Southern Roots Organic Cabinet

Today I'm talking with Raven at Southern Roots Organic Cabinet.  This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company. https://www.homesteadliving.com/subscribe/ref/41/ https://homesteadliving.com/the-old-fashioned-on-purpose-planner/ref/41/ www.patreon.com/atinyhomestead If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee  https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes 00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company. 00:28 Today I'm talking with Raven at Southern Roots Organic Cabinet in Idaho. Good afternoon, Raven. How are you? I'm good. How about you? How are you? I'm good. How's the weather? It's actually pretty good. We had a little heat wave for a bit, but it's starting to calm down a little. Little smoke in the area from the West with some fires and stuff going on, but everybody's dealing pretty well around here.  Yeah, I'm in Minnesota. It is sunny. It is muggy and it's getting a little warm. 00:57 been nice the last few days, but I think actually I can tell everybody exactly what the temperature is because I'm sitting here looking at it. It is 76 right now, but it feels like 76. So we're good with that because I don't know, three weeks ago we had tropical dew points for two weeks straight and I was just like, Minnesota is not supposed to do this. Yeah, we had a little bit of humidity last week. We're not used to that up here. 01:22 Yeah, it's not fun. I don't love it. As I keep saying, I hate high summer and we are basically in it.  So I don't want to wish away the summer, but I'll be real happy to see apples coming in and winter squash coming in and fall arriving.  Absolutely. I agree.  So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do, ma'am.  Okay. Well, I am originally from Southern Louisiana,  grew up in Cajun country down there. 01:51 My husband is as well, but we actually never met. He went into the military at early age and I went off to college and I became a nurse, been nursing for 30 years.  And over time, as we've gotten older, we ended up meeting while he was actually on leave and we just sprung a long distance relationship and it worked out. He got out of the military, we got married, but he wasn't used to being in one place. He had left Louisiana a long time ago. 02:21 So he was used to being stationed around the country deploying.  so we, I had never been anywhere. I was a Southern girl, never been anywhere outside much of the state. And we, you know, decided we needed to find a place to call home. And we ended up in Arizona for a little while, cause I have a sister out there. They love it out there.  And our daughter was born there, but it was just too hot. It was too hot, too brown. Didn't care for it. My sister loves it. Her family loves it, but it wasn't for us. We missed the green. 02:50 You know, we missed being outside a lot because it was too hot to go outside most of the year.  So we did a lot of research, ended up in Southern Idaho and we loved it. We took a few vacations, ended up loving it and we just said we dropped everything, made the move. My husband got a new career, ended up here loving it.  I slowly started to develop some health issues in my late thirties. 03:17 thyroid, skin issues, just hormone issues, going through that perimenopause. And so I started doing a lot of research, and know, as a nurse, I started digging and found a lot of stuff, natural ways and, you know, changing up our food. And we have a lot of awesome,  friendly, regenerative farmers here in Idaho,  small businesses that do a lot of your meats and your fruits and vegetables.  And so we started buying locally, it's to support our small businesses, but also to support our health. 03:44 Yes. And then I kind of started getting into, was like, you know what, my skin, had like severe melasma acne scars and just discoloration from being in the sun all the time. was a softball player years ago and, you know, getting older stuff. I really don't care. I love growing old. It doesn't bother me at all, but I just, could tell my skin was taking a toll.  So I started looking at things of how, you know, transitioning our house into like a more natural home. 04:13 So I started slowly but surely transitioning all of our cleaning products, everything, instead of buying from the stores, just buying the ingredients to make myself.  Excuse me, and over time,  it was great. And then I started looking at labels with products, shampoo, with soaps, and I was like, okay, I'm having some hormonal issues here. Maybe these are contributing. 04:41 I started digging and then I started actually buying some, know, tallow goat milk soaps and stuff from other people, whether locally, whether other farmers in other states. And then I'm like, how easy or how hard is this actually make myself? Because I do a lot of homemade food, lot of whole grain food and stuff. I said, I could do this myself, you know, while still working at a corporate job, basically I was working from home as in leadership. However, I was still able to like maintain that home cooked meals. 05:11 you know, making everything for our home, for ourselves.  And so I started digging into it and just got into it for ourselves. And eventually my husband was like, you know, there's a lot of people, especially moms, look into really natural products for their skin and their kids, you know,  and don't want to have to deal with their kids growing up with the hormone issues and everything. And he's like, maybe you should kind of look into getting a business and something you think. And he was like, yeah. 05:39 So I did, I started very small a couple of years ago, after a few years of doing it myself with just our family. And it just blossomed. took a while, of course, to get my name out there. And I've met a bunch of lot of local artisans like myself. We collaborate,  other bakers and friendly small businesses.  And we help each other out and do things for each other at the markets and promote each other. And it's just turned into a really, you know, 06:08 fun.  What started as like a hobby in my kitchen just became this big thing, you know, nationwide.  I ship everywhere across the US and my locals, they'll do local pickup or they'll come see me at the market.  So I have a lot of support behind me and yeah, it's just, it's been a real blessing to be able to take what I learned from nursing school, you know, the chemistry background, biology background, and just doing a lot of research and looking up a lot of 06:38 holistic remedies and stuff to use.  And it's helped my skin. I suffer with psoriasis and eczema. My daughter had eczema for a little while. We don't have any issues anymore. I go to my dermatologist and she's like in shock. She's like, why don't we need to see you for six months? know? So, and she's like, what are you doing? And I told her and she's like, that's amazing. You know, so there's a lot of dermatologists that'll be, they're kind of on it, but mine, she loves it. She loves it. You know, the... 07:04 act of making things homemade and natural, knowing what's in your products and using it on your skin.  And it's been really big for our health. My daughter is a gymnast.  She's a competitive gymnast. They travel all over the country and her skin is beautiful. My husband loves my stuff. He even uses it. He has a beard, he has hair, he uses my shampoo conditioner, he uses my soaps.  I make a ton of homemade remedies for the skin. 07:32 And we have a little bit of pantry items too. And I like to share some recipes as well. You know, like I make homemade granola or vanilla extract and I'll share my recipes with customers as well. Okay. So I'm going to say this out loud. Isn't it amazing how your doctor will tell you not to eat fast food and to cook at home with whole foods, but your doctor won't tell you to find somebody who makes homemade skincare and things that help you. 08:00 Absolutely. Yeah, I did it all by myself. You know, just doing it for us and doing the digging and we still have get pushback. You know, we'll still get some pushback on things with certain doctors, but I tell them, hey, I do my blood work like I'm supposed to. I see my PCP once a year. I see my dermatologist twice a year. I have a hormone holistic doctor who treats me naturally because I have Hashimoto's with the thyroid. 08:27 and I have to use, I don't use any synthetic hormones, everything's natural, and I take care of my skin and my health and eat whole foods and it is completely transformed. I mean, I am 49, I'm about to be 50, but I feel like I'm in my 30s. And my daughter is like, mom, you look like you're in your 30s. Like she's, know, my husband looks like he's in his 30s. It's not really about looking younger. I don't feel 50, I don't feel 60. don't, you know, I feel like I'm in my 30s and I want to be able to keep. 08:55 going and not have to suffer because in southern Louisiana they deal with a lot of heart issues, deal with a lot of diabetes and we don't have to deal with that because of how we eat, how we treat our skin, how we treat our bodies.  So and we stay inactive, that's a big thing too, of course. Getting out in the sun, know, people, oh sunscreen, da da, yeah, but you know, there's a lot of sunscreens out there, we don't buy sunscreen, I'll make, I actually make a homemade sunscreen. 09:21 that's natural and we don't use it all the time. We only use it if like we go to a beach and if we're at a big swimming area that we're going to be out there all day. That's the only time I really use it. But being outside,  like just doing chores outside or gardening or anything like that, we don't use it. We're more exposed to the sun. And you know, now there are studies coming out that are finding that typically your skin cancer develops from not being in the sun enough. 09:50 and then you choose to go out in the sun and then you're exposed.  it's, you know, there's people, old people that have been in the sun for years farming and doing everything outside that don't have skin cancer, you know? So it's like, everybody's trying to go back to the old traditions, the old roots kind of way. And I love it here in Idaho. We loved our home state. We did. The food, the culture, the family is just, we really enjoyed not having to deal with hurricanes, floods,  humidity. 10:19 You know, that kind of thing over there. have, you know, really good, we live in a really good area and it reminds us of home because the people are like a Southern mentality around here.  It's amazing. And we have people from all over, you know, the people that moved from California, from all the West coast, from the East coast, even from the South that come and work here. And yeah, we meet a lot of wonderful people and there's a lot of people, locals that are very good people as well.  Awesome. So. 10:48 Tell me why tallow, Raven. I don't know enough about tallow other than I have a bag of it in my freezer from when we got a half a beef.  Well, tallow is a big one. We actually used it years ago when I was little.  My family used it to cook with.  And I kind of vaguely remember when I was little grandparents using it as like a moisturizer. I didn't know why. So I kind of dug into it. And it's one of the most like 11:17 not only shelf stable, but also with the vitamins and the nutrients in it that support the skin. And it's almost like a jojoba oil. It's like closest mimics your skin's DNA, you know what I'm saying? And the vitamins,  the minerals that have in it, and it goes into the skin so well. And so we not only use it in my skincare, we use it for cooking as well. But you know, the fat, but you have to get the right kind of tallow. Cause anytime you render a fat, 11:46 it becomes a tallow. That's how it transforms.  So we have companies that will, you know, small forms of stuff that will render their own tallow and sell it, or they'll sell the beef, it's beef kidney suet, is what it's called. And it's the fat around the kidneys in the cow.  People do it with buffalo. People do it with sheep.  The pig fat, it's called lard. And when you render it, it turns into a tallow. 12:12 and it supports that skin barrier on your skin. absorbs quickly. You don't have that messy greasy last behind. And if you render it correctly, some people wet render, but we actually buy the suet from the local farmer here, because we don't have any cows. And what I do is I dry render all our tallow here slowly over time and strain it and put it in the freezer. If you put it in the freezer, it'll last forever. 12:41 refrigerator it lasts a long time and you can use it in anything. But tallow is like kind of our biggest ingredient in almost all of our products. I have a couple of products that don't have it because it's specific for certain for hair or something otherwise. But tallow is big with skin. Yeah. Isn't it amazing that we used to use tallow all the time before the 1900s? Yep. 13:09 all the time.  I remember my grandparents, my grandmother,  even though there was washers and dryers available, my grandfather refused to buy her a set. And she was still doing clothes on a washboard and homemade washing machine outside in the barn when I was little. That was back in the 70s and early 80s. So she was still doing clothes that way. And that's what they used. They didn't use any Crisco or anything like that. They went to the farmer. They bought all kinds of beef fat. 13:38 You know, and they took a lot of the pig fat and stuff, made cracklings. There was a lot of things they cooked with and they would make soaps out of it too, just simple little soaps with some lime water.  So do you source your ingredients locally for what you make or do you actually grow or produce some of what you use to make your products? Right now I source locally and then I also work with a local family company that's based in Oregon. 14:06 who does a lot of my extra supplies, like if I need some coconut butter or if I need some colloidal oatmeal,  just a couple of extra little things that they, they're a small family business and I like to support them. They support me. So anything I can't get locally, I try to look out for the smaller businesses like that are near me to source any ingredients, but I try to keep the ingredients low, you know, low volume. 14:32 Because the more you put in there,  it just makes people think. But we're very transparent about our products, what's in them, what they do.  There might be some ingredients you never heard of,  like babesu oil.  Babesu oil is an old oil where it's similar to coconut oil. But some people are allergic to coconut oil or they're more sensitive skin. It doesn't tolerate coconut oil well. So I use a lot of babesu oil in my soaps, especially. 15:01 because it's made for sensitive skin. It's made for people that have,  know, that it's not so harsh as the coconut oil. So we'll use that. And, you know, in our ingredients on our website, we list each ingredient specifically, whether it's organic, whether it's raw and cold pressed or whatnot, and what it does for the skin, you know, what to look for, how it helps the skin, like the benefits of it as well. And then of course they can reach out with any. 15:29 you know, questions or concerns that we we have a direct contact out there on our website and it gives a little bit more detail, has our story on there.  But yeah, my goal is to try to utilize our local little companies around here to source our products and give them a high five and heads up, you know, and tag them in our post on social media and recommend them as well. 15:55 I am so glad you said that because a rising tide lifts all ships. know this.  Yes. So tell me what colloidal oatmeal is because I've heard of it, but I don't know what it is. Colloidal oatmeal is like, oh, it's like your oats, like your ground oats. And it's finally ground in a way where it is so powdery to where when you mix it into any type of batter, you can. 16:22 It's very soft and it helps feed this, not only feed the skin, but it helps with any blemishes. It helps absorb and get into like areas for you have discoloration on the skin,  the acne scarring.  It's helped my melasma for sure.  You know, so it just kind of basically oatmeal in a way, just more finely. 16:49 a ground up to a powder form to where there when you mix it even into a balm or into a lotion of some sorts You can't even you cannot feel the grittiness at all Okay, thank you. I learned something new every time I do this podcast. I love it Do you guys do you do any kind of homesteading stuff Raven or is it just your business? It's just my business right now, but we're looking into doing the homesteading because we 17:18 When we first came to Idaho, know, trying to get to know the areas, the right school we wanted to put our daughter in. And now it's getting to the point of, okay, I need more, I need a bigger garden. You know, I need some chickens. I need some few goats and stuff like that. So I source a lot of my stuff from the farmers right now. But within the next two years, we're looking at getting more property to get, to be able to, you know, house a lot more animals and more sources. That way I can actually. 17:48 not only do vegetables but also herbs and ingredients and all the botanicals like the lavender that I use.  I do a lot of the botanical infusions with lavender, rose,  peony.  There's just so much. Calendula,  chamomile.  Those just benefit the skin so much and it's nice to add those into your soaps and it's also nice to add them into your like face creams and body butters. You get a little bit of the smell but you get all the... 18:16 natural minerals and the vitamins from those plants as well.  I have something small at the house right now, so sometimes I have to go out and store. Yesterday I was at a market, I had a farmer's market yesterday, and then after that market we went eat, and then I went to another market and purchased some fresh organic lavender, because I needed some to do some more refusions.  So I'm looking to get bigger that way, but I still want to keep the business a small business. 18:45 you know, incorporated like here. I, you know, I don't want to make it that big. I want to be able to be involved, you know, 24 seven consistently.  That's exciting. Um, I'm going to give you a minor suggestion for when you get your, your homestead. Okay. If,  there's a space where there's no animals that grows dandelions, you know, in the, in the lawn or in the weeds, yeah, the calendula.  Yeah.  Don't ruin that patch. 19:13 And the reason I say that is I tried dandelion coffee a few years back. The dandelion root, basically dig out the root and you break it into pieces and you roast it in the oven and it tastes like coffee in hot water.  That's amazing. I'm going to have to try that. Yes. But you don't want to let your dog, dogs or your cats go to the bathroom. Okay. 19:38 where the dandelions are because it's just, it's not, I don't want to eat dandelion. Yeah. Yeah.  I hear you about that. Yeah.  I get that. Yep. And we, um, we partner plant, like, you know, like with lavender, with, um, you know, different plants to keep everything more organic in the area. Cause we don't use any pesticides at all. So actually behind my home, there is some acreage. 20:06 a nice little old couple that lives there and they have some grassland out there that is an organic grassland where they grow a vegetable out there and I see them all the time at their tractor.  So it's nice to have someone out there that's doing like similar things we're doing in our yard. So I know that I don't have any pesticides around, you know, the area. Good. And then the other thing that I would say I would share because we learned this lesson yesterday. 20:36 If you have a long driveway at your new place when you find it, put up slow signs so that people will slow down. Oh yes. We lost a barn cat yesterday. Oh no.  Yeah. It showed up. I'm going to cry. It was a stray. It showed up here three days ago.  Orange Tabby, really friendly, really wanted to come in the house and we don't do house cats. We do barn cats.  he didn't.  She did not come in the house. 21:05 And I really was of two minds on this cat because she's so friendly. I wanted to get to know her. Well, I'm really glad I didn't because somebody pulled in our driveway too fast yesterday, we think, and hit her and broke her back end. My husband had to put her down. Oh, that's terrible.  Yep. And I didn't even know this cat and I had tears in my eyes. I was like, you know, this freaking cat was probably dumped by somebody who had her as a house cat. 21:35 She ended up here. We were totally fine having her join the barn cat brigade, as we call it. Yeah. And then up dead anyway. I'm like, you know, universe, could you just not do that? I know that then, you know, when that stuff like that happens, I have to explain to my daughter, you know, God needed them more than us, you know,  and their angels are sitting with our dog Riley and my dad, you know.  So my dad was a big hunter fisherman and he would he raised Labradors and had a garden and everything. 22:05 He taught us how to fish and hunt. He taught us how to do a garden. He taught us how to skin wild animals and cook them.  it's like that part of life. But definitely, yeah, that's hard, especially when people have kids.  It's like slow down in the driveways,  The kids don't just play in the backyard. They go out in the front, too. Yeah, I posted on Facebook and explained what happened and basically said, please slow down when you pull in our driveway. We have other cats and we have a dog. 22:35 You know? Yeah, definitely. Maybe that'll help. And we want people to come here. We have a farm stand and we are in we're going to be up to our eyeballs in tomatoes here next week. And we want people to come and get tomatoes, but just slow down a little bit. Yep. And one good thing about Idaho, I have to say the drivers here,  they're pretty good about, you know, not. 23:01 flying through neighborhoods, not flying down highways or even the freeway, they're pretty good about driving.  And most of them tell us, you know, the reason being is because they love the scenery and it's just a relaxing thing for them to go out for a drive.  So they really big on,  you're going to have your few, it's always going to happen.  But a lot, most of them are really big on, you know, just taking your time. You know, there's like, there's no rush. Like why rush? 23:29 You know, it's beautiful here. Slow down and just enjoy it.  Yes. And not everything has to be a hurry.  Society has become so fast. It's like we just need to take a breath and slow down. Stop and smell the roses and have some respect for other people's property.  And I'm not even necessarily mad about the situation yesterday. I'm just I'm very disappointed.  Yeah. And heartbroken. Yeah. Disappointed and heartbroken at the same time. 23:58 Little bit. I mean, this was a female orange tabby. There are very few female orange cats. They're usually male. Right. And I was like, yay, new genetics for the barn cat brigade. no, no new genetics for the barn cat. Our cats keep out the pests, guys.  And I think that's something else that people don't realize is that we don't have a bunch of cats for funsies. We have them because they keep the rodents down. Absolutely. 24:29 So yeah, when you take out a barn cat, that's one we have to replace.  And if we're lucky, we know people who have kittens and we get a couple every summer. But if we had to go get cats, it would be $50 a piece. It's Humane Society.  Yeah, absolutely. And then they want them in your house. When you adopt, they're like, oh, they need to be inside.  And it's like, let me just go find some people that had some kittens somewhere and just grab some cats and put them in the barn. Yep. 24:57 We're really lucky our humane society that's near us, they know that we're living in a very rural area.  So they have barn cats. They have cats that they don't really feel like would be a good indoor cat.  And they want them to be adopted to be barn cats, which is great. Absolutely good. Yep. They even when they post them on their website, they're like, this is a barn cat. This is not.  That's great. 25:26 And I've told the story a few times before, but I'll tell it again because you probably have not heard it.  We adopted a completely black male cat from the Humane Society when we moved here five years ago, six years ago.  And they warned us not to try to pet him because he was feral and he was mean and no one would ever be able to touch him. So my son at the time named him Satan, my son who's 24. 25:56 And he actually made friends with Satan. And now Satan is the loviest, friendliest cat with us. He comes right up, wants scritches. If you pick him up and put him against your shoulder, he'll drool onto your shirt because he loves being petted. So just because the Humane Society says it's a mean cat doesn't mean it's a mean cat. I agree with that sentiment, definitely. Especially a male. I find a lot of males are very lovable. 26:23 The females tend,  the female cats to me don't like to be touched as much or cradled as much.  And they usually attract like my husband, if we have female cats, they love him. They'll get on his shoulders, but they do not like my daughter and I to hold them at all.  They like to be petted, but that's about it.  We think that somebody was mean to Satan when he was younger. And we also think that he might've had an injury to his throat because 26:51 His meow is so rough.  It's so scratchy and low. It's like,  morning I go out with my cup of coffee on the porch and he's sitting there waiting because my husband will go out to feed him and I'm like, geez, do you not have another noise kid?  We think he probably had an injury to his throat and it messed up his voice. Well now he's getting all the love. Oh yeah, he's good. 27:18 He's a good boy. He might as well be a dog in a cat suit.  So let me know where people can find you please Raven online. You can find us on my website at Southern Roots Organic Cabinet dot com. We also have our Instagram page at Southern Roots Organic Cabinet and you can also find us on Facebook under Southern Roots Organic Cabinet.  I also have I'm in the process of setting up 27:49 because we started so small in the process of setting up our business phone actually over the next few months. I've been so busy with the markets. I haven't like just sat down and set it up yet, but we do have our email system where anyone can email us at any time about our products, about if they want specific orders. I have a customer who is a vegan who does not like tallow products or goat milk in our product. 28:17 but I specifically make something tailored for her specifically and she'll order, you know, like loaves of soap and things of that nature for herself. And, you know, she's a very nice lady, just that's what she prefers. So I told her, I can, you know, I can work with you. we'll, we'll do custom orders as well. I love that. That's amazing.  So do me a favor before I let you go,  what run down, what products you make soap and 28:46 Yep, my biggest seller is soap,  mostly Tallo and Goat Milk Soaps.  We have them for adults, men, women, children.  My next in line is I'll do some face creams, some body butters. I also incorporated lotion bars this year because a lot of people I know travel and they love how they can just take a bar in its container, bring it in their purse or their luggage. 29:12 and all they have to do is warm it up between their hands to activate it. So I do a lot of lotion bars.  We do beard balms, beard oils,  facial soaps, specifically for the face for women and men, especially dealing with beards.  I'll do some organic vanilla extract that I get from local source, like 29:40 Organic vanilla beans as well as our organic vodka here locally.  That's basically the bulk of it that I use the most, but we're expanding a little bit, doing a little bit things at a time. Like we're looking into doing deodorant. I also have some soap curing for laundry detergent. I'm kind of getting into the cleaning aspect of it as well. So I'll be soon launching some laundry detergent. 30:08 Also like dish soap, dishwashing liquid,  that area. We're looking into that as well. So we'll be expanding a little bit on that side. And of course, my, well, my pantry side, my husband, you know, we're big, we make a lot of homemade tinctures and stuff. However, my husband's big on making his own seasoning and we're Cajuns from Louisiana. So he's actually perfecting a seasoning right now to kind of promote on the pantry side. Yeah, baby. All right. Um, 30:37 Better living through chemistry is what I say when it comes to all this stuff.  As always, people can find me at attenneyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Raven, thank you so much for your time.  And guys, go check out Southern Roots Organic Cabinet.  Have a great day. Have a great day. Thanks. It's been a pleasure.