Julie Cates' students are learning about raising chickens on Mars, where walnuts come from, and lots more. Julie is a 6th grade teacher in California, and is very dedicated to teaching nutrition and math through ag in the classroom work.

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Welcome to Barnyard Language.

We are Katie and Arlene, an Iowa sheep farmer, and an Ontario dairy

farmer with six kids, two husbands, and a whole lot of chaos between us.

So kick off your boots, reheat your coffee, and join us

for some barnyard language.

Honest talk about running farms and raising families.

In

case your kids haven't already learned all the swears from being in the barn,

it might be a good idea to put on some headphones or turn down the volume.

While many of our guests are professionals, they

aren't your professionals.

If you need personalized advice, consult your people.

Welcome to another episode of Barnyard Language, and today we

have Katie and I in the same room recording our first ever live.

Well, no, it's not live first.

Ever update together.

So we're live.

Yeah, we're live together.

It's not live that you will hear it anyway, you know what I mean?

So it's weird we're in the same room huddled together on the couch cuz we

have one microphone because we've never recorded together and Katie didn't

pack her in her luggage, which is fine.

Sorry.

That's okay.

So Katie, I'm not gonna ask what's happening in Iowa cuz you're not there.

So what's happening here in.

. Um, she's looking out the window.

She's gonna give you the weather report.

Yeah, I'll check the weather.

Uh, snow.

Yeah.

Looks like maybe some sun.

Now I don't see any cows running loose, so that's good.

I don't see any children running loose, so that is also good.

Well, the children could go outside, they'd be fine.

Yeah.

But I don't see them like running a moth.

So that's directly out this window.

Yeah.

Um, we're getting ready to go to Maya's birthday party.

Yeah, an inflatable parade.

Yeah.

Which is very exciting.

Past guest Mais celebrating her 40th birthday, which means inflatables at

an eighties dance party in a barn.

So Katie gets to enjoy that and stay

tuned for fun.

Eighties clothes at home with my microphone.

Oh,

sadly.

Yeah.

I She doesn't sound too sad about that.

No.

So what is, uh, travel like from rural Iowa to rural Ontario?

How long did that take you?

Three hours in.

Two hours on a plane, three hours in an airport, an hour on a plane.

And then legitimately the most enthusiastic greeting I've ever gotten in

an airport.

. I was not in an inflatable,

unfortunately.

No.

But Arlene and her mom made a lovely sign and brought a Canadian flag

and greeted me at the airport.

It was delightful.

And then Linda did not lose my luggage.

Yeah.

And then another.

The car.

Yeah, so basically a, a giant voyage to get from one place to the other.

But those of you in rural places know what that's

like.

It was a tremendously uneventful trip.

That's the right time to see my friend Holly in Minneapolis.

She's a listener as well, and that was lovely.

I got to meet some more listeners and some past guests and

yeah, we met up with, uh, Dr.

Jessica who came to join us.

She's just in upstate New York, so not, not all that far from here.

So she came to Miley Little town and we went out for Indian food, and

then we got to go to the farm of past guests, Claire Smith, who has also.

A fantastic cheese room.

So we got some cheese, which is like the best kind of farm tour.

Not, I mean, any farm tour is good, but when you get free

cheese, that's also an added bonus.

And she fed us lunch, which was fantastic.

And Arlene's husband has been teaching me about curling because the Women's

Canadian championships are on.

They are.

Yeah.

Um, , like my preferred sport of nascar, there is more going on than I

would've expected . So yeah, it was more interesting than I was prepared to get.

Yes, we're telling

her lots of rules and she's questioning whether they're all

actual or if we're making fun of her, but we're, we're not being, yeah.

There is actually a thing called a hammer.

Yeah.

But there's no literal hammer.

There's no actual hammer.

. Oh, and the other thing we did was we got Katie to come and help organize, well not

organize, but peel potatoes and, uh, prep and be at our, uh, four H Awards dinner.

So we got to peel some potatoes and peel some carrots and get

ready for a four H supper.

So Katie, what are your first impressions of Canada?

What's different?

What have you noticed?

French.

Okay.

Yeah, mostly . Um, yeah.

And not all that much of it

really.

No.

But it's always interesting traveling to another English speaking country

because things seem more similar.

So things that are different seem weirder than when you traveled to

a totally different place and it's like everything here is different.

Of course, the packaging is different.

Sure, yeah.

Yeah.

We

went on a cultural experience all the way to Walmart, so that was exciting.

Yeah.

What products are the same?

What's different?

No.

At Canadian Walmart, but they do have hockey sticks and hockey

jerseys, which that's true.

Which we do not have.

That's true.

Um, and all sorts of cookies that we don't have.

Yeah.

All sorts of, all sorts of strange cookies.

Yeah.

The Cho the chocolate bar selection was significantly different.

Yeah.

You know, in the name of science we bought some cookies.

Mm-hmm.

to test out to.

To investigate.

We should do that.

Yeah.

Arlene, how are things in Ontario?

Uh, well, I think we covered a lot of it already.

Okay.

You know, I felt like I should ask.

Yeah.

I don't think there's much.

, those are

the main things.

There's some weird, creepy lady in her house, but , she,

she hasn't kicked her out yet,

so, yeah.

Yeah.

So we are at the stage where we don't have a spare room anymore, so

we had to kick the youngest out of his bedroom, and he's now bunking in

with his two other older brothers.

So he's delighted because he gets to have sleepovers with his big brothers

and they are less thrilled, but they've

all, they're fine.

Very polite to me about it.

? Yeah.

Not too many Iowa jokes.

Really?

No.

No.

Less than I anticipated.

Yeah, a little disappointed.

, they're just warming

up too.

I'm sure that Tuesday morning before they leave for school,

there will be a real flurry.

Yeah.

They'll start firing them off healthcare jokes.

And other than peeling potatoes, we haven't made Katie work yet, but maybe

she can milk with us Tuesday before she leaves or something like that.

That would be fun.

And we got some photos taken together so we don't have to just Photoshop

our heads into, uh, Pictures.

So stay tuned for those.

We might roll those out over a little while.

And we already decided that anyone who's on uh, Patreon is gonna

get all the outtakes because there's a lot of awkwardness.

There's

some great ones.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So stay tuned Pats, and if you'd like the show, you can join our

Patreon and see all the embarrassing stuff because we have a price

in regards to the four H dinner, the food was delightful,

the people were delightful.

And Hugh Hunter's management of program.

Was masterful . It was possibly the shortest program of that

sort day I've ever been to.

That is, that

is the best part.

Keep it short and snappy.

And there was no gun

raffle.

There was no gun raffle . There was no raffle.

There was, which I did not know was a thing.

None of the delightful ways that we raised money in the US sadly.

Yeah, so our guest for today has been waiting patiently.

I think we interviewed her way back in November maybe.

Anyway, it's been a while, so I think it might have been the end

of October . Anyway, she's gotten bumped a few times for some other,

uh, kind of seasonal episodes.

But thank you so much for your patience, Mrs.

Kates, and we are excited for you to listen to her interview.

Today we are very lucky to be talking to Julie Kates, who is a sixth grade

teacher joining us from California.

So Julie, we start each of our interviews with the same question, and

this is a way that you can introduce yourself to our listeners so we

can, a, we ask what are you growing?

And this can cover crops or livestock if you're a farmer,

and then families, businesses, careers, all kinds of other things.

So Julie, what are you growing?

Hi.

Well good morning and thank you for having me.

Um, so at home, I'm trying to grow celery, , and I have a few chickens

though we're producing a few eggs.

Uh, but at cool, um, in our classroom we're very excited to be, um, partnering

with Fairchild Botanical Gardens in NASA to, um, have a growth chamber

with some basil and cilantro cultivars.

So that's what we're growing at school.

So Julie, did you grow up on a farm or how did you, um, get involved in agricul?

You

know what, I, I did not grow up on a farm.

I actually, um, we moved to the Central Valley.

Uh, my husband had a job relocation, and that's where I was exposed to all this

agriculture and it's really amazing.

Um, we have a, an international agri center, which I saw that

on the highway, like what?

International.

We're in the middle of nowhere.

What is that about?

And um, it's this giant farm show.

And so I went.

Um, in 2007 and that's when I got started to become excited about it.

So for our less US geography minded friends, , um, can you

tell us a little about what the Central Valley is and where it is?

Yes.

So California is a, uh, densely populated long state and, um, the

Central Valley in terms of agriculture is in the middle of the state.

Um, Longitudinally and.

Latitude, like, uh, we're south, we're, we're directly between Bakersfield and

Fresno, or like halfway between LA and San Francisco, but inland toward Yosemite

National Park, um, Sequoia National Park.

And so it's this long stretch of growing area, which essentially is a desert.

Um, but Californians have been irrigating it, it was naturally

irrigated and now there's a lot of water wars about all of that.

But, Um, needless to say, we grow a lot of fruits and vegetables

and nut and dairy in our area.

I wanna say it's one of the richest, horticultural

growing areas in the country.

Correct?

Definitely.

As opposed to, as opposed to row crops like we grow in Iowa.

Yes.

So yes, we have, in California we have over 400 specialty crops,

and so that means it's not corns or soybean corn or soybeans.

Um, so we have a.

, like all of the lettuces are grown, but those are over on the central coast.

We're on the Central Valley, so we're in a drier area.

Um, and so I don't know if people know that, but the lettuce that you.

Probably by at the store.

It was typically grown in the coastal region of Central

California or maybe Arizona.

Not here where we are though.

Yeah.

I had no idea how much lettuce has grown in Arizona.

It does not seem like, uh, the most logical place.

Yeah.

, but

like it would be conducive.

Yeah.

I toured it actually a couple years ago.

Um, the Earthbound Farms, when they started, when they started

purchasing land and growing there, I went on an ag tour of.

Lettuce.

It was pretty amazing.

Yeah.

It's

um, interesting to see how California is really adjusting to

the changing demands on agriculture, especially with climate change.

And Yes.

You know, it's really stressing a lot of systems.

I guess I was trying to come up with a nice way to, to put Yes, yes.

It didn't sound quite so

. Right.

Yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely distressful.

I mean, that's a whole nother conversation, but, um, farmers are having

to take out large orchards and fields just because we're, we really don't have water.

It's pretty

hard.

And how did you know that you be wanted to become a teacher and what, what possessed

you to want to spend your life with?

Other people's children.

Insanity,

? No.

Got it.

No.

Um, I actually did not, I actually always wanted to be a nurse, but, um,

All of that math and science, you know, when, when I was in high school and they

threatened me with all that math and science in college, I was afraid of that.

Um, so I did a lot of other things and, um, I, I worked always since, you know, 15

and, and, uh, did all these other things and had children and then I finished my

degree very late in life, so I'm an old.

New teacher.

So I've been only a teacher for about eight years.

And, um, when I finished my degree, um, I, I lived in different parts of

the country for my husband's, um, work.

And when I finished my degree here in California, uh, my first job

was with, uh, cooperative Extension and I was a nutrition educator.

And, um, all of the teachers I worked with said, you have to be a teacher.

Like this is your thing, do it.

So I did.

And, um, I fell in love with agriculture when I got here, so I

had to incorporate it all the time.

Like it's so important and uh, it's really vital to all the kids

who live here because like one in four jobs are related to that.

And.

People don't know either.

They don't have a concept of how important it is to eat

. Yeah.

Which is weird.

You know, you'd think that people would understand that

food is important to All right.

Yeah.

Um, Arlene, do you guys have university extension in

Canada or something like that?

Not,

not really.

Not in this, not in the same

way.

No.

Julie, I'm in Iowa, which is, you know, hardcore land grant.

Yes.

University territory.

And yes, the state extension is one of the biggest.

Blessings and resources that we have around here, and it's really

definitely, so for the people that don't know, I think it was like 1906,

I wanna say I'm, I'm not sure which chicken or the egg, but the university

system and the farm Bureau system were developed and so they work.

Together.

And so, um, in California we have a pretty robust extension system.

And so there are crop advisors that are particular to different, you

know, nut crops and row crops in dairy and all the, uh, those things.

And so each county, we have 57 counties in each county has a farm bureau and

or an extension office that they can get all these free resources from.

And so, It's really amazing.

I guess

that was the question I was gonna ask is about, you know, whether those

resources are, are paid or free, but yeah, we definitely don't have

a, a similar system in, in Canada that I, that I know of anyway.

Our state extension at least does everything from, um, pressure

testing people's canners to running the Master Gardeners program.

Um, four H, they do just all sorts of, um, farm production.

Classes and coaching and, um, business coaching and farm succession

planning, all sorts of things, uh, yes, is a really an amazing resource.

So, Julie,

you talked a little bit about the geography of where you're located,

but can you tell us a little bit more about your community, where your school

is, what it looks like in terms of the, the people and the, the families

that your, your school is made up of?

Sure.

So we're in, um, where I teach, um, is in.

A town, uh, well, a town of about 140,000 and it's, so I'm not sure if

that's considered suburban, rural or, so we're kind of in the middle of state.

We have a hospital and we do not have a university.

, we have a community college, so that's sort of how big the town is.

You know, when I first moved there I said, well, they have

10 Starbucks and one library.

So those are the priorities.

, uh, the ki I work in a title one school, so that means we have a, a high percentage

of, um, low income and underperforming.

And so, um, that's the population I serve and.

That's part of why it's really important to always include like the STEM

activities and the why behind everything.

Um, and because some of my i'd, I'd like to say a fourth maybe of my classroom,

their dads or moms work on dairies or, um, in a dairy related field.

And so it's also really important for their self-esteem to know that their

parent, uh, is part of something huge.

Huge and important to, uh, survival of the United States, really.

And my opinion, like we can't feed ourselves.

How can we sustain ourselves?

I think that's such a key thing.

Um, my kids are in a very similar school in rural Iowa, so, uh, a very

small town, um, with a packing plant.

So I wanna say, It's something like 60% of the students in the school are minority

and over 70% are below the poverty line.

So it's a very different school than you see, um, in any of the

other communities in the area.

But I think it has done such a disservice to ag that it's been so sort of a,

for folks who can't do anything else, who stay home and farm, and that's.

At all the reality of agriculture now.

And so melding those stem skills with pride in what we do, you know, because

there are computers and robots and science and math and you know, it's not a.

Go out back and milk one cow by hand.

And not that that does not also take science and math and a lot

of skills, but you know, we're looking at a very different world.

So where does your passion for ag education and nutrition

come from?

I think it started when I went to the International Ag Show.

And I asked so many questions that one of the, um, booths thought, thought I

was a reporter and they were excited.

They thought I was from some magazine and I had to say, no, I'm

just a person that knows nothing.

Um, and so then Cooperative Extinction made me serve on a committee, an ag

education committee with Farm Bureau.

And, uh, they provided me with a, an ag in the classroom field trip,

and that's where I became hooked.

So I was always into nutrition.

Um, my degree is in communication and I was always about, Um, positively putting

the word out about proper nutrition, but I really became involved with ag

because of Farm Bureau, and I want kids to eat healthy, but they need to know

where it comes from and, and nutrition isn't nutrition until they eat it.

And so, I just really, that's really important to me.

Like Taki are not food, , Taki are chemicals.

They're not, I mean, I can't even attribute them to corn or soybeans or

anything that's far from California.

And so I'd really like them to eat food that is grown and um, . I had

a sixth grader, one that did not know that walnuts grew on trees.

She thought walnuts were a, a thing that were made in a factory.

She saw them in the store and she didn't know, and we live

in a huge walnut growing area.

So for her child to be in sixth grade and not know that weren't manmade was.

A shock

on your Instagram, you have a, was it called, is it called

try it Tuesday or your Uh, yes.

Yeah.

So is that something you do in the classroom

as well?

Yes, I do that in the classroom and, um, I have other teachers

at school doing that as well now.

And then I have a, a teacher friend, um, who I'll do, I applied for a grant

initially my first year teaching, and that's how I had to pay for it.

But now I just pay for it myself.

Or if, or if people say, oh, my grapefruit tree.

Blooming.

Would you like these?

Yes.

Then we try that.

But we try to, we attempt to try things that are in season and also

reasonably priced because I want the kids to be able to buy it.

So if I'm trying something exotic like Dragon fruit, they always wanna try

dragon fruit, which is really fun.

Um, but.

That's just an excursion or like a treat because families can't afford to buy.

That's very expensive.

But all the other things like kids lettuce, different types of

lettuce, if they've only had one kind of lettuce, they don't know.

It's very exciting.

So they love try it Tuesday.

So I have three teachers at my school doing it and a teacher, um, in

another community doing it as well.

Julie, speaking of.

Accessibility of foods and knowing how, um, depressing it is when the

food that's grown in your area is too expensive for the families in your area.

What are ways that families can.

Get better access to especially produce.

I know myself learning more about the nutritional qualities, especially of

frozen produce was really astounding because we get such a push that it

has to be fresh, which makes it so spendy and you know, at least with

kids like mine, my kids are four and five and we have a phenomen.

That is referred to as sack of bananas.

You know, where you, like your kids are obsessed with this one food.

They will only eat this one food.

You stock up on this one food and you're all like, what the hell?

We're never eating that again.

, you know?

And so at least if it's frozen, you can kind of like save it until

they forget that they hate that thing or sneak it in other places.

So I'm wondering what, um, what your ideas are on.

Making it more accessible for families to feed their mm-hmm.

. So that's a great question because,

desert, but other lots of other towns in our county are food deserts, so

that's where they don't have access.

Even a grocery store, we have a very inexpensive grocery store near us, so

that's not a huge problem at the moment.

Um, but I do teach them.

That, um, fresh, frozen, or canned are all, all going to have this

high nutrient value because the food that is in frozen and canned came

even faster from its source than the food that's in the grocery store.

Um, we also have a cool garden, and though, I assist with that.

I'm not the garden leader, but we really focus on, um, showing kids

how to plant, how they can have that at home, let us even in a container.

And then I also am into tricks, so I don't, I actually don't

call them tricks, like I don't.

I don't hide my vegetables.

I call it value added.

And so we like to do fun things like if we have a, um, pancake day, like peas

and pancakes, so you can put frozen peas in the pancakes like for St.

Patrick's Day.

Super fun, right?

Peas and pancakes and um, you could even put the whole frozen

vegetable medley in pancakes.

And that's another way to get kids to eat things that's

fun and they don't notice it.

I teach the kids a lot about spinach, cuz spinach is kind of a bland.

Tasting thing that you can put in anything, you're in the Crock Pott.

I'm a big, huge crockpot person, so I have a crockpot in my classroom and I

try, I have sixth grade, so they're at the age where they can do things themselves.

So I try to teach them things that they can make themselves like hummus.

Those are from canned garbanzos, and that's a great afterschool snack,

and once they make it themselves, then they're hooked on and it's a

high protein dense protein snack, and it's very cheap to make.

I will say my, uh, my big trick now with my kids, they

won't normally drink smoothies.

I think they're onto me that there's like weird vegetables in there or

whatever, . But if I freeze them into popsicles and then I'm like, oh look,

you could have a Popsicle for breakfast.

They're right on it, you know?

Yeah.

And it might just be the healthiest thing in the world, but if it's a

Popsicle and they can eat it for breakfast, they'll eat anything that.

. Yeah.

You know, and that's so, yeah.

I mean, I, I also don't prefer to hide things from my kids because that's not

a great way to teach them to eat it.

Right.

Um, but there's also times that you can just, you can throw spinach in pretty

much anything without really changing it.

Yeah.

and we, um, I like to use, I like to tie a lot of fruits

and vegetables to curriculum.

And so, um, cause I can't, I love try it Tuesday, but my first principle is like

everything had to be tied to standards and which it should, of course, , but, um, so

I, I use a lot of like, how does it grow?

Um, true food, TV, videos, and.

Use a lot of a classroom material for sixth grade to reading and writing.

But I also do things like, um, when we're doing division of fractions

in math, they cut zucchini.

Like I give them an equation and then they have to cut the

zucchini according to that.

And then when we're finished with all that, we put in a crock pott with

some chicken broth and onions and other vegetables, and we make a soup.

They love it.

Like so they might not like squash before today.

And then we try that and it's like the greatest thing ever.

They go home and they tell their parents and that's a very inexpensive meal

that they can make for themselves.

That's a really great idea.

Yeah.

Using, using those manipulatives, which we know helps kids learn and

retain information, but then not having those just be thrown out or.

Or you take them home.

Right.

You know, like actually doing that in front of them is the, is the, the

next step to really engaging them.

Yeah.

And eating it themselves in class or like, um, like sugar snap peas for ratios, you

know, show me, demonstrate the ratios.

And then averaging later, like they get, they're kind of playing with their food.

Like, I don't like to say that.

I don't want them throwing peas or anything like that, but Sure.

Yeah.

Just actually, um, you.

Washed hands, of course, touching it, examining it, looking

at it, and then eating it.

It's like a whole new level of experience for them.

And also lots of kids don't eat those and those are a very healthy snack

that are affordable for families.

Um, and again, we're back to more green in their diet.

So.

So

you mentioned already in what you're growing about some of the programs

you're working right now, but can you tell us a bit more detail on

those, those programs and how.

Changing the world

, but I don't know that I'm, I'm trying.

But, um, so let's see.

Um, we have the try it Tuesday, which is great.

We try new things, but we ha we do have to tie it to curriculum.

So math and science for sure.

A year ago in Iowa actually, um, I went to an ag in the classroom

conference and um, this woman.

Can your grow, can your kids grow chickens on Mars?

My can.

Mine can.

And so I went to her, her thing and I was hooked.

So last year we tried a project called Nuggets on Mars.

And so University of North Carolina, I believe it was working with NASA

to get, um, kids to think about.

, like chicken nuggets are their favorite.

And so how would they, if they have to live on Mars, how are

they gonna get chicken nuggets?

And so that's a whole big complicated process because they have to

learn about, um, chicken poultry development and poultry processing,

but they also have to be able to grow the food to feed the chickens.

And so that was a year long.

Um, project, there was not a lot of curriculum available, so it was a lot.

We had to do a lot of investigating and designing ourselves, but we

had an incubator, so we were doing some cell theory development.

We had, we had to do two trials of that.

Cause our first one we got no chickens.

It was very sad.

So we did it again.

We had chickens.

Um, we had, we grew different types of plants, and then we

got to study like robotics.

There's a, a lettuce company in Massachusetts that grows

all their lettuce, hands free.

And so it's just an idea of like trying to get things to think about

agriculture, but in the future, to use the least amount of water, the least

amount of, um, additives, et cetera.

So that's a yearlong project.

And then this summer, I found another one that also is tied to space, um, and

that's called, um, growing Beyond Earth.

And so that's where we actually, um, are we, I got a grant and through

Mars Farms we have a growth chamber, and in the classroom we are growing.

Uh, for basil and cilantro, that they're actually growing on the space station.

And it's just amazing because we get to zoom with these NASA scientists.

We were zooming with Kennedy Space Center Center, excuse me, during the hurricane.

So here's this scientist with his iPhone, walking around NASA explaining

all these great things to kids about plant science and how things grow.

My kid, the vocabulary was beyond belief and they, they just ate it up.

They wrote, their notes are pages long, so it's very exciting.

And so, um, our whole sixth grade team is doing that.

So we've written several grants and the, we're just now getting the money

and so we're trying to make sure that we're covering all those things.

Eggs, chickens, plants.

Space station, all of it.

I think

it's so wonderful.

I'm sure it's frustrating to not have curriculum just ready to go

because it is that much more work.

And we know that teachers are overworked and underpaid.

Uh, seems to be a pretty universal thing, but how wonderful it is for your students

to see a teachers who are engaged enough to make that happen for them, even when

it does mean designing your own curriculum and also that your students are seeing.

You don't have to have a fancy special education or a fancy special

lab or whatever else to do science.

That science is just something they can pursue and they can ask a question

and figure out how to answer it and just to make that accessible for them.

Because I know, especially in income schools where there's

not a ton of money for fancy science things, you know, to, to.

How they can make that still be a thing that they can pursue without

those resources is wonderful.

Yeah.

And you know, , the one thing that the lockdown really enabled for us is Zoom.

And so I use, I've brought farmers into the classroom before, but

Zoom makes it even more accessible.

So I know that you've had, um, Ginny Halterman on Almond

Girl, Jenny, so she's amazing.

Like social media is amazing.

I connected with her, I don't even know how many years ago, and she's so helpful

and so I started zooming with her.

The kids, I mean, I, as I said, they grew up around these orchards,

but they don't know anything.

. It also helps me to reinforce like there's an actual person behind

it, and they are scientists, right?

They have a, they have a hypothesis every day.

They grow out there.

They're trying to discover what's gonna work best for their crop.

They're dealing with the government in politics, the watering, all of it.

Like a farmer is all those things.

It's not some old white guy on a tractor.

It's like all these people and all of these.

and they can be that as well.

I think that the, you know, like that's, that's the message, right?

For, for kids and for lots of, lots of adults.

in the world too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That, that farmer is not someone who's, who's just out there doing a simple job.

You know that there's so much, so much behind the food that's being grown.

And I mean, we all take things for, you know, for granted.

I mean, I don't necessarily know how the power comes into my house or you

know, all the elements of, you know, all the things that I, that I purchase.

But food is one of those elemental things that we all need.

to survive.

So I think that there, you know, sometimes there is that lack of

re respect for the people who are, who are growing the things that are

actually keeping us all alive, right?

Yes.

And I think also like, Big Ag has gotten like a really bad name and

I understand the history behind.

I'm old enough to know all about the history, but I think that was then,

and this is now, and farmers are really dialed into the most efficient

use of water power, uh, drones.

All of the things and making the most nutrient dense food possible.

And it's really important to get their stories out too.

Like it, it's just so complex.

There's so many things available.

I mean, I didn't even, you know, when I went to Maine, I didn't even

know about aquaculture like, Fishing and, and lobster and all that.

That's agriculture.

I didn't even know that.

Like, and I'm this old, how , how did I not know that?

That's a thing.

Yeah.

We just interviewed a fish farmer the other day actually, and we were full

of questions because same, right.

You, you don't know what it takes to, to grow these things and, and when there's

only 2% of the population growing all the.

We, you know, we have to be efficient.

You know, like farmers, farmers have to, and we have to use the

resources that we have in hand.

We have to, you know, value the water and, and preserve it and, and make

sure that the land is productive.

I mean, who more than the people who are growing the food know that that soil is,

you know, an incredibly important or maybe the most important element in terms of,

of growing the food that we're eating.

It.

Yeah.

That, that impression of agriculture as an industry that doesn't care is, is

definitely outdated or, you know, misled.

Yes.

And then, and also even like simple things kids don't know

about, um, beneficial bugs.

So it's really great when you're talking to someone and they say, oh, well, um,

we introduced these, these insects to counteract those other insects rather than

they didn't just come out there and spray a bunch of unnecessary chemicals, they.

They had beneficial bugs.

And like our garden teacher, she teaches the kids that, like our

kids that are in garden club, they understand, oh, that's a good bug.

That's a bad bug.

What do we need those for?

So what do you find most excites and engages your students

when it comes to ag education?

I think the most exciting thing is just anything that has to do with

them creating it or building it.

I mean, tasting is important.

That's so fun.

They, they love try it Tuesday.

I mean, they ask me ahead.

I try to keep it a surprise, but if we are, when we are planting, they're

touching soil, they're putting the seeds in, or when it grows, they're

so excited the next day that if it's.

Sprouted like our, um, NASA project.

They're sprouting really fast.

I'm not sure what is in the, the growing medium, but that's exciting to them.

They wanna see change, they want it.

If they can build it, then they're all for it.

Um, they also really do enjoy zooming with actual people and.

One year I zoomed with, um, Nicole Jolly from True Food TV because

I use a lot of her videos and I, I edit them with Ed Puzzle, which

is a, a, a video, a team program.

So I can put in math comprehension questions, et cetera.

But they zoomed with her and they had, they had their questions ahead

of time, and the takeaway was, oh my gosh, a YouTuber talked to me.

I mean, you just don't know is sixth grade what is gonna be like the thing that is

so exciting for them, but the real people connection definitely up there in the top.

So do you have any sort of, um, things that are consistently surprising to your

students or consistently misunderstood?

and what funny things have happened because, I mean, sixth

graders are a trip anyway.

Um, I know I

tr saw the question ahead of time.

I thought funny.

I don't know.

They're, they're goofy all the time.

Um, I don't have any like hilarious.

Anecdotes to share.

I just have like surprising things like the girl who thought walnuts were manmade.

I had a cotton farmer come to class once and that was pretty cool cuz

cotton used to be huge in California, but it's a very thirsty plant.

It's not, we don't grow it that much.

Um, but he came in, showed the kids all about that, and in that process he said,

oh, I also grow peaches for Del Monte.

Well, Del Monte's a huge canor and huge thing in the area.

We ended up doing a lesson, a math lesson on, uh, like a would

you rather on canned peaches, the different sizes or a fresh peach and

we're free and reduced lunch school.

And I had a 12 year old girl that they, they put canned peaches on

lunch tray for a hundred years.

She said, oh, that's what that is.

I never, I don't eat that thing.

And she loved the peaches.

She ate fresh peaches, camp peaches.

She wanted the dice peaches.

So I never ate that thing.

It slid off my.

And you know, that was like, oh my goodness, slid off your plate.

Like that's what it looks like.

It looks like this big orange foreign object to her.

It didn't look he or tasty and she couldn't get enough peaches after that.

So, um, I think just anything real world.

With kids is is vital.

Like you just have to try it, try it, show it to them.

Um, the dairy, like they don't have a concept about cheese, how cheese

is made, or yogurt or any of the extra or the byproducts of cows.

All the things sort of almost in um, holistic Native American approach.

Like, no, nothing is wasted.

Farmers waste, nothing.

There's nothing that's.

Thrown away.

They used the whole cow, the whole almond tree, the whole everything.

So that's also always a big shock.

They didn't, they don't know truly.

You've been

a teacher for a few years, Anne had to teach during the pandemic.

So you already mentioned the, you know, some of the positive aspects

of Zoom, but what are some of the ways that teaching you feel has

changed even in a short span of time?

In both in the positive ways and in ways that are more challenging?

I think in the positive ways.

Technology certainly is helpful.

As I mentioned a couple of things, like there's tools that are just so great

because there is no one size fits all curriculum, so it's not really out

of the question that we would have to create things to teach kids because

some, I mean, by the time it's published, it's outdated, you know, in terms of.

Technology and growing things.

So I do love the tech aspect, but I think it's taking us a couple years to

bring back social skills and patience.

Um, they just wanna swipe left on everything, and like I'm in

the middle front of the room and they cannot swipe left.

I'm still here.

They cannot mute me.

They cannot swipe left.

Like it's hard to keep their attention.

And sometimes I don't want to, like, they have to sit on it.

They have to think, they have to perseverate over a question.

They can't just like swipe left.

Oh, we're done with her TikTok.

You know, TikTok is fun and it's great, but we can't do

everything in 10 seconds or less.

Like we have to think about it.

We have to.

Actually try the science.

Like it was really great that our egg project failed because we had to learn

from that and the kids had to examine like, what did we touch the eggs too much?

Was the temperature not right?

Like we had collected all the data and all three classes did not work.

So obviously it was the eggs.

We hope it not us, but um, you know, it took more than 10 seconds to.

So I think that's the biggest thing that we need.

I need to remind myself of that sometimes too.

I feel like my own, I, I, I legitimately do feel, you know, like I have less

patience or maybe capacity or I don't know, you know, there, there are so many

things to distract me and maybe that's part of being a parent and business owner

and, you know, doing lots of things too.

But, but yeah, but finding the time and, and forcing myself to focus.

One thing at a time is, is a, is a challenge for me too.

So I'm sure that for grade Sixers that it's a similar situation.

I've noticed Arlene too, I don't know if I told you, but I've been, um, I work from

home, Julie, so I listen to a lot of like self-improvement books while I'm working

because I'm not really listening to them.

And all of them start with people who've done amazing things and then

I realize that all of them are.

and it never mentions their households or their children or their families

or anything beyond their work.

And it occurred to me that they're never talking about women with kids because

we're too busy doing everything else.

Or men who are actively engaged in taking care of their kids because it's

not just women who raise children, but men who are free to do their.

Get a lot more accomplished, a lot faster, and they get talked about a lot more, so.

That's true.

Yes.

Yeah, it's, that's a sticky wicket, but definitely because,

you know, women are, um, I believe anyway, are multitaskers, right?

Because they are the ones who have.

Had the children or adopted the children, and they have to do

all the things all the time.

So I think teachers, n not all teachers, but female teachers are sort of like moms.

I mean, we're like surrogate moms or whatever.

Foster moms all day long.

Right.

And we have 29 children.

And I mean, I'm here at science camp and it's a, it's, it's not a vacation

. So yes, I.

Julie's taking time out of her, her, uh, science camp experience to talk to us.

So we definitely appreciate

her time.

Yeah, no problem.

They're just like, I saw, um, I think it's a meme.

I saw one and it said like, teaching is, I mean, have you ever tried to

serve, you know, 29 students, very specific meals, all plated beautifully,

arriving at the table at the same time while someone who hasn't served a meal

before is telling you how to do it.

And that's about right.

And

then write it down.

Write down a report of it afterwards.

. Yeah.

Yeah.

I feel so bad.

Our, our daughter is starting kindergarten this year and I went in

to meet the teacher and I said, you know, we're very engaged parents,

and she kind of got this look.

And I said, oh, no, no, no, no.

I will not tell you how to do your job.

I mean, like, if you need crayons donated, you need a field trip person.

, I'm on it.

Yeah, you go.

I said you have the state and the federal government.

You have enough people telling you how to do your job.

Yeah, I am not.

And she was concerned about, you know, what our academic

goals were for this year.

It's like she's five, like Right.

Maybe if she can write her name and.

Not hit people and not peer pants.

Like I'm gonna call that a success . Right?

That's a win for the day.

It's just, you know, we put so much on teachers, like you guys are magically

going to raise our children for us.

Ugh.

Anyway.

Um, if other teachers are homeschooling parents or non homeschooling

parents who just want to teach their kids shit, cuz it's cool.

Want to start using more agriculture and food as part of their curriculums?

What resources do you recommend?

Okay, so I definitely recommend in, well, in my state California Ag in the

classroom, so that's learn about ag.org.

because it has tons of free resources.

They are for teachers, but also they really do have a lot more components

Now for the homeschool parents, cuz that's a trend, um, they have free

stuff on teachers, pay teachers.

So if homeschoolers are doing that, you can find a lot of resources

from learn about Ag there.

But you can just go to learn about egg.org for free.

I like True Food tv.

It's a YouTube channel, but there are, how does it grow videos.

Most of them are perfectly fine.

There's one that's about figs and it has like a little, um, sexual innuendo

joke, which is fine for adults, but I cannot show it in sixth grade

And I told her that like, sorry, gonna skip that one.

Not learning about figs.

But all of the rest are really great.

They're really solid knowledge.

So I recommend that.

And, um, I do use social media, like I follow farmers.

I follow you, I follow people on.

Instagram and Twitter, because Twitter is very big with educators.

Lots of free education goes on there.

And so, um, definitely homeschool parents and other teachers

can learn a lot for free.

Like, it's hard to be a teacher.

I don't wanna have to pay for everything.

So it's really nice when we can all share our ideas, uh, and be them.

But farmers are great and they answer your questions.

I mean, that's the best thing if.

and Cooperative Extension, if you have that, like they will answer you

if you, if you message them and say, Hey, I don't know about this or that.

And if you say you're a teacher, even homeschool moms should do that.

I think, hi, I'm a teacher.

People are always willing to help you.

Right?

And they say, sure, of course.

I'll, I'll answer that.

I'll zoom with you.

Because people like kids and kids ask a lot of crazy questions, and so they're.

Teacher, uh, adults like that.

So, yeah.

I find a lot of, a lot of the farmers who are on social media

are there, in part because they want to share what they're doing.

Right.

You know, they, yes, they want, they want people to know what's going on, and,

and they're happy to answer questions.

So, for sure.

I mean, we, I know Katie and I have found the same thing.

You know, you and so many of the people that we interview, you know,

we connect through social media and.

Lots of ti you know, most of the time we get a yes.

If we ask someone for an interview, they, you know, don't even, lots of

the people have never listened to the podcast or, or know who we are, but

they're like, yeah, sure, you wanna talk?

We can talk.

So, yeah, it's, it's amazing the people that you can meet if

you just ask the questions and.

Put yourself

out there.

I forgot a major one.

. Yes, go ahead.

Um, so the produce moms.com, which is a business obviously, but I

connected with her, um, the owner Lori Taylor, very early when I was

at Cooperative Extension because she.

Uh, worked for produce companies and then was considered like a mommy blogger.

That's how long ago that was.

Now she has this full-fledged, um, business and her, her whole

thing is to get people to eat more fruits and vegetables.

So she has a lot of free resources for any person.

Doesn't have to be a teacher.

Um, so I've worked with her for.

Nine or 10 years now.

Um, so I should have mentioned her at the beginning, but that's also a great

resource cuz they have a produce challenge calendar so kids can look at a wheel and

decide like, oh it's gonna be Tuesday.

Can we have blueberries?

And blueberries are nice cuz you can get those frozen.

You don't have to have fresh, um, kids love blueberries.

Mm-hmm.

to put them in.

all kinds of places.

Yeah.

So often we ask our guests what their, some of, what some

of their future goals are.

So we were wondering about your future goals, and that can either be with

regards to teaching or education or your personal goals, whatever.

Whatever you want to talk about.

Well, That's, I would like to survive science camp.

Uh, no.

I, short term goals are good too.

? Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, I would really like to make sure that my whole sixth grade team, uh,

gets to connect with NASA because, Initially it was only my only, my

class is very expensive, so we had to write a lot of grants and I just really

wanna make sure that we're equitable to all of the kids at my school.

Like that's really a big thing.

I don't want it to be like, only my class gets to do this or that.

Like we work, there's three of us and we work really hard to make sure

that the kids all have opportunities.

So I just really, that's my goal is to make sure that happens this year so that

they all are part of something really.

That's great.

And it's good to have that awareness too, of, you know, if, especially if

it's something the kids are excited about, that there doesn't become that,

you know, oh, well you get to be in Mrs.

Case's class and I don't . Yeah, no, yeah.

I mean, of course, of course you want the kids to want to be in

your class, but at least if yeah, you're offering the, the same, same

opportunities, then that makes it, yeah.

More fair for

everybody.

Well, and I think it's such an opportunity because I listen to a lot

of podcasts, um, you know, science related podcasts, and they're always

interviewing folks who are like, oh no, I didn't really like science and math.

And then, you know, I did this one thing in school and now I'm an engineer at nasa.

You know, and it's always some, like, some random thing and they're

like, oh yeah, now I'm an aerospace engineer, you know, or whatever.

And I'm just like, you never want to be the one.

Cheats a kid out of that thing that could have sent them onto this tremendous career

as an astronaut or whatever, you know?

Exactly.

Or maybe non astronaut.

Maybe they're just a water tech down the street.

I mean, that's still valuable and viable.

Yep, absolutely.

Maybe they're the, uh, robot fixer.

For a dairy.

Exactly.

Or they all want, or they all wanna be farmers and that would be awesome

too.

Well, the cows, like in where we live, there's a big, um, processor called

California Dairies and it just so happens that like milk, we're a number one dairy,

um, county in our state and like, I don't know what, five in the US or something.

And, um, milk, that is milk today in three weeks from now

could be in dehydrated farm in.

And so that's really significant for our kids to understand.

Like your dad's a milker.

That's huge.

Little baby in China might be getting quality milk because

your dad did his job today.

And even just if you look in our fridge, uh, we definitely appreciate

our, our area dairy farmers and many non-a dairy farmers as well, I'm sure.

So, yeah, it's, you know, for folks who wanna say that so-and-so is just

a farmer, like, cool, go clear out your fridge and then we'll talk.

Great.

So we ask all of our guests, if you were going to dominate a category at

the county fair, what would it be?

And the categories can be real or made up to ensure that you.

I think I would dominate zucchini bread.

I would enter my zucchini bread and I think that would win.

And that Was this a recipe with chocolate chips or without

no chocolate chips.

Okay.

Although I put chocolate chips in the pumpkin bread, but I have

this zucchini bread recipe that I got from my mother-in-law, but I.

Accidentally messed it up and it tastes better.

don't tell her.

Cuz some unintentional tweaking.

Yes.

That, that's just the secret ingredient.

We'll just call it that.

Exactly.

So if you add walnuts or raisins or anything.

No.

Um, I don't add nuts.

I'm highly allergic to grapes, which is hard in this area.

So no grapes or raisins.

And then I have a lot of family members who cannot have nuts and like in my

classroom is a nu free classroom.

I have a kid.

Mm-hmm.

super allergic.

So I don't put nuts in.

Anything that I make, but almonds I do.

I can eat almonds, so I put almonds in things, but not mond.

Allergies make things so tricky.

Don't,

it's tricky, right?

Yeah.

And pistachios, I love pistachios and I can't eat those, so I, those are

the two nuts or seeds that I can have.

Sure.

So I guess we'll go ahead and move into our cussing and discussing segment.

We've registered for an online platform called SpeakPipe, where you can leave

your cussing and discussing entries.

And we'll play them on the show.

So if you go to speakpipe.com/barnyard language and leave us a voice memo

you, we will listen and play them.

Or you can always send us an email@barnyardlanguagegmail.com

and we'll read it out for you.

Katie, what are you casting and discussing this week?

I

have no idea.

Arlene Uhoh,

make it a food-based one.

Well,

you're happy

this week then.

This has never happened.

Life is

perfect.

Well, I mean, I've never run out of things to talk about ever.

This is horrible.

Um, I'm gonna cuss and discuss being put on this spot and being demanded

somebody come up with something to cuss and discuss when I, for some unknown

reason, don't have anything to talk about.

You've

made up this segment, Katie.

It's not a

surprise that it's coming.

I know.

Oh.

Now here I have one.

So social medias, I'll make reels, make videos, videos, videos, videos fine.

So I try to make a video the other night, Arlene.

Um, My entire family has something called familial essential tremor, which

is when your hands shake and it gets worse the older you get and it gets

worse, the more stressed out you get.

Um, I'm gonna have to buy a tripod of some sort.

If anybody thinks that I'm making any more reels that, oh, really, I'm

gonna look like there's an earthquake happening while I'm doing it.

Because trying to hold my phone in my non-dominant hand and then do

something with my dominant hand, um, made my assumption tremor flare.

Awful bad.

It was.

Oh, it did not.

No, that was a thing.

Yep.

Um, Thanksgiving dinner at our family is hilarious because watching

us like pass gravy boats, it's

bad news.

So you only fill everything half full.

Yeah.

I'm just gonna start getting Tommy tippy cups for everything.

. You gotta laugh about it cuz it would be really depressing otherwise.

So, um,

you could just say it's a Blair Witch project.

That's how their film is.

. Yeah, it it, yeah.

Uh, we call it what?

Cinema Verte.

That's what our reels are now.

Um, Julie, what do you have cu to cuss and discuss?

Well, I

can't be cussing cuz I'm a teacher.

I gotta be really careful of that cuz I will sound like a tractor mouth.

But, um, I don't, let's see, I don't know.

I don't have anything that's, Pers I'm at the moment.

Is science

camp a sleepover situation?

I'm curious.

Yes.

Okay.

Cuz I supervised one time a sleepover camp for middle schoolers

and that was uh, an experience.

So are you getting any sleep at science camp?

That's what we can discuss.

Not a lot.

I do have my own cabin, which is really a perk cuz we're, we're separated.

Um, I'm separated from my other two just.

, the way the population runs, and so it's the only perk, but it's a lot of extra

walking, so I'm getting older, faster, and like my feet are, so if the golf cart

person's coming by, I snag a free ride.

Like, yeah.

Yeah.

I, I never used to be one of those teachers, but now I am

, so I'm guessing things are

You're getting older, but the sixth graders are staying

the same age, aren't they?

Oh yeah.

They're really, because every year they're still sixth graders.

Exactly.

And they, and you know, they're so tired.

They're hilarious cuz they're so tired.

Oh, Mrs.

Kate, I'm so tired until I get outta soccer ball.

Then you'd never seen so much energy in your life.

Right.

So I say, okay, you guys are good to go then.

And curfew probably at Science Camp . Yes.

Time to go back to your cabins.

No.

Arlene, what do you have to discuss

and discuss today?

So our conversation today reminded me of one, and it's that this

is more of a discussing, I guess, that I am in a food rut.

I'm the cook for the family, and I just feel completely uninspired these days

and go to the grocery store and end up buying the same stuff over and over again.

And it's partly that.

I know I need to bring in more things and get them to try stuff.

But then you also get into that phase of like, I know everyone will eat this.

Yes ma'am.

And tonight I don't have the bandwidth to listen to, not some, you know,

I've got an, I've got four kids, so their range from seven to 16.

Uh, Julie, so.

I mean, they're not all gonna complain, but then you know

that people don't care for it.

Even if they say it politely, then it's like, okay, then they get

up and you know, maybe grab an alternate because that's an option.

Or they're like, oh, you know, it was okay.

Or I don't wanna finish it.

You know, just get into that stage where some nights you're like, I just wanna make

something and know everyone's gonna eat.

And then that just turns into the cycle of making the same thing over and over.

So, yeah, I know I am bored with my cooking.

I don't know if no one else has mentioned it, but I'm definitely bored.

They

don't mention it cuz then they'd have to.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's true.

. So thank you so much, Julie, for joining us today and it was great

to, no, thank you for having me.

If people would like to follow you on social media and learn more about you,

what you're doing at your school and with your kids, where can they find you?

Um, so

thank you so much again.

I appreciate it.

And, um, I'm on Instagram at Teacher Kate's, that's my last name, c a t e s.

So teacher Kate's on Instagram and on Twitter.

I'm.

Kate's underscore Julie.

So see, and that's it.

I don't do Facebook and I am trying not to make reels or TikTok.

I dunno, , I dunno about that either.

But I am on Instagram and Twitter end.

Um, it's hard to keep on top of all the things.

Instagram is

great.

Yeah, Instagram's nice and easy.

Slow for, so for us, uh, middle-aged or young old, I'm not

sure what category I'm in yet.

I don't.

If I don't wanna confess that one, but

that's fair.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Yeah, thank you.

Thanks on Julie.

Yes.

Thank you so much and I hope you have a great day.

Thanks, you too.

Thank you for joining us today on Barnyard Language.

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We're always in

search of future guests for the podcast.

If you or someone you know would like to chat with us, get in touch.

We are a proud member of the Positively Farming Media Podcast Network.