I'm callous.

And this is bounty farms come and I'll take you around.

Well, let's see.

We started looking probably about three years ago, like put our house on the market.

I think finding the right place was probably what took the longest.

Like I was already resolve that I was ready to do it and then it was just finding the spot.

So once we did, then we packed it up and here we are.

Mhm.

So this here is biscuit biscuit is um he's super important on the farm, not just because he's gorgeous and we love him because he's a livestock guardian.

So there's three, we've got three of these guys right now.

This is what he does most of the day.

Um But at night, like as soon as the sun starts to go down, you'll see his entire, all of them, their whole demeanor changes.

They have a really cool relationship.

It's actually incredible to see how they like operate together.

They patrol and so they're nocturnal, which a lot of dogs aren't.

These guys, we get up in the morning, we feed them because they've had a long night, so they've been protecting everybody throughout the night.

We have lots of coyotes, lots of bobcats and mountain lions, rattlesnakes, like the whole gamut out here.

Um, and so we'll come and we feed these guys.

This is Whitney Houston, this is Marvin Gaye over here.

He's our newest, he's a little stank, so just beware.

Um, this is toasty, toasty was like our first farm animal.

He's kind of a bully I guess, but he's super cute and they're really friendly.

And let's see we are raising sheep to eat.

So these are door per sheep.

So we get up and we feed everybody takes a minute, make sure everyone's doing okay.

And then we like sort of see what damage was done at night with the garden because it's inevitably always something that's pretty much like the morning, sort of like early morning.

So this is our garden actually, it's a work in progress.

That's one of our decks right there, the other guys are hiding over there, they just sort of hang out and we're building upon for them, we're digging upon for them, but it's proven to be a lot more work than we thought.

Then we take care of bob Marley, who's our heritage turkey.

So my son named him bob Marley, but the whole idea was that he was supposed to bring the peace, which he actually totally does.

It's crazy because the roosters were bullying everybody and everything.

It was, it was terrible.

And then we got bob and like, you'll see them like a full on cockfight vibes, like they'll be like going at each other, the roosters and bob will come in and he's like, and then the routers you can tell they're pissed off, but like everyone just kind of spreads out and it's like okay bob did his job.

Yeah, so this looks really like trash right now, but there's a method I promise.

Well first of all my covid shopping, so that's the first thing, so I'm absolutely giving back by taking all of my packages, all my boxes.

We take all the tape off and everything and then we use it to cover the weeds and it helps to like we're trying to regenerate the soil basically without tilling, so we do know till farming.

So um that's why that looks like that, but it will soon have stuff on top of it and that's just gonna help with all the weeds and stuff like that.

Um And this is one of our main garden boxes so you can sort of see the massacre that happened here.

Um This is like coming into a war zone.

It's kind of like a tender subject with.

But um these, you see these three rows 123 that are absolutely empty and terrible.

That is because we are in a war that I'm losing with the gophers.

So they were all different kinds of broccoli and cauliflower.

There's one stalk of broccoli left and it's been not on.

Um they're really disrespectful.

These gophers, they're really aggressive and the crazy thing is, is that they pull it underneath the ground so like a cartoon, I lied to you not.

It was literally me like pulling on this broccoli stock and this stupid go for was like tugging and finally I just was like this is outrageous and I let go because I could not believe this is happening.

So ridiculous.

So we're standing in my olive grove and we harvest our olives once a year and we pressed them to make olive oil that I've coined liquid gold.

Um, so it's definitely probably one of my proudest things here just because like, I didn't know that we could do that and when we did our first harvest it was, I was so just sort of wowed by how great everything came out.

But I think really just like every year, it's something else that sort of thrives and that like every season rather that we're able to grow and that I didn't know how to do before.

So that's pretty cool.

Oh, we have lots of citrus.

So I love that.

Like we have kind of all the citrus, we have all the different variations of like limes, we have tangerines, we have sour oranges, we have cara, cara oranges and valencia's and blood oranges.

Meyer lemons and I love that because I cook with all that stuff like every day.

So I love being able just to go and there's nothing like going to like a tree and picking something off.

So I love that.

So this is a sour orange tree and it's one of my favorites.

The oranges are about that big, like really deep orange color and they're like tart but just like really bright flavor and I use them a lot for cooking and like when they're flowering, like the wind will blow and it's most incredible smell.

It's amazing.

That's one of my favorite things about all of this honestly is like orange blossom and lemon blossom scent.

So this is my barn and it's probably the last thing for us to sort of restore and renovate.

Um, we haven't put any horses in here yet, but this is where we hatch all of our eggs.

So like all our baby chicks and where like when the sheeps have the babies, they're in here and goats and our ducks listen, it's definitely more quiet out here.

It's peaceful.

I mean, I think for me, like one of the biggest things was just that like I have been on tour for the past 20 years and I felt like I'm in a big city, every second of the day and I just felt like when I come home, I don't want to come home to the same bustle and kind of same thing, you know, and so being able to just like have ground to walk, that's mine and to be able to be outside and I think it's just super important to, I don't know, like get your hands dirty, your feet dirty and just like kind of really absorb all of it on your off time, especially because it kind of restores you to get back out there and do more.

So it's pretty crazy to be in major cities and just still have like food deserts and the fact that like, you know, there is still so much poverty and there's still so little when we know that there actually is so much and that was one of the big, really large driving forces for us I think not just as a chef, but as a mom, as a black woman, like really wanting to control our story.

And so for me it was really about finding ways to kind of like regain the power right, like take back our power and be able to grow what we want to eat the way that we want to eat it.

Hopefully as we get our farming together, be able to share more of kind of what we're learning, what we're growing with others, you know?

Not just my family, but that's the that's the idea.

Mhm.

Basically like this whole year kind of, even though it wasn't the plan being that we were all home for covid, like I was able to spend time on the farm and really kind of figure out what, I don't know my next steps we're going to be.

And so I started this thing called goldmine boxes and doing all this natural sauces and foods and really now like healthcare, beauty stuff.

Just because like I've had time to research and to gross up on the farm.

So my goal yeah, it would be too, like I would love to open like a farm to table restaurant.

Um But really my real goal is to do like sort of a retreat to do like a restaurant retreat where you can stay and just like rejuvenate and eat and learn and just relax.

So I guess you like sort of like a boutique, mini lush little oasis is what I'd like to do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.