1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 Hello everyone and welcome back to the Hostel Road Trip Podcast. 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,000 The podcast that literally takes its show on the road. 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Listen in as James Black and Bobby Dyer, owners of International Travelers House Hostels, 4 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:19,000 travel around the country to learn about these great locations and incredible people 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:24,000 that come together to provide a unique and exciting experience for travelers from all over the world. 6 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:29,000 Welcome back to the Hostel Road Trip. The adventure just keeps on getting better. 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:36,000 As we have traveled three hours north of San Francisco to the Oz Farm on the Mendocino Coast 8 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:41,000 in the town of Point Arena. Absolutely beautiful. 9 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:45,000 It is just majestic out here. I already feel more relaxed. 10 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,000 And I'm here with the general manager, Dean Fernandez. 11 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:49,000 How's it going? 12 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:55,000 And the lovely Miss Margaret Grace, the retreat manager, hospitality manager, administrative director. 13 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,000 What else do you do? I don't know. 14 00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:58,000 Wear lots of hats. 15 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:00,000 Robert Dyer from ITH. 16 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:01,000 Good morning. 17 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,000 And Eric Carlos de Frea from World Packers. 18 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:06,000 Thank you guys. Thanks for hosting us too. 19 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:12,000 We had the pleasure of staying here last night on the farm and having dinner with the staff. 20 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:17,000 I don't think I've eaten so healthy in the past month, especially after being on the road. 21 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:22,000 I feel like a new van. It was a love, the Three Sisters soup. What was inside of it? 22 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:29,000 Corn. The Three Sisters are corn, squash and beans that grow together. And a little kale salad. 23 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:35,000 And we had some of the Luna Sea vodka from our friend in Santa Cruz at the Santa Cruz HI. 24 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:40,000 Made some vodka tonics. It was just a fantastic relaxing candlelit night. 25 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:47,000 But we're here to talk a bit more about this awesome farm, the journey of you two and how you found yourselves here. 26 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:52,000 And also what the guests eventually can experience from coming here and finding this gem. 27 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:57,000 But I'll turn to you, Dean, the mastermind behind this beautiful operation. 28 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:03,000 Tell us a bit how you found yourself and what we wanted to highlight here is that just like hostiling, 29 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:10,000 a thing that a lot of younger Americans are getting into and becoming more aware of and spreading that knowledge to the other millennials in their demographic, 30 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:17,000 young farmers, the average age of a farmer is getting older and older. More young people need to get into it. 31 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:23,000 And I think this is a type of establishment that can really spread that knowledge about farming. How did you get into farming? 32 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:30,000 Yeah, like you just said, the average age of a farmer in the United States is 60, which is getting towards retirement. 33 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:34,000 Just getting towards who's going to do the farming, who's going to grow the food for the population. 34 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:42,000 Pass the knowledge. Severin is a huge proponent of this and she's a friend of the farm and she's talked all over the country about this. 35 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:44,000 And we need to grow more young farmers. Yes. 36 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:53,000 What we developed here is a system of an apprenticeship where young people come usually fresh out of college and they'll stay for the year and learn farming. 37 00:02:53,000 --> 00:03:00,000 And through teaching them farming, we can grow more food around the world than we can just from growing the food here alone. 38 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:11,000 And the way I got into it is I went to business school, Notre Dame, like classic route, super different than this. 39 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:18,000 And decided, what am I going to do with my life after that? It was 08, which was during, they call it the Great Recession now. 40 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:21,000 Yes. Everyone was getting fired from all these business jobs. 41 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:28,000 And it really gave me the space to be able to ask myself that question of what am I going to do to make myself happy, not rich? 42 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:33,000 And went back to school in Santa Cruz, studied ecological horticulture. Awesome. 43 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:38,000 And fell into all these great communities along my stumbling path up here to Oz. 44 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:45,000 And you know, that was something last night that I picked up at the dinner discussion as we sat down and we were kind of still entering our way into the conversation. 45 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:47,000 You all were just naturally having your end of the day conversation. 46 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:54,000 I was like, I feel like I'm sitting around with a bunch of scientists and you know, math wizards and they're like, the project I was like, this is awesome. 47 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:04,000 And it's so interesting now to come to find out here that you are a very well educated man from the establishment, but you're using that education in an entirely different way. 48 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:09,000 It's pretty unique. Yeah. But some people call it divine intervention. I don't know what it is. 49 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:14,000 It's just sometimes when you're following your path, everything seems to line up and nothing was lost along the way. 50 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:20,000 Everything kind of stacked on itself to build. So you're like standing on the shoulders of giants. 51 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:25,000 Yeah. What can I say? I love it. Now, how about you, Miss Margaret? 52 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:30,000 How did you find yourself first into farming and then over to Oz? 53 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:36,000 Yeah, kind of a similar path in the realm where I started out in fashion design school. 54 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:41,000 Wow. All right. Nice scarf. 55 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:58,000 And as I started studying fashion, I got into like sustainable fashion and was really learning more about the industry and getting farther and farther away from what actually felt like I wanted to be doing. 56 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:09,000 And through that, I found a great like permaculture community living in communal households in San Francisco while going to school and just started like backyard gardening and farming. 57 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:20,000 And I was also really interested in education. So I started working, excuse me, working with young children and became like after school program, farm and garden teacher. 58 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:35,000 And then that's organization, the school that I worked for, set me away to do further studying at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, which is where I eventually ended up leaving that job and going to work for them as an intern. 59 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:39,000 And that's where I met Dean. And that's how I ended up here at Oz. 60 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:41,000 As you're a member of that society down there as well? 61 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,000 Yeah. We both were interns together. 62 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:55,000 Oh, right. Okay. That's so cool how the path and then you also with Bernie last night kind of have his path intertwined with you and then one day he calls you in the snowstorm in Minneapolis. What am I doing? 63 00:05:55,000 --> 00:06:05,000 So it's so cool to see how the characters have flowed into this place and then some have stayed for much longer than their apprenticeship. But then you still have that new blood coming in. 64 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:20,000 That reminded me a lot of the hostile type setup where we have work exchanges and a big part of what we do with that vetting process, a lot of interviewing screening to make sure that it's a person that fits in with the existing family, doesn't upset the herd, if you will. 65 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:29,000 But we really pitch it to them as a cultural experience and a cultural education that you're going to come in, you're going to be living with people from all over the world. You're going to have to work with people from all over the world. 66 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:34,000 These are all really good experiences to have and it can really cultivate a person's character. 67 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:46,000 Yeah. Tell us a little more, Dean, about the facility here and kind of the different, all the different, you obviously got the vegetables and stuff growing and fruits, but different structures you have and just kind of the lay of the land. 68 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:58,000 We're the, Oz Farm is what we're known as, but it's also Oz Farm and Retreat Center. We focus our energies in two different directions, primarily the farm and the retreat. 69 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:13,000 So most of the day we're out there farming. We have most of our crew out there in the fields harvesting, weeding, planting, and then the other half of us comes out and prepares the camp for our weekend retreats. 70 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,000 How many people can stay here? How big is the retreat area? 71 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:18,000 Do you want to take this one, Mike? 72 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:19,000 Sure. Yeah. 73 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:31,000 So we have five cabins and two yurts and then the geodesic domes, which are on the other side of the river. So all in total, it sleeps around 30 people. 74 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:32,000 Nice. 75 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:45,000 And then we have plenty of overflow camping space. So when we do larger events like weddings, our max for overnight guests is 60 people, and that tends to pretty much fill up. 76 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:50,000 And then for weddings, it's usually around 100 to 150 people that come for the day. 77 00:07:50,000 --> 00:08:00,000 And the structures are so cool for the listeners out there. You know, you have to come see it to really appreciate it, but you have such a lot of character with the different cabins and yurts and a shout out to Pacific Yurts. 78 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:09,000 I actually live in the Pacific Yurt up in Big Bear Mountain. Fantastic structures. All the places have these wood stoves. So you really have the feel of the ambiance. 79 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:21,000 And I think that's really special up here. But that originally starts with its kind of origin, which the history of this place being a former commune called Village Oz or Oz Village, which one was it? 80 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:22,000 Village Oz. 81 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:31,000 Village Oz. And as they were saying last night, where'd that name come from? And it was as these hippies were coming out here, it looked like they were coming from Oz. 82 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:39,000 So I think that's such a cool history to it. But tell the listeners a bit about that so they can understand the foundation of this place. 83 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:52,000 The whole history of this area is very rural, very kind of country, simple lifestyle until the late 60s when the hippies started coming up here with their back to the land movement and completely transformed this area. 84 00:08:52,000 --> 00:09:02,000 And most of them kind of stayed around and really still have a huge lasting effect. And now they're kind of sitting on the city council and making bigger changes in the community. 85 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:12,000 But back then in the late 60s, they came here all lived in the 100 year old barn while they built out these little funky structures that we now rent out as cabins. 86 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:13,000 That's awesome. 87 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:16,000 Was all the wood that these structures were built with, was that harvested locally? 88 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:17,000 Most of it, yeah. 89 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:25,000 Yeah. I feel like just sitting in this room, you can just see the story. I can imagine all the people back in the 60s just like putting these structures together. 90 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:30,000 We're in the heart of Redwood Country. So a lot of the wood is harvested on site for our building projects. 91 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:40,000 And that's a cool artistic flair to it. I love that type of stuff as I sit inside these buildings. I look at the in your kitchen, your kitchen table and the other one is just a tree. 92 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:41,000 Yeah. 93 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:47,000 That's just been milled and you're just like, this is so cool and rustic and you have benches that are made from logs, log art as you said. 94 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:51,000 Yeah. If you're talking about permaculture, it's kind of like these what's around. 95 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:52,000 Yeah. 96 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,000 And Redwood is a great building. 97 00:09:54,000 --> 00:10:00,000 But work with the nature to create your structures and then because you've created your structures out of nature, you're very in tune with it. 98 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:05,000 You know, naturally as you're not just this cookie cutter that was sent over from another country. 99 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:10,000 And that's what makes us a little bit unique and you can't replicate this if you're a Marriott or a Hilton. 100 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:17,000 That's well said, my friend. And that's going to be into a bit of our next topic after we take a quick break here. 101 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:25,000 We're going to talk about how you have branched out into the hospitality element via hip camp and brought people into this style of accommodation. 102 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:34,000 That's the reason we're here now is we wanted to highlight this as a really cool place of accommodation that you could come and get an educational experience. 103 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:36,000 So stay tuned. Oh, one second here. 104 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:51,000 I want to because this place has been changed like over the years, like a lot of years ago. And I was just curious about is there a mission statement about what you guys are doing right now about the Ospar? 105 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,000 Yeah, our primary mission is to educate young farmers. 106 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:55,000 Nice. 107 00:10:55,000 --> 00:11:02,000 And by doing that, we invite the public to come share the space and educate them in what sustainable farming is. 108 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:07,000 And they can come and pass that knowledge on. 109 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:13,000 And the apprentices that stay here for the year can come and when they leave here, spread that knowledge as well. 110 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:19,000 And just as you were saying before, just for the young people to pass on to the other generations, the farming culture. 111 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:24,000 So you don't lose that transfer of knowledge when you're talking about the 60 plus year old farmers. 112 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:27,000 Yeah, crucial. We're in a very sensitive time period right now. 113 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:33,000 It's crucial to spread the message. The food's got to be grown from somewhere. We're not going to stop eating food anytime soon. 114 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:39,000 But I live in Brazil and a lot of permaculture in Brazil as well. 115 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:49,000 And a lot of people in the permaculture field say that there's a different movement of people moving from the cities to the forest to farming. 116 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:53,000 Yeah. So that would be the movement that you are building to. Do you see that? 117 00:11:53,000 --> 00:12:00,000 What we're doing here is we're fostering this idea that you can live off-grid. You can live outside of normal society. 118 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:09,000 And we're talking about internet being so prevalent now. We have Wi-Fi here. We have a lot of the modern technologies that you would have in the city. 119 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:17,000 It's never been easier to live off the grid and in a place like this. And you're not sacrificing any sort of luxuries that you have in the city necessarily. 120 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:23,000 You really have all the resources here. You have a river going through your property and you're saying that the fishing's great? 121 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:34,000 Yeah. We have an abundance of wild sustainable activities like harvesting the redwood trees, harvesting from the river. 122 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:41,000 The water we get basically is from our riparian rights. It's very sustainable in that regard. 123 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:43,000 How big is the whole farm? 124 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:51,000 It's 240 acres. Most of it's in redwood forest. A lot of it is cultivated farmland and the rest of it is put into the retreat spaces. 125 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:54,000 What percent is the cultivated farmland? 126 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:56,000 It's 15 acres. 127 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:57,000 15 acres of farmland. Nice. 128 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:03,000 Yeah. And half of those acres are orchards. The annual beds are about more like 7 acres. 129 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:04,000 Okay. 130 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:11,000 Yeah. What we're the most known for outside of the farm is our apples. We have over 55 varieties of heirloom and antique varietals. 131 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:16,000 I saw the boxes that you had out there. So you box those up and you sell those organic right to the distributor, right? 132 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:17,000 Yeah. 133 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:18,000 There it is. 134 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:25,000 That ass. All right. We're going to take a quick break and we are back here at the Oz Farm in Northern California. Stay tuned. 135 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:34,000 We hope you're enjoying this episode of the Hostile Road Trip podcast. We're taking a moment now to talk about a great service called Worldpackers.com. 136 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:39,000 Worldpackers.com is actually how I got my start with the Hostile Road Trip podcast. 137 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:46,000 Worldpackers is a great service that connects travelers looking for a place to stay in a new city with the hostiles who need their skills. 138 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:52,000 You can do anything from house cleaning to reception to media and marketing and so much more. 139 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:58,000 With a reasonable fee of $50 a year and a little bit of courage, you could find yourself anywhere in the world. 140 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:04,000 For more information, just go find Grandpa Carlos surfing on the West Coast somewhere between California and Mexico. 141 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:09,000 If you're having trouble finding him this way, he might be taking a siesta on his surfboard. 142 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:15,000 If that's the case, scream to the heavens, Grandpa Carlos, we need you. And he'll be sure to answer the call. 143 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:24,000 But if all else fails, just check out Worldpackers.com. That's W-O-R-L-D-P-A-C-K-E-R-S dot com. 144 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:28,000 And now we bring you back to your regularly scheduled program. 145 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:32,000 Welcome back to Hostile Road Trip. We are in the town of Point Arena. 146 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:37,000 Shout out to the Point Arena Pirates. Three hours north of the Golden Gate Bridge. 147 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:42,000 We are so happy to be here with Dean and Margaret from the Oz Farm. 148 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:48,000 Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you. And of course, the handsome Bobby Dyer. Hello. 149 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:53,000 And the vivacious Eric Ferrea. Thank you. All right. Let's jump back into it. 150 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:59,000 I still feel so loose from that hot tub session we had last night. Feeling good. Let's do this. 151 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,000 So I want to talk a little bit about the hospitality element on this farm. 152 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:07,000 So our listeners know that we just didn't want to come up to this farm and have a good time with you for no reason. 153 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:15,000 There is a hospitality element that is really cool and has taken this place to a different style of operation. 154 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:21,000 And a big part of that was a new booking OTA that we want to get the word out there about called Hip Camp. 155 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:27,000 And Hip Camp has a really cool startup history of about five years right now. Right. 156 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:31,000 And I'm going to let Dean tell us a bit more about how that got started. 157 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:36,000 Hip Camp I originally found out about through working with the state parks. 158 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:42,000 And they were the online booking platform for if you wanted to camp at a state park. 159 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:53,000 We reached out to them when we first showed up here at Oz Farm for a way to branch out and get more online bookings via some sort of platform like this. 160 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:59,000 They responded saying this is something new that we're going to try that we're going to open up private land. 161 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:05,000 And this is a big idea but we want you to be one of the first ones to try out this idea with us. 162 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:08,000 And it's been an extremely fruitful relationship. 163 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:18,000 And it's grown into we don't even use Hip Camp as much anymore because we're booking bigger retreats because of the original relationship with the camp. 164 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:27,000 And if anyone owns private land and they're open to renting out space either for camping or they have a semi rustic accommodation. 165 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:30,000 I highly recommend Hip Camp as a booking platform. 166 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:35,000 The people that it brings to us are always top drawer. 167 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:38,000 Nice. And I think that it's such a cool idea. 168 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:47,000 I tip my hat off to the people that created it because what a great model and a mutually beneficial business model of you've got this land here with the state parks as being utilized. 169 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:50,000 You've got this booking site idea. Let's merge together. 170 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:57,000 Everyone's winning and then it's exposing these experiences to the younger culture as well as the culture of getting out there again. 171 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:05,000 And I think it's so cool that it also sets up the right expectation because while it isn't really camping as we call it because you're not roughing it. 172 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:07,000 You know you're not out there and you're sleeping bag on the ground. 173 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:12,000 You're in some type of cool artistic structure or you know you're or TP. 174 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:17,000 So it really is a bit of glamping and I think that sets up a good expectation because they're always wow this is great. 175 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:24,000 It's better than I thought. Right. Whereas if you had an Airbnb person they might be coming in and saying like oh my god I don't have a TV in here. 176 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:29,000 You know so you're setting the right expectations of the right crowd and there's going to be a win win for everyone. 177 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:37,000 But Margaret tell us a bit more about the implementation of Hip Camp at this particular location since you've gotten on board. 178 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:50,000 Yeah so I guess logistically the way we handle our bookings here are we allow weddings and retreats the places for people that want to rent the entire space. 179 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:51,000 Priority to them. Yeah. 180 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:57,000 So we give them priority booking where they can book up to nine months in advance or a year for a wedding. 181 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:00,000 And then Hip Camp we open up 30 days in advance. 182 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:01,000 Filling the gas. 183 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:10,000 So it's like whenever we don't have a full camp rental or like a group is coming in to take over the whole space we open up each cabin individually. 184 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:13,000 So you can come just as a couple or a small group. 185 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:22,000 We also have campsites on Hip Camp so you can come and pitch a tent and then you still have access to this community house. 186 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:33,000 So everyone that stays in a cabin shares this communal space kind of like a hostel so they can see collaboration on meals together and there's a bath house below. 187 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:47,000 And so it's neat with Hip Camp weekends you know you might have like five different small groups of people but they're all kind of sharing this space together in the kitchen and having a cocktail or drinking coffee in the morning. 188 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:50,000 Where do you find most of your travelers come from? 189 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:55,000 All over really California but mostly from San Francisco Bay Area. 190 00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:00,000 People are trying to just get away for the weekend and kind of unplug a bit. 191 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:08,000 Yeah and I think that in your description of the Hip Camp process for your nightly guests that is just so lockstep in line with what a hostel experience would be. 192 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:17,000 You come to this place that has people that are living on site that are cultivating the land and the property as if they're a family living on the property. 193 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:24,000 And you get to intertwine with them and the other guests within these communal spaces breaking bread together sharing the experience together. 194 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:30,000 So that's why we see so much similarity in the old style farm that we do with hostels. 195 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:35,000 And I've often thought we should come up with a word like farmstall or something like that you know that merges them together. 196 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:40,000 We have a lodge up in Big Bear that we call Lodge Stoll because it's a lodge and it's a hostel. 197 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:49,000 So I feel like there's so much synergy in the two that it's great to do an episode and I've said to our producers that we should do a farm episode every season. 198 00:19:49,000 --> 00:20:00,000 Because in each region there's going to be a place like this that we should highlight that's doing the same types of things as far as the immersion amongst the guests and the education of the guests. 199 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:01,000 So I think that's so cool. 200 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:04,000 It's got the best of both worlds. You have the privacy as well. 201 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:05,000 Yeah. 202 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:08,000 And space and then the come togetherness. 203 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:15,000 That would probably be the biggest benefit I would say in contrast to a hostile experience where you usually are forfeiting all private space. 204 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:20,000 And if you do have a private room you're amongst everyone else in a building. 205 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:30,000 But for example the cabin we stayed in down its own little road very secluded you know had our own space really would feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere by yourself. 206 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:33,000 But a short walk down the road now we're back at the main farm. 207 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:34,000 That's where everyone's at. 208 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:40,000 It's made communal buildings and meeting houses so you've got the advantage of a couple hundred acres to spread out that experience. 209 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:41,000 So that's really cool. 210 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:49,000 Tell us a little more about how the community kind of accepts you guys here at the farm or how you're integrating the community or sharing with other farmers. 211 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,000 I thought that was pretty interesting. 212 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:55,000 Yeah the community is super accepting of the farm. 213 00:20:55,000 --> 00:21:01,000 Most people who have been here through the 60s and 70s had their origin here in Alice farm. 214 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:02,000 That's cool. 215 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:12,000 That place attracts people initially to the area and then kind of like Bernie we were hanging out with last night came to the area via Oz farm and now lives locally. 216 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:20,000 I thought it was cool last night you're saying you see people or meet people like the farmers market the groceries are like I was at Oz 20 years ago. 217 00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:21,000 All the time. 218 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:22,000 Everyone's got an Oz story. 219 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:37,000 It was definitely like coming from an urban environment and living super rurally it was really easy to make friends because we just kind of had the one up of like oh yeah we're the newbies at Oz farm now and everyone's got their Oz origin story to share. 220 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:45,000 Ah grew up going on field trips as a kid or I got married there I used to live in Rainbow Cabin or whatever it is. 221 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,000 Someone has a connection here. 222 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:48,000 Yeah that's great. 223 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:55,000 And here you guys focus on fruits and vegetables you say you don't do any livestock but you're able to trade with some of the other farmers. 224 00:21:55,000 --> 00:22:01,000 Yeah and that's another reason why the community is so embracing of us is that we're growing food for the community. 225 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:02,000 Contributing to the community. 226 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:06,000 Yeah and yeah we do trades with other farmers of livestock. 227 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:07,000 That's awesome. 228 00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:11,000 It turns out food is a great. 229 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:12,000 Resource. 230 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:13,000 Yeah like a good trade. 231 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:14,000 Yeah. 232 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:19,000 You don't have to try and be a master of you know farming vegetables fruit livestock you can just be good at something. 233 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:25,000 Yeah if you spread yourself out too thin then everything kind of suffers we try and focus mostly on fruits and vegetables. 234 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:35,000 And yeah that's a little bit about that project management we were talking about and you highlighted last night and when you were talking about it I was like this is a man speaking from experience as you have a lot of new people come in. 235 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:38,000 They're fresh they're full of energy and get all these ideas. 236 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:42,000 But a lot of times those ideas are not supplemented with like how are we going to follow through with this. 237 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:43,000 Who's going to do it. 238 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:44,000 Yeah. 239 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:45,000 How much time this is going to take. 240 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:46,000 Right. 241 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,000 Is it going to take us away from doing stuff we're really good at. 242 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:49,000 Yeah. 243 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:51,000 Sacrifice the product over there. 244 00:22:51,000 --> 00:23:02,000 So when you start to speak like that I was like yeah this is really an interesting project management type of thing that you've got going on and similarities to the hostels because you have a lot of creative people that stay at hostels. 245 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:03,000 They come in with all this energy. 246 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,000 They have all these ideas. 247 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:07,000 But the follow through and everything else. 248 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:08,000 Yeah. 249 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:09,000 Sometimes it's not they're kind of pipe dreaming if you will. 250 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:10,000 Yeah. 251 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:11,000 So I think that's great though. 252 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:13,000 I love hearing everyone's ideas. 253 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:14,000 Yeah. 254 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:15,000 We always take it all in. 255 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:16,000 Soak it in. 256 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:17,000 Digest it and. 257 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:18,000 Sometimes two years later you do it. 258 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:19,000 Yeah. 259 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:20,000 Sometimes. 260 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:21,000 Yeah. 261 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:21,000 For sure. 262 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:21,000 Sometimes the ideas are great. 263 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:25,000 Sometimes everyone's got ideas and this place kind of breeds that kind of mentality. 264 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:34,000 I think it's important to highlight with that though in that bartering system which was so much more prevalent in our culture for thousands of years before that you didn't need to do everything. 265 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,000 You didn't have to own everything. 266 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:38,000 You didn't have to control everything. 267 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:41,000 You had to be good at what you were passionate about and what you did well. 268 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:42,000 Yeah. 269 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:50,000 And that would get you by because you could trade that service, skill, product with your neighbor or someone out with what they did good and what they were very good at. 270 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,000 And it got away from that Walmart scheme of everything under one roof. 271 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:55,000 And I've got to have it all. 272 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:56,000 It's very greedy. 273 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:00,000 I think I grew up that way where I thought I was going to be able to just live very self-sufficiently. 274 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:01,000 Yeah. 275 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,000 And I started focusing on how do I grow my own food? 276 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:06,000 How do I do my own everything? 277 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,000 And then I got to what it was is textiles. 278 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:14,000 And I was like I'm never going to be able to make my own t-shirt, you know, the cotton that I grow or the wool. 279 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:17,000 And there's people who focus on that. 280 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:19,000 And that's part of community. 281 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,000 And that's what I've learned from being at Alice Farms is it takes a community of people. 282 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:25,000 Margaret's really great at sewing and mending and making clothes. 283 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:27,000 And I'm good at growing food. 284 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:31,000 And Abby's really good at making the flowers and arrangements. 285 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:33,000 And it all kind of comes together into this great project. 286 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:36,000 It's a great dinnertime discussion with everyone bringing their own skills. 287 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:37,000 Yeah. 288 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,000 And that reminded us very much of our experience at Hostos because often you have a couple of people from Brazil, 289 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:47,000 a few people from Asia, a guy from Africa, a few people from Europe, and all their different cultural experiences, 290 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,000 hobbies, passions they bring to the table collectively. 291 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:54,000 Now you've got this team, you know, beautiful synergy of all these different talents. 292 00:24:54,000 --> 00:25:00,000 And collectively you're able to do so much more than you would individually if you said I'm going to try to achieve all these things myself 293 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:06,000 by even trying to make people do them for me instead of just organically letting it happen and letting people follow their passions. 294 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:07,000 Yeah. 295 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:08,000 Really cool to see that. 296 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:14,000 And that's so healthy to have international people at the table because as Americans we sometimes have this one-way mirror. 297 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:20,000 Very short-sighted, narrow-minded, you know, influenced by a lot of our media outlets to think in a certain way. 298 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:21,000 Totally. 299 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:29,000 So it can be a really rattling experience sometimes, sobering experience to hear someone from an international perspective. 300 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,000 And it's like, do you want to really know what it's like? 301 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:32,000 Yeah, it's super healthy. 302 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,000 That was Fox News told you this, you know. 303 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,000 Now I'm going to tell you what's happening on the ground. 304 00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,000 It's like, wait, we'll just have one podcast. 305 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:46,000 As soon as you start traveling and sharing places with other people, you immediately start not believing TV anymore, 306 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:48,000 the news anymore, start questioning. 307 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:54,000 Less likely to be influenced by the misinformation and disinformation if you've experienced it in the raw. 308 00:25:54,000 --> 00:26:01,000 You know, so it's going to be tough for us to have some guy from Monsanto say that's not true about our cross-pollinating seeds. 309 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:07,000 After you come to a farm and talk to organic farmers about what a devastating fucked up practice that is 310 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:11,000 and how they're just really playing God in a really scary way. 311 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:21,000 It's hard to battle the fact that you can legitimately patent genetics of plants and own a plant as a farmer doesn't make any logical sense. 312 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:26,000 And I often like this, you know, people, last night the conversation came up a lot of like the flaws of capitalism. 313 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:33,000 I went to a school that was Jesuit University educated and they spoke of conscious capitalism, 314 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,000 which is something that resonated a lot with me because like you can be a capitalist, 315 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:40,000 but you don't have to be a greedy monger, destructive person, you know. 316 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,000 You can operate within this in your ambitions. 317 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:49,000 And it's tough to do, but it's really a difficult thing that we live with now in trying to combat that. 318 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:50,000 Thanks for mentioning that. 319 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:55,000 I think what we operate here on, which I did learn at the number one business school, 320 00:26:55,000 --> 00:27:01,000 is a triple bottom line that instead of profit, people, planet, then profit. 321 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:02,000 That's beautiful. 322 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:06,000 Highlight that listeners, learn from that one because that is so true. 323 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:12,000 You don't have to completely unprogram yourself, you know, you can still be an ambitious person. 324 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,000 You can still work hard and go after what you want to do, 325 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:19,000 but you can look at it in a different way on the bottom line and that will bring you to a different product and experience. 326 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:23,000 There's so much more value to and other things besides money. 327 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:32,000 You can live very abundantly having fresh water, clean air to breathe, food that's grown right by your own hands. 328 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,000 And you know, money causes a lot of trouble. 329 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:35,000 Yeah. 330 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:42,000 It can be scary sometimes too because with the internet, online world, everything goes so fast. 331 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:48,000 Like a marketing position five years ago, 10 years ago, is a completely different position today. 332 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:49,000 That's true. 333 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:52,000 But growing food, you always need food. 334 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:53,000 Yeah, yeah. 335 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:54,000 Which one's more valuable? 336 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:55,000 There's certain things, right? 337 00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:56,000 Yeah, definitely. 338 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:57,000 Good. 339 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:01,000 All right, we're going to take a quick break here for our sponsorship plug. 340 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:04,000 And we'll be back at the Oz Farm with Dean and Margaret. 341 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:11,000 It's been a fantastic experience, but we've got to wrap up and hit the road and head for the mountains of Tahoe. 342 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:12,000 Stay tuned. 343 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,000 Thanks again for listening to the Hostile Road Trip podcast with us. 344 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:19,000 We want to take a second to talk about one of our sponsors that keeps the road trip alive. 345 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:28,000 That is the International Travelers House Hostels located in San Diego at three locations, Big Bear Lake and Newport, Rhode Island. 346 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:35,000 International Travelers House provides a unique experience at each one of their locations with great staff, great food, 347 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:43,000 and tons of connections to the local community so that you can have a great time vacationing, traveling through, or staying for a while. 348 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:53,000 If you want more information on ITH, check out ithhostels.com to check out videos, pictures, blogs, and direct booking to our locations. 349 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:55,000 Thank you again for listening. 350 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,000 We hope you enjoy the conclusion of this episode. 351 00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,000 Welcome back to Hostile Road Trip. 352 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:09,000 We are here at the Oz Farm in the community house, which was built in 1969 by the original OG hippies that came out here 353 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:14,000 and created the Oz Village Intentional Community Commune. 354 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:20,000 It's just such a cool setting to see because you can still feel the energy of these hippies, I feel like, that built this place 355 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,000 and the spirits of them floating around, if you will. 356 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:31,000 It's just so rustic and natural, but with a lot of natural light from the windows and the skylights built for that purpose of being with nature, you can tell. 357 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:39,000 You're right. A lot of them were professors and actual intelligent society contributors from where they came from. 358 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:48,000 They came up here and built everything very intentionally, south facing direction, natural solar heat warming these buildings during the day. 359 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:55,000 And because it's been off grid since its inception, there's a lot of wood stoves and just natural ways of doing things. 360 00:29:55,000 --> 00:30:01,000 We're one of the pioneers of solar technology and batteries technology, all this stuff. 361 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:05,000 And to this day, we're still innovating with new technologies. 362 00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:08,000 I was telling you guys about how we run off these car batteries, Tesla car batteries. 363 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:09,000 That's awesome. 364 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:17,000 The amyon is something we've adopted and still trying to improve the off grid living so you're not actually sacrificing anything by living off grid. 365 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:21,000 And you're just gaining a lot more by not having to be tied to the grid. 366 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:26,000 And now another one you mentioned last night, micro hydro micro hydro. 367 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:28,000 So water comes from the rivers. 368 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,000 When it's not sunny, it's either windy or and or rainy. 369 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:34,000 We have a lot of natural flowing water during the winter. 370 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:39,000 We just capture the water as it's going down the stream and run it through a pipe. 371 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:44,000 So it powers motor basically when a motor runs backwards, it generates power instead of using power. 372 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,000 So it just turns a motor and that motor calls into a battery bank. 373 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:52,000 So you're not even disturbing the flow of the river at all. 374 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:57,000 You're just letting it flow through an apparatus that controls the motor into a battery. 375 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,000 I never knew that was how those hydro facilities work. 376 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:07,000 But the micro when you said last night, I think you get the wind, you get the solar and then you get this micro hydro like this is bad ass. 377 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:11,000 Yes, well, you need because sunlight only happens during the day. 378 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,000 And the whole thing about batteries is that it has to get you through the night. 379 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,000 You're using lights and a lot of stuff during the day. 380 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:22,000 So if you're running one of these micro hydro or wind turbines, you can wake up with a full battery bank. 381 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,000 It's pretty luxurious. 382 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:25,000 We lived on a sailboat. 383 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,000 That's kind of where we started our hostile vision. 384 00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:29,000 We got living on a sailboat in San Diego. 385 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:32,000 So we know a lot about that was our living off the grid. 386 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:33,000 Yeah. 387 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,000 Living on battery banks and solar panels and stuff like solar panel wind. 388 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:41,000 And then, you know, living very minimalist, you know, as a sailor, you live at one bag. 389 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:43,000 That's the only space you have. 390 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:46,000 You start to realize a lot of this stuff I don't need. 391 00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:47,000 It's a lot like a tiny home. 392 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:49,000 It is very much like a tiny home. 393 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:50,000 Yeah. Yeah. 394 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:51,000 Some of the better times on that one. 395 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:59,000 Now, with the solar element, does that make it more challenging to keep your status as organic, which you are organic status, 396 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:05,000 which is extremely hard and difficult and power to you for keeping that going as it's always run that way? 397 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:11,000 But is that challenging to do or is it easier to do with intertwining that green energy? 398 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:12,000 That's a good question. 399 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:17,000 A lot of the certification for organic doesn't rely upon energy consumption as much. 400 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:18,000 Okay. 401 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:22,000 For the energy consumption, it's a lot harder to have things like cold storage. 402 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,000 So what we're doing is we're harvesting and delivering day of. 403 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:26,000 Ah. 404 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:29,000 But the organic certification is difficult. 405 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:36,000 The reason why we do it is because outside of the local community, that word organic carries a lot of weight. 406 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,000 If you're organic, you're automatically non-GMO. 407 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:40,000 Yeah. 408 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,000 You're automatically not using any pesticides. 409 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:46,000 It says a lot about your production as a farm. 410 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:51,000 When we send our apples to San Francisco, that word fetches double the price for our apples. 411 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:52,000 That's correct. 412 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:57,000 And it's more than worth the hoops we have to jump through to try and keep the certification. 413 00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:02,000 It's a little bit challenging, but we're not doing anything that's not organic. 414 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:05,000 We just have to keep up a lot of record keeping and things like that. 415 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:06,000 You have that annual inspection. 416 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,000 Now, but the original commune that came out here was organic, right? 417 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:12,000 I think you can be organic without the certification. 418 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,000 Sure, but they were probably operating along with it. 419 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:15,000 They were definitely. 420 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:16,000 Ahead of their time. 421 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:17,000 Yeah, yeah. 422 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:20,000 Very high standards and morals for living. 423 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:28,000 And you were mentioning earlier some cool things with the county itself being an area where you can't bring in these genetically modified seeds. 424 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,000 And you have a seed bank at the library. 425 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:31,000 I mean, that's just so cool. 426 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:37,000 But people, I think a lot of younger people especially, don't understand how sensitive this seed issue is. 427 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:47,000 And what companies like Monsanto and their underling companies that they've created to try to slip by the fact that people hear Monsanto and now think Lucifer for the right reason. 428 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,000 Not to hurt the dog's name though. 429 00:33:50,000 --> 00:34:06,000 But what would you say is something that you would want to share with the listeners about this movement of these genetically modified seeds that they cross-pollinate and then it makes them that they don't come about each season. 430 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:11,000 Yeah, well that's the Terminator gene is what they're trying to put into seeds nowadays. 431 00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:18,000 And the patent literally makes it illegal for you to have a farm growing organic seeds. 432 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:23,000 If something like corn is being grown, it's wind pollinated, so it's transferring into your crop. 433 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:31,000 It's no longer organic if your neighbor is growing any sort of Terminator gene or Roundup Ready kind of seed. 434 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,000 So it's really tough. 435 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:36,000 I'm at Mendocino where we live and I'm from San Diego as well. 436 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:41,000 I left because I was swimming against the current of the society down there. 437 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:44,000 I moved up here because we're very much swimming with the current here. 438 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:48,000 We're organic. It's easy to be organic because everyone wants organic up here. 439 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:52,000 Everyone understands the value of it and appreciates it. 440 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:54,000 The county is non-GMO county. 441 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:58,000 No one's allowed to grow GMO crops in this county. 442 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:03,000 But like I said, the library carries, same way they carry books, they carry a seed library as well. 443 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:06,000 And you can go there for free, get seeds to grow your own food. 444 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:12,000 Yeah, and you watch a lot of those science sci-fi movies and whenever there's an armageddon, 445 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:14,000 I always remember that they're always carrying a bag of seeds. 446 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:18,000 That's the most important thing that you've got to get is these seeds. 447 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:22,000 I was reading a book the other day and we were talking about how back in the day, 448 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:28,000 if you were able as an explorer to take a seed from one country or continent to another continent 449 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:31,000 and proliferate this, you were like a god. 450 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:33,000 You're like, oh my god, you brought tobacco over. 451 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:35,000 Not that that's a good one to bring. 452 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:39,000 But an example of it was so much more respected and valued. 453 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:42,000 And now I think that we've just been tuned out from it. 454 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:46,000 And it's just become like that capitalized thing, just like health care and other areas 455 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:50,000 where it shouldn't get involved with, why are they fucking with the seeds 456 00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:52,000 and how much of a damage that could create. 457 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:57,000 But the story that you told us of the farmer who would be farming for generations 458 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:01,000 and the cross-pollination would then put him in a situation where he gets sued by Monsanto, 459 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:04,000 shut down by Monsanto, then I'm sure they'd come at him and say, 460 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,000 well, why don't you buy these seeds right back in business? 461 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,000 You know, the guy had no choice. 462 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:11,000 So I think it's so cool that you've all banded together as a county 463 00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:15,000 and a large community to say no to that so that it couldn't happen. 464 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:19,000 And I hope that more communities out there and younger people listening 465 00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:23,000 are aware of this and start to take this more of a serious issue. 466 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:24,000 It's really important. 467 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:29,000 I mean, especially with organic certification, if you're farming next to another farm 468 00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:33,000 that is growing GMO seeds and isn't doing organic practices, 469 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:38,000 it makes the process of having your certification way more difficult. 470 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:44,000 And a lot of times you can't even get certified because your neighbors aren't doing it. 471 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:45,000 How frustrating that was. 472 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:49,000 We're really blessed to be in a community where it's supported in that realm. 473 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:53,000 We're blessed that Juniors like this exist. So that's fantastic. 474 00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:57,000 Now, what about, you've got yourself established here. 475 00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:01,000 You're a young, well-educated man. You've got a vision. 476 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:05,000 You've got a great crew around you. You've got an awesome thing going on here. 477 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:09,000 Where are you looking to take this place? What's the vision going forward? 478 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:14,000 It's an exciting time because we're in this cool stage of growth 479 00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:22,000 where via the internet and HIPCamp and our social networks, I guess, 480 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:26,000 we have established ourselves as a functioning retreat center. 481 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:30,000 We're already, I'd say, 90% booked for next year. 482 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:37,000 And we're looking into where do we go to make the business function well, 483 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:41,000 but make our lives function well here and feed our souls. 484 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:48,000 From there, we start talking about visioning for curating our own content here. 485 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,000 We're doing our own retreats, basically. 486 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:51,000 Nice. 487 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:54,000 We're starting to focus on the human potential movement, 488 00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:57,000 what we can do philosophically, ecologically, 489 00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:00,000 host weekends here that are educational, 490 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,000 not just for the people who come and enjoy themselves, but for ourselves as well. 491 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:07,000 Outstanding. Now, Margaret, over to you now, 492 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:12,000 back for a bit of the guest experience that intertwining with this educational experience 493 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:14,000 that Dean's talking about. 494 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,000 If you were just coming up, not on one of these retreats, 495 00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:20,000 but just a solo person coming and renting a cabin, 496 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:23,000 what would be kind of like your daily experience at the farm here 497 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,000 that you could kind of expect to take in? 498 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:29,000 Well, it's a really windy road to get here. 499 00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:37,000 So I think in that realm, you start to feel the dips and turns of like, 500 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:41,000 oh, I'm leaving a larger society and I'm headed into the countryside 501 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:48,000 to really just be able to take in a big breath of fresh air and to unplug. 502 00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:53,000 We don't have cell phone service here, so literally phones can just stay in the car. 503 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:56,000 You don't even have to lock your car. 504 00:38:56,000 --> 00:39:01,000 Find your way into your cabin. If it's cold out, get a fire going. 505 00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:06,000 And then you really just get to enjoy the nature and be in the beauty that surrounds you. 506 00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:10,000 So walking through the fields and seeing how broccoli grows 507 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:14,000 and connecting to the food here. You get to eat the food that we grow. 508 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:15,000 Yeah. 509 00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:20,000 Hanging out in the Garcia River. It's one of the cleanest watersheds we have in California. 510 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:24,000 It's really beautiful. And then we're just about two miles from the ocean. 511 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:28,000 So you can head to the beach. Really good surf. Really great surf. 512 00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:33,000 There's tons of awesome hiking trails around here that are just beautiful. 513 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:36,000 You have one on site, right? We have a couple on site. 514 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:42,000 We have a trail system on site. And Obama, I think it was 2010, 515 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,000 started the local national monument with a storm at a public lands. 516 00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:50,000 And it's a cool trail system right on the bluffs. Super beautiful. 517 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,000 Tallest lighthouse on the West Coast. Oh, nice. 518 00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:58,000 And then I have to make you plug this hot tub as I experienced it last night. 519 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:02,000 A cedar wood fired hot tub. Tell us a bit about this bad boy. 520 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:08,000 Yeah. So just on the topic of the shared economy, we actually got the hot tub on a trade. 521 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:14,000 So we had a group of friends that come here every year to celebrate New Year's. 522 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,000 They've been doing it for I think almost 10 years now. 523 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:22,000 And a couple in that group wanted to get married. So they were like, hey, how about we do a trade? 524 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:27,000 We'll install this hot tub and then we can get married. And we thought that was a great deal. 525 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:33,000 And then the next year, another friend, we're like, how about we build a deck and put in a cold plunge in a shower 526 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:39,000 and beautify the hot tub zone even more for a trade. So we got really fortunate with that. 527 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:43,000 We had like people willing to put in the sweat and the labor and make it happen. 528 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:48,000 And now we have this beautiful amenity we get to share. 529 00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:55,000 It's always if you come and rent the space and you do a full camp rental, the hot tub's included. 530 00:40:55,000 --> 00:41:02,000 If it's a hip camp weekend, it's kind of hit or miss depending on who's weekend warrior and whether or not they're going to light it. 531 00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:08,000 So we share responsibilities within the intentional community that lives here. 532 00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:17,000 As far as every weekend, someone is in charge of making sure the guests are comfortable, the greenhouse gets watered and things like that. 533 00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:20,000 And every day you come together for a family dinner? 534 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:27,000 Yeah, we have communal meals Monday through Friday and we just do a rotating shift on that. 535 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:29,000 Awesome. That was delicious last night. 536 00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:31,000 You guys got lucky Margaret was cooking. 537 00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:36,000 Yeah, we did. So we had the three sisters soup, we had the kale salad. 538 00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:41,000 We had fresh bread from our friend James, James Pelican bread. 539 00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:47,000 He knows all his own grain that he gets from Mendocino County. 540 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:51,000 I woke up this morning feeling certified organic. 541 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:55,000 It was great. I didn't put anything in my body last night, but a plant. 542 00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:57,000 It was fantastic. 543 00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:01,000 All right. Well, Dean Margaret, it has been an absolute pleasure. 544 00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:08,000 I thank you for having us in your hospitality, sharing the experience with us so we can preach and go forward and spread the word for you. 545 00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:16,000 And also taking the time out of your busy day to record this session with us to help us finish up season two of the Hostel Road Trip podcast series 546 00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:27,000 and be a platform that we can use to get this word out there about this awesome experience up at the Oz Farm in the town of Poinarina, Mendocino County. 547 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:38,000 Until next time, we're hitting the road and heading for the mountains of Tahoe. Stay tuned.