 Hello, good morning. Welcome to Quokkao Care and Think Tech Hawaii. You know, we are so blessed here, in here, Hawaii, to have beautifully rich and fertile soil. You know that? But how do you keep it fertile? I mean, like, what does it mean to be fertile? And what is fertility to you? Ah, that is the question we ask today. Particularly how women are connected to the earth and more. So today, we are going to discuss this topic with two beautiful earth goddesses. Sisters from the farm who bring energy and, well, fertility to the farm where they work at. At that point, let me introduce these two lovely girls. You've got Emily and Elizabeth Beagle. Welcome. Thank you for having us. Oh, come on. You've got to pick a voice for that. Thank you for having us. Thank you for coming. I just want to let everyone know that the reason I know these girls is because my son was volunteering at the farm. And I learned a lot about the earth and getting my hands dirty and learning the process. And it's just the most beautiful thing. I think, really, it comes down to this process that makes us who we are as humans. So today, we're going to link that earth and fertility to us women being fertile. So let's back up a little bit and give us an idea of where you girls are from and what brought you to Hawaii to start this farm. So originally, we're from the east coast and we started farming and we've been farming for about a decade and it took us west, west, west, west, west until we landed in Hawaii where there was a contest that camp schools put on. And the winner of the agribusiness plan contest got a rent-waved parcel of farmland for five years and some startup money. And we won. We won. So here we are. So you packed up your bags and moved to Hawaii with a blank lot for you to do something with. Yes, and I'm so glad we're talking about soil fertility because our soil was so depleted. Oh, so I was wrong. In the beginning, I thought Hawaii everything was all fine. Well, I think in the beginning it was, but it was, the land was, but it was farmed for sugarcane for all those years and the sugarcane takes so much out of the soil and nothing was put back. I'm glad you said that because today in the news, today was the final harvesting day in Maui for the sugarcane field. It was very sad, but it's the end of the era, but I didn't know that it depleted so much of the soil. So tell me, monocrops in general, there's no opportunity to put nutrients and compost and all of the good things that the plants eat and take out, you should probably put it back. And so monocrops like sugarcane don't give much back to the soil. So the land that we came upon so gratefully was great piece of land just happened to be quite low on all of the, on all of the good things. Okay, so what did you have to do and how long did it take to bring fertility to that soil? Well, for us fertility is kind of a two-part approach. It's what the soil is part of and then it's what it can produce. And so for us we had to create crop production schedules and cover crop and put back into the earth before we could take out. So that took quite a while to get that farmland into crop-ready mode. But I will say, I think just like maybe women's fertility, it's not just about what you put in. It's more of a systems approach. So when we farm, we don't just, you know, take wheelbarrows, fill a compost and call it good. Okay. Just like maybe if you just have healthy smoothies all day. And poppin' all those right there. Poppin' all those right there. It's not quite it because there's so much more to it than just the inputs. What I think is true for health as well. We're a great analogy. So that's an ongoing process. That's not something you can kind of crunch. No, because the soil is alive, right? Just like your whole body is a system that works together. The soil does the same. And so, for example, it's not just the nutrients that we put in the soil. It's how aerated is the soil? How loamy is it? The roots need to grow, but they need space and air and water to do so. So can the soil retain water? Wait, so you have all of these things behind. Let's go buy a bag of fertilizer. And you have to, I don't even know the terms for this stuff. When you do it on the floor and you're like, you know, kind of loosening up the soil? Yes, because we're trying to break it up and allow the water and the nutrients to get in. The water can go where the air can. And that will help distribute nutrients and then also let other stuff work its way up. And that said, but just maybe, for example, if you're exercising, you don't want to overdo it. So we also don't want to, when you, so we disc the soil and rip the soil and till the soil is the last step. Okay, till, that's what I'm saying. But the more you expose the soil to air, the more carbon is lost. And the more, you know, you can overdo it and sunburn your soil type of thing. Just like I think you can overdo. Well, that isn't the exercise. You don't just keep mashing it up because it needs to live. You need space for it to rest and to grow. Exactly. Now that you mentioned the sun, I had to ask you about the sun because the sun, you need the sun to have things grow. But at the same time, the sun to us women is the most damaging thing for our skin. So is it, how do you see that? Same, you see, if you see an open farm field that's been tilled, you see the big red squares on the side of the road. Right. That's something that we try to avoid. Oh, I thought red was good. Nope, so cool. No, no, no. I mean, it's good for the moment right before you plant. Okay. If you're not planning to plant. Okay. So you'll get sunburned just like we do. And that's why it's red? Well, no. But it's an open dirt. Okay. It makes it more susceptible to the burn. Okay. So we would rather cover crop it and have some shade. Have a habitat for all the healthy microorganisms that grow in the soil and all the beneficial bugs. That's when you put those plastics to cover up? That's when we, in a section of field that we're not trying to produce on. Right. We don't just leave it exposed and empty. We cover it with beneficial plants. That we then, when we're ready to farm it, we till into the soil. So it's like putting on lotion. Or like a facial serum. Yeah. That just kind of needs to absorb slowly without doing anything to it. Yeah. So it's just the same thing as sunscreen or a serum. You know, I never thought of soil being able to be burnt. Yeah. And that's just such a, wow. Because left to its own devices, things would grow. Yeah, of course. Earth is, yeah. You know. Right. But we mess it up. I mean, that is such a loaded word on our earth if you're going to talk about that. But what about that whole concept of, you know, your hands on? Literally. I mean, when I remember getting dirt in my nails, I remember complaining, but you guys are there 24-7 and you have to watch them rain or shine. You have to watch it. And how do you, what is your connection to the earth? Do you feel like that's pulling you over or you're trying to do something for it to come out? I really feel like the earth is gifting us with whatever it allows us to grow because we never can outsmart it. We never can trick it. Man, we've tried everything to try to, you know, force production or to give us what we want. And all the time they're like, no, no, no. No, no, no. So it has to be a give and take reciprocal. And so we really try to be really kind to it. What's a good example of something you thought you were going to grow and it didn't because it didn't allow you? Pumpkins. Pumpkins. What is that? Oh, man. It has every year. Every year. Which is Halloween this year. You didn't have any pumpkins again? I had like five, but I had at least an acre of pure pumpkin plants. I was doing everything I could and I did not want that happening. Okay. Okay, what about the other one? Something you didn't expect to grow so well and it just flourished? I would say cherry tomatoes. Yeah. Oh, that's my favorite. Right? They were so good. We were told that, you know, oh, it's really hard to grow tomatoes and it is hard to grow tomatoes anywhere. And I don't think we didn't really even do that much. And they grew. But maybe they just knew how much we loved. Well, that's the thing. Do you feel, I mean, some people think it's a hokey thing to say you talk to your plants and all that. But that connection, all right. Please, tell me that connection. What's your relationship with them? Well, you're right. It's hokey. It is so hokey. Do you really? I love my plants. I do. I care for them and I protect them. I'll go around and pull out the weak ones. Yeah. Oh, no, no. They'll go pick them up and plant them. Everybody gets a chin. Everybody gets a chin. Kind of like an abandoned baby who's not too healthy. It's like, oh, wait, we have a chance. We'll feed it the proper things. That doesn't make me a bad person. Some of us care about production, too. Yeah, I know. I think they're alive. They really are alive. And just like our bodies or our kids or, you know, you care about keeping them alive. Yeah. That's the point. Well, and when people are pregnant with their babies, some people, especially in Chinese people in cultures, you think you're going to feed them so much, not just the essence, the vitamins, but the intelligence they think you're going to feed them. They can maybe listen to stupid baby Mozart and read these books, but they think they're going to all be Einstein's. Now, when it comes to the farm, like you said, they pick you. You don't pick them in a way. Do you think there's that randomness that kind of something bigger has for us, no matter how much you try to do something or how much our effort really does bear fruit? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, you spend time there. I think we're at the mercy of this. It's magical that these little dry seeds grow into, and I know it's not magic, but it feels magical. They grow into these huge, little dried seeds. Come on! This is amazing. Yeah. And that's not to say we don't put a lot of practiced work into it. Kind of like when you have your children and you give them a great upbringing and then you send them off to college and then they have to do their own thing. So we do all the preparation. All these plans are our kids. And then sometimes... And if you don't take care of them well enough, you're going to have bad soil for the next generation. Yep. Right? Yes. And that's part of what you do. So you educate kids. You go to schools to tell them about... Let's tell them about that. Well, we just have the best time. We probably visit about 400, 500 kids a month going into classrooms. And the curriculum is healthy nutrition. It's either nutrition or cooking. Okay. And we try to combine it. But depending on it's K through 6 that we do. Nice. We go in and... You bring in like a bunch of... Bring in a bunch of stuff and a healthy recipe and then the kids help cook. And of course the best part is the snack. What if they go, oh, I hate beets. I don't want to eat that. You love that. Yeah, love it. So you transform them. You trick them. You trick them to eat beets. Tell me. Go ahead. Oh, well, you know what? Let's do a quick break. We'll come back and you give that magic thing. Okay. All the parents out there will know how to trick their kids to eat beets. Okay. We'll be back soon. Aloha. My name is Justine Espiritu. This is my co-host, Matthew Johnson. Every Thursday at 4 p.m. on Thin Tech we host the Hawaii Food and Farmers series. We like to bring in folks from the whole realm of the local food supply and agriculture, anyone working on these issues, any organization or individual that has plans or projects. What kind of people have we had on? We've had farmers. We've had chefs. We've had people from government, larger institutions. Everyone who's working to help make Hawaii's local food system that much better. So you can see us every Thursday and join the conversation on Twitter. And we hope to see you there. Aloha, everyone. I hope you've been watching Thin Tech Hawaii. But I'm here to invite you to watch me on Viva Hawaii every Monday at 3 p.m. I'm waiting for you. Mahalo. Hello. How are you going? All right. So back on Thin Tech, I'm Crystal and this is Abhi. And we as adults, a lot of us love it but a lot of kids don't. And Elizabeth was just saying that you teach the kids how to learn to love vegetables and how to cook them. And you were saying there's a trick to getting them to eat this. Well, our favorite thing is to make hummus with the in it. And it's so vibrant and so magenta. And it doesn't, it tastes like hummus and then the kids dip all their vegetables in it. And then if we're feeling generous through being tortilla chips and that really goes down quickly. So you don't tell them there are beets in it? No, they cook. They know. We cook together. So what's in it? What's the ingredients for that ingredients are tahini, lemon juice, roasted garlic, beets that are either boiled or roasted or some way made soft. And then the other trick is, instead of chickpeas, we put in these Okinawan sweet potatoes. Oh! Is it heavier? It's really, they kind of whip up. Yeah, and it's so sweet and delicious and it's not like baby food. How come you didn't bring those to the grocery? Yeah. Yeah, so it's just, so then the kids transform these root vegetables into hummus. That's amazing. Wow. Wow. Okay, so you have the kids' angle and you have your angles as women coming over here and doing things for yourself, something you passionately love, which I can sense from you both. But what about your own fertility concepts of life? I mean, I don't want to bust how old you are or how young you are. You're way younger than me. So are there some conversations going on in your lives right now about fertility? If you mind sharing? Yes, definitely. Could you have a sister and a baby? Yes. See? It's the first one in our family so it's boggling. And especially that I think that's so interesting that you asked that about conversations because with her that was never anything we even talked about. Suddenly she has created a human and for us, we're getting to that age where we need to be cognizant of our fertility and be careful. I mean, yeah, but I will say I like my fertility and it's how to protect it and guard it but I like having a child. Okay. Oh, is that something that's that a lot of you, because you know, Zuri in the panel says she's so afraid of having babies. Zuri, can you just do what I'm saying quickly? I'm not going to lie. I'm having a baby. What? Come on. Younger than me. Why are you guys so afraid of having babies? Because we can't even keep our tomatoes alive. Hey. You're juicy. I'm straight. I'm succulent. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah. Oh, it just seems so... Besides keeping them alive, I think you're supposed to love them. Yeah. Pay attention to them. Yeah, sometimes. Teach them. Don't make a real commitment. Zuri, what about you? Is that your reason you don't want to? You know, I just, it's so hard to picture myself as being that number one role model where I'm supposed to have all of the answers. Ah! You know, somewhat, you're always going to be afraid of something in life, right? You just fight for it one day. Anyway, I look forward to all of you girls having your babies. If you choose to, I mean, obviously, that's a choice. Well, give us some healthy tips. Mom. Healthy tips from me? Yeah. Well, you know, it's funny because when I was getting to my late 20s, and I thought, heck, I was single at the time, and said, if I don't find somebody by the time I'm a certain age, I'm just going to be a single mom because I loved children so much I wanted one more than I had one. So I had one. But no, I think, you know, I think Emily's right. Something is predestined, and you're given what you're given. And you take it, whether it's on your plate or not. Right? And you should enjoy what you have. So, you know, we work towards things, though, right? Yeah. Yeah. But, okay, so, Zuri, no more? Nothing else? You know, that was just beautiful. I want to hear more about eating healthy and preparing for having a child. So what are some tips or what are your thoughts on the nutrients and certain types of foods that, based on your experience, feel that that's going to be advantageous? Well, one, just to make a correlation that I understand, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, Can't just eat those potatoes and beets, a healthy mix of the cruciferous vegetables and the leafy greens and the citrus and it all is working together. I'm glad you said that because my mom, she's listening right now, she likes cauliflower and she'll eat the whole thing. And that was her meal. It's like, can you diversify a little bit? So there's extremes and then there's a nice healthy mix. Right, because they each offer clearly in the squash you're getting something different than in the vegetable. Is it a good kind of a concept to use the colors as a... We love to tell the kids, eat the rainbow. And we do the same thing. We try to eat as many different colors as we can. And not just for people who are trying to have babies but even women in their aging like myself. Like you said, the soil, the nutrients, the skin doesn't absorb as much anymore. And so there are ways you can replenish with things you eat and you have to know which ones work that way. Yes, and how they work in tandem. And definitely it's hard to overdo it on vegetables. What are the super ones though? You know they always have the super foods? Yes, yes. Is it the green leafy ones we always talk about? Yes, in some ways, but it's also root vegetables. Okay. And like sweet potatoes have the healthy starch. Because they fortify you in different ways. So there aren't very many carbohydrates in a tomato but in a sweet potato, yes. So the super food I think would be depending on what your goal is. Okay. If you need antioxidants, let's say you're trying to detoxify. Let's say you're trying to maybe lose weight. So I would choose the vegetables based on your intention. Okay. They're not all the same, right? They offer different... That's so complicated. But for a healthy diet, are there like the top fives that you think that you would highly recommend to have a constant diet of? Well, right, yes. And I would say I have to make a plug for eating foods that can be and are locally grown. Yes, I can assure you. I mean, so I would say strawberries aren't going to make our list because... They do grow strawberries somewhere, no? In Maui, they do it in Maui. And I know some home gardeners that have had much better luck than we have. Why is that? Why don't strawberries grow here in Hawaii? They typically need a cold period. Oh. And I know that they're advancing the technology and tricking them over there on Maui or it might just be colder. But they typically need a cold, dormant period. So why are papayas so wonderful here? That's like a fertility fruit for me. Really? That's the ultimate fertility fruit, right? Yes. Why are they so sweet? They're the best. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Emily doesn't like papayas. I don't know much about papayas except that I love eating them. And you guys don't eat fruit, so you love that. You don't love that. Well. That's the beauty of sisterhood. But can you tell me why a tomato is not a vegetable? Isn't it a fruit? Anything with a seed? Not anything with a seed. Oh, okay. Because the squash has a seed. Oh, that's true. Okay, okay. But why is tomato a fruit then? Well, it's complicated. Life is complicated. Women are complicated. And, you know, I just want to go back to kind of the image of fertility. I was looking back, you know, when kids growing up and reading Greek mythology in school, you remember there's Gaia, who is the goddess of earth. And then there's the Egyptian version is Isis. Isis is the goddess of earth and mother of all fertility. And it's really, really beautiful to have these kind of images. And isn't it interesting that everything kind of goes back to the concept of the woman's richness? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So is there anything else with the soil that you would like to bring out for people to kind of know how to appreciate and embrace and to really be a part of this earth? Well, I think just like you say, the soil, healthy soil gives us life. The same way that a woman's fertility brings life. And I think when we look at the farmland or our backyards and we look at it as a living, breathing organism just like our bodies, it is. It has all the same layers and, you know, all the same systems going on. I think if we could bring that respect and that regard for where life comes from, I think is what I would say. I hope people care for it as much as we do. So you encourage people who do have access to some kind of soil. It's to grow something. Yes. Yes. And be aware as much as you like a soft towel or nice hardwood floor. It's another part of our life. Just look and feel it and just really connect to it. Do you walk barefoot on the soil a lot? Yes, because our sandals are stuck in the mud. But yes, it's such a neat feeling to have vibrancy under your feet. And there's a power too. People say you actually walk barefoot on earth. It's so much more invigorating for you. So, you know, you both are life forces that really bring the earth to our kind of small city outlook on life. And so are there some tips that you could give our listeners about how to embrace this earthiness? I mean, you said so earlier to do it. So how? Well, I think we have to make dirt, not the enemy anymore. Just for a minute, everybody, oh, dirty, oh, dirty. You can go ahead, you should be dirty. Not a bad problem to have. You know, so many of the kids that come visit the farm at first, they're kind of like tiptoeing around. And, you know, they'll get a little on their sneaker and they'll brush it off. But by the end of it, they're practically doing... Pringler, you know. They're doing mud wrestling. I think that's a good point, to not be afraid of it in the same way. That's a beautiful image, I think. I mean, not me, but it's good. Anything else? I would say there's such a joy in growing something. And that same, that feeling that our friends who might have a tomato plant on their patio and they get their tomato and they're so happy to share it, right? They're like, I grew this tomato and I want you to enjoy it. And that sense of wonder is, we have that just on a larger scale, but that's that amazement, I would say, it could just grow something. Do you think that richness kind of embodies really what life should be about? Yes. First step, tomato, second step, child. Child. You know, I think it would be unnecessary. Growing tomato is first and then you go for the garden. Yeah, it would inspire some confidence and pride in your work. It's a really neat thing. Okay, so it's kind of like people who want to have a dog. They just grow some plants. If you can keep that alive, then you can think about the baby. Yeah, yes. And you can eat that people all the time. I can't grow anything. Just keep trying. But tell me, some people do have it. Some people can't grow worth beans. Why? They're soil. But that goes back to preparing the soil. You've got to bring it back. Okay, I think we've kind of gone through the whole works. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad you were here with us to enjoy Emily and Elizabeth's concept of life through their fertile soil. Thank you, ladies, for sharing all your wealth of information. Please go out there and please plant something and think about what it means to be fertile. And it's really nice to have a fertile mind, fertile body, and a fertile world. So let's all work towards that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.