Latest / The Shed Organics Show / #34 - Turning Trash Into Treasure With Worm Frass | Rich Roots Fertilisers

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#34 - Turning Trash Into Treasure With Worm Frass | Rich Roots Fertilisers · The Shed Organics Show

0:00
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Shed
0:03
Organics Show. My name is Jordan and my guests
0:07
today are Alana and Steve. This young couple are doing some
0:13
cool things in the world of worm frass.
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Now they're turning a bit of a poo problem as they put it into
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something that we can repurpose for our gardens and for our
0:22
plants. This waste product is a nutrient
0:26
rich fertilizer that you can use.
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It doesn't smell. It's safe for our children and
0:31
our pets and animals to be around and we can use it indoors
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so that, you know, like I said, there's no smell, there's no
0:39
breaking down of organic matter and it's going to feed our soil.
0:42
So some really cool things that you can get out of using worm
0:45
for us. But what I wanted to bring these
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guys on to talk about is their experience launching a company
0:52
together as a couple, launching, as you know, some other careers
0:56
that we're all doing other things when we initially try and
0:59
launch something else. And what that's like the
1:01
transition into bringing all of this to the markets and bringing
1:05
it to the people and how that journey's been for them on their
1:09
first year. So like I said, I really want to
1:11
highlight that if you want to go and check out the vlogs, go and
1:14
check those out. The links are in the description
1:16
and also all of their links to the Rich Roots fertilizer and
1:19
their socials will be in the description below.
1:22
But let's do it. Let's jump into the
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conversation. Here is Alana and Steve from
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Rich Roots, first year in business, right?
1:48
Is this the first business you guys have done together?
1:52
Yeah. Yeah.
1:54
Best business ever. Definitely first one together.
1:58
Steve doesn't know how to slow down, so I wouldn't say his
2:04
first. Business, I've got a problem.
2:05
Yes, I do have a problem, yeah. 1st.
2:08
Together. Yeah, first together.
2:09
And it's, I mean, it's been gone.
2:11
It's been gone pretty good. And they always say don't open a
2:14
business with your partner, but I mean, I don't know how you
2:17
feel. I've been enjoying it.
2:20
Yeah, it's good. It's yeah.
2:22
No, it is really good. It's a different side of Steve
2:25
that I obviously don't usually get access to Actually this
2:28
business had on that. I don't see that at work.
2:30
So it's yeah. That's so true.
2:32
Works. That's very true because
2:35
presumably you guys, you know, when you're getting a business
2:38
off the ground, as I have been doing as well, it initially
2:43
isn't going to be earning you a huge amount of money that you
2:45
can just go and jump straight into it full time, right?
2:48
And I presume you've come from other jobs, careers and things
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and kind of on this might be somewhere where we want to move
2:57
into. Tell me a bit about where you've
3:00
both come from in terms of the world's in which you inhabited
3:04
prior to rich roots and then what was the decision and why
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are we jumping on this one particular one of Steve's great
3:13
ideas? If that was, if it was your
3:16
idea, I'm just, you know. Yeah, well, my background is I'm
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a dietitian, so. Amazing.
3:26
Yeah, love all things food. Yeah, that's very cliche answer
3:31
from all dietitians really. But it, it is what it is.
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It's the reality of it. Went to uni, did some biology,
3:39
science, obviously nutrition, exercise, all that stuff.
3:44
Did some, my master's degree and yeah, now practicing as a
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dietitian have been for, I want to say coming up to six years
3:51
now, yeah. Love it.
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You did your master's in. That's crazy.
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That's a massive like, I always applaud anybody who goes in and
3:59
just puts that much work into study to go and do things like
4:02
that. So hand off to you for that.
4:05
That's crazy. I presume having a little bit of
4:09
an understanding of nutrition and diet and feeding your gut
4:15
and your health that goes on in your microbiome tends to
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translate a little bit into the garden plant health, this type
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of thing. Do you find that it's been
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somewhat helpful having that as prior knowledge coming into
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this? Definitely, I think actually it
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probably helped Steve a lot when he came to the the, the proposal
4:37
of hey, this is the idea which I guess you can talk to further.
4:41
But like just hearing him talk about, you know, for us and what
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it is and all of that stuff, it yeah, it really aligned.
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It does align really well actually with like what you said
4:52
and how your body works by microbiome and all that stuff.
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So definitely. And like it keeps me above board
4:58
as well. So like I, I have a tendency to
5:01
like hyper focus or like forget to eat sometimes.
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And, and then like the way even just like simple things, like,
5:08
you know, things that should be fairly simple, you know,
5:10
planning out a meal plan week, I really struggle with sometimes.
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So I've been learning a lot from Alana as well.
5:18
Yeah, I, I like research background.
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I, I was an engineer for a little bit of electrical
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engineer. Wow.
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Going back a few years now, I was an electrical engineer doing
5:32
automation. Instrumentation controls that.
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Goes straight over my head. OK.
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I worked in like mining, minerals processing.
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It was not super sort of passionate sort of work.
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At some point I kind of got a little bit bored and then
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decided to pick up and go back to uni and did a PhD in
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economics, behavioral economics and complex systems.
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I tried to bring systems engineering and life cycle
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engineering. Wow.
6:03
Yeah, that I'm gonna need an explanation for that for one of
6:07
these like explanation for dummies.
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What is what are you talking about?
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What is that like? What is that job?
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You said. Something economics?
6:15
What? Yeah, Yeah.
6:16
Well, let's start with the engineering.
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The electrical engineering, I designed systems to automate
6:23
things, so processes, so and, and when I talk about life cycle
6:28
engineering, I'm talking about like designing systems for like,
6:31
you know, next 100 years, next 200 years rather than 510 year
6:35
impact. And I did a lot of functional
6:38
safety, machine safety work, lots of risks assessments, that
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sort of thing. I got a little bit
6:45
disenfranchised with obviously First off taking minerals and
6:49
and sort of destroying the earth, like seeing that first
6:51
hand. Right.
6:52
Yeah. But I also got a little bit
6:55
disenfranchised with the lack of human factors, so we kind of
6:59
just wrote machines. Machines.
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Machines. Yeah, exactly.
7:02
Everyone engineers all about machines, but there was no sort
7:06
of element of human behavior and how to account for that in in
7:09
controlling something safely. Right, OK, it's.
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Efficient process. So I had done a little bit of
7:16
economics in my undergrad degree.
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I did a double degree. And it's big study heads.
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Look at you guys. That's crazy.
7:24
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, I love it.
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I go into lots of different rabbit holes.
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So when I went back to behavioral economics, it's kind
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of trying to say the classical economics, we view people as
7:37
selfish and racial. It's kind of like thinking
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everyone's like a ChatGPT but a little bit harsher in the sense
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like really not not accounting for like goodwill or.
7:53
Right, OK. Community elements or social
7:55
elements, I guess. So what?
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What was the word you used before with you said something
8:01
Economics. Behavioral Economics.
8:03
Yeah. So how so?
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Are you looking at the behaviors of human beings in relation to
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how that works for the economy and.
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Yeah. OK, that makes a little bit more
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sense. So then why the switch into?
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Why the switch into this? So, yeah, good question.
8:24
Going back like a year, I had actually never heard of insect
8:28
frass or mealworm frass. I I mean, it's just something
8:32
that just didn't come up in the day-to-day.
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And my colleague Ben, who we partner with as well, he had
8:41
actually been running a mealworm farm and he was being initially
8:46
his quails. He had quails in the backyard
8:48
and started this thing in in the garage.
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He had been noticing that the size of the eggs were getting
8:55
bigger and bigger as he was feeding his quails these worms
9:01
and these mealworms. So really high.
9:02
I mean, you're gonna. Be protein.
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Yeah, took to that other nutritional value or Yeah, yeah.
9:09
But from that it kind of saw there's really cool, a cool
9:14
value here in, in, in that bringing those mealworms to
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market. So they've scaled since and and
9:20
brought it out to a, a, a like a factory or vertical farming
9:25
warehouse. And a byproduct of the mealworm
9:29
farming process is a bunch of poo.
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He had a poo. Problem he had a poo problems,
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yes, tons of food just piling up and he's kind of built his
9:37
business, mealworm business, you know, feeding, you know, lizards
9:43
or chickens or things like that, but couldn't really grow this
9:47
poo business. So we came in one you know,
9:50
person's trash is another person's treasure.
9:52
Absolutely. A gardening treasure for that
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matter. That's really cool.
9:57
So then Rich Roots is born, right?
9:59
And you guys now have been, well, you hard launched.
10:04
I'm gonna say maybe this year. Is that right?
10:08
Yeah, it all kind of happened around, I wouldn't say March,
10:11
right? Before we went, I think that
10:12
that's the formal company Reg. I kind of just jumped into it
10:16
and then Alana kind of just had to come along and I wouldn't.
10:19
Say that's how it happened. But kind.
10:22
Of Yeah, yeah, no, I, I think it just made a lot of sense, like
10:28
talking through what frass is, the value of it.
10:32
You know, we're not exactly the most avid gardeners.
10:35
We wouldn't call ourselves gardening experts or anything
10:38
like that. But, you know, we get out into
10:39
the garden on the weekends when we can.
10:41
And we've got a few hubs here and there and, you know, we
10:44
really enjoy that part of life. And I guess like we get confused
10:49
when we go to Bunnings to find out what the heck are we
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supposed to be doing with our plans.
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And I guess that's another really positive thing that's
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come out of Rich Roots is like talking to people like you and
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you know, the the customers that we meet at the markets and
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things like that. Like everyone is so
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knowledgeable and super friendly.
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And yeah, we're learning so much as well, which is great.
11:12
But it just made a lot of sense really to us.
11:14
Yeah. And I think like one of the cool
11:16
things was, you know, we got chickens, we got the dog as
11:20
well. And so I think that really
11:22
appealed to us. You know, Ben's telling us about
11:25
this, this great fertilizer you had, but you know, we've been
11:29
using like wedding feed on the grass.
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But then we got to lock the dog away, lock the chickens away for
11:33
the next couple of hours, wait for it to dry out and all that
11:36
to go out and pick around. The cool thing here that we
11:40
really liked was it's all all safe, you know, in that sense.
11:43
So safe kids, pets, that sort of thing.
11:46
Yeah, I really rate that and the fact that like the product
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itself and I should quickly note that we've obviously had the
11:54
pleasure of meeting in person a couple of times and it's on,
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it's on record on a couple of my vlog videos.
12:00
So I suggest people can go check those out.
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I might link them down in the description of the show so they
12:06
can go check out and see your stall and see the actual product
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itself and having a little chin wag together at the time.
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But the product itself is really such a simple and there you go.
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Beautiful. Yeah, Amazing.
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Yes. It's like, it's just no smell.
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Like it's really, really. It's not dusty either, which is
12:30
a big problem with some of the things that I use a lot.
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So it's really easy for people to just get in and throw in and
12:37
not worry about anything in terms of, like you said, safety
12:41
for kids and animals and that. Now looking sort of forward, you
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guys, you guys are doing a lot of market stalls and you're
12:49
doing a lot of festivals where we met at, like I spoke about
12:53
before. What's that experience been like
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for you jumping into markets and being in person and having this
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whole thing? Because I'll just give you a
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little bit of a story from my end perspective first.
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I actually had probably one of my first major stores at the
13:10
Queensland Garden Show this year.
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And what I found out with the stall is that a, there's a lot
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of preparation that goes into putting on a stall for the
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weekend. OK, you're doing so much prep
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weeks leading up to it, getting all the products organized and
13:27
making everything look pretty, etcetera.
13:30
But then also doing the whole show, travelling there, being
13:34
there all weekend, speaking to so many people all the time and
13:38
kind of, you know, getting exhausted with your social
13:41
battery, all of that kind of thing, but also learning a ton
13:45
at the same time. I found that it's just, it's
13:50
this really, it's really fulfilling experience because
13:54
you get to go and then meet all these amazing people, help
13:57
people out, try and share interest and all of that.
14:00
But it's a little intense in terms of setting up and getting
14:04
organized and that kind of thing.
14:06
Tell me about your experience coming into this.
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Do you relate to any of that? And then also, yeah, what was
14:14
the decision like to start with markets and garden fairs?
14:18
That's a really, really good question.
14:20
I guess like heading into the market, I don't know, I think we
14:25
were a little bit, a little bit, you know, over our head or to be
14:29
completely honest, like we, we go to markets on the weekends.
14:31
It's a fun activity. We like to do, you know, go buy
14:33
some fruits and veggies there's. A lot of.
14:35
Small stall holders, that sort of thing.
14:37
Like we like doing that and I think, I don't know about you, I
14:40
don't want to speak for you, but I thought, oh, go to the market.
14:44
That's easy. Like, you know, like you just
14:46
set up a store or whatever. Like that sounds like fun.
14:50
And luckily, you know, like we're quite social people.
14:52
So the chatting to the people part is quite easy, or at least
14:56
it feels quite natural for us. I mean, I talked to people all
15:00
day, yeah. Yeah.
15:03
Yeah. I mean, we, we started off with
15:04
like Pine Rivers Garden and yeah, that's where we first met
15:10
you. And then, yeah, it was fun.
15:13
It was really fun. And the organizers are always
15:16
really, really passionate people as well.
15:20
And it's kind of like it's good fun.
15:23
I mean, the last one kind of like let our freak fly a little
15:25
bit with our little beer. So the bee is and and it was so.
15:30
Good. It's, it's cool to, to really
15:32
just see people enjoying and, and a bunch of different people
15:36
as well, like all really diverse group, you know, gardening kind
15:40
of appeals to a lot of people. You know, it's not just I, I, I,
15:44
I mean, I had the perception that it was going to be, you
15:47
know, a certain cohort or, or, or whatever a particular target
15:51
market that like, I haven't seen that in that sense.
15:55
It's really diverse group of people and it's really cool to
15:58
see the kids, the moms, the dads, the.
16:01
Absolutely. The oldies and and and so on.
16:04
Yeah, that's really cool, guys. And then diving into it, like
16:08
you said, you, we met at the Pine Rivers 1.
16:11
So I'll put that down so you can go and see that.
16:13
Like we, we probably had a lucky day because it was supposed to
16:17
be raining again at that one. And it was like really nice.
16:21
But like going and chatting to all the stall holders like I do
16:25
you get a sense of, you know, the types of people that can do
16:29
this and they go out there and like you said, you've got this
16:33
passion for talking to people. You find it easy.
16:35
You can go and socialize and then you work off each other's
16:38
energy a bit, right? And you can get inspired and
16:41
learn so much Is is going back to the decision to go to the
16:47
market. Yeah.
16:49
Why that over say something that I do as well social media as a
16:55
massive thing. You guys are on social media.
16:57
So I don't want to like, say that you're not, but why the
17:02
push to go in person? Is it something to do with the
17:05
connection, seeing faces, immersing yourself?
17:09
What's that thought? I guess, yeah, all of those
17:12
things really like going straight to the source.
17:15
You know, like, like I said before, we're not avid
17:16
gardeners, but we dabble and we figured the the kind of people
17:21
that are going to like our product or want to engage with
17:23
our product, try our product, are going to be people similar
17:26
to us. And we like going to markets.
17:29
We like, you know, going to these sorts of things.
17:31
So we figured why not actually immerse ourselves in the with
17:36
the type of people that we're hoping to, you know, engage
17:39
with. So that was the main.
17:42
Yeah, and like part of it's like even just, you know, learning
17:45
the language, learning the knowledge, all the local
17:48
knowledge with all these, again, these really smart people, they
17:53
know a lot more than us most of the time.
17:56
Well, you know, we're trying, we're learning.
17:58
Yeah. But you know, it's, it's cool to
18:01
hear, you know, what works for them, what doesn't work for
18:03
them, what could be done better, what they like about us or the
18:08
story or, or whatnot. And, and even just hearing from
18:12
other stall holders as well, like we've been fortunate enough
18:15
to, you know, meet some really cool people, you for one.
18:19
But you know, our other neighbors, we just happen to
18:22
keep getting, you know, the luck of the good weather and the good
18:26
stall holders and neighbors and going around and meeting other
18:29
people and hearing about what has worked for them and what
18:32
hasn't worked for them. And yeah, it's, it's been really
18:36
interesting that the last one we went to the botanical bizarre in
18:41
particular, like who are we talking to?
18:43
Well. Even just like the workshops
18:45
like we. Try to tag team.
18:47
Team yeah, yeah, yeah, like. We are lucky in that sense that
18:50
we've got each other to work around.
18:52
But yeah, like being able to actually go and listen to some
18:55
of the talks and learn some things and.
18:57
Yeah, and tweet. I'm going to tweet Ilhorn again,
19:00
like thank you. I started on the day that
19:02
honestly, like one of the best talks I've ever heard when you
19:06
know, the way you're talking about.
19:08
Yeah, again, something that we're really passionate about
19:10
that system level change, you know, we're talking about, you
19:13
know, what you're doing today impacts the next 1020, thirty,
19:16
4000 years. Like it's going to be around
19:18
after us. And I think that a lot of people
19:22
clued on to that and, and have really similar mindsets and, and
19:27
again, just hearing what works for for these, you know,
19:30
different people in different areas.
19:33
Really cool to learn from. I totally agree.
19:36
When I was doing those workshops, just having people,
19:39
in fact, just in general going around to these things, having
19:42
people come up and have these conversations and say, hey, this
19:45
is what I'm doing, this is my situation.
19:48
I've got a bit of shade or I've got 10 square meters.
19:52
I think myself, I'm a very creative person, so having the
19:58
idea of being able to jump in creatively, I think.
20:03
With these people in thinking about how they want to cultivate
20:07
their space is really exciting to me.
20:09
And then working off these natural systems, the great
20:14
natural technologies that are out there.
20:17
It's it's just observing and then reapplying that same
20:21
knowledge in our own gardens. In ways you've done it in a
20:25
similar way by repurposing waste, you know, like energy is
20:28
always energy in the universe never really goes anywhere.
20:32
It's it's repurposed into something else the same as what
20:34
we see in our carbon cycles and all of these types of things.
20:36
It's recycled. So you're doing the same job.
20:39
This would probably end up being somewhere or, you know, he's,
20:42
he's got a poo problem, he doesn't know what to do with
20:44
that. So you guys are recycling that
20:47
and then turning it into something where people can then
20:49
go and grow plants and stuff. And so meeting all those people,
20:54
like you said, getting to understand their stories and
20:57
what they got growing and it gives you a bit more of an
21:00
understanding or scope of generally what's out there and
21:03
being in person with those people.
21:05
You're connecting one-on-one. And I think that for me is the
21:10
best thing to scale. While I hear this term scale the
21:15
unscalable, where it's that one-on-one time where you're
21:19
talking about that situation and how you can help that person
21:22
that's so much more valuable of an investment into them and
21:27
their project that you then get out of, I suppose by reaping the
21:31
benefits of them talking about how helpful Alana and Steve
21:34
were, you know, at the weekend. So that kind of thing is, is
21:38
really important to me. Do you see yourselves taking a
21:41
bit of a journey towards, let's just say, more of this type of
21:48
thing where you're interacting with the community and bringing
21:51
yourselves out there? What sort of thinking are you
21:54
having with the future of rich roots in terms of community and
21:58
blah, blah, blah? Big question and lots of
22:01
context, but I mean. I have.
22:02
You want to go fast? Yeah.
22:04
I mean, I've kind of felt a little bit like, I mean, even
22:08
just, you know, we've seen each other a couple times a bit like
22:12
as I'm getting to just learning here from other people, learn
22:16
how to talk sometimes even like the language, the the garden
22:21
language. And you know, I kind of didn't
22:24
feel too. Maybe it's like you want to call
22:27
it imposter syndrome or whatever.
22:28
I didn't feel like I had enough knowledge to to come even like
22:32
talk to you today, you know, but you start like spitting stuff
22:37
out and it's like almost unprompted.
22:38
And then you're like, oh, OK, maybe I do know some stuff.
22:41
But and you know, it's, we're only part of the solution as
22:44
well. You know, it's like you were
22:47
mentioning you go third, third, third.
22:49
We're only one of the thirds with, with, with with your sort
22:53
of soil health or, or. That's right.
22:57
But yeah, I. Think for me the yeah, well,
23:01
talking with everyone at the markets, one of the big things
23:05
that, you know, I was a little bit nervous going into this,
23:07
starting a business, never done it before.
23:09
Like that's obviously more Steve's area than mine.
23:13
I guess like talking with everyone at the markets, if
23:15
anything has really given us the reassurance or given me the
23:19
reassurance that we have a good product.
23:21
Like all of the people at the markets, all of the stall
23:24
holders, all the people growing the plants that people want to
23:26
buy are using worm poo. They're worm wee.
23:31
Whether it's compost, whether it's the liquid concentrate,
23:34
they're all using it. So they obviously all really
23:36
believe in the power of it, which which really I guess helps
23:41
a lot. And, and knowing that our
23:45
product is different in that it's a little bit more
23:48
accessible to people that don't have capacity, don't have time,
23:52
don't have the resources or the space or whatever it is.
23:55
You know, you're living in a unit or an apartment or, I don't
23:58
know, you're a busy mom. You don't have time to garden on
24:00
the weekends and figure out how to do composting.
24:03
Giving them access to something that is really valuable is is
24:07
nice. And I think it's like, it's good
24:09
for us too. Like we don't, we don't compost.
24:11
We give our scratch to the chickens, sure, but we don't
24:14
really have a lot of time for that at the moment.
24:16
So it, I guess the future is trying to I guess maybe engage a
24:23
bit more with like minded gardeners similar to us and
24:26
figure out how we can kind of help in that sense, I mean.
24:30
Like just off the back that like we, I mean, we didn't something
24:35
that's coming up really cool. I think wasn't around when I was
24:38
going to school, but you're hearing a lot of these like
24:41
school programs, horticultural or or, you know, hobby farms at
24:46
schools. And we had, we, we, we did run a
24:49
couple of community competitions.
24:52
There wasn't like a lot of engagement.
24:53
But I, I think when you actually go talk to the teacher, like
24:56
they're the passionate ones, passion comes in very strong
24:59
over and over again. So I thought that was really
25:01
cool. I did try to get, you know, give
25:06
some donations to the Brisbane City, you know, South Bank if
25:11
you're from Brisbane, Oh. Yes, the community.
25:14
Yeah, but I go talk to them and they referred me to that person.
25:19
They referred me to that person. And then I go to that counter
25:21
and then they say, oh, there's a whole procurement process with
25:24
government Bureau, you know, bureaucracy and and so on around
25:27
it. It was, you know, it was hard to
25:30
get into it. So I think yeah, maybe schools
25:34
is a cool one and and or other community gardens.
25:37
Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah, I think you're right with
25:40
that. Like the community space that
25:41
are owned and operated by the community is probably a little
25:44
easier to to go into this government tend to have really
25:48
strict kind of tight rules around where they get it from
25:52
and who they're supporting and why etcetera.
25:55
But it's it's a really good thought because, you know,
25:57
engaging in the community, making stuff more accessible
26:00
like you have done. And all of this means that you
26:03
are playing that role, being that piece in the puzzle.
26:06
And I think I want to commend you guys anyway, because I think
26:10
coming into it, Hey guys, really quickly jumping in, I just want
26:15
to remind you, if you are not subscribed to this show, that is
26:18
the number one thing that you can do to show me your support.
26:21
So if you're finding value from this conversation and you're
26:24
deeply engaged, I would love you to hit the follow or subscribe
26:27
button. All right.
26:28
Back to the show. Regardless of how much knowledge
26:31
you have, just throwing yourselves in is the commendable
26:35
part. You want to do something that
26:38
makes a positive difference. You don't have to know
26:41
everything. Like I'm I don't know
26:43
everything. I'm learning so much every
26:45
single time I'm going out. I know some things that I've
26:49
researched and studied and I live in my lane.
26:51
But outside of that, there's so much to learn.
26:54
And I feel like because we're all kind of running or working
26:59
under the same umbrella in terms of like nature works the way it
27:04
works, right? So we're all using the same
27:08
information. It's not like someone has a
27:10
better, necessarily better way of doing it than others.
27:13
It's nature's way of doing it all the time.
27:16
So for everybody who's coming in talking about gardening and
27:21
natural cycles and and etcetera, there's no, there's never going
27:26
to be an expert. It's all everyone just trying to
27:28
figure out what's the, what is nature doing and then trying to
27:32
mimic that. So I don't believe that you need
27:35
to be too worried about having to have all the answers.
27:39
It's just a matter of going like, look, we're passionate
27:43
about trying to make a difference.
27:44
This is what we've learned so far.
27:47
Here it is. What do you think?
27:48
What's your opinion? And learn from them.
27:50
Some people will tell you, oh, it's not as good as this.
27:53
And some people will tell you, oh, I've used that and it's
27:55
amazing. It's better than anything I've
27:57
ever used. So it's like, you know, it's
28:00
that kind of thing. Yeah, I mean 110, sorry, go for
28:05
it. One that was really interesting
28:07
to me at the market. Like, you know, I don't know if
28:09
I'm going to be jumping into it, but a human or which is
28:14
something, of course. So it's the same idea like you,
28:18
you dry out some some byproduct. This time we're talking about a
28:22
human byproduct, and that creates, after a few months of,
28:27
you know, fermentation drying out like this.
28:29
Really beautiful, you know, sort of probably not too far off from
28:33
what we're playing around with now.
28:37
Rich, Rich. Well, hopefully, depending on
28:39
what the person's been eating, yeah.
28:40
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, but she.
28:43
Must have a a really healthy diet, you know, for what plants
28:47
aren't dying, so at least says that.
28:48
Yeah, yeah, she. Said.
28:49
Exactly. Too.
28:51
Yeah, yeah. But that was like, it's super
28:54
interesting. Like, you know, I would have
28:55
never thought that. And and then even some other
28:59
person mentioned just talking about local knowledge.
29:02
And she was referring to someone who she'd met, she wanted to get
29:06
some interviews with because they knew, like, they'd been
29:10
around this particular part of the country for, you know, 50-60
29:15
years. And they just knew where the
29:17
gum, like, these particular gumnut trees or something like
29:19
that was. And you ask them and they just
29:21
go, Oh, yeah, that one from there, That one from there.
29:23
Wow. It's amazing.
29:25
Like it's just it's it's. It's a whole new.
29:28
World mind boggling, yeah. Yeah, it really is.
29:31
I find that round every corner there's kind of some new
29:34
exciting little piece of it that I haven't yet discovered.
29:38
That knowledge, part of it or Indigenous knowledge is, is
29:42
actually in a crazy untapped thing that so many of us could
29:47
do with knowing. Because when you've had
29:50
generations of people that have lived on the land and have not
29:54
been buried in an iPad, they've been actually observing the
29:58
land. They are figuring out what works
30:00
best and what doesn't. And then that's passed down
30:05
through generations, tried and tested and figured out.
30:08
And they're living in harmony somewhat with, well, as much as
30:12
they can and probably as they are with the natural cycles.
30:16
And then that knowledge is now lost.
30:19
We're kind of pretending like we know what we what we actually
30:24
want and what we can actually grow.
30:26
And that's pretty far from the truth a lot of the time.
30:29
Yeah, I actually read an article because my phone has optimized
30:34
for me articles or is they optimizing anyway?
30:40
And and they're talking about a switch to the, the, the calendar
30:46
or the seasons in in Melbourne, Melbourne in particular.
30:50
I can't remember the local group off the top of my head, but
30:53
they're talking about like a six season calendar where you know,
30:57
you got wet summer, dry summer, wet winter, dry winter and you
31:02
have to go to Melbourne and like it fits pretty well.
31:06
And that's not just like that's a six season calendar.
31:09
We, we just adopted the European calendar and we thought that,
31:13
hey, let's push that worldview over here and see if it fits and
31:17
maybe it doesn't you. Know well I don't think it does
31:19
like because simply because Brisbane winter is better than a
31:23
lot of summers in a lot of places in the world so you can't
31:27
really call it winter. There's no snow, there's no
31:29
cold. But anyway, I mean.
31:33
It's true. We are, we are in.
31:35
Jumpers. Like we are in jumpers right
31:37
now. Yeah, yeah, you're right though.
31:39
And I saw that similar thing too, about how with the
31:42
Indigenous knowledge, they're looking at the seasons started
31:48
by certain observations. So when a certain flower might
31:51
come in across the land, that's when this specific season has
31:55
been signalled. And a really cool thing, you
31:59
know that that happens a lot in nature, for example, in the
32:02
morning when all the birds start singing first thing in the
32:06
morning. What that does is that actually
32:08
cues all of the plant leaves to open their little receiving
32:14
portals. That's what I'm calling them.
32:16
So it makes it more easy for people to understand when
32:18
there's stone mates and things they open up and they're
32:22
allowing the transpiration in the most bringing in of that, I
32:26
guess getting the nutrients and things.
32:28
So if you're folia feeding and all of this, you can spray in
32:31
the morning. It's really good when the birds
32:32
open the send the signal to open up those things in the morning
32:36
and they do and they drink it in and once the sun gets a bit too
32:38
hot, they close them all up again.
32:40
But that's a good example of natural cycles signaling things.
32:46
You know, there's like I said before, certain flowers that
32:48
flower at certain times which trigger birds to start breeding
32:52
or butterflies to start coming in, etcetera, etcetera.
32:56
There's so much that goes on guys.
32:59
I want to take a little pivot back to I guess the the starting
33:04
of a business together and the idea of kind of double clicking
33:11
on what you said earlier about, you know, they say don't work
33:14
with family or anything like that.
33:17
Now, like honestly, I don't want to, I don't need to know too
33:21
much about it, but all I want to know is what's what's life like
33:26
now versus what you see life being like in the future of rich
33:31
Roots keeps going. For example, right now you have
33:34
your own jobs. You disappear off during the
33:38
week to work on various different things.
33:40
And then presumably you come together of an evening like this
33:44
or on the weekends and do some work on rich Roots, which is
33:48
exactly what I do. But what's it going to be like
33:52
if you're what if the if the idea is to be rich roots full
33:56
time? Well, maybe you're not because
33:59
you want to keep going with your dietitian and electrical.
34:03
I'm just going with electrical engineering because I can't
34:07
think of what other economical thing you were doing, Steve.
34:09
But what's it going to be like if that keeps going?
34:15
I short answer is more time outside.
34:17
Yeah. I mean, I, I honestly, I haven't
34:20
really thought that far ahead. I kind of just like, liked the
34:23
thing, like the like what? You know what?
34:26
What it was and and where you know and.
34:28
And I suppose yeah like I, I was getting pretty close like a
34:33
couple of weeks. I mentioned this to you, but
34:35
whether or not I'm. I'm yeah, I have to not take on
34:38
new things, but I was close to quitting and the hustle, bustle,
34:45
stress of 10 different projects, whatever.
34:48
And then taking up horticulture. And I joke about it, but I'm
34:52
kind of like still like, but no, now I like permaculture.
34:56
Like found out what that means, which is again, systems,
35:00
ecosystems and ecological modelling.
35:02
Like I'm coming back to coming in with like infection.
35:05
OK, I can't go too much into it, but infectious disease modelling
35:09
was a part of where I was coming into like COVID came up.
35:12
Yeah, you, you would definitely see that kind of thinking like
35:17
permaculture systems and like big systems like that.
35:21
A guy who had on the podcast who I can't stop raving about is
35:25
Eric and he is from United Nature's design.
35:29
So go and check out his episodes, Steve.
35:32
You'll love that kind of thing. But I guess like the question
35:36
before relates to what's I need to put it into a nice easy
35:42
question. What's, what's it like trying to
35:44
have to navigate something that you, you have a shared a joint
35:50
vision of trying to bring something to life.
35:53
And sometimes one of you is going to feel like your way is
35:58
better. And another time the other
36:00
person's going to think that obviously you're going to have
36:03
to come and meet in the middle some way and do this kind of
36:05
thing. But how do you separate the
36:09
business thinking and that type of thing to when you go, OK,
36:13
let's cut business thinking and sit down and have a meal or go
36:19
and do something. You know what I mean?
36:20
Like how do you do that? I think we're still figuring
36:24
that out, to be honest. We've definitely got some
36:27
systems and ideas and things that work for us.
36:30
Like for example, one thing that we do to try and separate work
36:33
and life is we go to a cafe for our Rich Roots meetings, have a
36:38
coffee, make it fun, separate it out of the home.
36:42
It actually feels more productive, less distracted by
36:45
our dog and our washing and all that other stuff.
36:47
Love that. That's something that we found
36:49
really helpful. I'm also like an organization
36:53
freak type, a personality organization.
36:56
You call it and. I think being organized, I don't
37:02
know, everyone probably says this in business, but like if
37:05
without that I don't think we would be able to do it.
37:07
Like we really do have to virtual and compartmentalize and
37:11
give time to rich roots, give time to us, give time to the
37:15
house chores, you know, like, yeah, really have to separate it
37:18
out, I think. It's kind of I, I guess like, I
37:21
mean, we don't, we don't have kids, but you know, maybe one
37:24
day, but you know, it's kind of similar, I guess maybe in that
37:29
sense, like you've got multiple different priorities.
37:32
It's hard to optimize across all of them.
37:34
You're going to hear boots in the background.
37:36
Oh, yeah, The dogs coming in. Yeah, I've got a little bit of
37:40
that. That's cute.
37:40
But that's life, right? This is, this is the thing,
37:43
right? It's this is what I'm trying to
37:45
tap into is that I feel like you guys can be a bit of an
37:50
inspiration or a figurehead for others that are looking to make
37:53
a bit of a jump into doing something that they might, you
37:57
know, have a bit of passion behind and not to be scared to
38:00
do it with somebody who's their closest ally in life, Right.
38:05
So I struggle switching off and I'm just trying to fill minutes
38:12
all the time. So like I relate Steve and it's
38:15
like I can't switch off, but my wife is the best organizer in my
38:20
life and keeps me on the straight and narrow.
38:22
So I feel like I relate to this a lot, but it's but but we have
38:27
very different and separate passions, which is beautiful in
38:30
its own way. But I feel like when you have
38:33
both of you working on the same project, especially if maybe it
38:37
was two people that have lots of amazing ideas, it would be
38:42
difficult to work it all out. And as you say, you're
38:44
navigating it, you're figuring it all out, but it seems like
38:48
you have a very complimentary balance between the two of you,
38:52
a sort of dreamer and a realist. Maybe I don't.
38:55
Know, I think it's the flow between both, right?
38:58
We probably both take turns that's.
38:59
True, that's true. Like I, I, I guess like part of
39:03
it, you know, we tried at the start, we were kind of thinking
39:06
about, or me, you know, maybe more me like a bit being a
39:08
little bit pedantic or I went down to my engineering day and
39:13
then threw up like this racy matrix.
39:16
So responsibility assignment consulting and and and informed
39:20
matrix which is like trying to split apart or.
39:22
Very businessy. Different roles, different
39:25
business. So marketing, okay, you do that,
39:28
I'll do the, I'll do the business or the OR the the
39:31
logistics. But then we found that.
39:34
I opened the Google Drive and I'm like, what is this?
39:36
Yeah. Well, it's just.
39:37
Cluttered like what does this even mean?
39:39
What is the point and? Part of it.
39:41
Where we're learning each other. Ways and part of it is like even
39:44
just, you know, I worked in a small business for start of my
39:47
engineering days and you wear lots of different hats.
39:50
And while that can be stressful sometimes, it's also a really
39:55
good learning opportunity because you learn the whole
39:57
thing and then you take those skills into the next thing.
40:00
So I, you know, engineering somehow taps into wormhoo.
40:03
I don't know, and then research. I don't know.
40:05
They all talk to each other. I think they do.
40:07
I think you can get skills from so many different things and
40:10
apply them in there. But thank you for sharing that
40:13
guys, because I think that's a really cool little insight.
40:16
And honestly, like, it doesn't have to be like it really
40:20
doesn't have to be pretty. It's, it's probably clunky a lot
40:25
of the time. But I think that from what
40:28
you've spoken about, with all the benefits that you've gotten
40:30
out of it and how pleasantly surprised you've been by how
40:36
it's all turning out so far, I think it's a little bit of a
40:39
testament to just throwing yourselves at the wall, singing
40:42
what sticks, trying to figure it out together.
40:45
Like, yes, you're going to get irritated at each other's ways
40:48
of doing things. I even get irritated at the way
40:50
I do things, you know, and I need somebody like you, Alana,
40:54
in my life to help me, like keep stuff, you know, together.
40:59
But like, you'd freak out at my drive as well.
41:02
I'm sure like it's I freak out at it, but it's, it's like, you
41:05
know, I desperately need to take more of what you are good at.
41:10
And that's where having these nice teams working together,
41:14
learning each other's strengths, balancing each other out, trying
41:17
to go, OK, look, we tried this for a little while, didn't work.
41:20
Let's pivot. Like, let's not judge ourselves
41:23
too hard on the fact that that failed because we're going to
41:26
fail at a lot of things. We're figuring this out.
41:28
We're pushing something up a hill.
41:31
So I think, yeah, you guys can be a bit of a inspiration for
41:33
everybody starting something. And I'm so pleased to see you
41:37
guys doing this and jumping in, getting involved and trying to
41:41
make something of it. And that's why I wanted to
41:44
highlight it, try and wish you all the best with it.
41:49
So, yeah, lastly, what's. I'm a little bit nervous about
41:54
asking you this, Steve, to be honest.
41:55
But what's let's start with Alana, what's top of mind for
42:01
you at the moment? Meaning when you're trying to
42:04
figure out what's next for Rich roots, what are you thinking
42:09
about in your mind is important right now?
42:14
That's a big question, OK. Most important thing for us
42:18
right now I think is consistency.
42:23
And yeah, definitely consistency and engagement.
42:30
I think like, like I said before, there's definitely
42:32
people out there just like us and it's, it's just trying to
42:35
find them. I think at the moment, like
42:38
we're a small business. We're obviously trying through
42:40
the socials and the marketing and the actual markets
42:43
themselves. I think, yeah, we're still
42:46
figuring a lot of that out, but finding out people, which we're
42:49
starting to do, like yourself. Yeah, yeah, you definitely.
42:52
I like that one consistency. Now, Steve, what do you think?
43:00
Oh. God all I'm all I'm saying is
43:03
the reason I'm scared to ask you is because like when my brain
43:05
gets asked that question I'm like but I'm thinking about 1000
43:08
things not one thing like I was. I was literally about to say,
43:12
which of those do you want? If I got to narrow it down to
43:17
one thing, OK, Like I mean, one thing that I've been it's been
43:23
sitting on my plate for a little bit.
43:26
I've got can I just I feel like I don't want.
43:29
To please please. These packets and it really
43:32
annoys me like I've put in, I've put in recycle me right.
43:38
But as I've since found out after doing a little bit more
43:42
digging, recycle me yeah, sure to different countries
43:47
standards, but the Australian standards, while each individual
43:52
part of that packaging is recyclable, I'm pushing that
43:56
back onto the consumer to say you've got to peel this thing
43:58
apart. It's a composite material.
44:01
I'm in the market finding or, or, or doing still doing
44:04
research to, to find a something that's a bit easier to to
44:08
recycle and or compost. So it was a bit, it's been that
44:13
was a bit annoying to be honest, because it you know, it was, it
44:16
was like, you know, they said that it was, but then I found
44:19
out it wasn't. So that's like a big focus for
44:21
me at the moment. And and then I suppose
44:25
otherwise, yeah, like Alana said, it's just finding, you
44:28
know, the people, the people that you know, we can help or,
44:32
or, or that can help us as well and getting out to more markets
44:37
as well. We've got another one or two, I
44:39
don't know, actually one more booked in and we've got a couple
44:42
more. I've got a worm costume that my
44:45
nephew has been wanting to come along and wear and do his
44:49
thumbs. And we're going to find a good,
44:50
a good market for that as well to, to get him involved because
44:54
he, you know, he wants to. That'll be amazing.
44:57
That's a good addition. I think that'll be cool.
44:59
Yeah, it's fun. I honestly thank you again for
45:03
those answers. Really, really beautiful
45:05
answers. Consistency is a massive 1.
45:08
I hold myself to a high standard with consistency, just trying to
45:11
do something all the time and as long as it's moving, it's moving
45:18
right, it's moving in the right direction.
45:20
It some days it's going to be one step back, but then you're
45:23
going to have a few steps forward.
45:25
I also think with the consistency thing and relating
45:30
it back to what you guys were talking about with the markets,
45:32
it's, it's that scaling the unscalable, it's one person at a
45:36
time. Like it's literally one person
45:39
at a time. It's that, you know, you get
45:42
caught up in kind of going, oh, I've got 100 followers and I
45:48
just want to get to 150. And it's like there's already
45:52
100 people there that are following you.
45:55
Let's engage with those 100 people and keep, you know, just
46:01
keep appreciating the audience that's already there.
46:04
And then that next person, you put that effort in meeting them
46:07
at the market, spend the 10 minutes with them, and that's
46:10
the next person. That's the next person, one
46:12
person at a time. And you'll build this with that
46:15
consistency over time. It's like, you know, there's so
46:19
many just marketing hacks and advertising and how do you get
46:23
yourself in front of people and stuff and it's doing exactly
46:26
what you're doing, but all the time for eternity as it grows.
46:30
You know, that's kind of that's my view at least.
46:34
So definitely you're on Instagram, right?
46:37
Where else can people find you? They can follow along for, for
46:41
your markets, you post stuff on there and things like that.
46:44
Is that the only place you've obviously Have you got a website
46:47
where people can buy the product?
46:48
Yeah, yeah, we do, thanks to Steve and his background in tech
46:53
love. I've no idea how it works, but
46:55
we've got a website. It's up and running.
46:58
Richfroots.com dot AU And then I think you also got us set up
47:02
within Facebook, Facebook. And Instagram.
47:05
I did try Etsy for a while, but I don't know, there's, there's
47:09
all these like, you know, subscriptions you get to
47:11
subscribe to a. Subscription yeah, I think, you
47:15
know, I'm hearing more and more about these live shopping type
47:19
situations coming in with what not TikTok shop and eBay and
47:24
things like this producing live shopping.
47:28
I'd I'm not certainly one that's on top of that, but there's so
47:31
many different avenues of ways that you can sell things aren't
47:33
there that are coming up, but I still think one by one in the
47:37
markets as you're doing it. Yeah.
47:39
So that's it. Thank you guys.
47:42
I really appreciate it and I'll highly encourage everybody to go
47:46
and check out your links in the comments.
47:49
Thank you. Thanks SO.
47:50
Much. Wonderful.
48:07
There we have it, ladies and gentlemen, what a cool little
48:10
duo those guys are, and I'm so impressed by what they're doing.
48:15
They're honest, authentic, and they're coming into the world
48:18
trying to do something that we all need, which is, you know,
48:22
more connection, more access to products that can help better
48:26
the planet, better our food, better our health, the soil
48:29
health, all of this under one umbrella.
48:32
So I'm super thankful to them to come and share their story.
48:35
I hope you found some inspiration from the episode.
48:38
Remember, please go and follow and check out their links, they
48:41
will be linked down below in the show notes.
48:44
And as always, if you enjoyed the episode, sharing this around
48:47
really helps the show leaving some form of a review, whether
48:51
that's stars or some thoughtful comments on what you liked about
48:55
the show. That goes so far in helping
48:58
support me to motivate me to produce more episodes and invite
49:01
more exciting guests onto the show.
49:04
Lastly, remember the beginners Organic Growers guide is free
49:08
and always will be on the website.
49:10
You can check that out link in the description.
49:12
And I also haven't upgraded much more in depth intermediate level
49:16
growers guide, which you can access there as well.
49:20
So lastly, thank you very much for listening and for watching
49:23
and I can't wait to see you once again on the next episode.
49:26
Bye for now.