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

My name is Rob Sharkey.

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

Now, last week we had Greta Wilson Wetzel from Nauvoo, Illinois and Greta, we didn't get very far in the interview.

- We did, but that's okay.

I'm glad to join you again.

- Yes, and this time you brought your daughter.

Gracie Webster.

- I did, yeah.

- Yes.

- And it's just recently Webster instead of Wetzel.

That's confusing.

- Only a few letters.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

You just got married?

- Yep, October 8th of this year.

So, still very fresh.

- Well, congratulations.

Thank you very much.

- Yeah.

You think it's gonna last?

- I'm hoping so.

I waited 34 years for it, so it better.

(laughter) - All right, Greta, you're from Nauvoo.

Your family had a farm there, and you and your husband went there.

You kind of farmed, but you weren't like basically in the commercial part of the farm, right?

You weren't the one buying the tractors and the combines and farming it.

- Right.

My family have been into farming several generations, and my dad was very instrumental in keeping going after my grandfather passed away and my brothers, and now I have a nephew that works every day on the farm along with my brothers.

And I am the one that kind of keeps the books straight and works with the tax guy and the attorney and gets everybody kind of organized at the end of the day.

But it is truly a family farm at this point in time, and we all work together.

- Well, good.

So Gracie, you grew up on the farm?

- Yep, I grew up right there on the working grain farm where everybody comes in and out every day, so, it was pretty fun.

- Was it fun?

- Oh yeah.

- 'Cause sometimes it can be a bit, I don't know, monotonous, a lot of work, all that stuff.

- That was your ticket to get off of the farm and go out to one of the fields.

Somebody would come back with a load of grain and you went and flagged them down and said, hey, I'm gonna come out with you.

So then you'd go and ride the combine for a couple hours and it was something to do, so.

- Or get to go to the elevator 'cause they're soda pop at the elevators.

- Yep.

- I always loved that as a kid 'cause they always had candy at the elevator, yeah.

- They had the Dum Dum pops that you could get.

- The what?

- The little Dum Dums.

- Oh, the lollipops, suckers, yeah.

- The suckers, yeah.

- I mean, our elevator must have been a little more high end.

- Probably.

You have king sized candy bars or something?

- Peanut butter cups.

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah.

They were the individual ones, but hey, you know?

- It was nice.

- That worked.

- It's better than a lollipop, I'm just saying.

(laughs) We talked in your last interview about lavender.

Now, you are raising lavender as a crop slash ag tourism?

Is that fair to say?

- I would think that that would be a good way of putting it.

We have these people coming and going.

They see the corn and the beans.

We usually have to explain to them that it's not, you know, sweet corn or popcorn.

Which I have a few stories about that.

- [Rob] This isn't?

- No, our other crops.

- Okay, gotcha.

- We wanted something else that they could actually go out and maybe take with them and just have that experience of one more thing that they could do while they're there.

You know, a lot of people come to the farm and they look around and say, what do you people do for fun?

And there's, you know, not a whole lot to do but work.

- [Rob] Drink.

- And drink, yes.

And we do have a winery right down the road, which brings a lot of people in.

And then we have another one in Nauvoo.

So if somebody wants just to come and have a relaxing weekend, it's really fun to come to the farm, and they don't get that experience elsewhere.

So the lavender's just one more thing that we are doing to pull people in, and we do hope to do something with it once we have, kind of know what we're doing with it and know what is available for us to get it out there and get it in the hands of our guests and others that want it.

- Now, Gracie, in the last interview, I try it very carefully because, you know, we're talking about your father who passed away.

And I didn't want Greta and I to both lose it, but your father was very instrumental in, of creating the lavender patch, lavender field?

- It's more like a patch right now.

- Okay.

- It's in the experimental stages.

- Yeah.

So you did lose your father this year?

- Yeah.

- I mean, what does it mean to go to that lavender patch now?

- Well, I see it, I was actually thinking as I was watching that, it's almost kind of a sanctuary for us 'cause dad was so involved in your flower gardens and even gardening when we were younger.

That's something that I've carried on into my home is we always had a vegetable garden growing up.

And so no matter what it was around the farm, dad always made sure that mom's little ideas were taken care of.

And we were just discussing on the way up here about her little raised garden.

She had a, what was that called?

A garden?

- Oh, a kitchen garden.

- A kitchen garden.

So we had one of those growing up, and so the lavender is just an extension of what we grew up with and he, dad just always took mom's ideas.

And I think I was telling your wife, since he was such a quality guy, it usually took about two times as long as it would have if we were just planning it 'cause dad had to have, he was very just strict on having a step for every single thing that we had to do, and he had to tell you how he wanted to do it.

And so we always had to just let him plan it out, and then usually it got executed way better than it would have if we would've done it by ourselves, so.

But it's fun going out there and knowing that dad had his expertise in it because drainage, and he was into golf turf management I think was one of his things.

So he was into the landscaping pretty good.

So we know it's a good structured thing that will probably last a long time, so.

- We had Greta on our XM radio show, and you know, the way she talked about you and and family, and then to see you guys before the show, it's obvious that you guys have a ton of love in your family.

So it says a lot about a mother, but it also says a lot about a father.

So I would say that's a huge credit too.

- Gracie has a brother, Burdette.

I have another, Burdette is-- - A family name.

- A family name also.

- [Rob] Burdette.

That's kinda cool.

- It is.

- [Rob] I've never heard that name.

- Yes, and so he sometimes looks at me like, okay, mom.

But he also comes and helps us keep up the grounds.

I mean, we're on 160 acres there, and we have a big yard and most farm families do.

So it's just a lot to keep up with.

And with Dave's illness, it was hard to keep everything up.

So Burdette's been very instrumental too in keeping things up.

So I, as a mom, you know, so appreciate my kids, and I look at my 94, almost 94 year old mom and how she appreciates us and being there and just, you know, it's I hope not something that's going away from our society of families sticking together and really helping each other out because I think that's what farm families really are about from long ago till now, you know?

You're there for each other.

So that's been a really important thing in our family, in both of our families.

Dave's family and mine.

Gracie's wedding, you know, Dave's family came back.

It was hard losing a sibling and coming back for something kind of emotional as a wedding, and so we really appreciate them too.

- Okay, let's move on before we all (chuckles).

Tell me about the Airbnb from your eyes, Gracie.

- Well, I was a kind of jealous that I wasn't the one who thought about to put it on Airbnb.

I think that was one of Burdette's ideas.

And ever since it's gone on Airbnb, I think that mom has been able to capture a different audience.

Where we are, we have a huge influence in the Mormon community, which that is what Nauvoo is about.

And we love having that clientele.

It's nice to be able to get different people from different areas of the United States, and I'm pretty sure you've had some international travelers as well, so that's really cool.

It's definitely transpired into something that is long lasting.

When I was younger, she had a bed breakfast in our house.

And she's kind of moved away from that a little bit, but we were walking through our home to people coming in and just sleeping in our house and eating breakfast in our living room, and so it was definitely an experience that-- - That sounds like it could be fun to a point.

- Yeah, to a point.

- Yeah.

- Mom was always saying, if you come in the house, just be really quiet after 10 o'clock, so.

But I got to go, I had a pen pal from Canada out of that.

So it's something that is a very unique experience growing up.

But with the Airbnb, I think that is, she's taken that and just expanded it into something that hopefully is going to continue.

We were talking about generations, and she said this is what's gonna be yours.

You're gonna be able to take it and do with it what you will when it becomes something of your own, so.

- Well, in the thought of it, you know, really stem back to bringing people to the farm.

I think it's so important to have the opportunity for people just even around our region where we live, people that live in town really don't know what that is to kind of have that wide open space and be around the crops, and they just don't know because it's not part of what they do every day.

And so being able to bring them on the farm, we've had people, I remember specifically having a doctor come from Chicago, and he was more excited about being there than his wife was, but he was not leaving the farm until he had a ride on the combine.

He could not for the life of him figure out how that corn got from the field to that hopper, and he was going to take a combine ride.

Well, that particular day they were there, we had moved onto another farm and my neighbor who farms near us happened to be combining that day.

So I kind of when to him, and I said, so would you like to take this guy for a ride on your combine?

And he told me later, my neighbor said, I didn't think the guy was ever gonna get off the combine.

He was having such a good time.

Wanted to know all about it because he had never had that experience before.

Meanwhile, his wife was sitting in the car not very happy with him, but.

So those are the experiences that I hope that we could provide.

Not always is it available depending on when people stay, but it's kind of fun to invite people onto the farm and give them just a little bit of education what that's about.

- You both grew up on farms.

Are you surprised that people wanna come out and are interested in farming?

Because it shocks me.

Because I don't see it as interesting.

I don't.

- Yes.

Well.

it's kinda like us living by the Mississippi River.

We take it for advantage, you know?

People come and think, oh my gosh, look at this body of water and how fun would it be to live by that?

And you're thinking, yeah, we're used to it.

And same with with farming.

I think that's our livelihood, that's what we do.

I work, I have an in town job as, I think I mentioned to you, and our hospital is in the middle of a cornfield, and we don't think a thing about it.

We have interns and people coming in to work there, and they're looking around going, I can't believe this place exists.

And what's that stuff growing out there in the, you know?

Oh, that's field corn, and they have no clue what that is and how it's, you know, what we do with it, and then how that ends up in your cereal box or whatever that is.

So it's a lot of interest, but I also see people coming to our end just to get away and have some peace and quiet from their normal life, so that's nice too.

- Gracie, you're doing social media for the Airbnb.

- I am attempting, yes.

- So what platforms are you using?

- Oh boy.

I just got on TikTok.

Facebook and Instagram are what I'm more well versed in.

- [Rob] And does it work?

Do people find you through those?

- I just started, so I'm hoping they will.

I think that just, we talked about doing little videos of the lavender and everything just to create a little bit of extra interest, and I definitely think as a I get more comfortable with it, I think we'll get a little bit of interest, not only from people far away, but just our local people are always really interested to see what mom is doing for some reason, so.

They can see it on their computers and then come out and see it in person.

- Something that Andy and Gracie did last year for me is they, Andy, her husband, has a drone and so he went out and he took drone footage of us taking out the soybeans and drone footage of us taking out the field corn and all the process in between, you know, the trucks pulling up close to the combine.

And it was just fantastic footage.

And then Gracie took it and made this great video that we could share on my Facebook page with our in keeping business and then local too.

So it was just a great piece to be able to share, and people were like, oh, that's how that's done.

Huh.

Yeah.

- So tell me about your job at the hospital.

- So I am the executive director of Memorial Hospital Foundation.

So I raise funds for our foundation.

And typically, I was telling you people run and hide from me when they see me coming.

I am very passionate about raising funds to have local healthcare.

We are seeing a lot of our healthcare across the nation really struggling, and in rural communities, it's very critical.

We are actually a critical access hospital.

And so beyond that, we just offer a lot of things there at really what we would call a smaller hospital.

But it affords people like my mother who is going to be 94.

She doesn't have to go very far to get that healthcare she needs.

We have surgery being done on a daily basis, and we have an emergency room.

So if you're a farmer and something happens, you know you can get there.

If you have a stroke, you better be able to get someplace in 20 minutes.

That's your timeframe.

So be able to have local healthcare wherever you are is so very important.

So that's my passion is to keep that growing in our community.

And so it's not very hard for me then to put up my hand sometimes and ask for funds so we can keep going.

- That doesn't always get probably the response that you want though, is it?

- No, and you have to have a little tough skin because there are people that might say, well, Greta, I pay my hospital Bill.

What else do you want from me?

And I understand that because hospital care is expensive, but then there's, we're not into it.

We're a nonprofit, we're not into it to make money.

We're in there to provide a service.

And so we can do things that we can go beyond just delivering a service.

We can provide things for the community members.

We can update that equipment.

We have a senior service campus within our organization so we can do special things for them.

Right now we're building a four seasons room for our assisted living folks, and so they can have just that one more thing to enjoy their time there.

So all those things are very important for our community as a whole.

- So you work on the farm, and then you know how it is.

People say, well, that's your real job, right?

- Yes.

- It's always whatever you do off the farm, unless you have a TV show and then they say, what's your real job off that, TV boy?

Gracie, what do you do?

- I work, I just recently started at a contracting architecture business in Burlington, Iowa, and they have different, they have a couple different locations in Quincy and Pella, Iowa, Galesburg, so I'm still kind of learning the ropes there, but I recently left a job over in Carthage at Professional Swine Management, and that was a pretty big, that's a one of the largest employers in Hancock County 'cause we had 35 different farms that we managed for.

So before I started working there, I had absolutely no clue what the swine industry was about.

So I'm still in the new stages of my new job, but I worked at PSM for five years, so I got to do a lot going into the hog barns, and I got a lot of different experiences where as I grew up on a grain farm, that's a lot different than swine and having cattle and things like that.

So I've had a lot of different experiences, but now I'm just an office girl, so.

- When I went to college, I went down, there was a college in Carthridge that had a swine.

- Yeah, it was the Carthridge College.

- Yeah, they still have that?

- Robert Morris, I believe.

- Robert Morris, there we go.

Yeah, they turned that into our campus at Professional Swine Management and Carthage Veterinary Services, so.

- I ended up going to Southern.

Are you disappointed in me?

- No, that's a great spot.

- That's not a college anymore, so you made a good choice.

(laugher) - What do you want people to know about what you're doing on the farm as far as like introducing lavender as a crop, the Airbnb, what do you want people to know about what you guys do?

- Well, you know, my biggest thing besides just introducing people to the farm is I have a passion for hospitality.

My parents were very big in that they didn't actually say, hey, we like to have people in and and do things for people.

But they really taught us a important lesson about hospitality, and I think that's really what the end keeping business is about, and then finding things like the lavender just to add to what we're already doing, the basic things.

I am so interested in providing a way that people can get their hands in the dirt.

We don't realize that, I mean, my hands in the dirt all the time.

I love that.

It's something that I saw my parents do and to have that experience.

So we want to do what we can to bring 'em to the farm and let 'em get a little dirty if they want to and experience that.

But then the gift of hospitality, you know?

I think we all have talents, and that's something that I have a passion for is just to provide that thing that people can come and I can interact with them.

If they wanna meet me, that's fine, and if not, that's fine too.

They sometimes find me out in the lavender patch and come and we have a really nice conversation, and that might not happen if I didn't have that lavender patch out there to go work in, so.

- You probably have to learn to read people really quick 'cause some people wanna get out there and not talk to anybody.

- Yes.

- And some people just wanna talk to you.

- Right, and I'm usually hiding.

You know, I do my work when they're not around.

But on occasion, I'll be out there working and they'll pull in, and okay, here we go.

And you can tell right away they wave at you and go on in or they come over and they wanna chat.

And so most people are interested.

They wanna meet you and see what's going on today and what did I just see down the road?

What is that?

Was those goats?

You know, those kind of things.

- Where they goats or cows?

- We have goats, cows, horses.

We have all kinds of critters.

We have hog confinements.

- Do you ever lie to 'em?

Say yeah, that was a goat.

- Well, you know, I probably wouldn't be lying.

- I mean, you get some weird people out there.

I don't know.

Like I could imagine someone coming to your place, I don't know, streaking at night, doing weird stuff.

Do you get any of that?

- I hope not.

And if so, we do have some security cameras set up, so let's hope not that that's happening.

- [Rob] So you've got video proof of it.

- We'll be able to see it if so.

- We might have a guy chasing his hog around or something, you know, trying to get, or a cow trying to get it back.

- Is that code for something?

Chasing a hog around?

- Oh, it's happened, yes.

- What bird did you have a few years ago?

- Oh, we had a pheasant that loved my husband, but hated me.

And so the pheasant would run around, and he just appeared at our house.

It was a neighborhood thing.

He was at everybody's neighbor, or house, and he would follow Dave around, but the minute I'd show up, he would start squawking and have a holy fit.

Same with, he did not like females.

And so we've had some funny stories.

Yeah, pheasants.

- Where can people find your Airbnb?

- Oh, so we are on Airbnb and Vrbo, and the best way probably is just to Google us.

Sonora Gardens Farmstead, and we will pop up.

- How do you spell that, Sonora?

- Sonora is S-O-N-O-R-A.

And that's the township we live in in Hancock County.

- And that's the town hall that you pulled over with a stagger?

- That is true.

- You gotta go watch last week's.

- Yes, I think we should-- - Pull up that video.

- We do have some video of that, I'm pretty sure.

- Oh, that'd be pretty cool.

- I was telling your wife, I think it was on January 1st, so 2001.

- We had people actually pulling up, it was very cold out, and our neighbors were pulling up in their vehicles and just sitting there and watching it probably shaking their head, so.

- I think anybody who watches my video of it will get motion sickness 'cause I was cold, and I was recording the whole thing across the field.

- Back in the day, a huge video.

It wasn't like we had cell phones.

- [Rob] The shoulder mount one, yeah.

- It was the big huge thing, yeah.

So, yeah.

- Well, I'm glad you came back for part two.

- Thank you.

- And Gracie, I'm glad you were able to join us because you two definitely have a very positive energy about you.

And you guys out there talking about agriculture helps a person like myself who, I don't like people.

I don't wanna talk to 'em.

So to have you guys out there as an ambassador, it definitely, definitely, I don't know, makes everything better.

- Yeah.

We wanna get the message out there that farming is still a viable way to make a living, but it goes back to that communication of these farm families getting along and trying to make it work.

- Okay.

I feel like before we end, we have to acknowledge that this is fake lavender.

- That is fake, yes.

I will bring you some fresh lavender next time, I promise.

- We got this out of the bathroom.

PBS bathroom.

- It works.

- We'll put 'em back.

- We will put it back.

I think that would be wise to put it back.

- Greta Wilson Wetzel and Gracie Webster.

You guys have been a lot of fun, and I really appreciate you guys coming on the show.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

(rock music)