(upbeat music) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

My name is Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth-generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

But today we're talking with Greta Wilson Wetzel.

How are you doing, Greta?

- Hi, I'm doing fine, thanks for having me.

- Hey, I don't think I've ever heard that name before, Greta.

- It's a family name.

It was my grandmother's name.

She told me it was a long, long name, and they decided to make it a little shorter.

So it's Greta with a long E. So I get called lots of things.

- [Rob] Greta, right?

- Greta is the typical thing, but it's actually Greta, - You're from Nauvoo, Illinois.

- Mm hmm.

- So, not everybody in Peoria is gonna know where that is.

- So we are right along the Mississippi River.

Nauvoo is a pretty little town that just sits kind of on the bend there.

We personally are three miles up a bluff from the river.

And so kinda take advantage of that Mississippi River.

But it is so beautiful, especially this time of year.

- Is it low right now?

- Oh, yes.

- Like super low?

- It's low enough that the farmers are talking, "Okay, this is getting a little serious here," as far as we have a elevator right there in Nauvoo that picks up the grain.

And I think it's a situation.

So we're really praying that there'll be some rain and snow in the next couple of months, so we'll be in good shape in the spring.

- Well, by the time this airs it'll probably be full.

But we literally just did a radio show on how low the Mississippi was.

Because they found some 200-year-old boat, that the water's gotten low enough that now they've found this boat.

Probably wasn't in Nauvoo.

- No, probably not, I didn't hear about it anyways.

- Nauvoo's beautiful though.

- It is very beautiful, very historic.

There's all kinds of folks that went through a long time ago, and kinda left their footprint.

And those are the things that we kinda love to share.

And then it's a very rural area, a lot of agriculture going on and farming, especially this time of year.

But we're about done, everybody's finishing up.

So, that's one good thing about the dry weather.

We did have some rain last night, so that was good to see that, kind of settled the dust and gave everybody a break.

- Okay.

I'm not done harvesting yet, so let's not talk about the people that are.

- Okay.

You'll get it done.

You'll do it.

- I had a great aunt from Nauvoo.

She was a nun.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

They had a what is it- - They had a monastery- - Monastery?

Convent.

- Convent, yeah.

And actually, they had a school, St. Mary's Academy.

I mentioned to you that I actually taught there for 15 years, so I might have met your aunt.

- You did?

- I don't know.

- Sister Mary Bernard.

- There was a lot of- - Lot of sisters.

- Sister Mary's big.

- Very big in the convent world.

- So I love the sisters.

I worked with them side by side.

Anything that happened at the school they were involved in.

So, it was a very unique experience to have them in Nauvoo.

They've since sold their property and moved to Milan, Illinois.

- You ever see that movie, "The Blues Brothers?"

- I don't know if I remember seeing that movie.

Maybe.

- There was nuns in that, but I always thought that's maybe what it was like at a convent.

- I don't know.

These guys were very progressive and always had stuff going on.

So, it was a fun thing to have in Nauvoo.

It was just one of those things that when you thought of Nauvoo you thought of the sisters.

- You grew up there.

- I did, yes.

- You live on a farm?

- I do.

So I'm like you, several generations back came to our area, started farming.

My grandpa was from that area and his family particularly was from the Nauvoo area.

Then my grandma was from out east, as we say, in the Adrian area.

And they married and continued on the farm.

My dad continued to farm.

He has now since passed.

My brothers farmed and now my nephew is in the farming business too.

But we've all grown up with it and I have nieces and nephews that are involved.

They come home on weekends and help out.

So, it's definitely still a family business, which is really fun.

- It's hard to keep a farm in a family.

- It is.

- Especially when you get, start expanding into you know, the uncles, the aunts, and the cousins, and all that.

Ones that wanna come back and there's not room for.

And a lot of uncomfortable conversation.

No matter how well you get along as a family, there's been a lot of times where people really struggle with keeping that farm together.

- Yeah, and I think our, you know, saving grace, if you want to say it that way is our folks were really, my parents were really good about communicating and knowing that they had to share the knowledge and what was going to happen next.

And make a plan for the future if indeed we were gonna keep a hold of it.

And so with a good tax advisor and a good attorney, I think, and communication with the family, I think that's the answer.

And so we've made it this far, so we'll see.

It's just a tricky business because it's so expensive to get into unless, you know, you've been in it for a while.

And then to keep it and to communicate and get along.

I think that's, you know, half the battle.

- I mean, there are gonna be some farm families watching.

I don't know, maybe there's nobody watching.

You know, I always say that, but it's like, hell, there's definitely, but if there is, because that is such an, I know this, because it's such an uncomfortable conversation.

Because you have some family members that wanna say, "Yes, I want to be able to farm."

And that's not always easy.

And the communications, they're not always truthful because people don't wanna hurt each other's feelings.

What advice would you give to 'em?

- Oh boy.

You know, I would say that listening skills come in.

Knowing what everybody's thinking and feeling, because everybody has their own opinion.

And usually rural folks have strong opinions.

- Especially in Nauvoo.

- Especially.

Or in Hancock County.

- Yeah, that's true.

- And those things you want to make sure you're listening to everyone's input because everybody's, if you're like our family, they're all on their different schedules of wanting to get things done.

And I remember at one point my dad had a combine, my brother had a combine, my other brother had a combine, and they all wanted to get in the field on their own timeline.

- Yeah.

- And so, you know, that communication with knowing that everybody has kinda their own agenda, but yet we can come together and make a plan for the future.

Because my parents have always preached to us, if anything, what our main goal is is for you to keep the land.

And if you have the land, you always have something.

But I think a lot of families have a really hard time.

You know, what's fair?

And I want my share.

- Yeah.

- And those kind of things enter into it.

That's a conversation that you do need to have.

And so we've been very fortunate with parents that have been very open and wanting to make sure that we're prepared for the future.

So, the advice I would give to whoever that person is that's in charge, 'cause my almost 94-year-old mother, who still lives alone and is very in charge of her farm books is the maker out there and she's going to kind of lead the pack.

And so whoever that is in the farm family needs to be open enough to share, you know, "Here's my thoughts and feelings and here's my wishes."

- Yeah, that doesn't always get done either.

- No.

- That's great advice.

- Yeah.

- Let's talk like conventional farming, right, corn, soybeans.

You talk about your brothers and you know, your parents.

Now, did you and your husband, were you part of that like conventional part of the farm?

- So my husband grew up on a farm, and thought maybe he would wanna be part of the farm family, but he ended up deciding that that was not the best for anyone's future.

- Sometimes that is.

The key is to know that.

- To know that.

I think he woke up one day saying, "You know, you people, you go to church together, you eat together, you farm together and that's a lot of family going on here."

So, he quietly stepped aside and took his own path, which was great because he was very talented in many different areas and found his love in life.

And he really truly did appreciate the farm family.

But I've always been involved just as a sibling within the farm.

And when I was growing up they put me on a tractor and then I think I was in a grain truck at seven trying to, you know, 'cause you're in a field and everybody's looking around going, "We need to move all this stuff to a next field.

And you get in, you're driving."

And you know, you're seven and you're like, "Oh, okay."

- Well, farmers are really known for giving instructions on how to run equipment.

- Yeah.

- It's one of our strong points.

- Yeah, so, you know, I've always been around that.

And then of course, I think the mindset was the girls go off and do something else and the boys stay home and farm.

I think that's the mindset.

I don't think it is today.

- No, it's completely changed.

- Completely different.

But as I was growing up that was the mindset.

- That was it, yeah.

- Yeah.

But moving forward and knowing that it takes a lot and it does take a family to come together and work.

So, I'm more involved with the farm books and working with the tax advisors and lining up the things that we do with our attorney and those kind of things.

And very close communication with, you know, my brothers and my nephew who are farming.

I'm always the one that's bugging them for, you know, "Where's the bills?

And it's tax season."

You know, those kind of things.

- You're the one.

- I'm the one.

There's always that one person.

But it's very healthy for us all to be involved and have our jobs and have our part there.

So, I think, those are the families that have more of a chance to stay together.

- Unfortunately, your husband did pass away.

- He did.

He had a struggle with cancer.

Was diagnosed about seven years ago and he fought hard.

He was gonna beat it, which was the good attitude to have.

And he left us in May.

And so, that was devastating for us because he was such a part of what we did every day.

And so that kind of is a sad thing for us to realize that life is short.

And so that's another reason though, I think it's for families, if you're not getting along for whatever reason, that knowing and remembering that, you know, life is short and you might as well just get along in life because those things come up where you wish maybe you'd had those conversations and those relationships.

- I should tell a joke before we both cry.

- Yes, yeah.

You know, as you well know, when you lose somebody things just really come in waves.

And we were talking before, you know, you have those happy moments and those joyful moments and that's why I'm so thankful, I know you haven't asked the question about my crazy lavender business yet, but, you know, having- - I don't see the word crazy in front of it.

I mean it was implied.

- Yes, yes.

Everybody around me is enjoying the craziness of the lavender.

But that's something that I so much enjoy now because he was, you know, my husband was part of that.

And that's a place where I can kind of go- - What do you mean a part of it?

- Oh, Dave was pretty good about taking on some of my ideas and make them happen.

He always had a way of doing things.

He was a quality guy.

And so, we had to, you know, have a big plan before we could do any of my interesting ideas.

So, when I brought him the idea of planting all these lavender plants, he went right to town.

He loved to plant.

I love anything perennial, anything that I can plant and it'll be back next year, I'm all about.

My grandmother left me many, many perennials in my yard that I'm still enjoying today.

And I just think it's a really great thing that you can leave to the next generation.

Just kinda like farming is.

Any kind of plants.

And so then, he was a part of helping me develop my little lavender patch.

And so, tiling, making sure it's the right soil, making sure all the drainage went.

- Oh really?

- He was all about that.

Yeah, we did a lot of things before we actually planted the lavender.

- Okay.

You know, when you're on TV you worry about saying stuff that's insensitive, but I'm just gonna say it anyway.

Sometimes a spouse will have ideas that are a little eccentric.

- Yes.

- And sometimes they have a lot of those ideas.

Maybe, possibly, would that describe you?

- That would yes.

Very so much.

I am very creative.

I was a music teacher for many, many years and the brain never stops.

And so, some of my ideas have failed miserably.

- It happens.

- Oh, yes it does.

And so we just move on and go to the next idea and go from there.

But we were looking for something.

I have an innkeeping business also, and we were looking for something that people could come to the farm.

And not always do we have, you know, corn or beans to look at.

Although, you know, a lot of times that's what's going on.

And so, I wanted something that was going to always kind of be available.

Of course, in the wintertime, not so much.

But I have really noticed that people will go out and you know, hang out in the lavender patch.

They can take their chair out there and sit and it is very relaxing.

- This is lavender?

- This is lavender.

- You brought this in specifically for us.

- Something like that, yes.

- This came from the PBS bathroom.

- But how appropriate.

My daughter- - Your daughter is.

We asked if we had something to put on the desk and she's like, "Well, there's lavender in a bathroom."

- Yes, she's very observant.

- We went and got it.

This is fake.

- That is fake.

And my lavender looks something like that.

- So, what do you do with lavender?

- So there's many things you can do with it besides just look at it, which is what we've been doing this last year.

Because our time was spent with, you know, taking care of my husband and everything else kind of fell to the backseat.

- Sure.

- But we've noticed that there's many uses for it, if you look, if you Google it and it is very, something that's relaxing.

If you love the fragrance of it, it's something that you can pick and immediately.

You won't be smelling that.

Immediately have that sense of just relaxation.

But you can make lavender oil.

The essential oils are really big.

I have developed something where I leave my guests, I make kind of like a bath bomb type of thing and you put it over the lavender and hang it and the water comes and then they have a nice relaxing bath.

So I leave that for my and I should have- - No damn idea what you're talking about.

- I should have brought you one.

But I try to leave things like that for my guests so they can enjoy it.

They can go out and cut it if they want to and take it home and dry it.

It's amazing plant because when you pick it and take the buds off and you know, store them, you would think after a while it would lose its fragrance and it really doesn't.

- Huh.

- I mean, you can, my husband had a bag of it that he slept with because it is relaxing and it was just something- - It is like, they say it's to help you sleep, right?

- It is, yes.

It's something you wanna, you know- - So is whiskey.

- That would be true too.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

You know, we interview people all over the country in agriculture, and this is a thing.

I mean, there are some people that are actually making a ton of money, maybe not necessarily with the product, but selling the experience of it.

- Yes.

- Like even doing, you can go out and do your photo shoot.

You can sit in the field.

And all at a small or reasonable fee.

Is that the plan for this?

- We've done some of that.

We have some weddings that come through.

They stay at the town hall.

They're my little innkeeping places, perfect for honeymoon couples.

And while they're staying, they get dressed there the day of the wedding and then a photographer- - They get dressed in the lavender field?

- No, they get dressed in my town hall.

I mean, they could get dressed in the lavender field.

- It'd be more exciting.

- You know, my neighbors would probably, they already think I'm nuts.

So that would just add to it.

But you know, the photographer then comes and they take pictures in my yard and different things and they typically will end up in the lavender taking some photos.

And so, usually there's soy beans and or fuel corn right there.

Which my nephew loves me for that because he kinda has to be careful.

- Oh yeah, he can't spray because it'll- - No, no, no.

So, there's a lot of going on with the farming right through there, you know, in the spring and in the fall, which- - [Rob] How big of a patch?

- We planted 120 plants to begin with, which doesn't sound too bad, but when you go to plant 120 plants it seems bad.

But we planted them by hand and made sure that they were all just what they needed to be.

Lavender hates water.

Where we're at our water table is generally high and we have to, you know, put in a lotta tile.

We already had tile in this particular place, but we put in more and I still have wet spots.

And so, those are the places that the lavender did not survive, but it survived last winter really well.

We had a lot of snow and it kind of just packed it in and insulated it.

It all came back last year.

And so, we're kind of thinking about putting it on a higher place now that we've experimented with it a little bit.

But we'll continue to grow it because it's just a really neat thing in addition to what I'm doing with my innkeeping.

- Before we get to that, I mean, I guess I'm curious with this lavender patch, are you able to enjoy it because when you put it in your husband was such a part of it.

- Yes.

- Sometimes those memories can be bittersweet.

- Yes.

And it was at first, as I was out there, I had neglected the lavender patch - Sure.

- in the spring because of what we were going through.

And then at some point in time, I made myself go out and weed the patch and that was difficult those first few times, but I also found it very therapeutic.

I am that way anyways with gardening.

Rather than going to a counselor, I usually go and visit my gardens.

And so that was just another place, more special probably than anything else that we have going on in our yard right now.

And Dave was very hands on.

He had a landscaping business years ago that I helped him with.

And so, our yard is full of things that people didn't either want or they thought was going to die, and they said, "Come get this."

And then we would bring it home and it was like we had the all the ugly stepchild plants in our yard.

- All the reject ones.

- All the reject ones.

So everything I go to look at, you know, has that Dave's special touch on there.

So lavender patch is the same.

But now I have found that it is a place that we can all go and remember him.

And all the things, we had lots of pictures and video of him out there working.

So, it's ended up being a good thing, very therapeutic.

- Well, I'm glad.

Because I know your passion for this, so, I'm glad that it's able to- - Yeah, I think it'll be a good thing moving forward.

- You have mentioned it.

What is it, you say town hall?

What are you talking about?

- Okay, so in Sonora Township, which is in Hancock County, we had something called the town hall, it was a voting poll.

It had been there since 1880.

So, everybody from 1880 until 2000 ish came there to vote.

And it was just this little building that they used for many different things, community meetings, I think my grandparents square danced in the building.

Just one of those little community buildings that everybody used.

But moving forward, in the last several years, before I moved it to my property, it was primarily just for voting.

So you would go there- - You moved a building?

- So we moved a building.

- Okay.

The township decided that they were going to- - It wasn't a mobile home was it?

- No, it was not a mobile home.

- Okay, so this took some effort.

- It took some effort.

- Okay.

- So, the township was going build a new building.

So on a whim I said to my husband, kinda like the lavender, "Oh, we shouldn't have that building torn down, that would be terrible, that's a landmark.

We should move that building to our property and do something with it."

- All of a sudden my earlier question is just coming back to prove its point.

- So, on a weak moment, he said, "Oh yeah, that's a great idea."

So what we did was, my dad in the meantime was still living and had this huge Steiger tractor, which we thought was huge at the time, but not so much anymore.

They're not very big.

- Was it a Cougar or a Panther?

- It was a Cougar, I believe.

- Okay.

- So he said, "You know, you need to build a sled and we'll hook the Steiger on and we'll just move that thing across the- - Well, you guys did it yourself?

- Oh, yeah.

(Rob chuckles) Oh, yeah.

- I love Hancock County.

- That's what you do.

So, on a very cold day, my husband, and a few friends, and neighbors, and people that just kinda show up when you're doing things like that, we got that building on the sled that my husband and probably some neighbor people built.

And they got it up there.

They got the Steiger hooked on.

Somehow we got it onto the road and then into my dad's field.

It was a very cold day, first couple days in January, so the ground was frozen.

- Oh, yes.

Slide it right away, yeah.

- Pulled it across the field and then it sat right behind our grain bin site for quite a while.

- Years?

- A couple maybe years.

And my brothers and my dad finally said, "Greta, we're tired of farming around this building and driving around it.

What are you gonna do with this building?"

And I was kinda halfheartedly thinking maybe it'd blow away or something, but it didn't.

And so, in the meantime I decided, you know, we really need to get this building moved.

And so what we did was we decided to remodel it or restore it and we dug a basement and we did hire someone to come and move the building and place it on the foundation.

So it's got a basement underneath it for storage and different things.

And we started just restoring the thing.

I don't know if we restored it from the inside out or the outside in.

I really can't tell you.

- [Rob] It's all a blur at this point.

- And it turned out to be a wonderful place for people to come and visit the farm.

We now have it on Airbnb, we have it on Vrbo.

We have local people that know about it.

- [Rob] Where can people find it?

- If you just Google Sonara Gardens Farmstead it will come up.

You can, like I said, find it on the platforms there with Airbnb and Vrbo is how we book it.

- Greta, you've done a horrible job of time management.

So, think we've gotta do another, I think we need to do a part two.

- I would love that.

- Can we get your daughter?

- Absolutely, if she's willing.

- Well, you're her mom, just tell her to.

- I could do that.

That's not how we work, but you know, I'm sure she would love to chat with you.

- Okay, Greta Wilson Wetzel, I would love for you to come on again next week, because there's a lot of stuff we didn't get to.

Even the lavender, there's more questions I have on that.

So yes, it would be awesome if we could get you back and your daughter Gracie, maybe she's got some stories about you.

- She might.

I hope not.

- Gracie, thank you so very, I'm sorry, Greta, thank you so very much for being on air and everybody else, we'll catch ya next week.

(upbeat music)