Bean's Bounty

A Tiny Homestead

Today I'm talking with Maggie at Bean's Bounty. Buy Maggie's cookbook, The Reluctant Cook. All proceeds go to two different dog charities!

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Maggie at Bean's Bounty. Good morning, Maggie. How are you? I'm good. Good morning to you, Mary. How are things in Georgia this morning? Actually a lot cooler right now, but I hear the heat's coming back, so.

00:28
Is this hurricane that's approaching Texas gonna bother you guys at all in the next couple of days? It doesn't seem like it, but if anything, we might get a little rain from it, which I'll accept. Yes, definitely. So let's start this off with, I did not name my dog after the Maggie I am talking to. It just so happens they share the same name. And that's awesome because I love the name Maggie, always have and always will.

00:58
So tell me about yourself and what you do at Bean's Bounty. Well, I don't know what to say about myself. I'm not originally from Georgia, but I moved here in 2007, and I started gardening in 2008. And once I tasted what a fresh tomato tastes like, I think I was hooked. So my husband and I garden together.

01:27
for about four years maybe and I mean we rarely went to the grocery store. I still rarely go I've been doing the garden myself since then and What we don't get here will get from local farmers and then What I can't get from them then I'll go to the grocery store and that's just for incidentals like toilet paper paper towels things like that

01:58
but I love gardening, I love eating what we grow. And then of course, Beans Bounty is also where I bake. So I'll make homemade desserts for people, but they're not like all these fancy cakes and stuff you see there from very old recipes. We have over 300 cookbooks and they date back to the Civil War. So if you wanna know what an old fashion recipe tasted like, then that's me.

02:28
Wow. I made some kind of cookies years ago from an old, old, old cookbook. And I think there were only three or four ingredients and the main ingredient was egg. And it was like eating a crepe cookie. That's awesome. Really? Yeah. They weren't that great, but I suppose back in the very old days, anything that was a treat or a sweet.

02:55
was probably really special. Exactly. It really was. They couldn't afford much, you know. So whatever had any kind of sweetness in it, that's what was popular. Yeah. So you and I talked many years ago. I don't remember why. Why? I like a lot of it. You know, they're not really sweet. They're not, I don't know. They're just, I like a lot of it. Yeah.

03:25
You and I had talked many years ago, I don't remember why, we talked on the phone, and you said that you were in suburban, whatever your town is or your city is, and that you had a garden, and we talked about that for a little bit. So tell me how that's changed, how that's expanded. Well, we are in, we're in one of the suburbs north of Atlanta. So I have an acre and a half.

03:53
So the garden took up quite a bit of space. I mean, you don't normally find an acre and a half in Roswell, Georgia, but this is a very old home. It was built back in the 70s. So the only way it has changed is that as I have aged, I've had to cut back on the gardening. Before it was huge. And now I brought it up closer to the house and

04:22
take care of it from there. So I just have little sections all around my house that are growing different things. And it's easier for me because I'm getting up there. Yeah, we're all aging. As we get older, we're all aging, obviously, but we're all meeting new milestones in our lives every year. Yes, ma'am. And I understand, because ma'am, 20 years ago,

04:48
I would have been out in the garden with my husband every day of the spring, summer, and fall, and now it's his baby because I don't want to do it anymore. Yeah. Well, my husband is the same way. Well, he works a full-time job, so that's why he had to stop. So now I take care of it. Yep. The podcast is My Baby, the Garden is My Husband's Baby, and this is about the only time they meet is when I'm talking about him doing the gardening.

05:15
So what do you grow? Do you grow the usual suspects or is there stuff that's special that you grow? Whatever we eat, I try to grow. So I do potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, sweet and hot, squash, zucchini, well I guess that's a squash, pumpkins for the fall, lettuces, onions, I do onions and garlic. So whatever we use the most of.

05:44
And then we also eat seasonally. So whatever is growing in the garden is what we eat. So like we're done eating tomatoes until next year. And it's kind of sad, but you know, if you've ever tasted any from the grocery store, it just doesn't even match up close. Doesn't even come close. So, and I think it's healthier to do that. I know that sounds crazy, but that's how

06:13
People used to eat, you know, they didn't have everything available like we do a grocery store. So whatever was growing is what they ate. And I like it that way. Like in the fall, I'm making or I'm growing garden stuff again, the lettuce, garden stuff, spring stuff again. So there's lettuces growing out there, the straggling of the tomatoes, the hot peppers are still coming in. And then, you know, now we're getting

06:42
the pumpkin and the watermelons. And I like it that way. You just revolve our dishes around what's growing. Yes, and it's funny. I read a book under the Tuscan sun years ago, and it's about a lady who buys a villa, basically sight unseen, in Italy. Oh, nice. And she has never been to Italy. And everyone eats seasonally.

07:08
in Italy throughout the whole book. And there are little recipes, I think, added into the book. And I enjoyed the hell out of reading that book because Italy sounds like a beautiful place to live. But I also enjoyed it because it was so fun to read about people eating directly out of their gardens. Yeah. Yeah. And it's an experience. It took me a while to get us used to it. But...

07:34
It's an experience because you're not always going to have everything. Now our meat comes from local farmers as well. So we get all our meats from them. But so you'll always have a meat because I get it from them, but you know, what you're using as your side or as your carbs or whatever is coming in. Sometimes you don't have any carbs. So you're eating just vegetables or, um, you know, different, different things like that. You're, you come creative with the sides that you do when you have the same things growing out of the garden.

08:04
Oh, for sure. Yes. Yes. And I'm telling you, I am at the point where I don't want to eat carbs anymore. Every time I eat carbs, all I want to do is take a nap. It does get you lazy. But some are good for you. Some are good for you. And they're filling. In the wintertime, you know, sometimes that's all we have, you know, like we have the turnips growing and beets growing. So sometimes

08:31
potatoes. So a lot of the things coming out of the garden, you know, they're all healthy. They're not bad. I think the misnomer people get into is that certain things are bad for you and that may be true, but moderation is the key. As long as you don't overload yourself on what you're eating, that's the key to having a balanced diet.

09:00
I'm making pasta alfredo tonight because my husband really likes it and we happen to have all the ingredients on hand today. And I have some broccoli in the freezer that I'm going to warm up and have with my alfredo because otherwise I will be sound asleep five minutes after I eat it. Yeah, yeah, it's true. It's true. You just have to, you know, I love pasta. Pasta and bread, I'm addicted to both of those. But I just had to learn not to eat so much of it.

09:30
I just had to learn, you know, if I love it that much, then maybe one meal a week was enough, or one meal every other week is enough of that. It depends on what your body can tolerate, but you just don't go nuts. And you definitely don't go to fast food places for food. That's just going to kill you in the long run. Yeah, although once in a while, that craving gets to be unbearable. And you're like, I really want a dive bar burger.

09:57
Maybe so, and I used to get those Mary, I swear to you. I used to have to go like once a month just to remember what it tasted like, but I can't tell you the last time we went. And it goes away, the feeling goes away I guess because once you're eating things that are good for you and you're moderating your diets, something like that just weighs really heavy on you and you don't feel well. Once you get your body used to not having it.

10:27
At least that's been my experience. Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. So, I saw something about apples and cherries. Do you grow fruits too? I have, I do. I have cherry bushes and I have three apple trees. We also have two pear trees, two plum trees, two peach trees, an almond tree, an apricot tree, mulberry trees because it keeps...

10:55
the birds away from my elderberry bush. I think that's it. Oh, and walnuts, oh, not walnuts. What are those things that they grow, they warm up in the wintertime up in New York? I don't know. Oh, chestnuts? Yes, we have two chestnut trees. Yeah, I was thinking hazelnuts, but that wasn't it. No, that wasn't it. I couldn't think of it for the second bit. Okay, awesome.

11:23
So let's talk about the cookbook that you just got copies of, because I love books and I love cooking. So this was going to happen. This was going to come up. Well, it started two years ago. A friend of mine, I put all the things that I make for my husband on our private page. And my friends started asking me for advice on how to make those recipes. But they were friends who don't cook.

11:53
So they had trouble with it. So I started sending them pictures as I was working in the kitchen and, or little videos of how I was doing something. And because of those friends, particularly one, Lisa from Michigan, she got me into the idea of the cookbook. So, and it's called the Reluctant Cooks Cookbook.

12:20
because I was reluctant at first as well, and my husband taught me how to cook. So I thought I could teach other people or have simple recipes. It's not so much teaching as it is, they're simple and you can make them with, most of them within 30 minutes. So you could come home from work, whip it up real quick. I know that's the last thing people wanna do because I worked since I was 11 years old and I know how that feels.

12:48
So I know it's the last thing you want to do, but once you start tasting the stuff that you cook and you start realizing how little it costs to cook at home as opposed to stopping by and getting something from a fast food place or stopping by a restaurant and getting it, which now is the price is outrageous. And once you start that and then you feel proud when you put the food on the table once it's done.

13:18
I think 30 minutes, I mean, think about it. You have to place the order, then you have to go to the restaurant, pick it up. I don't know how far that is out of your way from home, but then, you drive home and I think the 30 minutes is included in all that you have to do to get it from a restaurant or a fast food place. I think it's gonna take you 30 minutes anyway. So I think it's a good trade. And...

13:45
You know, and then the more I can get people to buy from farmers, the happier I'll be. So, and that's in the introduction of the cookbook. I just want people to start cooking at home more. We used to, you know, we didn't always have fast food restaurants. And I know they think that there are progress, but I don't think fast food places and restaurants are progress. I think they took us away from a healthy environment and a healthy diet and a healthy home.

14:15
Yes. Um, I did a deep dive a couple of years ago into how people used to eat in the bad old days. And basically I found out that in like the UK area, back, back 200, 250 years ago, if not more, people didn't cook their own food. They had to go find food that someone else cooked and buy it from them. Yeah. And the only people that, that had food.

14:44
readily available, cooked and ready to eat for them were royalty. It's amazing, isn't it? Yeah. And when you went to buy food, it was basically meat pies because people could buy them at like a street cart and eat it walking away. Right. And I was like, man, the things, more things change, the more they stay the same. You know? That's true. It's true. There's really nothing new.

15:12
I firmly believe that. I think we just regurgitate things that happened in our past, excuse me, and try to change it. You know, maybe saying it's new and improved or whatever. But most things have happened already. And the food carts, yeah, those have been around forever. Yeah. Forever. Yep. Yeah, I was so curious. I think I was more, I think the search started because I was thinking about how people don't really cook in their fancy kitchens anymore.

15:42
And I was like, how were kitchens back in the bad old days? And there weren't really kitchens. There was a hearth. That was it. Yeah, and a table. Sometimes just a very small table. So yeah, there really wasn't a kitchen. They would have shelves on the wall where you could have your incidentals for cooking. But that was it. Yeah. Yep, it's really interesting. I love history. So anytime I'm like, how did that work back when? I go digging, because I got to know.

16:12
I like it too. So did you self-publish the book, the cookbook? I did. I did because it's for charity. So the less money I spend, the better it's going to be in the long run because I'd like to do another. And so if I can recoup the cost of the cover and the printing and stuff and then give the rest to charity, I'm happy about it. We've been blessed with a pretty good life. And

16:39
I just haven't had enough to give to the charities that, and they're puppy charities, they're dog charities. Yay, good. Yeah. So if I'm able to help them out, which I've always wanted to do, then I'm the better for it, really. It just makes me a better person to myself, just in my eyes. Sure, absolutely. Yeah, so. So is, is, is, bleh, can't talk. I hate it when I do that.

17:08
Is it available as an ebook as well or is it just hard copy or just back print? And, uh, I do have a place to purchase it. It's called the reluctant cook dot big cartel.com. Uh, so big cartel is B I G C A R T E L and then reluctant people have trouble, uh, with that word. So.

17:36
but it's the Relu Okay, and how much is it? It's $19.99, of course, plus shipping and tax. Okay, awesome. What kind of recipes are in it? What simple recipes did you put in there? Oh, a very old recipe of sloppy joes, which I love sloppy joes, and it tastes so good. Easy, a couple of easy pasta dishes.

18:06
One of my favorites is shrimp scampi. So you can make that in 30 minutes and it's wonderful. Another one is macaroni and cheese. It's a Southern recipe. There's one in there to smoke a brisket in your oven. Now that is a longer recipe, but great for the weekend because you can just pop it in the oven and then three hours later it's ready and it doesn't take much prep work at all. So.

18:35
another, what's another famous one? Oh, my tuna casserole. I don't know why that has become so popular, but it doesn't use the canned soups that you buy at the grocery store. It's actually just made with cream and butter and it is so good. But I didn't think that would be the one that would be the most popular. That's kind of weird. But we love tuna casserole here.

19:04
by using an older recipe and just adding a little more spice and a little more taste to it. Okay. So those are the things, those are the things I think that, but there's not plenty, but it's just, it'll get you through a couple of months of cooking meals and you'd be the better for it because it doesn't take long, they're gonna taste great, they're gonna be better than anything you can buy. And it's a beginning.

19:33
It's a beginning to moving to the more, I don't wanna say gourmet, more difficult recipes. Yeah, so if you wanna move after that to something more complicating or start, you know, putting your own spices into it, you know, changing it so that it's something that you like. I just think I'd like to get more people who don't cook now to cook.

19:55
Sure. Tuna casserole. I grew up with a mom who made tuna casserole. Tuna. And I didn't like tuna at all, but I liked the actual rest of the casserole. And it's funny because I now live in Minnesota, but I grew up in Maine. And on the East Coast, it's a casserole. But in Minnesota, it's a hot dish. That's true. If you call a hot dish a casserole in Minnesota, people immediately know you're not from Minnesota.

20:25
So the thing is, my husband and my son that still lives with us, they don't like hot dishes or casseroles. And so I rarely ever make them because I'm the only one who's going to eat them and I'm not going to eat them for a week straight. That's true. I'm trying to figure out how to make a small, a small casserole, you know, just for me. And it's just, it's not worth my time. Well you can.

20:55
You could actually just take a recipe as like this tuna casserole and cut it in half. You know, don't, don't make that much. Just take the recipe and use half of everything it says there. But I did have a, a woman who, uh, put a comment on our private page, which is David Maggie Bean, um, on Facebook. And she said her husband hated tuna casseroles and he ate this one.

21:23
Yeah. For some reason, it's just, it tastes better than, well, I mean, I know why it tastes better. It doesn't have those canned soups in it. So you're not tasting, you can still taste the tuna kind of through, even with the soups. And in this one, you don't even know it's tuna. That's the cool thing. Yep. I was a very picky child and my mother used to say, I hope you have a kid just like you someday.

21:53
Cause it drove her crazy. And my husband is the kid that, that she wished upon me because he's terribly picky. And I got so sick of not eating the things that I wanted to eat that I would make things and I would be like, just give it an honest try. If you hate it, you can eat something else. And he has decided that he actually likes about nine out of 10 things that I make from scratch that he used to hate eating. Well, you know, people's tastes change as we grow older.

22:22
You know, things I hated as a child, I kind of really like now. So I think we just change. I mean, things I ate in college, I don't even eat anymore. So you know, it's just weird. I don't know why we change, but as the years go on, our tastes change. Well, I have a minor answer for you on that. When you are a child, you actually have more taste buds in your mouth than you will ever have in your whole life.

22:51
So I didn't know that. Yep, so anything that's an intense flavor, either you're gonna love it or you're gonna hate it because it's such a big flavor that you're tasting. Wow. And as you get older, you lose taste buds. And so things start to taste more bland and so that's why we crave more salt or more sugar in our food. That's interesting. Yeah, I did not know that. Yep, I read it.

23:17
I don't know, a while ago, and I was like, well, that makes all the sense in the world. No wonder I hated everything. Well, my mother was from Central America, so we had a lot of beans and rice, but she did make tuna casserole and other things, spaghetti, things like that. But, but it was mostly Latin American food. Yup. And was it spicy? She made.

23:45
spicy for my father and not spicy for the rest of us. So she was, and there were six of us. So she had her work cut out for her. Yes, it's really hard to balance things when you have more than a couple of kids. I raised four. Oh yeah, I had two. Yep, and trying to balance it so that everybody

24:15
at least once a week was a trick. Absolutely, absolutely. So I just put it on the table, they could eat it or starve. So that's why I looked at it with my children. Well, because I was working too. I mean, I worked a lot, a lot of hours. Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, I made food and if they didn't like it, they didn't eat it. But I tried every week to make something that I knew one of the four kids really loved.

24:43
Yeah, because I think that was the best I could do I didn't have four but I did the same thing

24:50
And birthdays, every birthday, I was like, what would you like for your birthday dinner? And I made sure that I had everything on hand to make it. And I asked them what they wanted for dessert. They want cake, they want cookies, they want brownies for their birthday. So that's what we did. No, that's good. That's what we did. So that was perfect. Yep. And they always loved it. And to this day, if...

25:15
I think the last time I asked one of the kids what they wanted for their birthday, which was the youngest who still lives with us, he said, I don't want anything. He said, I pretty much get stuff all year that I want. I don't need anything special. And I was like, yes, I'm doing it right. Yes, ma'am. That's true. And I talked to my son. He has similar sentiments. So I think I did my job okay. Yeah.

25:40
Being a mom, I've said it before, is the most thankless and most wonderful job on earth. Yep, it surely is. It surely is. Yep, I can't. I had real fear about when my kids moved out that that was going to be it. They weren't going to need me anymore. They call me all the time. They're like, hey, I'm thinking about this. What do you think? Or I'm having a bad day. Can I talk it through with you? It's nice. It's nice to still feel needed. Do you have advice? And I'm like...

26:10
Yeah, I'm like, do you really want my advice or just want me to listen? And they will tell me, they're either like, I just need to vent or I need your advice. So yeah, it's nice. It's nice. It's really great. So how many, I don't know if this makes any sense. Do you have many copies of your cookbook to sell or just have a first run first print? I have many. But even if I needed them.

26:40
I think it printed and shipped to me within a week. So, so I don't anticipate ever running out of them. And I will be going around town. I'm not going to market it. Um, on the internet and on Amazon, like most people do, because I decided to take a. More old fashioned marketing route. So.

27:06
I already have four people that I've talked to for businesses that will allow me to come sell them at their establishments during some of their events or whatever I can sit there and sell them. And because it's for charity, I'm not really getting many no's. So if I can continue that, I know that sounds nuts, but if you're on Amazon, most of the feedback I get from authors is they have...

27:34
these trickling sales, well, that's not going to help me with my charities. I want to give them lots of money. So selling it on the internet is, is difficult. I don't know how to say it other than there's a lot you have to go through and a lot I have to learn and I'm in my sixties. So I don't want to learn all that. And I don't want to phase people out. Like on.

28:03
On Instagram, I'm told if you use hashtags that are popular, that you'll get tons of people to look at it. Well, I don't want tons of people to look at it. I want tons of people to buy it. So that's not gonna help me. And Facebook is really the same, other than I have quite a few followers on Facebook, for me anyway, I have about 1,500.

28:29
You know, the amount of them that had purchased them in the last two days have made me extremely happy. So, I mean, I'll be able to send out my first check next week, and that makes me happy. That's awesome. Yeah. So if I can continue that by going around town, and I live in the Atlanta area. There are millions of people that live around here. So if I can continue that and start giving them out or selling them out from different businesses,

28:58
I think it'll be a success and I'll get the money I want for the charities that I support. So great, great. Well I'm gonna, I'm gonna promote you on the podcast here. I think that if you want to support charities that Maggie supports, you should buy her book. And you said it was for it was for dogs charity. Yes, it's for two charities. One is the Trio Foundation in Chicago. And the other one is Frankie and Andy's place.

29:28
here in Georgia and they take care of senior dogs. So senior dogs that are no longer wanted or very ill or have been abandoned or abused, they take them in. They have this huge property in different cabins for different dogs. It's a beautiful idea. Absolutely. So like I said, if you wanna support Maggie and her support of these two charities, go check out her book. It'll be in the show notes. You can go right to the link and click it.

29:57
Thank you so much, Mary. Yeah, for sure. I have a dog I love beyond measure, so I am all for what you're doing. Oh, thank you so much. And she shares your name. Go Fig. Yeah. It's destined. Yeah, she's behaved admirably today. We are expecting a package that actually has her dog food in the mail. And the mail hasn't come yet today, so she hasn't barked in the background. Yay. Good job. Yay. Yeah, that's right.

30:25
All right, Maggie, it is 30 minutes and 16 seconds, I'm sorry, 18 seconds in, and I try to keep these to half an hour, so I'm gonna let you go. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, Mary, very much. Have a great day. You too. Bye. Bye-bye.