From Soil to Jar: Marni Ausenbaugh's Journey in Gardening and Canning

[00:00:03.440] - Chris Griffin
Welcome to Back to your Roots, a podcast that provides insight into all things farming, financing, and farm life, guiding you back to your roots. Thanks for joining us. I'm your host, Chris Griffin.

[00:00:20.180] - Jordan Turnage
Hey, guys, I'm Jordan Turnage. Today, here in the studio, we have Ms. Marni Ausenbaugh. Ms. Marni Ausenbaugh is a teacher. She has been specializing in canning, gardening, and also a Christian encourager and conversationalist. We're going to get her hands dirty today, no pun intended, and get involved in gardening and canning.

[00:00:41.620] - Chris Griffin
Nice job, Jordan.

[00:00:42.580] - Jordan Turnage
Thank you so much for coming in.

[00:00:43.880] - Chris Griffin
Nice job.

[00:00:44.000] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Thank you for having me.

[00:00:45.180] - Chris Griffin
Marni, so we're glad to have you today. The main thing is for our listeners, can you tell us a little bit about you, maybe how you grew up? I know, did you grew up on a farm. Did you jump into gardening as an adult? What does that look like as far as your story?

[00:00:58.800] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah, probably for most people, it was like I grew up on a farm, but I didn't. My grandparents were huge gardeners. I've tried to think they had two large gardens, and I think they were probably an acre a piece. It was not a farm, but I grew up with my grandparents garden and canning. She had three kids. All of the grandkids ate from her farm. That's the way we grew up. A couple of generations ago, that's the way it was. The way we live now is completely different than the way they live.

[00:01:30.190] - Chris Griffin
But where are you from originally?

[00:01:32.540] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I'm originally from Dyersburg, Tennessee, but I moved to the Mayfield area when I was 15. So Mayfield's home.

[00:01:38.620] - Chris Griffin
Yeah. Okay.

[00:01:40.500] - Jordan Turnage
I can relate to that. I'm just from across the river in Crothersville.

[00:01:43.430] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Really? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.

[00:01:45.640] - Jordan Turnage
So what point did you decide, Hey, I want to start growing my own garden? And what inspired you to do it?

[00:01:53.040] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Honestly, I think it's because I'm a DIY'er. I love to try it on my own. That's my heart. And just because of that, and life, and food, and we don't know where our food comes from. I think we're just used to the local grocery store, and we have no idea what's in it. And so I just needed to get my hands dirty with it and try it.

[00:02:13.830] - Jordan Turnage
Was it more of wanting to start a garden, or was it like, I want to be able to provide for my family, or was it like a community thing?

[00:02:23.120] - Jordan Turnage
Was it a blend of the two?

[00:02:24.930] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I think it's all of that. I think it started with the DIY, and the more just life and In the world, it made more sense the more I did it. Again, I love knowing where my food comes from. I mean, it's a labor of love. It takes a minute. It takes a minute. But I have food in my pantry, and I'm not worried about where it's going to come from. It takes work, but for me, it's worth it. I'm glad I started it.

[00:02:53.990] - Chris Griffin
Can you go through some of the things that you grow currently and what all you've grown? Are there things you've great success with and things that have failed miserably?

[00:03:03.940] - Marni Ausenbaugh
All the farmers would say, It's according to your soil, what you're going to grow. We call it a farm. On our farm, jalapenos have been a thing this year. I can hook you up with cowboy candy all day long because it's just that... By the way, cowboy candy is an amazing thing. If you've never made it, you need to try it. But tomatoes do really well. Peppers do really well. Oh, gosh. We have squash, we have a blueberry patch, blackberry patch, just like anybody. I think I put in my notes to talk about, I think I'm like Weezer from Steel Magnolias. I'm Southern, so I grow anything.

[00:03:41.120] - Jordan Turnage
That's right.

[00:03:41.840] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I just love it. You figure out what works for their soil.

[00:03:45.480] - Jordan Turnage
Do you have people talking about your soil types and stuff?

[00:03:50.440] - Jordan Turnage
Do you test your soil types, like your pH levels or anything like that, or just see what works best year to year?

[00:03:57.090] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah. Honestly, I'm not your greatest person to ask about that. I think your average mom and pop gardener are trial and error people. Now, as I've done gardening for a long time, I do pay attention to that stuff. I see what works, what doesn't work. But I know there's places that you can check your soil. You can get pH strips. You can take it. I think there are places that you can take it, and they will tell you-

[00:04:19.220] - Jordan Turnage
You can take them to your extension offices.

[00:04:21.520] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I've never done that.

[00:04:22.740] - Jordan Turnage
County extension offices.

[00:04:24.310] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah, we built a new home about four years ago, so everything just completely changed for us. The soil changed. Our soil has lots of clay in it. Everybody's soil is different, so you got to play that game with it.

[00:04:35.740] - Jordan Turnage
Water and stuff. When I first bought our house in Kevil, the people that we lived that had the house before us, they had a small little section garden out there, and they had purple hull peas and okra and tomatoes. I just took that over when they left, and I told her, I said, I'm not going to let it just stop this year. I will say, I will admit, I didn't pick it up like I should have the next year going on. But it was so hot in '21, we just didn't even think about putting one out. But that's when I learned about making sure you know when to pick okra at the right time. I'd never had it. My great grandmama, she raised a garden back home just like everyone else did, tomatoes, and squash, and zucchini and a little bit of everything, and snap peas. I always heard stories about them raising in a garden. It was an adventure for me. I want to get back into it. My wife, I love her to death, but she'd probably kill a cactus if you left it with her. She'd be the first one to admit it.

[00:05:43.680] - Chris Griffin
Poor Wendy.

[00:05:43.870] - Jordan Turnage
But I went out there and I was just assuming, Hey, this okra, it's about as long as my finger or anything like that. It should be ready to go. No, no, no.

[00:05:55.400] - Marni Ausenbaugh
That's one thing I've never grown, is okra. Nobody eats it in my house.

[00:05:59.900] - Chris Griffin
I love it. Everybody in my house hate it.

[00:06:01.580] - Marni Ausenbaugh
How did you guys eat it?

[00:06:03.530] - Chris Griffin
Fried okra.

[00:06:03.990] - Jordan Turnage
We cut it up.

[00:06:04.860] - Jordan Turnage
Oh, yeah.

[00:06:05.500] - Chris Griffin
Fried okra. And pickle and pickled okra. The whole spear.

[00:06:09.560] - Marni Ausenbaugh
My palate does not like that at all.

[00:06:11.670] - Chris Griffin
I love it.

[00:06:12.330] - Jordan Turnage
To me, it's got to be in a gumbo. So you got to have some in a grand gumbo.

[00:06:15.600] - Chris Griffin
They don't even know what I'm saying.

[00:06:16.480] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Some southern boys talking in here.

[00:06:19.170] - Chris Griffin
So, talking about growing stuff at your house. My in-law has just moved back, and my father-in-law has got a pretty good green thumb, and they're growing some little pumpkin at their house and stuff. And so my little one, my three-year-old little boy, so he spends summers there a lot with them. And he just got to go into, I think, even from a family aspect on building maybe for your kids. I've noticed with Emmett, he takes pride in that. He's three, and Mimi takes them out there and he grows it. Then he's like, okay, we got to go out. We got to check our garden today, and all that stuff. Just talk It instills a little bit of work ethic, a little bit of responsibility at a young age. I think it's a good thing to do with your kids.

[00:07:06.570] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Well, my eldest daughter just did her first garden this year, and she has three littles. She just started with small, raised beds, very small, and watching her kids get out there and eat something right off the vine. It instills work ethic. It instills community in your family. I think we're losing that. I mean, you all, we're going 90 to nothing. And just instilling that there's life at home in simplicity is good. Your brain needs that, your heart needs that, that slowing down pace. A lot of that happens around the garden.

[00:07:45.560] - Chris Griffin
Yeah, my kid, he would eat his weight and strawberries and blackberries off right off.

[00:07:50.200] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah, my grandson had...

[00:07:52.030] - Chris Griffin
He's a mess.

[00:07:53.000] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah, he's going to eat every pepper in my garden. I mean, how do you eat that raw? He loves it. But It's wonderful.

[00:08:01.030] - Jordan Turnage
Hey, that's a good way to go. What would you suggest for someone starting out? As far as the catch-root, I'm all about puns. I'm a dad, I apologize. What would be the easiest thing for someone to start to catch that bug and want to start raising their own vegetables?

[00:08:24.460] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I would say the same thing about that, that I would say about canning, just start. Find something. If you're We're an okra guy. Grow some okra. Don't start. Yall, we have... No, we have 17 raised beds.

[00:08:37.070] - Jordan Turnage
But what size-

[00:08:39.430] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Ours are a three by eight, and we have some three by twelves. But we didn't start there. Figure out something that you want to grow. We have some that are 4 by 4 size. Do something that's manageable for you. If you're working a 40 to 50 hour a week, don't start with 10 raised beds. It's not going to work. But like my daughter, start small. Start something that you know you're going to love and go with it.

[00:09:05.030] - Jordan Turnage
That's one thing I learned about. It's going back to that okra. I didn't know when the best time to pull that stuff was. I got that first harvest off it, and There would be sometimes I'd forget to go out there and get them off because once they're growing, you got to get out there and get after them because they will turn it to be hard as a rock. That's pretty disappointing.

[00:09:24.260] - Marni Ausenbaugh
You got to harvest when it's ready to be harvested.

[00:09:26.650] - Chris Griffin
That's right. Talking about my in-laws, I learned something this year. It's burpless cucumber. I didn't even know that was a thing. And I go burpless cucumber. I was like, What is that? And I was like... And so they grew some cucumber. And then my father-in-law made, Oh, what's it when it's got onions and cucumber and it's a sweet.

[00:09:45.630] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Oh, yeah.

[00:09:46.850] - Chris Griffin
He made some of that, and I love that stuff. I could put that literally on anything.

[00:09:51.620] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Southern people call it different things. I think it's called maybe white lightning, fire and lightning, or something like that.

[00:09:56.430] - Chris Griffin
I could put it on a cheeseburger.

[00:09:59.070] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Because it's I got tons of sugar in it.

[00:10:00.920] - Chris Griffin
Yes, 100 %. I mean, I love that stuff. So, yeah, they said burp was cucumber one day, and I was like, because I love cucumber. I was like, I didn't even know that was a thing. So maybe that's the reason I burped so much. I know it did.

[00:10:11.790] - Jordan Turnage
I know another big Southern thing is chow chow. I don't know if you-

[00:10:16.520] - Chris Griffin
Oh, man.

[00:10:17.190] - Jordan Turnage
I put that on everything.

[00:10:19.000] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I can't remember if we talked about it or not. Shea and I were talking about it. Have you guys tried cowboy candy?

[00:10:23.950] - Chris Griffin
No. So what is that exactly?

[00:10:25.630] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Cowboy candy is, most of it's jalapenos, but it's got a lot of sugar in it.

[00:10:30.020] - Chris Griffin
It's almost like candy jalapenos a little bit.

[00:10:31.400] - Marni Ausenbaugh
It goes with everything.

[00:10:31.940] - Chris Griffin
Yeah. We had something last year.

[00:10:35.010] - Chris Griffin
We get people to drop stuff off at Christmas all the time, and they literally brought candy jalapenos.

[00:10:40.440] - Marni Ausenbaugh
It's pretty much the same thing. I think it's just cut up differently.

[00:10:44.060] - Chris Griffin
I love some jalapeno, and you make them sweet and spicy.

[00:10:47.830] - Jordan Turnage
My granddad could not... We could never not have white beans without throwing some chow chow or something like that on that.

[00:10:54.090] - Chris Griffin
That's good stuff.

[00:10:55.200] - Marni Ausenbaugh
You can make all that. You don't have to go to your local corner store to that. You can make it fresh out of your own garden.

[00:11:02.260] - Chris Griffin
Then you also become the people like my in-laws, they just keep bringing vegetables over, and I can't keep up with the amount of vegetables that they keep bringing to my house.

[00:11:09.910] - Marni Ausenbaugh
It's Weezer off Steel Magnolias.

[00:11:11.850] - Chris Griffin
My wife and kid, they don't like tomatoes, and I can't eat the tomatoes fast enough. They keep bringing stuff. It's just funny.

[00:11:19.360] - Jordan Turnage
I think our generation, I think from what I've seen on Facebook and on Instagram, that stuff, it seems like that generational thing is starting to come back.

[00:11:31.440] - Marni Ausenbaugh
It is.

[00:11:31.960] - Jordan Turnage
In a big way, canning and preserving. It's not just your grandma's or me and mom's old sporty more. There's a lot of folks that pick this up and take this on. Can you tell us what you can, when it comes to canning and preserving, can you and what can't you should freeze?

[00:11:54.830] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Because we've gone through a lot of, not really a lot, but several natural not disaster, but disaster. We've been through a tornado. Several years ago, we had the ice freeze where we personally didn't have electricity for two weeks. I don't like to keep stuff in the freezer now. I have several freezers. I'm like everybody else. My goal, and I'm not there yet, my goal is to basically have fruits in the freezer if I want whole fruits. But the only thing that I haven't canned yet is fish. I can meat. It's not gross. I know you guys are going, are you serious?

[00:12:32.860] - Chris Griffin
Yes, no. My dad was older. My dad was 44 when I was born, so he grew up in that little grocery store in Heath and pickled pigs feet and stuff.

[00:12:41.950] - Chris Griffin
He used to keep that stuff at our house.

[00:12:44.830] - Chris Griffin
My mom, literally thought it was pig.

[00:12:49.120] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I think probably the only thing my goal is, I'm like everybody else, I have roast in the freezer and ground beef in the freezer, but I also have that stuff, and I've already canned some of it. So my goal to just get off potentially losing what I work so hard to purchase by a freezer.

[00:13:07.330] - Jordan Turnage
Retaining everything.

[00:13:08.340] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah.

[00:13:09.350] - Jordan Turnage
What are some good canning tips that you have out there for them?

[00:13:14.540] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Oh, Gosh, that's a hard question.

[00:13:17.090] - Jordan Turnage
We try to hit you with this.

[00:13:19.090] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah, I know. you're making me work this morning. I think my canning tip would be to try it. I think I grew up... I'm 55, and so I grew up with my grandmother having this large, ginormous canner, and I don't know what the correct term of it is, but we used to call it the jiggler that would jiggle. You would hear stories about the canners blowing up and that thing. There are a lot more, as country people say, fandangled than it used to be. You're going to have a pressure gage at the top, and the pressure gets too high, you pull it down. Just try it. I mean, there's lots of... You need to have proper technique and all that stuff, which you can buy books about that. But just try it. Don't be scared about it. And the thing about it is, buy the things you need for it. Buy the canner, buy the jars, buy the seals, the rings, have it at home. What happens if you need it? Are you going to be able to find that? Just get it, stick it back. But don't be afraid to try it. I mean, it's easier than you think.

[00:14:20.500] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Once you get the anxiety about, what if I do this wrong out of your system, you're golden.

[00:14:27.690] - Jordan Turnage
Because I feel like what we went through with COVID, this was a real- That's another one. Shot in the arm.

[00:14:34.660] - Marni Ausenbaugh
It was.

[00:14:35.080] - Jordan Turnage
Another pun. My gosh, sorry. Trying not to get political on this. But a lot of folks were picking up canning and trying to, like you say, just figure out not having to worry about where it came from because you know exactly where it came from.

[00:14:49.270] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah, I did.

[00:14:52.030] - Jordan Turnage
Were there specific challenges in that time as far as finding… Because I know everybody and their mom was trying to find ball cans and everything else and lids.

[00:15:02.080] - Marni Ausenbaugh
It wasn't for me because I'd been doing it for so long.

[00:15:05.090] - Chris Griffin
You probably had a lot of that stuff.

[00:15:06.880] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I already have the stuff. It's just a way of life for us. Now, listen, I don't live in the backwoods, and I've not pulled myself from society. It's not that... I still do normal life, but I think we've got to where you got to be a homesteader or a prepper or whatever to be doing all or nothing.

[00:15:31.550] - Chris Griffin
It's all or nothing.

[00:15:32.590] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Our life is, if you see me in Walmart, you're not going to think, boy, she is a hard core canner. You know what I'm saying?

[00:15:39.770] - Chris Griffin
What is a hard core canner? No, I'm just kidding.

[00:15:41.670] - Marni Ausenbaugh
You see what I'm saying? I think we've made it to like, Okay, I need I need to have my apron on all day long with my hair up in a bun or just living that lifestyle with the chickens.

[00:15:51.610] - Jordan Turnage
But it's like you said.

[00:15:52.460] - Marni Ausenbaugh
But it's like you said. I do both.

[00:15:55.560] - Jordan Turnage
But it's like you said, it's a good way to have that mental reset.

[00:15:59.860] - Marni Ausenbaugh
It is.

[00:16:00.300] - Jordan Turnage
Just to slow things down where everything's so quick and complicated and wanting it now.

[00:16:06.930] - Marni Ausenbaugh
We say, because I'm a Christian encourager, we say, Well, I just don't have time for that. You make time for what you want. And...

[00:16:15.210] - Chris Griffin
Woah, that's a...

[00:16:17.020] - Marni Ausenbaugh
It is.

[00:16:17.370] - Marni Ausenbaugh
You make time for it.

[00:16:18.620] - Chris Griffin
That is true.

[00:16:19.260] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Whatever is high on your priority list, you'll make time for it.

[00:16:21.960] - Chris Griffin
You'll make time for it.

[00:16:22.530] - Marni Ausenbaugh
And so there's lots of things that we just say no to. Time in the garden. I know this is so old school. I can't believe I'm saying this because years ago, I wouldn't have seen it. But time in the garden, just picking, being with my family, you want to say taking the pressure off, taking the anxiety off. We have to be plugged in for what we're doing right now. But having seasons of being unplugged. I know you guys are dads. You talked about it. Having seasons of being unplugged will help you in loving your family better, breathing out everything that stresses you out during the day. Canning and gardening and all that stuff does that, and it shows your kids what's important.

[00:17:07.710] - Jordan Turnage
Good core memories.

[00:17:09.430] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah.

[00:17:09.980] - Chris Griffin
When you're talking about unplug, I think we've tried to make more of an effort with our family, of sitting down at the dinner table because my wife owns a business.

[00:17:19.630] - Chris Griffin
We're going on.

[00:17:21.570] - Marni Ausenbaugh
And your brain never shuts on.

[00:17:22.460] - Chris Griffin
And we've even implemented like, Hey, we're putting our phones in the drawer for dinner time. We've started trying that. It's made It's a big difference, I think. It is. I think COVID... Shea has done some research on this. I've talked to her about it, about customers that are the younger generation that are starting to get into home buying. You would think that they'd only want to correspond through email and through text. They're actually the ones that are wanting to come in person now and meet about loans, which my age doesn't really want to do that. They want convenience. They want, Hey, I just want the application online. I don't really need to meet with you. I just talk to you over the phone, which is pretty interesting because I think they like that human interaction a little bit more, which is interesting. I think, like you said, things have just... I think it just shifts all the time. I think every generation as things that showed up when they're in high school and things shapes them on who they end up being in their 20s and 30s.

[00:18:22.840] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I think we've lost personal interaction. I think we've lost the art of conversation.

[00:18:27.760] - Chris Griffin
I think they crave that now.

[00:18:28.960] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah, we need it.

[00:18:30.020] - Jordan Turnage
That is family.

[00:18:31.310] - Chris Griffin
I think COVID hit people hard, too, because I think they're like, Oh, my gosh, when it's gone, it's... I think, like you're saying, the canning and things like that and doing things with your family, I think that's hopefully came back to the forefront of importance.

[00:18:48.450] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Years ago, my husband, his name is Shane, he would get the dirt ready. He would build the beds, and he really didn't help with canning. But now, because we do so much of it in there with me, you want to build your family? Start doing stuff together. You said your wife, I'm not picking on you, but your wife runs a business. Everybody is blown to going on their own highways, and finding something to do together is powerful, and you work at it. Canning and gardening does that for us, one of the ways we do it.

[00:19:22.750] - Jordan Turnage
I'm just going to touch on this, too. Me personally, getting to work in the garden, it's kind of like being part of this land that God's given us and given us a chance to... We can do all... In other podcasts that we've had before, you can throw fertilizer and everything else at it. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to that first little bit of subsoil and light and sun and rain, and that all comes from him. So just to have that time to slow down. It's not just for yourself, but it's a good time to connect, I think, with our mic today.

[00:20:01.200] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah. I've called myself a Christian encourager because I'm going to talk about the Bible. But a lot of times, things that God reminds me of is when I'm in the garden, when I'm picking. This year, it has been when I'm trying to get disease things away or when I'm pruning. He's reminding me of those things, and it's another way that my heart gets healed.

[00:20:31.060] - Jordan Turnage
Yeah. When we're quiet, we can hear him better.

[00:20:32.510] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Absolutely.

[00:20:33.500] - Chris Griffin
You're talking about taking your kids out. I know Shea is going to be shocked, but I love watering our plants at the house. We have some flowers and stuff. I take on that responsibility, and I enjoy it. A lot of time, Emmett will come out with me, and he likes it. He's like, I teach them how to deadhead the geraniums and stuff like that. I know Shea's laughing. She was like, I never knew this about you. I enjoy it. My mom always loved planting flowers, and she wasn't in as much as canning and stuff, but she loved. She was great with flowers, and I was always a part of that when I was a kid. It is a great way to make memories outside of the house and get your kids outside of the house. I think that's the big thing now is kids just sitting inside. Anything you can do to get them outside and play and then get in the dirt and get a little dirty, it's okay. My kid, definitely, Shea knows him. He doesn't mind getting dirty. He's all boy, but it makes them good memories.

[00:21:32.790] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I think it's good for our family. We want them to go to them... We want them to do this. We have this long list of things. But getting them mentally healthy, pay in their own space, and being able to provide for themselves, there are different ways to do that. And gardening and Content at Home, that's a whole another podcast, Contentment at Home. And providing for yourself, we're missing that piece.

[00:21:59.550] - Jordan Turnage
I think that's one big thing that I'm proud of to work with River Valley AgCredit is that we help sponsor greenhouses throughout the West Tennessee, and I'm sure out in East Tennessee, too, with our FFA chapters.

[00:22:11.750] - Marni Ausenbaugh
That's awesome.

[00:22:13.110] - Jordan Turnage
It's always fun and encouraging to see how important they take that, too, as far as raising those gardens for folks for money, and then the sweet corn they raise every year. It's just great to see it not going away. I don't think it would ever go away, I mean, but like you said earlier, when people see you in Walmart, and they don't think, Oh, you're not walking around with your apron.

[00:22:38.620] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I don't have my apron on today.

[00:22:40.070] - Chris Griffin
I thought you'd wore it today. I was disappointed.

[00:22:43.150] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Every once in a while, I'll post a picture on social media of my plow boots. People are like, You don't look like that in town. No, because I'm in the garden. I own some rough plow boots that I'm in the garden in.

[00:22:58.940] - Chris Griffin
Speaking of social media, do you post some videos or anything like that on Instagram and stuff? Have you done any canning?

[00:23:04.900] - Marni Ausenbaugh
I do on Facebook.

[00:23:06.990] - Jordan Turnage
At one time, you were hosting some garden classes.

[00:23:11.130] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yeah, I've done some at home, just because I think women need to get their hands on a canner. They need to know they're not scary. If you can be that segue to this next generation in whatever area that you are skilled at, it's key for the next generation doing it well.

[00:23:33.240] - Jordan Turnage
Where can we go to find you on social media?

[00:23:36.800] - Marni Ausenbaugh
My name, Marni Ausenbaugh.

[00:23:38.060] - Jordan Turnage
There we go.

[00:23:40.560] - Jordan Turnage
Well, I think that we've done a great job as far as getting the 30,000-foot view of this and trying to not see where it's not so much a niche market anymore. That's the point I was trying to get to now is I think our generation will pick this up and take this on because not that we're trying to be, you see where people wear retro clothes and all that stuff to try to be like they were back in the '70s and '80s. But I do think that we as adults and this new generation of everything being so instantaneous and needing it now, that we need those mental resets, those pauses, those slow transitions, and then picking up something that we can invest in ourselves and invest in others and invest in our community. Having to deal with the rising cost of the grocery, it's nice to know, first of all, you put the time in it, you're on sweat equity. It's going to save you. I mean, only you know annually, what that's saving you.

[00:24:46.960] - Chris Griffin
Sure, it would save you a lot of money.

[00:24:47.900] - Marni Ausenbaugh
Yes.

[00:24:47.970] - Jordan Turnage
Then helping your friends, family by giving them stuff, too.

[00:24:54.180] - Jordan Turnage
Ms. Marni, we just want to say thank you so much for coming in and taking the time to come in morning and talk to us about gardening and canning and wish you all the best.

[00:25:04.740] - Chris Griffin
We're going to can this conversation.

[00:25:05.750] - Jordan Turnage
Yeah, we're going to put a lid on it.

[00:25:06.970] - Marni Ausenbaugh
There you go.

[00:25:07.870] - Chris Griffin
I got it in. I knew my goal was to try to top Jordan with the dad joke before.

[00:25:13.590] - Jordan Turnage
We'll cut that out. No big deal. Well, Ms. Marni, thank you so much for coming in. We really appreciate it. Guys, go out there. I will give a plug to our extension offices. We'll wrap this up.

[00:25:26.570] - Chris Griffin
Oh, yeah, for sure.

[00:25:27.420] - Jordan Turnage
They have classes that you can take advantage of this with. Feel free to get online and look for those places because...

[00:25:36.320] - Chris Griffin
They have a ton of assets. I think they're almost like a hidden gem that people don't know about in their local county, so for sure.

[00:25:46.020] - Jordan Turnage
Well, thank you so much for listening to us today on the Back to your Roots podcast. For Chris, I'm Jordan.

[00:25:52.070] - Chris Griffin
Thanks for listening. Thanks for tuning in to Back to your Roots, where we dish the dirt on all things ag. Be sure to never miss an episode by following and subscribing. While there, leave us a review about what you want to hear next. Stay in the know between episodes by following us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok. For more resources, go to our website at rivervalleyagcredit.com.