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

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

If you're gonna farm, a lot of times, you have to diversify.

Our next guests have become masters at it.

We're gonna be talking with Marci and Sean Meyers.

How you guys doing?

- Good.

- Good.

- Yeah.

You're from Kirkwood?

- Mm-hmm.

- Yep.

- For the people in Peoria, where is that?

- 10 miles west of Monmouth, Illinois.

Just past Galesburg.

- Gotcha.

Is that where you're from originally?

- No, originally I was actually from a little town over here by Peoria, Laura, Illinois.

Grew up on a hog farm.

Went to school in Princeville, so a lot of the listeners will know that area.

- Mm-hmm.

- And then, when my grandpa retired, we moved back to the home farm when I was in high school.

So I lived over there for two years before then I went to college and then moved away to earn some money to come back farming.

- Yeah.

Where'd you, Texas?

- Yep, Dallas, Texas for Texas Instruments.

- What were you doing there?

- I was an equipment engineer.

- Okay, so, it seems like you're being a little, you know, sidestepped, were you building bombs or something?

- Computer chips.

- Ah.

- I was the one of the guys that worked in the clean room and wore a bunny suit.

All you could see is eyeballs, everybody.

So you knew the shape of everybody.

You didn't know what they looked like outside of the building, but you knew what their eyeballs looked like.

- That's so random.

(laughs) - How about you, Marci?

Where'd you grow up?

- I grew up in Kansas.

- Kansas?

- Mm-hmm.

Right along the Oklahoma border.

- Okay.

How'd you two meet?

- We met actually in Texas.

I worked for Texas Instruments as well, so.

- Oh, did your eyeballs meet?

(group laughs) - Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, no, it was more her shape in the bunny suit.

- Ah.

Did you meet at work?

- We did, yeah.

- Okay.

Love at first sight?

- No.

- No, after the first pack of gum.

(Marci laughs) - After the first- - Yeah.

- Pack of gum?

- Yeah, that's how I kind of introduced myself at Christmas one time.

I gave her a pack of Hubba Bubba for Christmas and that broke the ice.

- You did.

- [Rob] That's an underrated gum.

- It is.

- It is.

- Yeah.

Do they still make it?

- Yes, they do.

- Oh, okay.

- Shrinkflation has hit it, though.

The pieces are smaller.

- Oh, that's bull.

(laughs) - Yeah.

- That was a great thing about that gum, because they were like a wad.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

All right.

I'll let it go.

So you guys fall in love, you get married.

Tell me how you made your way back to the farm.

- We've always, at the very beginning, I told her, I said, "I'm planning on going back to the farm some day."

And I was trying to save up money and I kept pushing my dad off and off and then he finally said, "I'm either gonna start selling things or you need to come back."

- Ready to return.

- So, yep, we made the decision, pulled the trigger, and moved home.

- And Marci, you're okay with that?

- Yep.

I was okay with it.

(Rob and Marci laugh) - Well, a lot of times, like a non-farming spouse will come onto a farm and it, there is an adjustment period.

- There was.

- Yeah.

- There was, I, you know, I was raised in Kansas and then Texas and everybody is a little different here, but they're so sweet.

So it took me a while to get used to the, maybe, I don't know.

You can cut that out.

(laughs) - You almost said, "Bless our hearts."

- Oh, I almost did.

(group laughs) - So what kind of farm did you come back to?

- Corn, soybeans, and cattle.

- Okay.

So kind of a, you know, typical I state farm.

- Yep.

- And at what point do you guys look at each other and go, "You know, Belted Cow Orchard is the way we need to go."

- In Texas, we had kind of a hobby farm there, just 'cause I didn't like being in the city all day.

So I started a little backyard, 20 acre farm.

And when I was looking at cattle, everybody's got black Angus cattle.

- Yeah.

- So I wanted something a little different.

So we picked the ones with the white belts around their belly.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, we started a little herd down there and then shipped them back here when we decided to move here.

So that's where the belted cows come from.

And then had an apple orchard in the area that went out of business and they took out their trees.

So that's when Marci decided she wanted to plant some apple trees.

- Just because they're, the competition left?

- No, I mean, well that, there was a hole in the market there, but also, you know, I had gone to school and got my degree in teaching and decided that wasn't for me.

- Yeah.

- And then when that happened with the other orchard and everyone missed that, you know, wonderful apples and cider, I asked him if he'd jump in with me and plant some trees and he did.

- So you were pushing as much as he was?

- Oh yeah, I really- - I was just the tag along.

It was her idea.

- Yeah.

He just, he- - It was?

Okay.

- And at first, you know, we didn't, I didn't know what we were gonna do, how we were gonna plant 'em.

I would've just put 'em in the ground and he's, you know, has a farm background, wanted everything straight and with the, and so, it was a good combination of the two of us that it ended up the way.

- I kind of wish I could have seen her orchards.

- Oh, it would've been great.

(group laughs) Hard to mow, probably, but.

- Okay, so you get, you know, it takes a couple years right before- - Oh yeah.

- Mm-hmm.

- How long does it take before you get any apples?

- So our orchard is a dwarf orchard.

So all of our trees, four to seven years.

And so we had our first harvest in 2019.

A very small one.

And then it's just been rolling, you know, since then.

We plant about, we try to plant about 1,000 trees every year.

- Oh really?

- To keep it growing.

- Wow.

- Mm-hmm.

So we're gonna actually, when we get home, we're gonna plant another, well, how many do we have this year to plant?

- We only got 800 coming this year.

- 800 this year to plant.

- Only.

Do you have a, like the pull behind planter, or are you just digging 'em all?

- Just dig 'em all.

I mean.

- Yeah.

- Just the way we, do with what you got.

- 1,000 trees.

Just dig 'em, no problem.

So the dwarf trees, do you need a ladder to pick 'em?

- No, no.

You know, if I'm doing my job when I'm pruning the trees, you don't need a ladder.

I mean, they don't get much taller than, you know, five and a half, six feet.

And they're all on a trellis.

They need the support.

Since they have a small root stock, we have a four wire trellis that holds 'em up and yeah.

They don't get too tall.

- Okay.

Well how'd you guys learn all this?

- Oh my, we looked, we did so much research, online, we visited every orchard we came across.

We went all over Iowa, all over Illinois.

We talked to anyone that would talk to us, you know, and thank goodness people were great about helping us out.

- It doesn't get boring hanging out with her 'cause she's taking me somewhere to learn on apples all the time.

Get to go to Grand Rapids, Michigan every winter.

- Yeah.

- And Springfield's got a good apple expo.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, I was gonna ask that question about your belted cows.

I mean, they were in Texas and you brought 'em to Illinois.

They had no problem with that?

- Oh no.

The breed originated in South Dakota.

In the '60s and '70s they established it, '80s they registered it, and there's actually a bunch of 'em in the Wisconsin, Northern Illinois range, area.

- Okay.

- A lot of old dairies that went out, they transitioned to the belted cow, the Buelingos.

- Okay.

So when you say you have an orchard here in central Illinois, people will think about that person that has the 100 trees and you go there and you buy a bushel of apples and then they'll think of like Tanners.

Where do you guys fall?

- I would say we're mid-range to a little lower.

We're growing.

We just put, we built a cider barn here last summer.

So we're doing our own cider now.

We've had a used playground for a year and a half now and I haven't got it in yet, but it's, a school took it out.

So it's a nice big playground.

- Oh yeah.

- So hopefully this fall, if anybody comes out to the orchard, they'll have, the kids can play on a playground.

I don't think I ever wanna get to the Tanners level.

You have to deal with too many employees that way.

I like to just- - That's a whole.

- Yeah, they're a wonderful orchard but they're way bigger, they have a bigger market than we'll ever have where we're at, so.

- Okay.

Do you have goats?

'Cause everybody wants to feed the goats.

- No, we do not have goats.

- I think you should get goats.

They pay a buck so that they can pay for the feed to feed your goats.

- But they don't have to keep 'em in or anything.

They'd have to pay me more than a dollar to have goats 'cause those things get out everywhere.

- Well, who cares?

Neighbors will bring 'em back.

(group laughs) All right, tell me about the cider press.

Do you get one of those at Walmart?

- Whew.

- No, we had to go to Austria to get that.

- Austria?

- Yep.

- Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austria?

- Yep.

- Okay.

- It was a pretty long process.

You know, researching, there's three or four different types of cider presses.

We went with a continuous belt press.

We tried to get something that will scale up with our building.

- [Rob] I don't know what that, what is that?

The continual belt.

Explain that.

- A continuous flow of apples and cider.

It never stops.

So once you get the process of the apples going, you inspect them, they go through a washer, they go up through a masher, it comes out, it goes straight into the belt press.

And two people can run the whole line, but usually we have three or four there just to help out.

But then as it goes through the belt press, the belts go through pulleys and when it goes through there, it squishes it and the cider runs out and then the mash goes out at the end into a hopper.

So it's a continuous process where like, a squeeze box or something.

- Yeah, that's what I've, yeah, so you're not, it's not a batch.

- Nope.

- Okay.

Okay.

And that's (laughs) I don't even know how you start to research cider presses.

- Well, Google knows everything.

(group laughs) - Well, and again, we had peers that we went and pressed cider with some of our friends and saw which ones they use and they were great to help us, so.

- Okay.

- Other orchards, - Do you have to pasteurize that?

- Yes.

Nowadays- - You do.

- You can not pasteurize if you sell it on premises but we pasteurize everything.

We do a high temperature, short time pasteurization, and that keeps most of the flavor and stuff.

It just brings it up to a certain temperature to get rid of all the pathogens.

But then it brings it right back down again.

- So since it's not at a high temperature very long, it doesn't change the taste.

So, we're really happy with it.

- We're filming this on March 13th, so that's frozen, isn't it?

- Yep.

- It is.

- It's got a little liquid in there.

- We did our last pressing December 15th or so.

And so, we kept some for, you know, we do a, in the store, we do an apple cider slush all summer.

And so it's been really nice to have- - Can I open it?

- Our own set.

Of course you can.

- Sure.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- It's gonna be cold.

- It's gonna be real cold.

- Gonna have brain freeze.

(Sean laughs) - Ah.

- [Marci] What do you think?

I mean.

- Ah.

(Sean and Marci laugh) - Actually there is a little.

(Marci laughs) Okay.

It's really good.

- Well, thank you.

- Yeah.

Very good.

I've drank all the liquid out of it, but no, that's fantastic.

I mean, okay, we've had some apple cider that is not good.

Yeah.

How do you learn?

Because that's as good as it gets.

- Well, thank you.

Again, you know, friends, they've told us, kind of, they don't, no one really has a, "Here's the recipe, here are which apples to use."

But we, when we did our research, years and years ago when we were planting trees, we had cider kind of in mind.

So we planted a lot of Jonathan Apples, a lot of golden delicious.

So we had a little bit of tart, a little bit of sweet.

So, you know, when you make that mix and actually, they say if you wouldn't put an apple in that you wouldn't eat to the, don't put it into the cider, if you wouldn't eat it.

So we only put in the- - Really?

- Yep.

- Because honestly, I thought that kind of what it was.

- Well, you know.

- You sold the good ones.

You mash the other ones.

- You might mash some, you know, might be considered ugly fruit, but it wouldn't be something that would be moldy or anything like that.

You put in good apples, you're gonna get wonderful cider.

- And when I said, it's not boring around here, it was serious, 'cause we've went into big bottling places with the, like had the same brand of press we got, but we got a little smaller one.

Like in Kansas City, we've been to the big apple orchards in St. Louis.

Then we've been also to little ones in Iowa City and all the place, just picking anybody's brain that would tell us- - Yeah.

- You know, give us ideas, suggestions, kind of went together from there.

- Yep.

- Did you ever make that apple jack with it?

- Have not yet.

- Not yet.

- Why are you winking at me?

(group laughs) - It's TV, I was told not to spill any secrets.

- Okay, the store though, it's more than just the cider.

What all are you selling?

- So the store, so we're unique in that we're year round.

You know, we, in the wintertime, I make donuts every day and we have a coffee shop and we do- - Do you make donuts every day?

- Yep, yep.

Every day that we're open.

I get up early and go in and make donuts.

- Can you grab those?

I left them.

Yeah.

I left them over at your table, camera guys.

You have to get up at what time to start making donuts?

- About three, three in the morning, and on a Saturday, even earlier.

So just, it takes a little while.

- It was, you might be too young, but there used to be a Dunking Donut commercial.

- I remember.

- Time to make the donuts.

- Yeah.

- All right.

I just want the top box.

I just wanna show off what they look like.

All right.

Holy cow, look at that.

You got "The Simpson" donuts.

- Yep.

- You got, what are these?

- That's, you know, this is an apple cider donut.

- Oh.

- And then blueberry and then a glazed.

- Here you go.

You can get rewarded for getting me the donuts.

All right.

- Get a "Simpsons" donut.

- I know.

They just look good, don't they?

- Yep.

- Just like the cartoon.

- Yeah.

All right.

They smell good.

I'm not gonna eat one right now, but they smell fantastic.

Oh, you got the thumbs up.

- Thank you.

- They're good.

- They're fresh.

That's what makes 'em good.

- And you make those every day?

- I do.

I do.

- Okay.

That's impressive.

- Well.

- And is it, are they all sold there or do you take 'em?

- Nope, they're all sold there.

We're so fortunate, you know, we live in the country, but we have a lot of people that will come through and get their morning coffee and donuts and they'll drive quite a little ways to come to us, so.

- Do you have like a place they sit down and?

- That we don't.

- Like a liar's table.

I don't know if you want that.

All the old farmers.

- We thought about it in the very beginning, but we, you know, when we built the place, we thought we had plenty of space to leave a couple of room for a couple tables and it just filled up really fast.

- You'll get these old farmers that are worth millions and they'll come in there and they'll complain that you're charging a nickel for a cup of coffee.

- True, true.

- I can't wait to get to that level.

(group laughs) So you sell the meat too?

- We do.

That's Buelingo beef.

- [Rob] So this is what you're raising?

- It is.

- Yep.

That's a sirloin tip roast.

So that's a roast even.

It's not even a steak.

- Oh wow.

Okay.

But you're supposed to raise the cattle and then send 'em off to the market and let some middleman take a bunch of money instead of you doing it.

Why are you doing it this way?

- Just 'cause we know the process, what that cow has experienced it's whole life.

What it's been fed.

- Yeah.

- I try not to go the full hippie on everything, but I like to keep things logical.

- Why'd you just bump 'em when he said hippie?

- Because- - I do it all the time.

(group laughs) - And this is yours?

- Yep.

Those are our meat sticks.

- That's ours.

- Man, you do everything, don't you?

So is it like grass fed, organic?

I don't know.

- They eat grass all the time.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- But they're finished on corn.

- Yeah.

- Okay, gotcha.

- Grain finished.

- Honestly, I've got no problem with grass fed as long as they're finished on corn.

- Yeah.

- Yep.

- We get people that come in all the time and they really do wanna know where their beef comes from and if they, you know, go to the store, they don't always know.

And once they have it, they come back.

They really like it.

- Emily had all this stuff.

Anyway.

Do you make these?

- No, I don't make those, but we sell a lot of, you know, repackaged candies and we do, you know, so since we, we are out in the country, we do a lot of, we try to have gifty stuff for people that come by and need a gift and there's not a store anywhere near.

And so we also do snacks and things like that, so that's where the candy comes in.

- For local artists.

Is that right?

- Local photographer that does a wonderful job.

- Oh, that is a picture.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

That's cool, and then- - We carry her prints, and then- - What is this?

- Those we had, I couldn't find a belted cow anywhere in a plush.

And so I had to have those made and to get one, I had to get 2,000.

So I joke that my herd is way bigger than- - [Rob] You got 2,000 of these?

- I did - Little Oreo steer.

(Marci laughs) Yeah.

- We sell quite a few.

So.

- I bet you do.

- Yep.

(laughs) - But you do bring in stuff from other places that you don't?

- We do.

We do.

Just something, you know, we try to find things that we love, that we think our customers will love.

And then local, we try to support as many, we've got so many talented people around us.

The little lady that makes the beef tallow lotion.

- Oh, this is all popular now, isn't it?

- Oh my goodness, because that beef tallow is so close to the same nutrients in your own skin.

Its soaks in, oh.

- I've never put it on.

- It's wonderful.

- Where are you supposed to put it?

- Well, you know, anywhere.

- You know, if you skin a deer, it's like, your hands are amazing for- - Really?

- Yeah.

So I'm guessing that's, I don't know what I'm doing, yes.

- And then we, yep.

And then we've got a soy candle lady that makes some soy candles.

She made one for us that says.

- [Rob] Oh, that's not it.

Here we go.

- Smells like a trip to the Belted Cow.

She put the labels on it.

- What the hell's that mean?

- I don't know.

(group laughs) You'll have to, (laughs).

- Okay.

Your cows are eating something nice, I gotta say.

(group laughs) And you got the merch.

- Yeah.

- The gear and that.

All right.

- Yep.

- What's this?

- That's a honey butter that we have have made for us that's- - Oh my gosh.

- You gotta taste it.

It's really good.

And then I forgot to mention, we roast our own coffee, so we- - Now where did that come in?

I get all the meat and the stuff, but now coffee, that's not local.

- Just like the donuts.

I mean, I can't sell 'em day old because I don't, they're not as fresh and good as they should be.

When we started making espresso drinks, I couldn't stand the taste of the coffee I was buying.

It was old- - Folgers?

- Not Folgers, but, it was.

(laughs) - Sanka.

(group laughs) - But, so we invested in a little air roaster and we roast our own coffee with air.

So it never touches a barrel.

It doesn't get hot, it doesn't burn.

And it's quite good.

- So this has been, is this open?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Yep.

It's whole bean.

We didn't grind it to bring it, but we, but it's as fresh as you can get it and it's pretty good.

- That's addicting.

- I know.

- Ugh.

- My neighbors are a little bit upset sometimes.

We don't have very close neighbors, but a few of 'em, they either are mad at me for always wanting to come get a donut 'cause they can smell those cooking in the morning or roasting coffee.

Either way they tell me, you know, it just smells so good over there.

- I am.

I'm glad you're not my neighbor.

Yeah because my gosh.

The donuts were good, right?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

That would, whew.

Okay.

Well what's the hope for the store?

What would you like to see it doing in five years?

- Well, you know, like he said, our daughters, you know, I'd like them to be comfortable enough to be able to come back and be able to, I don't know, run the orchard and keep that, you know, really, the apples, for the orchard, the apples and the cider were the main thing we started with.

But the rest of it has just evolved into a really, really nice little.

- She's very community oriented too.

So I would say she would like it to be a nice place for the community to come, sit out on the porch.

- There you go.

- Have a good afternoon.

Your grandkids wanna come along, play in the playground, you know, just a nice place to relax and get away.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

And I gotta imagine that it makes you happy, because you seem like you want to raise cattle (laughs) and here you go.

You can do, I mean, there are so many people that raise cattle and they sell it on a market, which is great.

But yeah, you lose so much money.

Here you have this built in source.

Are you butchering them yourself?

- No, we take 'em to a processor to get 'em processed and then come back.

- [Rob] Do you have much problem with the red tape on that?

- No, I just made sure we called Springfield, got all the rules, crossed all our t's and dotted i's first and haven't had any issues.

- Mm-hmm.

There's gonna be people that watch you too and man, think you are living the dream, living the life.

What do you want them to know about, like, what's going on behind the scenes?

That is, the tough that not everybody sees?

- Oh wow.

- Lot of hours.

- Yeah.

- Lot of hours.

- And at this point in our business, a lot of bills.

- Mm-hmm.

- I mean, it is very, it's so awesome to be able to work with daughters and grandkids and stuff.

So there are pluses, but there's definitely minuses.

It balances out.

And hopefully, like you said, you wanna be the old farmer that goes in, has millions in the bank, but complains about a five cent coffee, so.

- I can't wait.

Yeah.

- I know, me too.

- [Rob] On both those.

Yeah.

- You know, you gotta be careful the crowd you say this in, but I'm almost looking forward to paying taxes someday.

You know, at least, wear it as a badge.

I made some money.

- You hitting him again!

No assault on my show.

Unless my wife does it.

(group laughs) If people wanna find out more about you guys, social media, website, where would they go?

- We're on Facebook.

- Yeah.

- We are on Instagram.

- [Rob] What's it, Belted Cow Orchard?

- Mm-hmm, Belted.

And we're working on a website.

We used to have one.

We kind of wanted to tweak it, make it more accessible.

So we're getting that worked on, but yeah.

- Okay.

And I mean, it's, I'm gonna say with the apple cider alone, it's worth the drive.

- Well, thank you.

- Is it worth the drive for the donuts?

We got a big, big, big thumbs up on the donut.

Yeah.

- All right.

(group laughs) - I love it when I see a couple like you that gets along, works together towards a common goal, and looks outside the box.

I mean you came back to a corn and soybean and cattle farm and that's what most people would continue to do.

The people that we've interviewed that truly succeed and get to that next level are doing exactly what you guys do.

They diversify, they look at their hard work as also a value added.

And I don't know, I think the sky's the limit for you guys.

And the daughters?

- Oh yeah.

I mean, they're just gonna make it better.

I mean, we have great daughters.

They all work hard.

They, take them over sons any day.

I mean, they listen, they don't tear up equipment, and they do good work.

- Never tear up equipment?

- No.

They're always cautious.

If they have a question, they always say, "Hey Dad, what do you think about this first?"

- No, that is true.

Yeah.

I've gotta say.

And how old are they?

- 30, 24, and 19.

- Gotcha.

Okay.

And grandkids now?

- Yep.

- How many?

- We've got two, six and four, five.

Almost seven and five.

My goodness.

Yeah.

- Okay.

I was gonna ask you too, do you take credit cards?

- We do.

(Sean and Marci laugh) - Because some of these places you love to go to and then you get there and it's like, cash only.

It's like, "Crap."

I don't know what a pin number is or anything like that.

- Yeah, I think now you, you know, yeah, we needed to, so we did, we do.

- Okay.

Well I can't wait.

I don't know what I would buy first.

You just say buy it all.

(Marci laughs) - It's all good.

- It's all good.

- The meat's all frozen.

- It is.

It is.

- Okay, perfect.

Yeah.

That way it can get back to Bradford.

Okay, well Marci and Sean Meyer from Kirkwood, Belted Cow Orchard.

Guys, seriously, there's some times you get some people in agriculture and you're like, you know what, you two out there doing what you're doing is making my farm look better, 'cause, you know, the rising tide raises all ships and what you guys are doing for agriculture is making, I don't know, it's making ag a better.

I don't know what I'm trying to say.

I'm attempting to compliment you two.

- Well, thank you.

- Yeah.

If you wanted to compliment me, that's fine.

- It is kind of scary 'cause you know, you get people that come to the farm and they ask questions and you don't know their motive behind all the questions.

But I try and, you know, if somebody comes out and they wanna see the cows, we'll take 'em on a ranger ride, see the cows.

You know, just kind of, I'm not hiding anything.

We do everything the best way we know how and it is what it is.

- That's the perfect way to do it.

Marci, Sean, thank you very much.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

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We can't wait to see you next time on "A Shot of Ag."