense, and that's what you're trying to cultivate. And fermentation. And so it couldn't be more opposite. Both great forms of preservation. Obviously, canning is much longer term. If you've done it right, it'll last. And I think. I think again, just like with fermentation, I don't think I have canned enough to feel as comfortable as I'd like to with it. Whereas, like, with fermentation. And so there's somebody out there who's like, oh, canning is not scary. And again, I do can, and we're fine with it, but it definitely scares me more than fermentation.
- [56:17]
Sian
Right? Yeah. There's just a lot. I don't know, to me, a lot more risk. But like you said, if you're used to it, then, you know, not worrying about it too much. Well, yeah.
- [56:27]
Lisa
When you've had a hundred jars of your own canned food in the last year, obviously you're going to have a little bit more confidence about it. Yeah, yeah, I didn't die. I'm good.
- [56:37]
Sian
I also. I don't know, maybe I'm a lazy kind of cook or something, but, like, it's easier to me to just put the cucumbers in the jar and make pickles than to have to, like, go through the. Now I got to cook them in the pressure canner. I got to wait for it to come out.
- [56:51]
Lisa
It's so chewy.
- [56:52]
Sian
Let it go. Let it come down.
- [56:56]
Lisa
Yeah. Fermentation is definitely a less involved process, for sure.
- [57:02]
Sian
I feel like it's more forgiving, you know, like with the kombucha that it's sitting down there, you know, like people is. But what about this? What about that? We worry about all the little details and like, well, it's sitting down there, and I've done this before where it just sits for months, and I'm like, it's. It's just fine. You know, maybe when you're pickling, your stuff gets a little mushy, but, you know, probably wouldn't eat it, but it's not going to kill you. You know, if it doesn't have mold on it, we put. It's kind of hard to find somewhere to store some of those vegetable ferments. Kombucha you cycle through is not too bad. And so we put some under our house once, and we don't. We just have a tiny little crawl space. It's just a typical, basic house. And we forgot about him down there. And they were down there like three years. And I used metal lids, which I shouldn't have. They got corrosive, but they probably would have been fine to eat. We didn't eat them. They looked like they probably were mushy, but they weren't moldy. So I feel like it's really, really resilient. I have an aunt from Japan, and she always tells me her grandmother would have giant crocodile and make Japanese pickles in it, and they would just put it in the. In the closet. And Japan's kind of warm, so I don't know if there was some trick that I missed where they kept them crunchy somehow or if they just ate them, you know, after mushy. I don't know. I need to ask.
- [58:32]
Lisa
Or maybe they added a lot more salt or a lot of tannins. Who knows that they had some trick to it. But, yeah, I. I really do love the unpredictable. Not unpredictable, because you do know what to expect with certain temperatures. But you get flavors that aren't always the exact same. Like, oh, this batch tasted a little bit sweeter, and this one was a little bit more fermented. And yeah, I enjoy that aspect of it.
- [58:55]
Sian
Brings a little more vibrance to life to have some slight changes.
- [59:01]
Lisa
I agree. I agree. Okay. We've bounced back and forth a bit between herbs, which is what you specialize in. Kombucha, fermentation, and then also business. Let's just close out talking about business. So for those who are thinking about starting some kind of business. So you say that you were a college dropout and then now you have the six figure business that you built while being a homeschool mom. Do you feel like that's possible for. For people still today? Is it too late? If somebody wants to chase that kind of dream, what would be your encouragement? Or would you say just don't do it?
- [59:37]
Sian
I would never discourage anybody from starting a business. You know, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Sistine Chapel when he was 80. I don't think it's too late. Yeah, I think if you're determined, you can do it. I feel like I grew up with a lot of that entrepreneurial spirit and example. My husband didn't, on the other hand. And so for him, it's been harder. He does really good. He processes everything and he's set up the systems. And so I Think some of it depends on your personality. Yeah. And then who you have to work with because you can get help with the things that maybe you struggle with and don't understand. But we actually, we coach a lot of small businesses that are getting started and I don't think it's too late. I think the Internet is just like created a wealth of opportunity for people because if we tried to do this locally, it would be much harder. We, you know, we started there and you just. It's hard to find the right audience of people, especially if you live in a smaller town like us and you don't want to go to a big city. But on the Internet, it's a lot easier to find.
- [60:48]
Lisa
You can find your people.
- [60:49]
Sian
Those people. Yeah. And that's what, what I would tell anyone that wanted to start a business is you need someone to sell something to or you just have a hobby.
- [60:59]
Lisa
Yeah.
- [61:00]
Sian
And so you really need to find people. And I think that's what helped us to take off, is that, you know, Farmhouse Teas wasn't our original name. It was Saint Fiacre's Farm. And it was really hard for people to say and to spell the French word. And it didn't tell them what we did. We were really into homesteading, so we just picked a name for our farm. And you know, at the time we weren't focused on tea, we were just focused on making things and selling them. And I think that focus is really what drove the business is like, okay, we serve mostly the homesteading community, which is where the farmhouse theme came from. And, you know, it's about finding those people to serve rather than just, I have this thing that I make and I'm really excited about it. It's not about us, it's about serving the other people. And you know, for me, because I understand with being sick for so long that it's not fun and it's hard. And the other people are suffering from various illnesses. So our goal is always to help them be well, you know, to get them, you know, off the sugar laden soda and help their diabetes with kombucha. Kombucha has been scientifically proven in a human trial to reduce your blood sugar. And it's just a one more step. And so if you can find someone to serve with a craft you have, that's like how you get your business to just take off.
- [62:26]
Lisa
Yeah, I love that because it's not just the product, it's how it's positioned, you know, because there could be. You said you coach other small businesses and I'm sure all of them are very, very different. But yet you still can bring the knowledge of how you would grow it, despite whether it's tea or I don't know any insert small business here.
- [62:48]
Sian
Right. Yeah. It's all about this. Finding those customers to serve with what you have, whether that be, you know, a T shirt design or, you know, a YouTube channel or, you know, a bag of tea. It's all about, you know, having someone that you're helping.
- [63:08]
Lisa
Yeah, yeah, I think that really sums it up. Well, tell the listeners where they can best follow along with you, where they can get your teas.
- [63:15]
Sian
Yeah. I didn't write down your code, do you remember? Because you have. Is it farmhouse?
- [63:19]
Lisa
Farmhouse 20? Farmhouse 20 is a coupon code that you mentioned.
- [63:25]
Sian
So.
- [63:25]
Lisa
Yeah.
- [63:26]
Sian
Yeah. Okay. And, yeah, I think it's good for 10% off. So you can find us at Farmhouset for a tea. We teach about herbs in general and kombucha and dehydrating, growing herbs, you know, from the beginning of growing the herbs and planting them to harvesting them to turning them into teas and, you know, just from a medicinal perspective over at our blog@growcreatesip.com and I think that covered all your questions.
- [64:00]
Lisa
Yeah. And we'll leave links down in the show notes below.
- [64:03]
Sian
And we do have a YouTube channel I'm trying to get back on there. I got sick and so we got deterred, but it's Farmhouse teas on YouTube.
- [64:10]
Lisa
Cool. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Sian. I really appreciate you sharing and, yeah.
- [64:16]
Sian
Thanks for having me. It was good to chat with you again when we are not distracted by other things.
- [64:21]
Lisa
Right, exactly. All right, well, hope that you enjoy this episode and I will see you in the next episode of the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast.