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

My name is Rob Sharkey.

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

You ever go to those nurseries and you see like all the wonderful plants and all the wonderful trees and you just want to buy them all?

Well, today we're gonna talk with Amy Lister.

How you doing, Amy?

- Hey, it's a pretty good day to be here.

Thanks for inviting me.

- You're a horticulturist.

- That's right.

Mouthful.

- It is.

I should put you on the spot and see if you could spell it.

- I can.

(both chuckle) - You work at Hoerr Nursery?

- I do.

It's my fifth season there.

- Really?

- Yeah.

There's a lot to learn.

And the older I get, the more the plant names have a hard time sticking, but it's a great place, great environment to be with other people.

- I thought you know 'em all, but you're saying you're starting to... - Well, you have to know the Latin name.

You have to know the common name.

And then you have to know the name that people call things by, just because their grandma called them that.

So we do a lot of Googling.

- Oh.

Can you think of an example of that?

- So a couple weeks ago somebody said, "I need a tulip tree."

Okay?

- Okay.

- So there is a tulip tree, which is Liriodendron, but, they call magnolias 'cause they have those pink cupped flowers.

- Okay.

- They call those tulip trees, but they're really shrubs.

So it took us a while, but we figured it out.

- Do you, at that point, do you just look at the customer and say, "You're an idiot"?

- We can't do that.

But we have to walk and talk and keep going.

And sometimes we don't always make it to that point, but, yeah.

- Okay.

Some people would wonder, and by some people, I mean nobody, they might wonder how you get to be a guest on this show.

And would you suggest if someone's picking up a tree that has a show on PBS, say, "Hey, I see you have a show" and then all of a sudden you're a guest.

- Here we are.

So be careful what you say.

- It's the magic of TV folks.

We're here to share.

Did you grow up with like a horticulture background now?

- You know, I grew up in suburban Minneapolis.

We didn't have access to 4-H or FFA.

I knew what they were, but, we didn't have ag classes in my giant high school and I just had a real strong interest in plants.

So I realized that botany really wasn't terribly practical.

And once I figured out what that word was, horticulture, I figured it out.

And I decided to go to Iowa State where they have a huge agriculture program, so... - What'd you study there though?

- So my emphasis was design.

That's just where I feel comfortable.

- [Rob] Like what?

Like clothes design?

What?

- Landscape design.

- Oh, landscape design.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's a little more artsy.

And I did get a minor in design studies and so it was quite a dichotomy, if you will, swinging from the guys with manure on their boots to the art school with the hippie dippy crowd.

But there I was kinda faking my way through the whole thing.

- [Rob] You're kind of in between, huh?

- Yeah, I think I have a sign on my head that says, "I don't belong here.

I feel like I don't belong here."

So anyway, that's how it goes.

- Okay.

So you got done with college.

You got married.

Where'd you meet your husband?

- So we met at Iowa State.

He was an engineering student, which there's a lot of those there.

And I kind of swore them off, but for some reason Brian got a piece of my heart and he grew up on a farm, so... - Well, how'd you meet?

What was the initial?

- We lived in the same residence hall association.

So I was actually working food service, shoveling eggs in the morning for breakfast.

And he would come through the line and caught my eye.

- In a bar.

That's all you had to say.

I mean, you can make up this nice story for the kids and whatever, but you met in a bar.

- No, it's true.

- That's fine.

- It's just the dorms.

Yeah.

- He was a farm kid though.

- Yes.

Yes.

He's I think fifth generation like you.

But he didn't decide to stick around on the farm, so.

- Yeah.

But still you can take the kid away from the farm, but you still have to plan your wedding.

- Exactly.

So we decided to get married in the summer.

'Cause we were both gonna graduate at Christmas time.

And so we wanted the garden wedding and we had to plan it around the hog show at the Iowa State Fair.

- Well, yeah.

- So, yeah.

- I mean, why would you want to, why would you even think about that?

- 'Cause for the Lister family, that's the highlight of the year.

It's kind of their family vacation.

And I mean, it's a big business thing too.

'Cause they would sell quite a bit of, you know, merchandise if you will, so... - I had a sister get married during shotgun season for deer.

I truly hope I talk to her again someday.

- That's critical.

My father-in-law did tell me though, to be a Lister, I had to show.

So the year after our wedding, I had to get the little stick and they assigned me a hog and I was terrified that I was gonna forget which one was mine.

'Cause they had the little numbers painted on 'em, and, so yeah.

So that's how... - [Rob] It's not like there's that many out there.

- No, but I was nervous and I'd never done that before.

Like I said, I'm a city kid.

- How'd you do that?

'Cause actually the showing pigs, there's been some viral videos of some kids that were kind of nutty looking when they were doing that.

And you know, like really at the judges and that, and it, all the kids that showed pigs were like, "Oh, I don't see the big deal."

And the rest of society is going like, "Wow, that's a weird subculture."

- Sure.

I never got into it, so.

I just made sure I had really nice red boots that matched my red sweater and that's all I cared about.

- Nothing to do with the pig.

- No.

- Okay.

Did you win?

- I don't remember.

I know I didn't get first.

- I'm guessing, no.

- No blue ribbon for me.

- But look at this lovely white ribbon that I got.

Ninth place.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

So how did you end up in Peoria?

- So, my husband works at Caterpillar.

So we graduated and we got an apartment, and now we have a couple of acres just outside of Peoria and, yeah, we have a big yard and takes a lot of my time.

So it's enjoyable.

And honestly during COVID it was kind of nice to have that amount of elbow room that, you know, if we had to say grow our own food, we could, but we don't.

- Do you have a bunker?

- No.

- You seem like the type of person who would bury a school bus in your backyard.

- It's crossed my mind, but no, I'm not willing to do that.

- Wink, wink.

In other words, don't show up at my house when it all hits the fan.

Two kids.

- Yes.

- One's a Marine sniper, huh?

- Yes, that's what every mother wants to hear is, "Mom, I'm joining the Marines."

And so that's a little bit why I brought Sue today.

- Yeah.

Sue the T-Rex.

- Once you survive motherhood and the Marine Corps and COVID, you can't be too serious about things.

And Sue has just been that, don't get too stressed out about stuff.

- Yeah.

My wife who lines a guest up will go, "Hey, maybe bring something on the desk that could represent something you want to talk about, something maybe about you."

And you brought a miniature Tyrannosaurus rex.

- Yes.

Yeah.

So I actually purchased it at a estate sale hoping to hide it in a friend's garden and not tell her about it.

But Sue has become a mascot for me, and- - Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Whoa.

You were gonna hide this in somebody you call a friend?

At their garden?

- Yes.

Yes.

- To give them a heart attack.

- Well, you know, like I said, you can't take gardening too seriously.

It's just for fun really.

- At an estate sale?

- Yeah.

- Did...?

- There were creepy, creepy dolls there.

And this was the coolest thing I could find and walk out with.

- Was it an auction?

- For three bucks.

No, Sue came home with me for three bucks.

- Three bucks?

- Yeah.

I thought it was a good deal.

- Probably about, yeah, I would say it was overpriced, but I didn't, you know, the movable jaw.

- Well I tell you what, I didn't tell you about this, but I've made her accessories too.

So she sometimes comes to our Quilt Guild meetings, Gems of the Prairie.

And depending on the theme of our workshop that week, or month, she has a different outfit.

So we had a Dr. Seuss theme, so she got a hat.

- It must be very special in your world.

That's... - I'm just having a good time.

You know?

Try being a mother of a Marine sniper.

Everything is... - In all seriousness, that had to be terrifying.

- It was, he was in Afghanistan.

And then COVID got him stuck there for a while.

So yeah, we... - [Rob] But back home safe?

- Yep.

All's well, he's going to college.

So, yeah.

- And you had a daughter?

- Yeah, our daughter Emma's at Iowa, which was a little bitter pill to swallow, having two Cyclone parents.

Then all of a sudden, your kid is a Hawkeye.

- It's, Caitlin Clark.

- Caitlin Clark was a classmate, yeah.

- That's cool.

And what's she going into?

- She's gonna be a nurse.

- Okay.

Very nice.

Very, yeah.

- Yeah.

It works out.

- Okay.

Let's talk about you working at Hoerr Nursery.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Unsolicited plug.

What was the, I mean, what got you into that?

- Well, with a degree in horticulture, you know, there's a lot of opportunity and yet at the same time there's not.

So I happen to live close by and I happen to be a plant geek and they sell plants and I like that.

So it worked out.

I'm out there in trees and shrubs and I helped you load your tree that you purchased from us.

- I don't remember you helping that much.

- That's how it came to me.

Well, 500 pound tree, there's not a whole lot I can do, but.

- No, the young man with the whatever, I've never seen a lifting device like that, but it was- - We call that the grabber.

- Yeah, that thing is pretty awesome.

- Yeah, it's cool.

- I don't have trees like that, but I want a grabber.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

To answer me this, driving into Peoria and I see people they're netting their trees.

- Oh yeah.

- Putting nets around there.

What's with that?

- Yes.

So this year, 2024 was the year when two broods of cicadas were coming out at the same time.

So this hasn't happened since 1803 I believe, or 1805.

And so people were kind of freaking out that the cicadas were going to eat their trees.

Well, what's really happening is nobody's eating anybody's trees.

The cicada, the female is gonna make a small slice in the pencil size branches and lay her eggs.

- It's always the women.

- So yeah.

So they're out there screaming.

It's the guys that are screaming, the guys are looking for a mate.

- [Rob] Can't deny that.

- Yeah.

So once the eggs hatch, they'll drink a little bit of the tree juice for a few days and then they fall to the ground and they go underground for the next 17 years.

So I actually covered one tree, but I haven't yet seen a cicada in my neighborhood.

So it's very patchy depending on where you live.

They tend to be in the woods.

- I have two properties that we have would have like timber there.

I've heard 'em there.

But at our house, which is generally cicada central, nada.

- Yeah.

Ditto.

- Yeah.

- Like, I haven't seen one.

So we made cicada cookies at work the other day.

You know, the little Nutter Butters with some chocolate and the red eyes, - Oh, I thought you made 'em outta cicadas.

- We're not interested in actually eating them, although they are edible.

Good source of protein.

But we prefer Nutter Butters.

So just trying to have, like I said, trying to have fun with it, 'cause... - So do people need to net their trees?

- Not really.

If they were a young tree, there's probably a chance to be concerned, but most trees are just gonna shake it off.

- So it's the... - It's nature, you know?

- The netting companies that are pushing this propaganda.

- Perhaps.

Perhaps.

- Tree fear.

- I feel like the media blew it out of proportion, so... - [Rob] Do you know who bought a bunch of stock in the tree net company?

- That's a good question.

- Dr. Fauci.

- Dr. Fauci.

- Please don't email me.

I don't care, it's a joke.

All right?

So... You don't necessarily need to put the, because I'm driving by people that have netted every single tree in their yard.

- Yeah.

It's comedic.

Like I said, the shrubs, the evergreens, they're not interested in that.

The cicadas aren't interested in that.

- Okay.

- So I had a dual purpose.

I have a cherry tree, so I'm trying to keep the birds off eating the cherries.

So I thought, "Well, this is the time to try it.

And if a cicada were to come along, I would thwart that as well."

- Yeah.

I forget what my wife bought.

It was a red elm, something like that from you guys.

- I think it was a red maple.

- It was a red maple.

It's a beautiful tree.

What's the main tree that people are buying?

- We sell a lot of brandy wine maples because they don't make helicopters.

So it's a male clone.

Most people don't want messy trees.

So we try to have ones that will accommodate that.

- We had a guest on one time and they sell trees up in Chicago area and I asked them, their number one tree was the honey locust.

I said, "You're insane."

'Cause those are the devil tree, right?

They have got the big spikes on it?

- These are thornless, so what's great about the honey locust is the leaves are really small.

So A, you get nice sunlight dappled on the ground so you can have a good turf underneath.

And B, you can't rake 'em up even if you try.

They're so tiny.

So it's about as low maintenance as you can get.

- It's for lazy homeowners.

- Yeah, yeah.

Well we all have other things to do besides rake.

- Yeah.

I've never raked in my, you don't do that out in the country.

- Well that's always an option.

- We just let the wind do it.

We don't have the neighbors that are gonna complain.

- Sure.

- Do you enjoy working there?

- I do.

I do.

It's great to be part of a team.

I've been self-employed for the last eight years 'cause I needed the flexibility to drive those two kids to sporting events.

And it got me through the tough times of COVID and the Marine Corps.

But I really missed being part of a team.

So I came back.

- You said you were self-employed for eight years as a gardener?

- As a gardener, yes.

I would go to that person's house.

So I had a Monday lady and a Tuesday lady and I would just work with them or for them for two to three hours every week.

- So you would do the gardening?

- I would, yeah.

- I wish I would've known.

That's why we stopped putting in a garden.

- Well, I did landscape, like ornamental stuff.

I wasn't doing anybody's vegetables.

But yeah, I can do that.

- But everything has a price, right?

- You bet.

Yeah.

- I will do a garden again when everything is roundup ready.

They kind of frown on- - You mean like tomatoes and peppers?

- Yeah, the hippies frown on that though.

- Well, yeah.

- We got a roundup ready sweet corn now.

So we putting sweet corn in again.

But that's- - Tell you what, as a city kid, I thought all those fields were sweet corn.

- It's, I forget the percentage, but yeah, most people do.

- I had no idea what field corn was.

I didn't know what a disc was when I was in my first soil class at Iowa State.

I didn't know what a harrow was.

So it's been a learning curve.

- How did you keep up with all that?

- Well, it helped to have my roommate and my boyfriend at the time being from the farm.

I would ask them the stupid questions 'cause I had to start somewhere.

- Uh-huh.

- Yeah.

We didn't have Google either, so... - You're kind of a plant geek then?

- Definitely.

- Nerd?

- Nerd.

- You said geek.

But nerd's more of that- - To me they're synonymous.

So I don't know what you think, but... - You're the one that put a hat on a plastic dinosaur.

- I know.

Just because I can.

(Rob chuckles) - What about plants that you love so much?

- Well, currently I'm getting into hostas.

- [Rob] Yeah?

You can split those.

- They serve no purpose other than to look cute.

- Yeah, but they can grow in like the shade, right?

- Right, right.

So I installed a new garden of that at my house.

Even though I have too many other gardens to take care of properly.

- Can you eat a hosta?

- You can.

It's expensive though.

- [Rob] Why?

- Hostas cost a lot so I wouldn't actually eat one.

- We've got a farm that's got so many hostas on it, like somebody planted years ago and we keep saying, "Oh, we should split these or whatever."

We never do.

- But you can eat 'em.

- I'm gonna eat 'em.

- You try.

- Can you put like some ranch dressing?

- I'm guessing, you know, a cheese sauce would go really nice.

So ranch is always good.

- Have to hurry up here.

- I come from a long, long, large family of ranch aficionados.

- Is it, do you go to supper clubs as a kid?

'Cause that's, supper clubs always make their own ranch dressing.

You can always tell a supper club because they have a wood paneling and they always make their own ranch dressing.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

Just a... - Mental note.

- Yeah.

Are you using metal detectors?

Is that a hobby?

- Yeah, it's something, I picked one up at a garage sale.

- Yeah.

- And my husband's farm is been around for well over 100 years.

So we just started, take a shovel, take a magnet, take a bucket, take it.

And we find all these weird things that must have been horse drawn equipment, pieces and parts, but we don't know what they are.

And found a lot of nails and staples and barbed wire and junk.

But you know, it's just cheap entertainment really.

- I still find horseshoes out in my fields.

- Okay.

- I mean that, and it, I had well over 100 years.

- Well it took us a long time 'cause we thought for sure if you have the equipment at some point you're gonna run into a horseshoe.

And it took a couple years before we found one.

- Yeah.

- So.

- I find a lot of deer antlers in my tires.

- Oh.

- Why don't you find a bone detector?

- A bone detector.

That's an interesting combination.

- What's this?

- So the optional object that I brought, I like to quilt and I like color.

Even though there's not a ton of color on this.

Quilting and gardening are very similar.

And this is actually- - [Rob] Whoa.

What?

- Yeah.

- How?

- It's all about design, how things play together, texture, color, rhythm, repetition, all those things what we learned in the college of design.

- You can't eat this.

- But I like this because it's also recycling.

These are pieces of somebody's farm.

They're reclaimed pieces of barns and chicken coops.

And the fellow that makes 'em, he offers 'em for sale at our quilt show.

- [Rob] Oh, this didn't come from Hobby Lobby?

- No, no.

They're homemade.

And I would like to, in my retirement days, get into that for myself with pieces from our farm as a way to keep little bits of it alive, keep history alive.

- Your farm, which again was your husband's family, right?

- Correct.

Yes.

- Had a cemetery on there?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm currently, again, nerding out about cemetery preservation and restoration.

This cemetery started in the 1850s.

The last person was buried in the 1830s.

And the poor guy, Jasper doesn't have a headstone 'cause he died during the Depression.

So I wanna take care of him and then get everybody kind of straightened up and situated.

'Cause nobody's really been out there to take care of it other than to mow.

- How's the headstones holding up?

- A lot of 'em are broken.

The cows got in.

- Yeah.

- The cemetery knocked down a lot of it.

So there's 29 folks in there that I wanna keep.

- [Rob] Just 29?

- Yeah.

- That's, I mean, because generally these small farm cemeteries, I mean, it'd be less than 10 people.

- Sure, sure.

So the first one there, I believe was the original landowner.

Alyphus Lister's father-in-law.

And then just, you know, neighbors and other family members are there, so... - Where'd that family come from?

- Well, the land was bought while they were living in Indiana, but the actual Lister family is from the UK so, I'm still trying to figure that out.

I haven't been able to find that link between America and England.

- Do you know your family's side?

- Not a whole lot.

I've been so busy working on my husband's side that I haven't really got to mine.

It's overwhelming.

Like just, it's kind of like collecting baseball cards.

When you do genealogy and you get on those online websites.

I have over 900 people just on my husband's side and someday I'll get going on my side.

- It's pretty unbelievable to think, you know, 150 years ago, people settling there, breaking the ground.

I mean, no electricity.

- Site unseen.

He bought it off of the government 'cause it was some poor soldier fought in a war and earned it as his income, if you will.

But he passed away so his mom actually sold it.

So there's a lot of history that you can find out online.

You know, about your farm, your property.

I really love plat maps.

There's so much information on a plat map.

- Well, I don't know if you've ever been to Iowa in the winter, but could you imagine?

Trying to survive, you know, negative 20?

- Right.

- In like a mud hut or whatever they used to live in?

- Yeah.

I really can't.

And I appreciate all the hardships that they went through.

- Yeah.

I like the fact that, you know, sometimes people marry into a farm and it's just kind of there, you seem to really embrace the heritage of it.

- I don't really know why.

It's kind of ironic that the in-law is the most interested in the history of the farm and the people and where they are and where they're buried and where they ended up.

The original guy had 16 kids.

And they scattered all over the country, you know?

- From one woman?

- No, two.

- Okay.

- Both named Nancy.

So that's been, yeah, he's buried.

- That made it convenient.

- He's buried and Nancy's on one side and the other Nancy's on the other side at the Lister cemetery, so.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah.

- I thought you were talking about when they were alive.

- Yeah, no.

- What is your ultimate goal?

What is your ultimate fantasy?

Like, if you could do anything with the plants, with the designs, if you could wave a wand, what would you be doing?

- Oh, wow.

That's a big question, Rob.

I would say if I could, I would have just me and my plants and hanging out with a greenhouse and making more plants and, you know?

Yeah.

- Do you like plants more than people?

- Yeah.

- I could tell.

- Yeah.

A lot of us, especially at Hoerr Nursery, are introverts.

- Yeah.

- And it's hard for us to work with people.

- Yeah, but you get all these customers and man, I gotta imagine, because like, say someone bought a tree and they dug a hole this big and threw it in, didn't water it, then all of a sudden it's your fault that it died.

- Yeah.

- Do you ever slap 'em?

- We wish we could, but no, we don't.

We want them to go away happy, so we try to make it right.

- Yeah.

Most people probably go outta their way to try to make stuff live.

Right?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean there's, it's a big learning curve.

I mean, it's not easy just teaching someone how to use a hose... - [Rob] Yeah.

- Is bigger than you would imagine.

You know, I don't know what it's like in the world of corn and beans, I guess you rely on mother nature to water, but we spend a lot of time talking about gallons or inches or you know, whatever.

The quantity.

- Nobody ever told me I had to hook the hose up to something for it to work.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- I sat there and yelled at it for hours.

- Yeah.

- Before I realized.

- Drilling holes in buckets or tree diapers, I mean, there's just an endless amount of stuff to talk about.

- Is the problem not watering enough or overwatering?

- Most of the time it's underwatering.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- I just put the hose on there and then I walk away for half a day.

- And that's what I do too.

Yeah.

- It's probably not real good.

If people wanna find anything like Hoerrs or anything, maybe get ahold of you, is there a way to do that?

- Yeah, well we have a website, HoerrNursery.com.

We also have a Facebook page and our marketing lady, Renee, does a really good job of every day putting something out to kind of catch your eye.

And you can always call us and we'll answer your questions the best we can.

- I think they need a new mascot.

- It might be bring your T-Rex to work sometime coming up soon, so you can come by and say hello.

- We'll see.

Amy, it's been a joy to get to know you a little bit.

I'm really glad you came on the show.

I love when people are passionate about stuff.

- Well, I don't know if it's agriculture or corn and beans.

I know your show is "Shot of Ag," but ag is kind of a big entity.

- We're just all one.

- We're just one little slice of that big pie.

- All one big family.

Amy Lister, thank very much.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

(rock music)