SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Joy Van Wyngarden from Iowa 7-12-24
(rooster crows) ♪ Unstoppable, unshakeable ♪ ♪ But it rolls out the town unfreakable ♪ ♪ It's unavoidable ♪ ♪ You show relatable ♪ ♪ Rebetween the lines ♪ ♪ Start to loosen up your mind ♪ - Now, welcome again to "Shark Farmer Radio," hey! - I'm your host Rob Sharkey. - We're in the studio today, just outside of Bradford, Illinois, studio powered by Bexi-Bredts, they're still rolling in dirt. William, we've run out of the free stuff. We've over 50 semi-loads of dirt coming in and now, the only place he knows where to get it is, it's called Osinga, they make concrete. It's a company, it was always rumored that the company's like connected, you know what I'm saying? - Yeah. - Allegedly. - Allegedly. - So, but their fill is $200, what was it? No, it's $20, well, it's $200 a semi-load plus tax, so the fun is over. I mean, it was expensive enough having this dirt hauled in here, but now it's just going to get stupid. I think there's definitely going to be more in the site prep than the actual FBI building. - Oh, definitely. - Oh, definitely, okay. Well, if you would learn how to park stuff, a little farm Tetris in the machine shed, it goes a long ways to saving money, William. - Yeah. - Okay. All right, yeah, you've been spraying today. - Yep. - Sounds fun. - Yeah, I don't know, I've been spraying them all and that's what I've been doing the last like three or four days. - You got the sprayer in the back of the UTV and you're going around the fields. - Yeah, going around the parameters and just spraying the weeds. - I like that, it makes everything look nice. - Yeah, it does. - Yeah, all right, good talk. Well, all right, today we're going to go out in Southeast Iowa. We're going to talk with Joy Van Weingarten. How are you doing, Joy? - We're doing good. How are you, Rob? - I'm doing fantastic. How's everything out in Southeast Iowa? - I mean, weather's been all right. We've been hitting some good rains, so I can't really complain there. - Are you in the part of Iowa that's getting too much? - No, well, I mean, two months ago, yes, we had an interesting day and I would say we definitely were getting too much. So far this June and July have just been getting some good rains, consistent rains not too hard but enough throughout the week sprinkled through that it's going to be good. I mean, the corn's looking good, the beans are looking good, so I really, really can't complain there. But no, some parts of Iowa have been getting what you would say way too much. - Yeah, I know you heard it here first, folks. Joy is the reason that the markets are down. - I know, you hate telling people like, "Hey, we're getting all these good rains. Everything's good here." And other people are like, "What? We haven't had any rain down here." - I know, we never, we never say how things look here because bad, we talk to some people. I mean, now in the Dakotas, Nebraska, then you get out east that's turned the other way and they're dry and you just, you feel, because we've all been there and you hate it when it's your turn. And the last thing you want to do is hear somebody go, "Oh, yeah, I'm guessing this will be our first 300 bushel average." Blah, blah, blah. - Right. - Yeah. - Well, I'm not trying to brag or make you want to feel bad, but feeling blessed, how did I blast? How about that? - Is it because you're that good of a farmer? - Oh, absolutely not. No, not even close. I think, like you said, though, everyone takes their turn, right, and there's some bad years and there's some good years, and I think this is just so far so good. So, cross, knock on wood, we'll see what happens. - So you're farming out there, what are all your raisin? - Corn and beans. That's what we got here in Iowa. - Highly diversified Iowa farm, huh? - Oh, yes, very, very diverse and unique, right? - Now, did you grow up on the farm? - I did, yep. - Was it just a grain farm when you're growing up? - Yep, so years and years ago, there was livestock in our family, but ever since I've been around, no pigs, no cattle, nothing like that, just row crop. - Okay, you're better off that way. That livestock, man, that's actual work, and there's no need for that. There's just too much of that, yeah. We don't want that. I like sleeping, so I don't want that. - So you're all into what is it, like the conservation, the region, all these terms anymore, I'm not quite sure what half of them means, but what are you into? - Yeah, they've all kind of turned into different buzzwords anymore, and then I feel like some of them get kind of misconstrued and misused here and there, but I'm really just into conservation farming and just stewardship all around. In terms of soil health, water quality, doing what's best for the ground, doing what's best for the next generation, and just prioritizing that throughout your operation. That looks like a lot of different things in a lot of different ways. Everything from using cover crops to keep your soil there to improve soil health, to improve organic matter, to help with water holding capacity, all those things. And then all the downstream effects, literally and figuratively, that come from things like that, like improved water quality, improved soil health, improved just about everything. When you start really looking at your farm as something, that's a resource, and it's not just something that we can use and abuse, and hope it just stays around forever and ever I'm in. You start looking at it as a resource that it is. You kind of have a different mindset, and you decide to implement different things on your farm because of it. You were saying before the show to me personally that you guys mowboard plow every single acre that you farm. That's a bold strategy. That's a naughty word, mowboard plow. We don't even say that. We don't even think that word. This is mother of all bad words. I've got one if you want to buy one. Hey, everyone still has, well not everyone, but a lot of people still have one on the backside. Yeah, I don't know why. How many people keep on them? I think it's kind of like an heirloom thing. You know, if your grandpa had it and it's an original, it's been a family. Yeah, I understand why it says in the backside, but it better just stay there. You better stay in the dark and get a nice layer of dust on it because that's where it belongs. Oh, I've been farming long enough. I know everything comes around again. No matter how stupid of an idea you think it is, it's like eventually someone will be coming out to be like all these educational summits on, hey, this new thing called a plow. Well, I hope the mowboard won't stay in the history books and the museums. Okay, John Dearer made a good living off that, but all right. All right, Joy, we do need to go to break. Today we're talking with a Joy Van Weingarten. What a great name, William. It is a great name. Yeah, it seems like you should be like William Whiskey Garden. You named me so. Yeah, there you go. She's from Southeast Iowa. We come back. We're going to talk more about her farm, more about being a conservative in farming. We'll be back right after the break. This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io, that's commonground.io. You're looking for a good weekend show on the Channel 147 XM, Liam. You told me that. You said I was really hoping there would be a good show on Channel 147, Rural Radio this weekend. I didn't say that. You listened to that podcast, the King Corn, Corn a King, something like that, over 600 bushels per acre. Yeah, that was a really good podcast. And he's like a legit nice guy. He's super cool and chill. You would think someone like that because a lot of those big yield guys, sometimes maybe you get a big attitude, not David. David is like salt of the earth. I haven't heard anyone say anything bad about him. Really? Yeah. Now, every time we've had a chance to sit down and talk with him, it's been fantastic. That is on Shark Farmer Week in addition. So, William, who's on PBS tomorrow? I don't know that. Isn't that your job? No. William found out he was going to be on the show like five minutes before we got on. Yeah. Mr. Shark Farmer's on assignment at an overpaid dentist with our youngest son, Steven. That's what it sounds like. Yeah. A little fun note, if you're like on a healthcare plan that has dental, and let's say the dentist is called premier dentist in Peoria, Illinois. There's no ding for that. And that's in your, what you can get paid for for your insurance. And then you find out it's premier dental plus. So, it's like they put this little extra thing so that they don't cover the people with dental insurance. It's a biggest crocahoey. Don't even get me started. We pay out the rear end for health insurance. And then they won't, they'd pull this. Anyway, my son's getting his teeth pulled. I thought we could have done that on farm, but here we are. Today, we're out in Southeast Iowa. We're talking with Joy Van Weingarten. She's farming out there, corn and soybeans. Now, Joy, that's not your only gig, is it? No, I have all the gigs. Okay. Download the gigs to us. So, some of the gigs, and this is not all of them, but some of them I do a lot of work with digital media marketing. Do some stuff for different brands. I have a camera, I have a drone, I have editing software, I'll do all sorts of stuff in that realm. And I love it, whether it's social media management or just creation of content for certain companies or brands. I really enjoy it. I have a lot of fun with it. And I also get to work with cool people doing it. So, it's just kind of fun all around. So, did you have a background in marketing? Oh, no. I got my degree at Iowa State in Agriculture and Communications. But never really thought marketing was something I would go into. Or I guess I'd certainly have an interest in college. And now I love it, so. Yeah, Iowa State. I think that's a Jackrabbit's whim. No, no, no, no, no. No. I don't know. That's okay. That's all right. It really doesn't matter. I don't follow it. I don't follow it. Any of the sports. All right, so how did you delve into that though? I mean, did you just start small and it grew? Yeah, pretty much. And I'm pretty much self-taught as well. I bought a camera that was probably way too much for what I knew what to do with it. And I kind of just had to teach myself YouTube University and learn how to use a camera. I learned how to use a drone. I learned editing software. And I think it all kind of starts on probably if I rewinded it. It probably all started on my phone. Now we have really nice cameras and apps on our phone. So it started on my phone and then it kind of transpired into, oh, we can bump up the equipment. We can bump up our game a little bit and do things at a little bit different level. But it probably started by accident really on TikTok years ago. When I just started making TikToks and things just kind of started blowing up. And I enjoyed it. And I had a lot of fun doing it and kind of just went from there. So are you mainly just doing that in the agriculture realm? Are you getting outside of farming? I'm doing things in a lot of different sectors. I do stuff. Sorry, my dog. Watch now. Set. Sit down. Well, but quit. Yeah. I do things in the health world. I do things in the agriculture world, the conservation world. I kind of dive into a lot of different things. Whether I'm talking about traditional values or I don't know what to say you. I kind of just share about a lot of different things when it comes to my personal channel. But when I'm doing work for other people, typically it's like either small businesses or it's in the conservation or ag world typically. Well, how do people find you? I am on Instagram and TikTok at Joy of All Trades. That is my handle. And that's pretty much the channels I'm most active on right now. Joy of All Trades. That's clever. Do you come up with that? I did. It really fits though kind of just my personal brand and what I talk and share about. Because one day I'll be canning something or doing something in my vegetable garden. And the next day I'm out doing something totally different. I don't really have a set niece per se and that's kind of what you're getting yourself into if you hit the follow button on any of my channels. So I feel like my username is at least a forewarning to people that like a little bit of everything. So just buckle up. Canning. Are you a pioneer? I want to call myself a pioneer and I'm not even really a prepper. I like good food and I like real food and I like growing my food. So naturally you either have to can or freeze or find a way to preserve it. And I also like to ferment things. I'm a big fermentation nut. What? I don't know. What do you mean? I got pickled. We'll learn to take my lot pickled. I got onions. I got red onions fermenting right now and a cupboard. I just made sauerkraut the other day. I have that sitting in a cupboard fermenting. I'll probably take that out in a few days. Yeah. I'm going to ferment some beets. I have beets sitting on my counteract now. I'm going to make some beet kevath with those. I don't even know what this means. I mean I knew. Is that how they make sauerkraut? I didn't even know that. Yeah. Sauerkraut is a fermentation process. So that kind of slightly acidity sour taste that you get from sauerkraut, that's fermentation. Oh. Do you know that, William? No. I knew you didn't know that. Yeah. You can do that with anything? Just about. Yeah. There's a few things that don't ferment well, but a lot of things do. And that's pretty much how people have been preserving food for the longest period of time is through the fermentation process. I noticed, William, you perked up, she said she wasn't necessarily a prepper. Joy, do you have a school bus buried in your backyard for a bunker? Oh, I don't. Oh, that'd be cool. But I don't want to put it on the list. Of course you don't. We don't either. Now I want one though. I know. I'm thinking about it. And you show this on your social media. We're like the fermentation and all that stuff. Yep. I'll make reels or I'll talk about it. Yeah. I love making it and I love sharing it with other people. Because most people have no clue anymore, do they? No. People have really lost a lot of traditional things in culture and food preservation is included within that. It's really sad because it's really healthy for you and it's a great way to preserve food so that I can be eating a sauerkraut. I'll still be eating it in January and February and February. All right. Okay. We're going to talk more about this. Today we're talking with a Joy Van Weingarten. We're going to talk maybe some honey after the break. We'll be back. All right after the break. This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too by the way. Go to commonground.io that's commonground.io. It's time for the Iowa Jackrabbit's favorite radio segment of all time. Where in the world is well? Well, what do you have for us today? Today I'm in the great state of Iowa. Iowa has an island town called Sabula. What? Yeah, it's located on a sandbar in the middle of the Mississippi River. The population is around 500 people. Oh, it's a big island. Yeah, the island has a beach and campground as well as a harbor with boat docks and storage sheds to store boats during the winter. Okay. Iowa also has the largest popcorn ball in the world. Currently. Right. That's something that seems like you could break pretty easy. Right. It's 24 feet wide and weighs 9,000 pounds. How old is it? I don't know. Huh. Iowa also has the world's largest truck stop. Yeah, there's some controversy about that. Really? Yeah, because they include, what they're talking about is the footprint, so the parking and that, but actually the building is not the largest truck stop. Like the restaurant and showers and whatnot. Yeah, yep. All right, we'll strike that. The first computer was created in Iowa. It was built on the Iowa State campus from 1939 through 1942 by John V. Atanasoff, a professor of physics. That's where they got the word Microsoft. Mm-hmm. Yeah. This is the most interesting, though. Snake Alley is a street located in Burlington, Iowa, built in 1894. In 2017, Ripley's Believe It or Not recognized the street as, quote, "unbelievably crooked." And the number one odd spot on their odd spots across America campaign. The street, in the 1940s, actually, Robert L. Ripley saw the street in person and decided to add it to his Ripley's Believe It or Not. Calling it the crookedest street in the world. The turns on Snake Alley are sharper than San Francisco's famous Lombard street. That's what I was going to ask. Yeah. Giving it a total of 1,100 degrees of turning from end to end where Lombard street's straighter curves, only 1,000 degrees. Yeah. The alley originally provided a shortcut from Heritage Hill to the Business District. Brics were laid at an angle to allow horses better footing as they descended. Unfortunately, riding horses back up the alley often resulted in the loss of control at the top. For this reason, even to this day, Snake Alley remains a one-way street with all traffic heading downhill, except for the annual uphill bike race, the Snake Alley Criterium. Oh, that just sounds stupid. That sounds fun. Okay. All right. Is that it? Pretty much, yes. Okay. All right. Thank you, Will. Today we're talking with Joy Van Weingartenen. Joy, did you learn something today? I did. I had no idea about the Snake Alley. It was really interesting. Yeah. I didn't either. Did you know about the island? You know, I feel like I'd heard the town name before, but I didn't realize it was like that populated. Like 500 residents. That's quite a lot. Yeah. Like if you live in Iowa, do you know everybody else that lives in Iowa? No, but I think you know everyone in Iowa. If you know, if you go to the third degree, do you know what I mean by that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. If I don't know someone, but I know two people that then that last person knows that person. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So basically you can look up anybody in Iowa that's on Facebook and they'll say, oh, you have a common friend. Yeah. Just about. It's a small world. It is. Okay. Joy is farming out there in Iowa. She's also doing a digital marketing, marketing, all sorts of stuff. You were your hunter too. Tell me, tell me what you're shooting out there. Oh, just about anything I can. No, I'm kidding. So we just got done with, can't say that on the air, right? We generally try not to, but hey. It just, it came out, came out. Well, we finished up spring turkey this past spring, and I actually had the opportunity. My boyfriend and I, we went out to Nebraska and I was able to harvest my first mirror. So that was really cool out on the fan hills. I really enjoyed that. And then killed a really nice Tom here. Not too far from our farm here. And then in the winter time, deer hunting, pheasant hunting. I don't do much else in that world. I don't water for all hunt really anymore. Raccoon hunt. I've done it a few times, but you need dogs. So don't really do that anymore. Just need a truck in a spotlight really. Yeah. I don't know. I wouldn't do that with a good truck. That would be the farm truck that you, if you lost, it would be okay. Right. Like the old ranger. You'd have sitting around. It's like, I have to. You guys will miss her, but they love you. You said to Mary and Turkey, do you guys have an Eastern out in Iowa, the Eastern turkeys? Yep. We got Easterns out here. Yeah, they're the big tasty ones. So are you going to go for the, the grant, was there seven of them in North America? I thought it was four or five. The grand slam. You could be right. Yeah. Because there's reos and then there's a few is down in Florida. I don't know. If I do want to do that, it's probably in like the 10, 15 year plan. But it's not like on my top five or top 10 per se. You're very good and very popular on social media. The people that are following you watching you, is that in ag or outside? It's everywhere. I think people follow me for all sorts of different reasons, which is kind of fun because they're not just there for one thing. And even if they are just there for one thing, they're getting a little bit of everything. So they're either sticking along for the ride or they're not. So it kind of depends. Honestly, I think that's the best because, you know, if, if someone's interested in farming and agriculture, they're going to follow the, the, whatever, the farm accounts, right? Someone like yourself that can get people just, I don't know, you know, the, the, the suburban housewife that's buying groceries doesn't really care about farming or all that. But at least you're going to put some of that education into these people with your accounts. Yeah, and that's honestly the fun part is sometimes I'll get DMs of people that are just totally shook by something I shared because they were following me for one kind of reason of my content and then they caught something else that I'm talking about. And they're like, holy cow, what? And they would have probably never heard that or seen that or even exposed to that if they weren't following me for a different reason. Mm hmm. Well, where do people find you on social media? What do you mean? Where do people find you all over the internet, social media websites, all that stuff? Instagram and TikTok are probably my most active channels. Sometimes I wrestle with TikTok because TikTok doesn't like hunters, so that can get a little frustrating. Those are my two channels that I'm really most active on. And it's a joy of all trades. Joy of all trades. Okay, that's basically where they can find you anywhere. I think it's, I think it's really cool what you're doing. And again, I like the fact that someone like you is out there. Yes, it's not all farming all the time, but you give some interesting agriculture perspective to people that it's like you're sneakily educating them. You ever thought about that? Yeah, well, I mean, the consumer needs kind of education really if they, even if they don't want it, really in my opinion. I think there's more people out there that are interested in it, but not everyone is. But if you can do it and kind of like what you just said, a sneaky manner, you're still reaching people that maybe wouldn't be there in the first place otherwise. Yeah, I've tried yelling at them. That doesn't, I don't know. For some reason, they don't like that. Joy Van Weingarten from Southeast Iowa. Thank you very much, Joy. Really a pleasure to talk to, but Joy, I don't want you to go anywhere. Sean Haney's coming up next. He's a Canadian. He doesn't care for Iowa. We'll catch everybody next time. [Music]