Blog > The Upside of Downs at Mulberry Lane Farm - Somis, CA
Paul recently had the opportunity to meet with Karen and Ron Meier, founders of Mulberry Lane Farm and “Upside of Downs” in beautiful Somis, CA. Mulberry Lane Farm hosts a program to provide opportunities for differently-abled adults to participate in farm activities like planting, harvesting, cleaning seeds, and packaging produce for local farmers’ markets. In this episode, listeners will discover more about the founding of the farm, a typical day in the life of folks on the farm,and the two people who made a dream come to life.
Related Links
About Upside of Downs
Mulberry Lane Farm Events
Donate to Upside of Downs (501c3 nonprofit)
Ventura County Certified Farmers’ Market
Camarillo Certified Farmers’ Market
In this episode you’ll learn:
0:00 Introducing Ron and Karen Meier, founders of Mulberry Lane Farm and Upside of Downs
0:33 Up on the Farm – day program for differently-abled adults
2:48 Growing crops from around the world (bananas, papayas, and guavas!)
4:02 How Mulberry Lane Farms began
5:47 A typical day on the farm
7:58 Beekeeping on the farm
10:35 Upside of Downs program – a certified 501c3 nonprofit organization
15:42 Selling seasonal produce at local farmers markets
17:34 Using organic farming methods
18:10 Crop surprises
20:24 Selling seeds on Etsy
21:55 Learning more about the Up with Downs program
23:10 The specialness of the property
28:50 Thank you to our sponsors
The full interview is available on Paul Ward’s YouTube channel. Check it out and subscribe!
Have ideas for future episodes? We’d love to answer your questions – leave a comment! For any home buying or home selling needs in the Ventura County area of California, please reach out to Paul@HomeAndRanchTeam.com.
A special THANK YOU to our sponsors! 15 Minutes with Paul Ward would not be possible without the support of our sponsors, Opus Escrow and Community West Bank. Supporting our sponsors ensures 15 Minutes with Paul Ward can provide listeners with the best possible episodes.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Paul Ward (00:04):
Hi, it’s Paul Ward here and welcome to another edition of Farm Talk. I’m very excited. Today we are in Somis, California, located in Ventura County, and our guests are Ron and Karen Meier with Mulberry Lane Farm and the Upside of Downs Program. Welcome to the show.
Ron Meier (00:22):
Thank you Paul.
Paul Ward (00:23):
And of course, we wanna thank our sponsors, Opus Escrow and the Money Store. So you have a special program here at Mulberry Lane. It’s called, “Up on the Farm,” and it’s part of the Upside With Downs program. And you are working with special needs Adults. They’re out of school, and kind of in their adult years. You’ve created a special environment for them to work on a farm.
Karen Meier (00:53):
Exactly right? Yes. Yeah.
Paul Ward (00:55):
So what do you do here with them?
Karen Meier (00:57):
We have several organizations in Ventura County that are like the feeder programs. So, they bring their clients here and we’re a venue for them. So, they’ll come here, and they’ll do whatever. As I always say, “Mother Nature’s thrown at us.” We can’t really control what’s going on. I mean, there’s always something to do. We can be planting seeds, we can be weeding, we can be harvesting, we can be packing. Cuz, we go to the farmer’s markets; two of them, one on Thursday, in Thousand Oaks, and then in Camarillo on Saturday. So, they help weigh things. They help package things. They have a lot of fun. And then there’s a lot of laughing.
Paul Ward (01:47):
You have differently abled volunteers.
Ron Meier (01:49):
That’s it. Yes. Because what we have discovered; everybody’s got talents, everybody’s got gifts. It’s just a matter of figuring out where your gift is. And then here you go. And they get these folks that come here, they get such a feeling of accomplishment and. You can just see it on their face. You can see it in the way they hold themselves when they’re able to address a task, a farm task. that we’ve kind of explained a little bit. We have various levels and so if somebody isn’t really at, you know, wanting to do this sort of thing, if it’s a fine motor thing and they’re not so good, we just let’s, let’s pull weeds, let’s dig up some stuff. Let’s pull things from the trees. We’ve even got some who you know, I’ll be up in the tree and I’ll be like in the macadamia nut tree and I’ll be like throwing the nuts down and they’re gathering ’em up and putting ’em in the bag and Yeah. So,
Paul Ward (02:48):
And, and you do have crops from all over the world, right? I mean this is kind of avocado and citrus region, but yes. , we’re sitting here kind of on the edge of a banana tree forest, which is very unique for Southern California. You don’t think of bananas as being a local crop, but you guys have a little bit of everything. So you’ve kind of found a, a use for your diverse crops that you have.
Ron Meier (03:13):
Yes, that’s right. You know, bananas, papayas, various guava you name it. Persimmons, pomegranates, Asian pears. A Of wide variety of things, as you say, don’t
Karen Meier (03:26):
Don’t forget the jabuticaba.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah. The jabuticaba. Things that I couldn’t even pronounce until we moved here. So, it leads to a lot of interesting discussions at farmer’s markets where, you know, you get a lot of, “What’s that?” And you go into an explanation. And we’ve learned too, because we brought things to the market and people from India, from all over the world who settled here, come in and it’s, “Oh my gosh, I haven’t seen that since I was a little kid back in India,” or wherever. So, learning goes both ways and we found that to be true here.
Paul Ward (04:03):
You guys have two sons that were in school, right? Then they transitioned out of school as adults. You felt that you needed to keep them busy and occupied and living life to the fullest. And decided to buy a farm and create a career for them.
Ron Meier (04:22):
Well, back before I retired, we relocated several times. As a result of that, typically we would be in suburban subdivision type locations. That was fine to move around. But once the boys aged out of school here in California at age 22, we put our heads together and thought, “Well, you know, you can only watch so much tv, you can only play so much basketball.” We were looking for a venue and an opportunity whereby there’s always plenty to do and wide-open spaces and that led us to this place.
Paul Ward (05:02):
Now you’ve brought in other volunteers; Not just your two boys. How many adults are working here, would you say?
Karen Meier (05:12):
I’d say, during the course of a week; cause we have the program running on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Not Thursday. Cause I’m at the Thousand Oaks Farmer’s Market. So, if you add everybody up- so, this isn’t a group comes every single day, it’s like just one day a week. But total ’em all up, it’s probably about 20, 25.
Paul Ward (05:37):
Wow. Yeah.
Ron Meier (05:37):
I would say so.
Paul Ward (05:38):
That’s a good number.
Ron Meier (05:39):
Yeah. And That’s growing over time.
Paul Ward (05:41):
That’s great. So, 25 people come throughout the course of a week and work on the farm. So, what would a typical day look like? I mean, you mentioned weeding and picking, but I mean, they’re all doing kind of different tasks and of course, the whole year. I mean, weeds come up all the time.
Ron Meier (05:59):
Especially with the rain.
Karen Meier (06:00):
Oh, this year for sure has just been like…
Paul Ward (06:02):
Lot of weeds. But they’re harvesting.
Karen Meier (06:05):
They’re harvesting. And, and what I like to do is when we have a new participant, it’s like, “Let’s just take a walk around and then we’re eating things. For instance,
Ron Meier (06:17):
It’s like an orientation.
Karen Meier (06:18):
Like the Ursturshton. I’ll say, “Has anybody ever eaten a flower before?” And they’re like, “What are you talking about?” And I’ll just tear a little piece off. Then they taste it and they’re so excited. It’s peppery. And I said, “Taste the leaf, it’s spicy.” And they’re like, “Oh my gosh!” So, just different fruits, whatever ones are going. So have a loquat- what’s inside. I said, “Well, it might be a seed, you know, if you just wanna, cuz we’re here, just spit it on the ground, it’ll be fine.” They get such a kick out of that. Then I will tell ’em where it’s native to. You know, we got a lot of things from China, a lot of things from Australia, a lot of things from Brazil, you know, the Rio Grande cherries. That’s not the Rio Grande in Texas. It’s a Rio Grande in Brazil. So, they’re just like, this is all over the world.
Paul Ward (07:10):
That’s great. Very cool. So, they’re learning by doing.
Karen Meier (07:13):
Yes. Absolutely.
Paul Ward (07:13):
Not just learning from a book or a video, but actually getting their hands dirty.
Ron Meier (07:18):
And there are some things that you do day after day, but there really is no typical day here. We’ll get up and you know, rise early, you know, five o’clock in the morning, typical farming type of a schedule.
Karen Meier (07:31):
And our chores, I mean, we try to get those done before the group gets here. And you know, I mean, animals need to be fed and they don’t wanna wait till, you know, the others get here.
Ron Meier (07:41):
No, no. So there’s a coy pond and you have to feed the fish. And then we’ve got the dogs and the-
Karen Meier (07:45):
Chickens.
Ron Meier (07:46):
Chickens. You know, that all needs to be taken care of first so that when our guests do arrive, we can devote time to make sure that their experience is a good one.
Paul Ward (07:57):
I understand you’ve gotten into beekeeping as well.
Ron Meier (08:00):
That’s right. We have a gentleman who’s a beekeeper. He himself and his wife and family relocated to California from Maryland. He has expertise in that area and contacted us and wanted to know if we were interested. And of course we were. So he brought some hives over. And through the course of time by capturing swarms and various areas we have increased our hive count to around 11 or 12 now. So they’re just on the brink of producing honey. Not quite there yet. But with all the forage that we’ve had this year with the rains, we expect a good honey flow to come. I’ve been working under his tutelage now learning about beekeeping, myself, taking some online courses. And I tell you, it’s a fascinating world, the world of a bee.
Paul Ward (08:53):
Amazing. Now, do the students get involved in that too?
Karen Meier (08:56):
We have acquired bee suits for everybody. So, they have to put them on and they’re “Ghostbusters,” so they start singing the song, you know, and we’ve been able to get in to, in a limited amount, to get in there and they just, think it’s great. They think it’s just, and then, you know, samples of honey when we’re able to do that.
Paul Ward (09:20):
Right. And then are these traditional hives or the kind of the flow hive? That’s kind of the hobby.
Ron Meier (09:24):
We’ve got a combination of both. We’ve got the Langstroth hives, the traditional type, and then we have two flow hives. One we just acquired. And the flow hives are interesting because they have the see through windows and it’s a good teaching tool. Particularly for our clients who come in, they’re able to observe the activity of the bees and how they interact in the hive and going in and out. It’s been a good experience.
Paul Ward (09:55):
And you can just turn the tap and just kind of,
Karen Meier (09:56):
When we get to that harvest, they can turn that and then the honey will flow just so you don’t have to take all the…
Ron Meier (10:03):
There’s a tube that you connect and a key that you turn a little knob inside the hive and that opens up the honey capturing comb, if you will. And that’s what causes the honey to flow out. And it’s already processed, honey. You don’t have to go through the exercise of mashing it and you know boiling it down or anything else like that. It just comes out into the jar as pure honey, which is kind of neat. So we’re looking forward to that.
Paul Ward (10:35):
So your program is Up on the Farm? And you’re part of a larger organization called Upside of Downs,
Ron Meier (10:42):
Correct?
Karen Meier (10:43):
It’s a 501c3.
Ron Meier (10:45):
Right. It’s it’s a 501c3 charity. And after our older son with Down Syndrome, Steven was born, he’s 27 now. Shortly after that, we founded that organization when we still lived in Michigan. And through all the relocations and moves, we’ve kept it going, and when we moved here, we were able to really have the program come to fruition through The Up on the Farm portion of The Upside of Downs. So that’s kind of a summary of the evolution of that program.
Paul Ward (11:16):
That’s great. And I would think that other folks could have reached out and could replicate what you’re doing.
Karen Meier (11:22):
It’s a lot.
Paul Ward (11:25):
But if you’ve got, I mean, nationwide, if you’ve got a small family farm and there’s always a need that.
Karen Meier (11:31):
Goes back to when I was just kind of thinking about this could be a really valuable thing for the special needs community. So, I did some research and I did it online. I actually traveled to some of these places, and I would pick like the good things that I could see that I thought would work for our situation, you know, so it’s kind of like a menu, like, “Okay, I think that might work. I think this could work.” I think I just kind of put it together, but I didn’t see anything that we replicated full on. You know, it was like little pieces, little parts. And I’m thinking Okay.
Paul Ward (12:07):
Take taking the best of what you saw.
Ron Meier (12:09):
It really arises from is a passion. It takes a passion in order to do that kind of work. You know, certainly, you know, anybody with a farm could do it, but as everyone knows who’s listening to this broadcast; Farming, there’s a lot of work involved in that. And this, you have to carve out time to make sure the experience for the people who come to the farm is worthwhile to them. So that’s where the passion comes in. You’ve gotta have a passion for it.
Paul Ward (12:40):
Absolutely. And your participants, your students they’re all in their like mid-twenties and older?
Karen Meier (12:48):
Oh gosh, yes. Yeah. So, you age out of special education, that’s across the nation at 22. So, there’s no more schooling, there’s no more.
Paul Ward (13:00):
And that’s it. You’re just kind of on your own.
Karen Meier (13:02):
It’s like a cliff.
Paul Ward (13:02):
At 22. You’re just gone.
Karen Meier (13:03):
It’s like… poof!
Paul Ward (13:04):
Right.
Karen Meier (13:04):
There are day programs that are available, but what I found when, you know, Steve aged out was that these programs, they have a wait list. For the one that I was thinking, “Oh, this, this might be good.” It was two years. It was like, “Oh no!” So, I kind of thought, “You know what? I’ll be your unofficial job coach. We’ll go and volunteer at various places.” So, we did it at the animal shelter. We went to a horse ranch, a therapeutic horse ranch. I was just there with him, and we were working. One of the places we volunteered at was a farm. As a matter of fact, it was Apricot Lane Farm.
Paul Ward (13:46):
Yes. It’s made famous by the movie. Biggest Little Farm.
Karen Meier (13:49):
Exactly. That’s right. So, he and I would go, we went there three days a week and we would be given a task and we would do that. And I just saw so much good going on. I saw him really understanding dirt was okay. Number one, you know, for 22 years. Like, wash your hands. No, we’re digging in the dirt. It was a new world for him. Then his connection with where food actually came from. They always, you know, Steve and Tom would always come to the grocery store with me and, you know, I’m opening up the freezer door, pulling out a bag of peas, and it’s like, “Oh, I guess peas come out of the freezer.” It’s like, right now we’re learning where they actually come from. So, it was this light bulb, you know, it’s like, “Wow!”
Paul Ward (14:33):
And they taste so much better when they’re fresh, right?
Karen Meier (14:36):
They do. Absolutely.
Ron Meier (14:37):
They are. And better for you. Absolutely.
Karen Meier (14:38):
Better for you. And then what went into it, and then they were also connecting so well with the folks, you know, at Apricot Lane Farm. It just was a really positive experience. And then this could be a thing.
Paul Ward (14:52):
I would imagine your boys having been in it since the inception, since you created it, they kind of act as teachers to the new students that come in.
Karen Meier (15:00):
They sometimes do. Yeah. Yeah. You know, sometimes they’re a little, “Look, look.” Tom especially, he’s a bit of a boss. Bossy. Yeah.
Ron Meier (15:07):
Yeah. Bossy
Karen Meier (15:08):
. Yeah.
Ron Meier (15:08):
Right.
Paul Ward (15:09):
Yeah.
Ron Meier (15:10):
Yeah. May lead some people into mischief a little bit. But no, by and large it’s been good for them too because obviously they’re familiar with everything that goes on here. And they know where everything is. So if you’re looking to take somebody or, you know, direct them to a certain location, they can, they can help with that.
Karen Meier (15:30):
So, so we have a Cheimoya team, “Let’s go!’ And someone’s like, “Oh, we know where the Cherimoya trees are.” You know, it’s like right behind us is the rose apple. So, we’ve got some of the folks, that’s one of their favorite things, you know?
Paul Ward (15:42):
And how does that work when, I mean, you know, you don’t have peaches all year long. You’ve got a plethora of one crop, like now, right.
Karen Meier (15:53):
Pink guava right now.
Paul Ward (15:54):
Pink Guava. So, do you harvest the pink guava and the loquats and then take those to the farmer’s markets and then next week or next month, you’ll have just something completely randomly different?
Karen Meier (16:04):
Completely randomly different.
Ron Meier (16:07):
It’s like TJ Max, you know, you walk in, you’ll never see the same clothes two times in a row. It’ll be always whatever happens to be in season at the time. That’s what we offer for sale. Now, the layout of the booth, you know, there’s two canopies that looks the same, but what’s stock in there is a function of…
Karen Meier (16:26):
What Mother Nature’s selling.
Ron Meier (16:28):
What we just harvested. Yeah.
Paul Ward (16:29):
Right. So, the folks that go to farmer’s markets will know that Mulberry Lane always has the unique stuff.
Karen Meier (16:34):
Unique.
Ron Meier (16:35):
That’s, you never know what you’re gonna find when you come into the booth.
Karen Meier (16:37):
They’ll come in, they’ll say, “What do you got this week?” I said, “Well, here you go.” That’s a lot.
Paul Ward (16:42):
And do you have helpers at the farmer’s market?
Karen Meier (16:47):
Just it’s occasionally, yeah. Yeah.
Paul Ward (16:50):
But I would imagine the students help you load up the truck.
Karen Meier (16:54):
They have helped with that, but, you know, it’s, it’s a very long day. So, in Camillo, it’s from 8:00 till noon. . . And that’s a long stretch. Then in Thousand Oaks, it’s from noon till 5:00.
Paul Ward (17:06):
Oh, wow. Okay.
Ron Meier (17:07):
So, it’s a seasonal situation when we have a lot of things to sell. There’s a lady who assists at the Thousand Oaks market. Then same thing on Saturday, when we’ve got a lot of things coming to the market just so one person would tend to get overwhelmed, especially if you get a rush of customers, we get a helper who comes in to assist with that.
Paul Ward (17:32):
So, are you guys on an organic farm?
Ron Meier (17:35):
Well, we farm organically. We’re not certified organic, but we pull weeds. We don’t spray for weeds. Anything that we use on the trees, it’s all organically certified.
Karen Meier (17:47):
Then you wrap that tape with a sticky side out, so the, the ants climb up and they stick on there and it’s like, okay, okay.
Ron Meier (17:54):
Barriers. It’s all organically done. We don’t spray any; that’s unwashed, unwaxed, no pesticides, and organic fertilizers when necessary.
Paul Ward (18:05):
Have you been surprised by any crop that’s doing incredibly well at the farm and maybe others that you’ve tried that have not done so well?
Ron Meier (18:15):
Well, interestingly, not every tree bears fruit every year. And we’re still making discoveries in terms of what’s here. We’ll be working in a certain area of the farm and look up and it’s like, well, I never remembered that that was an apple tree. Or, you know, I didn’t know what it was. And now there’s it’s loaded with apples, and you pick one and they’re good; really good.
Karen Meier (18:41):
Well, like our lucuma over here, it’s just that tree.
Paul Ward (18:45):
I don’t even know what that is.
Karen Meier (18:46):
Well, nobody does . It’s a Peruvian, you know, so we got a lucuma here, we’ve got another one down this way. And then over there.
Paul Ward (18:56):
Did you even know what that was when you bought the property?
Karen Meier (18:58):
No, no, no. It’s been so much discovery. So much discovery,
Ron Meier (19:04):
And not only fruit and vegetables, but also a lot of flower and fauna here. As a matter of fact, another thing that we do when the fruit is kind of at a lull, is our volunteers work on gathering some of the flowers and other live plants, and we make bouquets and take those to the market.
Paul Ward (19:25):
Oh wow.
Ron Meier (19:25):
We sell those. So we’re just continuing to evolve.
Karen Meier (19:29):
And the banana pots.
Ron Meier (19:31):
Yeah. Right. Every one of those bananas behind you, it only produces one bunch of bananas, and then it’ll make a “pup,” a small plant, and that’ll grow up then and take the place. Well, you have to cut out the banana stem that just produced. So, we’ll cut that down, cut it into six inch sections, hollow it out, and make an organic planter out of that, put potting soil in and succulents and things that people can basically take and put it in the ground and it’s ready to go.
Karen Meier (20:03):
And because it succulents, it’s set it and forget it. It thrives on neglect.
Ron Meier (20:09):
. So, ideas keep on coming to us by either ourselves or people that come up and volunteer saying, “Have you ever thought about doing this?” And we’ll try it. And if it works, we expand it. And if it doesn’t, we move on to something else.
Paul Ward (20:23):
Sure, and did I read that you’re selling seeds on Etsy?
Karen Meier (20:27):
Yeah. that, that we’ve been doing since 2020l since we first got here. The idea behind that is let’s gather seeds that are accessible for our folks that come up here. So, some of ’em have kind of a difficult time, you know, with the really tiny stuff. So, we’re finding some seeds that are accessible for them, and we package ’em, they open ’em up and we package ’em and we do all the things that, and then they sign a nice little, we always have a letter that goes along as that goes in the package so the people know that this done for you by this very special group of people.
Paul Ward (21:08):
That’s great.
Karen Meier (21:08):
And they’ve, and so, you know, at Etsy you probably know this, you know, you get reviewed and you get stars, we’ve only gotten five-star reviews!
Paul Ward (21:16):
There you go.
Karen Meier (21:16):
A whole bunch of ’em.
Paul Ward (21:17):
That’s awesome. and your nasturtium and sunflower.
Karen Meier (21:21):
Yep, yep. And we need to, I need to expand the offerings, but there’s a lot that’s involved with the seed, and there’s a lot involved with all the different…
Ron Meier (21:31):
Administration.
Paul Ward (21:32):
Yeah, yeah. Sure. Right. And you get that order and you weren’t expecting it, and now you gotta fill it. Right?
Ron Meier (21:37):
They can come from anywhere. We’ve gotten orders from both within and outside the United States. How they hear about us, we’re not sure, but they do. We ship. So yeah. It’s been interesting.
Paul Ward (21:48):
Well, hopefully they hear more about you after this podcast. Right? Absolutely. You might get some more seed orders.
Ron Meier (21:54):
. That would be great.
Paul Ward (21:55):
And how, how do folks find out more about the Up with Downs program?
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Yeah, we’ve got we’re on social media. So, on Instagram, it’s MulberryLanefarm.Somis. And then we’ve got a website. It’s www.upsideofdowns.org. And more information about the program and what we do there.
Paul Ward (22:22):
So, we’re at Mulberry Lane Farm in Somis, California, and most people don’t know where that is, . So just to kind of give our bearings here; we’re located about halfway between Los Angeles to the south and Santa Barbara to the north. And you probably do your grocery shopping, I would say in Camarillo.
Ron Meier (22:43):
Camarillo.
Paul Ward (22:43):
Camarillo. just about 10 minutes away. And it’s a little, Somis is a little garden spot, I would say a protected green belt.
Karen Meier (22:51):
And we’re up in the mountains. You can’t see us from road.
Ron Meier (22:54):
From the road. Road.
Paul Ward (22:55):
Yeah. But not high up in the mountains, kind of.
Karen Meier (22:58):
Well, to us being from the Midwest.
Paul Ward (23:00):
There you go. . That’s all relative.
Karen Meier (23:02):
Right. I’m like, “Where are the guardrails on this little road here?”
Ron Meier (23:05):
And about seven miles due north of Camarillo. Gotcha.
Paul Ward (23:08):
What was special about this particular property that made you think that it was gonna work for your program?
Ron Meier (23:14):
Well, the location was great. Was again, a little bit off the beaten path. It wasn’t too big, but it was big enough; at just under six acres and just the variety, and the care and planning that the founding member who established the farm initially took, and just, there’s nothing haphazard here. Everything was done thoroughly extensively, very…
Karen Meier (23:40):
Deliberately
Ron Meier (23:41):
Research and planned out. And that’s really apparent when you walk around. You left nothing to chance.
Ron Meier (23:49):
The companion plantings, the flowers that, you know, the nasturtium around the apple trees is there for a reason, you know? When you come to find out. And just all the different varieties that were placed in spots where he knew that it was gonna thrive. Coming from like Israel, the apple trees, you know, and then we’ve got the cactus garden down there that’s super dry, but it’s Peruvian, apple cactus. So, fruits.
Paul Ward (24:13):
And it would take a special person like yourself to want something that was so diverse. You’re not just growing one crop, kind of set it and forget it.
Karen Meier (24:23):
Well, for my part.
Ron Meier (24:24):
Yeah. And we, we felt we owned it. We owed it to the founder to be good stewards of the good work that he did o So, we just wanted to carry it on, and try to improve upon it where we could. And just make sure that it lives on, in recognition of the hard work and great work that he did here. .
Paul Ward (24:48):
And I think you mentioned that he even passed away the night that you had your first supper here. So, he was content.
Ron Meier (24:57):
He was, and you know, his widow, who we still…
Karen Meier (25:02):
She comes to Farmer’s market sometimes and she’ll say,
Ron Meier (25:06):
We’re still in communication. And she referred to Steve and Tom as, or he did, “As his boys.”
Karen Meier (25:14):
Never met them or anything like that.
Ron Meier (25:16):
He was quite ill when we were going through the negotiations, and we were working with her, but she relayed everything to him. And you’re right, he was quite content with us carrying on his legacy, so we’re happy to do that.
Karen Meier (25:31):
Yeah. When she comes to the Farmer’s Market, she has said, “Jerry would have loved this.”
Paul Ward (25:36):
That’s wonderful. Gosh. Yeah.
Ron Meier (25:37):
This is a beautiful thing. But going back to what really caught my eye, I mean, beyond just the beauty of the place was behind the house here we have 12 raised garden beds. With those cages, you know? Right. then there’s like a cement kind of surround that I envisioned after working with Steve at Apricot Lane Farm. And you know how, how it was a little difficult, you know, to kneel down and everything. So, I just envisioned special needs folks maybe have some physical sort of concerns. They could sit on the cement, they can plant the seeds in the dirt, they can water, they can weed, they can eat the produce that comes up. And I was like, this sounds like this would be a really, really awesome place. Yeah. It’s
Ron Meier (26:28):
Very well thought out.
Paul Ward (26:30):
It’s a smart, smart idea and a good use of the of the grounds.
Ron Meier (26:35):
Absolutely. Yes. It was right.
Karen Meier (26:38):
A lot, a lot of good stuff here
Paul Ward (26:40):
Ron and Karen Meyer with Mulberry Lane Farm and Upside of Downs. Thank you so much for being our guest on Farm Talk.
Ron Meier (26:47):
Our pleasure. Thank you, Paul.
Karen Meier (26:48):
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Paul Ward (26:49):
And of course, we wanna thank our sponsors, Opus Escrow and The Money Store. And be sure to tune in next time for another edition of Farm Talk.
