(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to.

"Farm Connections" I'm your host, Dan Hoffman.

On today's program, things get spicy when we talk to Sam Hastings about his homegrown and homemade hot sauces.

We follow that with a return visit by Shanna McCann of Simple Soaps for Simple Folks, as she talks about what it takes to make it as an entrepreneur and the University of Minnesota Extension brings us a new Best Practices segment, all here today on.

"Farm Connections" (upbeat music) - [Male Announcer] Welcome to.

"Farm Connections" with your host, Dan Hoffman.

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- Welcome to.

"Farm Connections" I'm the host Dan Hoffman.

And today we have Sam Hastings, food entrepreneur and chef.

Welcome Sam.

- Hey, great to be here.

- Well, it's fun to have you, so what do you do?

- Well right now, I'm a small batch premium hot sauce producer, more or less I'm the owner and creator of Sam Sa'House.

- Interesting, well tell us more.

- Well, it's a small batch premium hot sauce company that's been going on for about two years right now.

And I always mention it's chef inspired, 'cause that is my personal background.

I've been a professional chef for the last 18 years and wanted to really pursue something that I could call my own.

- Well, you certainly have, and we love local, we love who entrepreneurs and we love to eat.

So probably you're close to your roots where you started?

- That is very correct.

So awesome Minnesota, born and raised.

So it was here, class of 07 and then immediately after high school, I went to Le Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas for some culinary training and then kind of did a lot of traveling to Louisiana, Iowa, Wyoming back and bounced around quite a bit, but always ended up back here, awesome Minnesota.

- Well, tell us about that chef school.

- God, yeah, so that was fantastic.

So it was a pretty fantastic program where it was pretty quick.

I mean, it was like a 15 month program, but every single four weeks, a totally different class.

So it was really easy to lose a lot of that information unless you really were pretty focused, let's say, but that was just one of my big interests, is cooking, pursuing like that chef, feel that food, experimenting with flavors and just learning everything when that comes to the produce, the protein as well.

- You strike me as someone that would take a training or a class or an experience and turn it into something bigger and better for other people, what'd you do with the training?

- Well, and that was one big thing because 2020 obviously affected a lot of things.

Let's just mention COVID whatnot.

And I really wanted to change gears, so loved cooking, loved pursuing that.

Being a chef, opening restaurants constantly, and then little rocky road there for a little bit, didn't really know what was going to be happening later and then said, hey, I love growing peppers.

I love making hot sauce.

I love burning my buddies and I wanted the little spice for life and that's why I just really wanted to pursue this.

So once again, it's my branding.

It's me on a bottle, I always mention.

And it's something that I'm doing every aspect of the way, whether it's growing the chilies, making the sauce, I'm bottling it and labeling it, so extremely involved.

- Well it's certainly value added and you've got a supply chain that's longer and bigger than just restaurant, just a bottle, right?

- Yep.

- So tell us about how that growing season starts.

What do you do and how do you do it?

- Well and that's the difficult thing, 'cause we obviously, awesome Minnesota.

I'm starting my peppers in late December, sometimes early January, indoors.

A lot of those super hot varieties take a very long time to fully mature.

So I have plants right now that I started, like I mentioned in January that, you know, maybe like 18 inches ready to roll, but once I get those in the ground, they're still not really gonna produce anything of the variety that I would like until probably early August.

So you really have to be ahead of the game, especially when growing those super hot, super unique chili peppers.

And then obviously, the harvesting, sometimes I would preserve whether it's lactose fermenting, drying or whole freezing too, for like later experiments.

- Does the soil and the climate affect the taste?

- To me, I know the soil, it would just be like, what's your amending it with?

So I do a lot of fresh composting and then a lot of like really great and local nutrients, more organics rather than just the classic liquid mix with water and give it a day like that.

But I really wanna say like the soil is everything and the water, the moisture content, to me is almost the most important thing.

Especially growing peppers.

You want them to dry, you don't want them to be just like logged with them water for so long, but you really want those dry and wet periods too.

And you can always amend with some sand, some Pearlite or whatnot, just to kind of get a little better drainage in the soil.

- So you're really controlling that environment.

- And it's the fun part, but it's a lot.

So this last February, I did choose to go full-time Sam Sa'House just because working as a chef, a lot of restaurants like that big time commitment and the more I really wanted to pursue this, the more I wanted to be involved, takes a lot of time.

So yeah, being involved with growing the peppers every morning, I'm rotating my peppers from my grow tents, making sure everything's watered individually, it's a lot.

And then once I start getting outside, it'll be probably two, three hours every morning to just go through everything, make sure everything's going well, so yeah, very involved.

- Some people say that plants do better with people talking to them.

Do you talk to your plants?

- I probably hum, I hum a tune, maybe sing a little bit, but, or I probably talk to myself more or less, but normally to the pepper plants, probably a little tune.

- Probably helps.

Of course they like the CO2 and convert it back oxygen.

So that's part of it, right?

- A little interaction's always good.

I think it's good for my mentality too.

I like to see everything.

- Tell me about that.

The experience that a person goes through in gardening or food entrepreneurship or going to your restaurant.

- Well, and then it's kind of like that idea of like, maybe farm to table or for me it's like from seed to harvest.

Seeing everything go all the way through is super engaging and really rewarding for me, especially if sewing my little chocolate Primotalii chili peppers, which is super hot variant right now.

Like I mentioned, you know, December and January, letting that germinate for, you know, upwards of two or three weeks sometimes.

So super hots take a long time and then, you know, you're transplanting little seedlings, you're making sure there's some air flow, humidity, then maybe transplant them in larger pots.

And then now I'm just getting itchy to get those outside.

So yeah, big, big commitment there.

Lots of going on, but it's just really, really rewarding to see that fruit at the end of the season, which could be, you know, December to August, until I'm actually seeing that in my hand.

And with our show growing season, sometimes October rolls around, you're done.

So then sometimes I'll either like chop the plants early, hang them in the garage upside down to kind of finish ripening or I'll just have to pick and freeze that kind of immature peppers for once again, maybe a little experiment down the line.

- Well, speaking of reward, our audience may want to taste what you're talking about.

Do you have a website?

How do we get your product?

How do we get the taste?

- Well, I'm glad you mentioned.

I know SuperFresh here in awesome Minnesota.

They've been kind enough to always stock on my hot sauces here.

Otherwise website would be that samsahouse.com, but I was lucky enough to purchase samsauce.com too, that'll redirect to my actual URL.

So just samsauce.com, exactly how you think it would be spelled.

- And a restaurant where we made partake?

- Right now in Rochester, Hot Chip.

They do a lot of collaborations with me.

They're like a really fun chef inspired burger restaurant, like an adult burger bar.

Well, they'll do some collaborations with me, utilizing some of my hot sauce, as well as selling some for retail too.

- Sam, what drives you?

What gives you the most satisfaction?

- Seeing customers enjoy the product as much as me, because once again, I'm making products that I enjoy, I'm very stubborn in that retrospect because I'm making products that I really like.

And if someone else enjoys them, I'm like fantastic, but it is a product that I enjoy.

I'm never gonna produce something that's, you know, not meant for me, not up to my standards.

So when I look at the average person and they just say, hey, this is great.

I'm like, I think so too, I really appreciate that.

Just see that enjoyment from them because these are products that I use every day.

- Looking forward, what more can we expect?

- Always stay tuned.

A lot of new sauces on the market right now.

I'm actually doing a big collaboration with a local coffee roaster.

So I'm gonna be utilizing like a cold brew concentrate to do some locally grown black garlic, maybe some dehydrated orange, super hot chocolate chili.

So I think there's gonna be a lot of cool things, but getting the labels developed, the nutritional information, the barcodes, it takes time.

Otherwise I'd be banging out hot sauces all the time.

- Wonderful, thank you Sam.

- Hey, thank you Dan.

- Stay tuned for more on.

"Farm Connections" - [Male Announcer] "Farm Connections" Best Practices brought to you by.

(upbeat music) - I'm Brad Carlson, Extension Educator with University of Minnesota Extension in the water resources group.

I work with a lot with soil fertility and water quality issues.

And this is today's Best Practices segment.

The last decade has been extraordinarily wet and this has been very important for nitrogen application because the loss processes of nitrogen that are most significant are water based.

And that primarily happens when the soil is saturated.

So a lot of people ask the question after a nitrogen application has been made, either whether it be in the fall or prior to planting and then conditions get extremely wet, is did I lose nitrogen?

And that's a really fine question and it's dependent on a couple of key conditions in the soil.

One is that the soil has to be completely saturated in order for this to happen.

The two main processes are either leeching, which is moving the nitrogen down into the profile and into either shallow ground water or field tile or denitrification that happens in the atmosphere.

And so that happens through a biological process when there's oxygen is absent from the soil and because it's biological, it's really keyed in with the soil temperature.

It happens faster into a much greater extent when the soil is warm, as opposed to leeching, where it doesn't really matter.

Now in both circumstances, the nitrogen has to be converted to nitrate before either of these processes will happen.

So most of our pre-plant and obviously our fall applications.

Fall applications are going to be strictly anhydrous ammonia.

And then our pre-plant applications are likely to either be anhydrous or probably urea.

In both cases, the nitrogen has to actually convert to nitrate first before the loss can happen.

That also is a biological process that happens when the soil temperatures are warm.

So enough time has to elapse as well as the soil temperatures need to be warm enough for that to happen first.

And so oftentimes, when we have extremely wet conditions early in the spring and there's been a fall application, farmers will say, well, it's been really saturated and really wet.

Did I lose nitrogen?

Well, not very likely.

A fall application of anhydrous with cold soil temperatures in the fall and of course, frozen in the winter and then cold again in the spring, probably didn't convert the nitrogen into nitrate in order for the nitrogen to be lost.

And so that process happens as we get into the early part of the planting and growing season.

Typically we hit an average soil temperature of 50 degrees on about May 1st.

And so that's when that process really takes off.

And so most of our fall and pre-plant applications are fairly stable for that reason.

It's really then, we need to focus on whether it gets wet in the early part of the growing season.

That would be for leaching purposes.

If it's extremely wet, we can move nitrate into the tile, but more significantly, in Southern Minnesota's denitrification, which is up into the atmosphere.

Because that is also a biological process and keys in on the soil temperature being warm.

It really isn't until the temperatures are warming above 70 degrees and particularly when they get to about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, that that is significant.

So really the process, that process starts to happen in great significance when the soil is saturated, starting in about June.

And so that's when farmers need to really start paying attention to that.

If your soil is saturated, for one thing, it needs to be for more than two days at a time for it to even start.

But if the soil is saturated for more than two days, we can start losing nitrogen to denitrification.

If the soil is saturated for 10 full days, we can lose about half of our soil, of our nitrogen that we've applied in that 10 day period.

And so really that's kind of the key.

If you've done a pre-plant or a fall nitrogen application is, really be watching for saturated soil conditions.

And particularly when the soil temperatures start to get warm.

And if that is the case, then you're going to need to think about supplementing the applied nitrogen.

This is Brad Carlson, Extension Educator at the University of Minnesota Extension.

And this has been our Best Practices segment.

- Welcome to.

"Farm Connections" We're so lucky to have Shanna McCann, and she's gonna tell us a story about entrepreneurs.

Welcome to.

"Farm Connections" - Thanks Dan, glad to be here.

- Well, how'd you get this business started and what's its name?

- So I'm the owner in soap maker at Simple Soaps for Simple Folks.

Started it 13 years ago, and it was sort of a funny circumstance.

Never ever did I think I'd be a soap maker, but here I am.

I was gifted two goats when I moved to Minnesota and I was making cheeses and yogurts and all kinds of food product with the milk and had extra.

And I decided that one day I could make soap using the milk in the soap.

A friend showed me how to make soap and I was like, I can do this.

So I started making soap and gifted it to friends and family.

I got into the Rochester downtown farmer's market, now known as the Rochester farmer's market and evolved my stand from lots and lots of produce in just a few baskets of soap to lots and lots of soap and produce now that I can't even sell if I bring it.

- Well, that's interesting, you have a great following.

- I do.

- How do you market your product other than the farmer's markets?

- Great question, so I do have a website, igoatsoap.com is the name of the website, you can shop on there 24/7.

That's one of the luxuries of digital life.

I also have them in local area stores like the People's Food Co-op, to Dwell Local in Zumbrota.

And I reach out to my customer based through different platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and I do send out e-newsletters, usually on a weekly basis to my customer base.

- How crowded is it out there with entrepreneurs?

- So it's an interesting thing.

I think people who are innovative, see a need to fill a niche and then the spark happens and they decide to fill that with whatever creative talent they have.

And so for some people, it can be in a life event that happens.

Some people, it can be a product that's needed, whatever it may be.

The younger generation and I speak like I am an old lady, but I'm not.

The upcoming generation is very creative and there's a lot of different needs that are yet to be met.

So I think that it's a thriving community.

- So how does one get started?

- Great question.

So there's a lot of different facets to starting a business.

Obviously there's a financial aspect of knowing that you have some cash or money that you can use to start.

Whether it's buying your raw materials or creating a presence with marketing, those all take funds to make happen.

Having a support network of friends and family that like what you do, and eventually even a customer base, that helps too.

Another thing that's great for starting a business is just having that deep passion.

If you aren't convicted that this is what you're supposed to do and you're not enjoying it, you should probably not be doing it.

- Well in a way you've taken a model and turned it into vertical integration because you start with the goats and all the way through the marketing product.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

- Sure thing.

So I actually have 10 goats at home.

They're dairy goats and during peak milking season, I milk them twice a day.

That milk goes into a freezer.

And right now I have freezers full, which is a really good thing.

During batching, I pull out the milk, I make the soap, that's all me, I'm a one woman show with the batching.

I do have some high school girls that will help with the process of trimming the soaps and boxing the soaps.

But it's me ,from milking the goats, making the soap, pulling it off the curing racks, getting it set to go for the girls to trim.

And then ultimately, me standing behind a table at a farmer's market or an outdoor event selling the soap.

- And then you start all over again the next day.

- Right, yes.

- How do you sit lanes or boundaries for the business?

- That's a great question.

So the quote is, you own your business or the business owns you, right?

And so it's easy to, when you're your own boss, to always find something to do.

With a dairy farming background, it's easy to like always be busy.

Like if you're not working, something's wrong with you, right.

So for me, I'm always doing something.

And so you just have to stop and say, now, is it worth me staying up for another two hours?

Or should I just go to bed and come back to this fresh tomorrow morning?

So you have to recognize where your own lines are so that you can maintain your health and your mental wellbeing too.

- Very important.

How about lead time?

Do you have to plan ahead for the end product?

- Absolutely, so I make cold process soaps, which means it takes four to six weeks to cure on the racks.

And so when I'm thinking Christmas, I'm starting in August, so that I have inventory built up by the time that Christmas arrives.

And so, yeah, it's always, so if I run out of soap today, I will not have soap for another month if I run out of a scent, so I'm always projecting ahead.

- Well, we have some supply issues sometimes, any problems getting products or packaging?

- Yes, so especially since the pandemic happened, acquiring raw materials with lead time on shipping is one thing and then actually getting the product.

For instance, I waited four months for my tubes for my solid hand lotions.

And I have customers saying, when are you gonna have this back in inventory?

And where is this product?

I would love to have it for you, but I can't make anything until I get these tubes.

- You could have picked a lot of raw products to put into your soaps or you could have gone with a different product line, why this particular product?

- Yeah, so I choose certified organic base oils because that's part of who I am.

I grew up on a conventional dairy farm, but I did relief milking for certified organic dairy farmers.

And I was married for a short timeframe to a certified organic dairy farmer.

And that's at my core who I am.

I like what that means for the animals and the land and for sustainability.

And so the certified organic base oils is one thing.

The goat milk is another thing.

Those guys are like my spirit animals right there.

They're like an extension of myself, creative, playful.

And they're manageable for me, just as a woman farmer, you know, dealing with a cow walking on you or smashing you, not always the best physically, if a goat gets sassy, I just pick her up and put her on the stand, right.

So it makes a lot more sense for me to work with the goats.

And then I'm a big believer in what goat milk soaps are.

So there's fats, proteins and vitamins and goats milk that's great for your skin.

And that's just the added benefit of the goats milk and the soap.

- Awesome, Shanna, why is it important to support local entrepreneurs like yourself?

- The local ecosystem is really dependent on small business owners like myself.

The dollars you're putting into our pockets or the small businesses in the area gets turned back into the community, versus spending it with a big corporation.

Yes, employees get paid, but that's not going to your local community.

Those dollars get turned over within your own local community.

- And if someone's curious, what's the website again, please?

- Igoatsoap.com, thank you.

- Awesome, thanks Shanna.

- Yeah.

- Stay tuned for more on.

"Farm Connections" - [Male Announcer] Farmers are rapidly pushing through an open window across much of Minnesota as the process of spring planting is well underway.

Most growers are likely focused on getting the crop planted, not necessarily assessing the importance of the markets to which their grain will go.

Grain trade adds over a billion dollars to Minnesota's gross domestic product.

More than 1.1 billion in corn is exported as is over 168 million in dried distillers grains and 165 million in ethanol each year.

- One third, approximately of our grain that we're producing is exported.

And so if you're willing to give up one third of your price, no matter what it is, give up one third of your price.

That's how important trade is for us.

- [Male Announcer] Jim O'Connor farms near blooming Prairie, Minnesota, and is team lead for the Western hemisphere for the US Grains Council.

He sees firsthand the value and importance of cultivating trade relationships.

- Every one of those countries that we work with has different trade policy.

And to navigate through that trade policy, you need a team of experts.

And so once you get an agreement in place, you get a relationship in place.

You don't wanna mess with it because it takes a whole lot more to reestablish or to develop that relationship than it does to preserve it.

- [Male Announcer] Global demand for US grains has remained strong despite the COVID pandemic, transportation challenges and supply chain disruptions.

Cary Sifferath says that didn't happen by accident.

- We're constantly working with our staff around the world, in these markets to make sure that the doors are open as best as we can for corn, barley, sorghum and those co products to be able to move into those global markets.

- [Male Announcer] Farmers may be currently focused on getting their crops in the ground, but the value of what they'll harvest later this year depends heavily on keeping worldwide demands strong.

This is Lynn Kedleston reporting.

- Building something from the ground up, takes a lot of blood, sweat, tears and in some cases, vinegar.

Small businesses are not a small endeavor, but they help to provide a sense of community that keeps us all connected.

I'm Dan Hoffman, thanks for watching.

"Farm Connections" (upbeat music)