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Quail Is Delicious w/ Brittney Miller: Manchester Farms · The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois

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The fire ants are eating the eggs that are being
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laid on the ground and the fire ants attack the
0:52
eggs and eat the eggs, kill the eggs. There's
0:53
no chance. Yeah. Yeah, it's the wild wild west
0:56
here in the South Carolina. You know, when everybody
0:58
started moving here, we're like, do you know
0:59
about the snakes, the alligators and the fire
1:01
ants and the mosquitoes? Hello, delicious grab
1:09
a plate and taste the delicious culture. I am
1:11
your host, John Francois. We are feasting on
1:13
food, pop culture and lifestyle with the owner
1:15
of Manchester Farms, Brittany Miller. Hey, Brittany.
1:19
Hi there. Hello, how are you? I'm doing all right.
1:22
We were just talking about how you are, I believe,
1:25
the second South Carolinian that I've interviewed
1:28
on this podcast. Matt O 'Neill is coming from
1:31
Charleston. I interviewed him not too long ago.
1:33
And you are coming from Columbia, South Carolina.
1:36
Yeah, yeah. Famously hot. Yeah. Now I, I feel
1:41
like with everything in the Southern part of
1:43
the United States, I lump it in with summer.
1:46
You don't want to be there. It's too hot and
1:48
humid, but like the winter time, what's usually
1:51
like the more colder times of year here in New
1:53
England, here in Vermont, that's where you want
1:56
to be. So are we getting to the point where Columbia,
1:58
South Carolina is a good weathered place to be?
2:01
You know, my grandmother in the fall would say
2:03
we just need a good hurricane to cool things
2:05
off. And we haven't gotten there yet. I mean,
2:08
the last few days, they were wonderful. They
2:10
were like in the 80s, 70s. But today is a burner.
2:14
I mean, it's hot at 10 a .m. And so, I love the
2:19
bookends, you know? The fall and spring, those
2:22
are my favorites. We do get a winter, but the
2:25
bookends are great. The summers are just, they're
2:27
just hot. You know, if you like the heat, come
2:30
on down. Yeah, if you like to sweat and possibly
2:34
pass out from a heatstroke, why not? Come on
2:37
down. For real. For real. How specifically hot
2:41
are we talking today? Well, it's 80 degrees at
2:44
10 a .m. already. Okay. Yeah. That's a burner.
2:48
It's a burner. Yeah. I mean, I've got flip -flops.
2:50
I mean, I wear flip -flops year -round here because
2:53
my feet just get hot. Um, it's today. I was like,
2:57
I was talking to my husband. I was like, it's
2:59
hot today already. Yeah. Now, uh, just like how
3:02
we have what we call here in Vermont snowbirds,
3:05
people who tend to go down south to places like
3:07
Florida, South Carolina for the winter time,
3:09
because they don't like Vermont winters. Um,
3:12
do it, is it sort of like the opposite effect
3:15
with people like yourself from South Carolina?
3:17
Do you come to the mountains? Okay. So you, you,
3:20
you come up here north, uh, to, to get away from,
3:22
they go north or they go to the mountains. Um,
3:24
You know, North Carolina has Asheville and, um,
3:29
cashers and Highlands and a lot of people have
3:32
second homes up there. They just go for Airbnb
3:35
or for the weekend. And it's, it's probably 15,
3:37
20 degrees cooler. So you don't even necessarily
3:40
have to, you don't have to necessarily go to
3:42
the New England long sleeve. Yeah, right. So,
3:45
you know, you don't necessarily have to go all
3:46
the way to like the eastern or midwestern part
3:48
of the U .S. You could just like still be in
3:50
the south and just kind of go. That's the beauty
3:52
of South Carolina is that you're within two to
3:55
three hours of everything at the beach, the coastlines.
4:00
And if you go to the beach, there's a breeze.
4:02
So it's not as hot as where Columbia is. Columbia
4:04
is up on a rise on a hill and it's. their tagline
4:08
literally is famously hot because it's just an
4:12
oven in the summertime. Or you go to lakes, get
4:14
on the water, get on a boat. There's a lot of
4:17
opportunities to change it up. And so it's all
4:20
within an hour to two and a half, three hours.
4:25
Are you close by the beach or a body of water?
4:28
Is that something that you like to partake in?
4:29
Yeah, so Lake Murray is 45 minutes from here
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and we go there during the summertime. You know,
4:36
I'm kind of a germ freak and the brain -eating
4:39
amoebas get somebody at least once a year in
4:43
the South. And the water temperature is when
4:46
they get above 85 degrees. When the kids go tubing,
4:49
water flushes up their nose and then a brain
4:51
-eating amoeba gets in there and kills them.
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It's awful. Like, I have a friend of mine, a
4:56
childhood high school friend, their child died
4:58
of it. And so when it gets, like, I don't go
5:02
to the lakes in September or in July and August.
5:05
I just don't. The water temperatures are too
5:07
high. I've never heard of brain -eating amoebas.
5:09
Can you explain that? Amoeba, yeah. So it grows
5:13
in 85 or higher water. And it's in kind of the
5:19
coves of the watershed and where it's worth still.
5:23
So if they're jumping off a dock in a cove and...
5:28
Water rushes up their nose these little amoebas
5:31
get up there and they they kill these little
5:33
sweet people Wow, it's awful And there's it's
5:37
it's been like just look it up. It's there was
5:39
one this year to two this year I think actually
5:41
in the south so it's awful and there's no way
5:44
for like I don't know some kind of organization
5:47
or patrol to like exterminate all of that or
5:50
most of it? No, it's just a naturally occurring
5:53
situation in calm waters with 85 degree or higher
5:59
temperatures. So last week, my dad has a lake
6:02
house, so we go to his lake house. And so last
6:04
week, the temperatures were cool. It was wonderful.
6:07
It was like 70 degrees. And so instantly, the
6:09
lake water chilled off. Of course, I didn't get
6:12
in it. But it's nice to go on the bookends, not
6:18
in the middle of the summer. You keep using that
6:20
phrase, the bookends. Can you tell me what that
6:23
is? So I call the bookends spring and fall for
6:27
summer. We'll start going to the lake probably
6:29
in March. You still have to wear a hoodie and
6:32
you have a fire pit and it's great. And then
6:35
we'll go until about June and then July and August.
6:39
It's just too hot. Yeah. And then we come back
6:42
in September and October and then of course football
6:43
season starts. So, SEC football. So, we go to
6:48
the games and stuff. The spring and the fall
6:51
are the bookends to summer. And it's my favorite
6:53
time. It's just easy temperatures. You can wear
6:57
flip -flops, but you can also wear a hoodie,
6:59
which is great. How do you spell that word? Bookends?
7:01
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've never heard of it. I feel
7:04
like that's southern lexicon that I'm not familiar
7:07
with. Oh, so it's B -O -O -K -E -N -D -S. Oh,
7:12
OK, OK, OK. I had a feeling. Like you have books,
7:14
and then you have the bookends that hold the
7:17
books together. Gotcha, gotcha. OK. It's kind
7:20
of the outside realm of the middle. Gotcha. All
7:24
right. All right. Maybe it's a Southern term.
7:26
I don't know. I've never heard. It might be.
7:28
Might be. I mean, I've certainly heard of the
7:31
word. book end, like B -O -O -K -E -N -D, I may
7:35
pronounce it differently, but as like referring
7:37
it to like weather, that is something that at
7:42
least up. It may just be me. It just may be a
7:45
Brittanyism or something. It could be a regional
7:46
thing. It could be a regional thing. I mean,
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I guess the closest thing that it reminds me
7:52
of when you talk about that is like here in Vermont,
7:56
when Really, I mean, summer and fall is the beautiful
8:01
times of year. And then winter can be rough if
8:06
you don't like ski or snowboard. And then spring
8:10
doesn't really exist because of how long our
8:14
winters are, typically from October through May.
8:16
So it's like kind of you're transitioning from
8:18
winter to summer almost. So that was rolling
8:22
around in my head as you were describing that.
8:25
I used to live in New Jersey and the first two
8:28
years out of college and, you know, I'm used
8:30
to the sun in the south. And I went up there
8:33
and in the first year, it hardly ever snows down
8:37
here. So I don't, you know, as a kid, I didn't
8:39
know how to drive in the snow. Well, I learned
8:41
pretty quick because I was, we had 16, one footer
8:46
noreasterns and one winter. And so I was... I
8:49
got really good at shoveling snow, moving snow,
8:52
and driving in the snow pretty quick. That was
8:54
in New Jersey when you were there. Yeah, yeah,
8:56
I had to buy a car because my tires in the car
8:58
that I had was a rear wheel drive and not front
9:00
wheel drive. And so I learned real fast. Yeah.
9:03
What would lead you from New Jersey to South
9:04
Carolina? I graduated from Clemson and I got
9:08
a degree in agriculture and I went to work for
9:11
the dark side, the pharmaceutical side, and their
9:14
headquarters were in New Jersey. So I loved it.
9:17
It was great. It was a great company to work
9:19
for. They had so many great trainings and just
9:22
living outside the city was awesome because,
9:25
you know, you'd go 30 minutes into New York City
9:29
or you could go 30 minutes into the mountains.
9:31
It was amazing. And I lived outside off the turnpike,
9:36
so probably half an hour off the turnpike, which
9:38
was wonderful people. And just the food was so
9:43
great and I miss it. It was a good time while
9:47
I was there though. I loved it. Bouncing off
9:49
the agricultural theme, we had mentioned off
9:51
the top that you are the owner of Manchester
9:53
Farms, which is known as America's premier quail
9:58
farm. It's been a family business for over 40
10:01
years. First off, when I was researching you,
10:05
I was like, oh, I have to ask her to like...
10:08
Tell me what quail is. I looked it up myself,
10:11
but just, you know, for the audience, it's like,
10:13
oh, what's quail? I think it's like a, it's a
10:15
kind of bird, like, but, but go ahead. Yeah,
10:17
it's a, it's a little bird. It's a biblical bird.
10:20
In fact, um, it literally is the holy quail,
10:24
you know, like the holy grail, but, um, so it's
10:27
a, it's a bird. It's about the size of your fist.
10:30
It's small. They're not meant to be huge. And,
10:33
um, we raise, a bird called a pharaoh quail that
10:37
descends from Egypt. And we've been raising quail
10:41
for 55 years. So I'm 55, so my entire life. My
10:46
dad started it as a hobby in the backyard. He
10:49
was a quail hunter. And he went to Clemson and
10:53
got a degree in poultry science. And he was working
10:57
for Campbell's Soup and also a hunter at the
10:59
time. So he used his husbandry practices that
11:02
he learned from Clemson and his flock grew in
11:05
the backyard and the neighbor said if you dress
11:08
them, which means, you know, get them ready to
11:10
eat, de -feather them, process them, whatnot.
11:13
They said, well, bye. And so then chefs found
11:16
out about it and said, well, we want quail too.
11:19
So then we started deboning quail and they built
11:22
a processing facility in Dowsale and South Carolina,
11:26
which is a very itty -bitty town. It doesn't
11:28
even have a stoplight. And so then we were in
11:33
Dalzell for about 25 years. And then Hurricane
11:35
Hugo, we were talking about hurricanes, came
11:38
through and blew everything down. So we moved
11:40
to Columbia. So now we've been in Columbia for
11:42
about Well, since 1993, basically. And we raise
11:47
quail for meat. So people cook it and eat it.
11:50
Chefs cook it and eat it and serve it to their
11:52
guests. And it's a delicacy protein. It's high
11:56
nutrition, lean, very lean, low in fat. So the
12:00
health conscious people love it. The flavor is...
12:02
A lot of people tell me they think it's a sweet
12:04
meat. And I just think it's a beautiful... beautiful
12:10
makeup. It's not white. It's not dark. It's not
12:13
like duck meat. Duck meat is kind of red and
12:16
kind of on the meat side of it, but it's not
12:19
exactly like a chicken breast. And I'll send
12:21
you some so you can try it and give some feedback.
12:23
But everybody falls in love with it as soon as
12:25
they eat it. They're like, oh my god, this is
12:27
so good. And I'm like, yeah, quail yeah. Not
12:31
hell yeah, quail yeah. Quail yeah. Yeah, the
12:36
puns and words. Yeah, and then we do we produce
12:40
quail eggs for Everybody to eat for nutrition
12:44
and in pets pets love quail eggs and so like
12:48
like quail meat the eggs are even more dense
12:51
and rich and nutrients and vitamins of minerals
12:54
and enzymes and and It helps heal people from
12:59
inside out It's a natural way of healing. Everybody's
13:01
deficient in different vitamins and minerals,
13:04
and everybody has different issues. And these
13:06
quail eggs, once you start eating them every
13:08
day, they just, it goes away. And everybody just
13:11
calls me and says, I can grip a handle. Like,
13:15
I have grip strength and more and I've got color
13:17
back in my vision. And it's crazy. It sounds
13:20
like it's magical. This is what they are. They
13:23
are just magical little eggs. So yeah, so we
13:25
produce quail and quail eggs every day, all day.
13:28
We've got probably a hundred co -workers, we
13:30
call them flock members because quail are in
13:33
a flock and we say flock, yeah. You are just
13:38
like the puns, the word play. I love it. It's
13:40
just endless. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's a
13:43
quail are wild birds. They're not poultry. And
13:47
so you got to be a little wild when you're in
13:49
the quail business. Yeah. The Delicious Culture
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with Jon Francois, proudly hosted by RSS. Why
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not join them? If you are starting a new podcast
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and especially if you are like me, you were with
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a hosting provider for a certain amount of years,
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you were like, ah, I am tired of doing this for
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free and not making any money. And I want to
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go to something like RSS where I can make money
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very easily. RSS only requires 10 downloads for
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you to start monetizing. How about that? A great
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way to start your podcasting career. start today
14:24
with the link in my show notes. Everything starts
14:36
with an idea. So can you tell me of the genesis
14:41
of this? Because you are, you obviously have
14:44
already like kind of answered a previous question
14:46
that I was going to ask, which was like, what
14:48
is the significance of, of having a quail farm?
14:51
But I'm always curious as to like, how like this
14:56
big business that has been in your family for
14:59
years, where did it all begin? Like how small
15:03
are we talking to how big it became? Yeah. So
15:06
my dad was a hunter and he graduated Clemson
15:10
and he went to work for Campbell Soup and helped
15:13
raise the chickens for chicken noodle soup and
15:16
the TV dinners. And he used a wholesome, all
15:21
-natural methods to keep the birds stress -free
15:25
and happy. And Campbell's Soup loved it. And
15:28
they were like, we want to bring you up to corporate.
15:30
And of course, we live in South Carolina. My
15:32
dad's a big hunter, and he hunts year round,
15:35
basically. And for different species, for different
15:37
times of the year. And so he moved up to New
15:39
Jersey. Well, he went up to New Jersey for an
15:41
interview and got up there and he was like, how
15:44
long is the hunting season up here? And they
15:45
were like, two weeks. He was like, Thanks for
15:48
your time. Yeah, that's pretty short. How long
15:51
should it be, if I may ask? A year round. In
15:55
the South, in South Carolina, there's something
15:56
you can hunt year round. And whether it's turkey,
16:00
rabbits, squirrel, quail, deer, hogs is year
16:04
round now. We have feral hogs, it's awful. You
16:08
can hunt them day and night. They tear up the
16:12
land. They dig and dig and dig and dig and uproot
16:14
all the fields. The farmers are devastated by
16:18
them right now. And they eat all the little creatures
16:22
too. So they're a nuisance right now. And so
16:27
you can go out and hunt. So they have the motivation
16:29
to hunt them down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. They're
16:32
just awful. Like the only thing that I think
16:36
can withstand them is fire ants. And so we have
16:38
fire ants, the big population of fire ants right
16:41
now in the south. The turkey population has gone
16:44
down because the fire ants and also quail naturally,
16:49
the fire ants are eating the eggs that are being
16:51
laid on the ground and the fire ants attack the
16:53
eggs and eat the eggs and kill the eggs. So there's
16:55
no chicks. Yeah. Yeah. It's the wild, wild west
16:58
here in the South Carolina. You know, when everybody
17:00
started moving here, we're like, do you know
17:02
about the snakes, the alligators and the fire
17:04
ants and the mosquitoes? At the risk of sounding
17:07
like a dumb guy who doesn't know anything about
17:09
basic science and nature, can you explain how
17:14
fire ants come about, like what's the difference
17:16
between them and what we could perceive as regular
17:19
ants, like how they have a negative effect on
17:22
nature and stuff. So fire ants, they're ground,
17:27
they live under, down in the ground. They burrow
17:30
down into the ground and build these crevices
17:33
under the ground. But then they also build up
17:35
these mounds. I mean, I've seen fire ant mounds
17:38
that are at least two feet tall. Wow. One ant,
17:42
just one ant bite on your foot will cause misery
17:45
for three days. One. But don't step on a fire
17:49
ant mound. You will take all of your clothes
17:52
off and rub them all off. It's miserable. When
17:57
you say misery for three days, what do you mean?
17:59
Pain, pain. One ant bite, it'll bite typically
18:04
your foot if you've got flip flops on like I
18:06
do. bite your big toe and then your big toe will
18:10
be sore and then it'll put a little boil on it
18:13
and cause it red and pain and I mean it's miserable
18:16
and then it it gets a little head on it and it's
18:18
just it's a nightmare so DNR which is Department
18:24
of Natural Resources has you know it's it's an
18:27
issue for everybody fire ants and so you know
18:31
even in our property in our office here they'll
18:34
build up along where the concrete meets the grass
18:37
line and It'll be it'll overnight. You'll see
18:41
a fire ant mound six eight twelve inches high
18:45
and so you can go get fire ant bait from Lowe's
18:49
the Hardware store and sprinkle that but also
18:54
a natural remedy is old gasoline and that works
18:57
the best How old does the gasoline have to be?
19:00
I think maybe a year six months to a year. So
19:04
in a gas can that you haven't used forever. It's
19:07
perfect for fire ant remedy. So why does old
19:12
gasoline work? What about it? I have no idea.
19:15
I don't know what the chemical side of it is.
19:18
We've tried fire ant bait and it just disperses
19:21
them. And then they pop up another mound a week
19:23
later. But old gasoline does really well at getting
19:26
rid of fire ants. So yeah, so the fire ants,
19:30
then they... work in mobs and so they find an
19:34
egg in the wild and they surround it and just
19:40
demolish it and eat it and devastates anything
19:44
that has an egg population. So while turkeys,
19:47
egrets, birds, quail, you know, the bird population
19:52
decimates because of fire ants. Oh, my God. Yeah,
19:55
I was looking up online. According to Hilton
19:57
Head Exterminators, old gasoline kills fire ants
20:00
because it is a toxic liquid and releases heavy
20:03
fumes that suffocate and poison the insects on
20:06
contact. Oh, yeah, the fumes. So it's the fumes.
20:08
It's not actually. Yep. That's good. There you
20:11
go. Wow. Oh my goodness gracious. It's crazy.
20:14
I've never tasted quail before. Now I'm curious
20:17
and need to try your famous cooked quail. Oh
20:23
yeah? Yeah, I think it'll be quite something.
20:25
I have three delicious questions that I asked
20:27
my guests and this is a great transition because
20:30
I would assume that you would vouch for quail
20:32
being very delicious. Very delicious. First off,
20:35
what is a delicious meal that you've had lately?
20:39
You know we had and I'll go back to quail this
20:43
weekend we were at my dad's lake house and my
20:47
husband cooked fried quail breasts so they're
20:50
boneless breasts and he put it in a saute pan
20:53
with butter and grits we do stone ground grits
20:58
and it's pretty simple with scallions on top
21:02
and we had it for breakfast so fried quail breasts
21:05
and grits and scallions. Fantastic. It's kind
21:08
of like a little piccata nod. You could put drizzle,
21:11
squeeze some lemon on it too. It was amazing.
21:15
Yeah. Is quail common as something that you would
21:17
include for breakfast? Because I was thinking
21:19
of it as more of a lunch -dinner thing. It is.
21:21
But okay. Yeah. So back in the day, so quail
21:23
are hunted birds, right? So I have a lot of people
21:26
that come up to us at trade shows and around
21:28
town and wherever. And they're like, oh my God,
21:30
I remember going hunting with my granddad. And
21:33
we would pop off the breast. They'd go hunting
21:35
in the morning, early morning, and then they'd
21:38
come back and debone the birds and pop off the
21:40
breasts and then bread them and fry them and
21:42
put them over grits. For breakfast, it's quite
21:45
common in the South, and it's just more of a
21:47
tradition in the home than in a restaurant. But
21:52
in a restaurant, they bake them, fry them, saute
21:56
them, stuff them, and then put them as an entree
21:58
or as an appetizer. That is delicious. How about
22:03
a delicious pop culture obsession that you have
22:06
lately? Is there anything that you're watching
22:07
or listening to that you love so much that you
22:09
want to share? So we're watching two shows right
22:14
now. The Crown is one of them. Oh, I love that
22:17
show. Love it. I love that show. And it's not
22:20
only a storyline, but it's a history. And I think
22:22
I laughed at talking to my husband. I was like,
22:24
OK, we're getting old now because we're kind
22:26
of watching history shows. But I love it. I've
22:29
watched it probably three or four times, so he's
22:31
watching it for the first time now. And then
22:33
I'm just a sucker for Grey's Anatomy, you know?
22:37
I mean, it's classic. The Lioness is one that
22:41
we're watching as well. I don't know if anybody's
22:43
ever watched that, but it's a phenomenal show.
22:46
Tell me about it. I think... So the lioness is
22:49
it's kind of a FBI CIA and they groom these it's
22:54
a covert espionage kind of show and it's on its
22:58
third series now and it's getting really good
23:01
I mean the first two were amazing and I didn't
23:04
think that they could do it better, but they
23:05
sure have now so and it's it's a lioness is a
23:09
Female that they train under They're not even
23:13
CIA or FBI because they kind of have their own
23:16
like team but they go into, they have a job,
23:22
if you will, and like whether it's foreign country
23:24
or whatever, and they insert the lioness to whoever
23:28
the target is to befriend the target, and then
23:31
they go in and take the target out. And so I
23:36
love like FBI and CIA kind of movies, so it's
23:39
right up my line, but. It's so good right now,
23:42
so you gotta go watch it and let me know what
23:43
you think. If you like that kind of movie. Where
23:46
can I watch it? I think it's on Paramount. Okay,
23:49
I'll have to check it out. Paramount Plus. The
23:51
Lion Ass. Yeah, the Crown I watched quite some
23:55
time ago, and I agree. I think it's just a very
23:58
lovely, dramatic, historical story about Queen
24:02
Elizabeth and her rise. And given that... You
24:07
know royal family. It seems like they're always
24:08
on the news I mean do you have any takes on how
24:11
they are in the news currently with Harry and
24:13
Megan getting back to the UK and I think Harry
24:16
Charles, but maybe William should you know, it's
24:22
hard to be the spare, you know, and it's hard
24:25
to be royal and I think they should let bygones
24:30
be bygones I mean he you know has his own opinion
24:33
about what the royal life is hard and Diana was
24:37
killed for it. And, you know, I can't imagine
24:41
being in that family and being under the microscope
24:43
all the time and you're not able to be a person.
24:45
And he tried to be a person and, you know, things
24:48
happen when you're a person. And so, you know,
24:51
William, I think he just needs to forgive and
24:54
move on and get back to family. Yeah, I so so
24:58
I think we're on the same page. It seems like
25:00
it's more so. William, that is the one that's
25:04
affecting the relationship between him and Harry.
25:06
So I agree. I think that life is short. They're
25:09
brothers at the end of the day, and I would like
25:11
to see them patch things up as well. Um, uh,
25:15
so Grey's Anatomy, I used to watch like, I don't
25:19
know, maybe 10 or so years ago. And I know I
25:22
still have like one of the seasons on DVD. Uh,
25:25
but my wife, uh, she is all caught up. She's,
25:28
she's with it to this day and it's 20th something
25:31
season. Um, how far along are you in Grey's Anatomy?
25:35
I think I'm at season 11. Oh, wow. Okay. You
25:38
got a while to go still. Yeah. Yeah, and I haven't
25:41
seen the recent ones. I get to, you know, when
25:45
McDreamy dies, he just died, and I bawled. I
25:50
was watching it on the back porch the other night,
25:51
and I just wept. I mean, it's just such an emotional
25:54
show, and you laugh, you cry, and I just, you
25:59
know, being a farmer is stressful, and sometimes
26:02
you need a release, and so I can always go to
26:04
Grey's Anatomy to entertain me and cause me to
26:06
laugh and cry, and so... I think it's season
26:11
11. But once I get beyond, maybe I've probably
26:14
only watched till like season 12, and then I
26:17
just drop off at that point. You know, when he
26:20
dies, it changes. Yeah, for sure. You know, I
26:24
think the first 10 series are the... but I haven't
26:28
given the rest of them the chance, so maybe I
26:30
need to watch it. Yeah, you're not the only one.
26:32
I mean, I got, I think the last I watched was
26:35
when Meredith's sister Lexi got killed. Oh, the
26:39
airplane. Yeah, so that was a long time ago.
26:42
That was extreme. And it just, I don't know,
26:45
after a while, it just got a bit too... soapy
26:49
for me. That's exactly what I felt too, yeah.
26:52
Yeah, I like something like The Pit in terms
26:56
of my... Oh, see, I watched The Pit. That's great.
26:59
I watched season one. I think there's a certain
27:01
intensity and a laser focus on the work at the
27:06
hospital that I like about the pit more so than
27:08
Grey's Anatomy, where it's like, okay, yeah,
27:09
they'll feature the work, but it's gonna be Shonda
27:12
Rhimes branded in that you'll get romance, you'll
27:16
get eroticism, you'll get sexual tension, that
27:20
kind of thing. So we have friends that are doctors
27:23
and I'm like, okay, tell me the deets. Does y
27:25
'all have sex in the in the on call room all
27:29
the time? They're like, uh, well, you know, I
27:33
did marry my, uh, whatever. And I'm like, so
27:37
that's for real. Oh, wow. So it is sort of getting
27:40
busy while we're all trying to be healed. Yeah,
27:43
because I figure that with those long hours and
27:45
having to save patients' lives and them being
27:47
tired, who would have the energy to have sex
27:50
in a closet somewhere? They need releases as
27:53
well, I guess. They do. They do. They absolutely
27:56
do. I would hope that they have lunch breaks
27:59
to release that. Go wash your hands. Out of all
28:05
things to infect a patient, let's hope it's not
28:08
sex related stuff. I'm in the food business,
28:09
so washing your hands is imperative. Oh, yeah.
28:13
Medically, it should be as well. Absolutely.
28:17
You touched on a point about how it's stressful
28:20
to be a farmer and you have Grey's Anatomy as
28:24
a wonderful release. And I'm curious, because
28:26
I don't talk to too many farmers, how is it for
28:31
you? Because, I mean, obviously you have this
28:33
great reputation, but at the end of the day...
28:36
Thank you. I know that farming in 2026. Not easy.
28:42
It's not easy. Can you talk more about that if
28:44
you can? Yeah. So, you know, farming is, it's
28:49
agriculture, first of all. So you have weather
28:52
that's a situation. And in the South, we have
28:54
four seasons. Every season could put us out of
28:57
business overnight pretty quick. We have generators
29:02
on every... So I say that we're in the risk business.
29:05
we manage risk and change. And you don't want
29:08
change. You want it always to be the same. You
29:12
want happy, healthy birds. You want them comfortable.
29:15
You want them stress free. And with weather changes,
29:18
it could change overnight in a matter of like
29:21
15 minutes. And so we have generators on everything.
29:26
So our birds are raised in barns. So we talked
29:28
about how the fire ants will eat the eggs on
29:31
the ground. Well, our little birds are this far
29:34
off the ground. So there's a lot of predators,
29:36
hawks, owls, snakes, mice, fire ants, and they're
29:41
the lowest common denominator of the predators.
29:45
And so we have to protect them. So we raise them
29:47
in these huge barns when they have lots of, you
29:50
know, fresh air and freedom and they can fly
29:53
around and, and, but we require power to do that.
29:57
And so we have we have afternoon thunderstorms,
30:00
we have hurricanes, we have tornadoes, we have
30:03
ice storms, snow storms in the winter. And so
30:05
you have to protect them from all of those variables.
30:08
I mean, our birds love 85 degrees. And so you
30:13
know that they love it. So like, if you ever
30:16
come to town, I'll give you a tour and show you
30:18
around. When you walk up to a barn, it's like
30:22
an infant really. Quiet baby is a happy baby.
30:26
You know, if they're needing something, they're
30:28
gonna be noisy and let you know. And so when
30:31
you walk up to a barn, you want it to be quiet.
30:34
And then when you open up the door, they love
30:36
you and they come see you and they peck at your
30:38
feet and it's so special. But you have to protect
30:43
them. And so we're the stewards of their lives
30:46
and you want happy, healthy birds. And so...
30:50
any weather change is, even just on a day like
30:53
today, it's beautiful outside and maybe a high
30:56
wind pops up and it throws a branch on a power
31:00
line and it causes the power to go out. Well,
31:03
in 15 minutes, you know, things could change
31:06
drastically. And so we try to protect all of
31:09
our processes. So we own everything about the
31:13
whole farming. We own the birds, we own the barns,
31:16
we own the hatchery where the chicks are hatched
31:19
every Thursday. This is my favorite day. You
31:21
should come on a Thursday and you see all these
31:23
happy little fluffy baby chickies. And then they
31:27
go to the farms and then six weeks later they
31:30
come back to our processing plant where they
31:32
get harvested and we call it celebrated. And
31:35
then they go to restaurants and retailers across
31:39
the country. And so It's a 24 -7, 365 job. Like,
31:46
you're responsible for lives and animals' lives.
31:49
And we, you know, everybody calls me the boss,
31:52
but I said, I'm not. We're all in this together.
31:55
And everybody relies on everybody's doing their
31:58
roles. And we have 100 families that we're feeding.
32:01
We have 100 employees and 100 families that rely
32:04
on the paycheck from Manchester Farms. And the
32:08
responsibility of being the caregivers of these
32:10
birds. And so it's a lot. It's 24 -7. And, you
32:16
know, right now with this stupid war that's going
32:18
on, not to get political, but, you know, our
32:22
prices for just cardboard has gone up. When the
32:27
war started, it went up like 10%, 20%. This is
32:30
every week, 10%, 20%. It went up 58 % in one
32:35
week. And then the next... The next week, it
32:37
went up 100%. Oh my God. So it went up 200 %
32:41
in a matter of four weeks. And so, you know,
32:43
we hadn't taken a price increase in four years.
32:47
And we had to this time because we couldn't keep
32:50
covering it, you know. So it's stressful. You
32:54
know, global economics affects farming and temperatures.
32:59
And so, you know, we love what we do and we wouldn't
33:03
change it, but Some days, you're like, oh my
33:06
God, give me a big glass of wine. And Grey's
33:11
Anatomy. Exactly. Wine and Grey's Anatomy. That's
33:14
definitely a decompressor. So given the legacy
33:17
of the family business, I wonder, have you ever
33:21
had a moment where you just thought, I think
33:25
I'm going to quit? Well, I'm not a quitter, first
33:31
of all. It's not in my DNA to quit. But we have
33:36
had a bunch of companies approach us at times
33:38
during the pandemic. I would get 20 offers a
33:42
week to want to buy our company. And so it's
33:45
a niche business. It's a legacy business. It's
33:48
successful. I'm so grateful for it. And we, you
33:52
know, we just said we're we're still doing it.
33:55
And we have our children are 22 and 20. And our
33:59
daughter just started this week with us as Part
34:03
-time she lives in Wyoming, but she's helping
34:06
out with social media and so apparently I'm not
34:08
very good at it And so she thinks you can do
34:11
a better. So put your money where your mouth
34:13
is, right? You know, there may be a third generation
34:18
but there are days that you know are tougher
34:20
than others and not gonna lie and You think there's
34:24
some imports that are coming in that are you
34:26
know not at the same caliber of quality that
34:29
we are and FDA is busy and it's you know, it's
34:34
a challenge to try and do what's best and what's
34:36
right. And then they come in not at the same
34:39
caliber and often unwholesome, which is against
34:42
FDA. So there are days that you scratch your
34:45
head. Yeah. Yeah. You think a company buying
34:48
your farm would sort of like dilute the authentic
34:51
family brand? Is that where the hesitation comes
34:54
from? It would have to be the right company that
34:56
would come in. There's things that I want to
35:00
do in the future, but I don't know if I have
35:03
the bandwidth to do it. And it would be a company
35:07
that has the bandwidth and the resources already
35:09
in play that can take it to the next level. So
35:12
many people say to us all the time, what is Quail?
35:15
Just like you didn't know, there's so many people.
35:18
And a company with a great marketing team like
35:21
Rayo, the tomato sauce, right? Great product,
35:24
amazing product. You know, Campbell Soup came
35:28
in and bought them and I was like, why did they
35:30
buy it? But I think it was the genetics of the
35:31
tomatoes that they have in Italy. It would kind
35:34
of be that that kind of thing. And then, you
35:36
know, and Campbell Soup has a huge marketing
35:39
program and a brand recognition. Quail is so
35:42
good for you. And we are spreading the word,
35:45
but I'm just one person, you know, and thankfully
35:48
for folks like yourself to help us spread the
35:50
word. But I would probably consider a company
35:54
that has a bigger bandwidth than an R &D team
35:57
to help do things. There's product development
36:00
things that we want to do, but we don't have
36:02
the facilities to cook quail. We're ready to
36:05
cook. So we're raw. And I think cooked quail
36:09
is the next generation as well. Cooked eggs of
36:12
some sort and also cooked meats. So I won't say
36:16
no, but at this point, we're not searching for
36:19
anybody. and we continue to be polite and respectful
36:24
of those that keep asking, but we're going to
36:27
keep plugging away at it. Okay, so you're running
36:32
a trade business. You know that the phone always
36:34
rings at the worst possible time. Why? The solution
36:39
you are office staff. Your office staff is an
36:42
AI receptionist that answers for you day and
36:45
night. It will talk to your customers, knows
36:48
your services and prices. It'll check your calendar
36:51
and even books estimates near jobs. You already
36:54
have that day. The details will all be texted
36:58
to you. You don't have to worry about it. Your
37:00
office staff takes care of the texts, the emails.
37:03
It's only 99 bucks a month. Even better if you
37:06
try it out your first month. is only $10. Go
37:10
to urofficestaff .com. Once again, that is urofficestaff
37:15
.com. What is a delicious thing that's happened
37:20
in your life lately? So we went to Charleston,
37:23
we talked about Charleston, that we don't go
37:25
often enough, and it's only less than two hours
37:28
depending on traffic. We had such an amazing
37:32
time in Charleston. We went because our daughter
37:35
was in town. She lives in Wyoming and she came
37:37
in for her college friends for a birthday party.
37:40
And so it was great. We took all 20 of them out
37:42
to dinner and ate a French restaurant. It was
37:46
fantastic. The food was great. But the night
37:48
before that, we went to a Michelin rated restaurant,
37:52
Chubby Fish. And the chef, he was, you know,
37:56
the server comes up and we're like, They're like,
37:58
do you know what you want? And they had Saul
37:59
on a chalkboard on the wall and we're like, y
38:01
'all are in charge. Just take us for a ride and
38:04
a journey. And they did, it was like 12, probably
38:07
12 courses. And the chef brought out, Chef James,
38:12
he brought out every dish except for about three
38:14
and just hung out at the table with us. And he
38:16
even brought dishes that the server didn't even
38:18
know what they were. He was like. Oh my God.
38:20
So after 12 courses, he brings out a hot ham
38:23
and cheese sandwich. And I was like, I can't
38:25
eat anymore, but I ate it. It was so good. It
38:28
was so good. So we started off with a caviar
38:33
slider, a little baby mini slider with caviar
38:36
on it. And it was, it was insane. And then we
38:38
finished with a little slider, a ham and cheese
38:40
slider that was like a triangle size and the
38:42
bread was amazing. And oh my gosh. And it was
38:45
just, the whole thing of it was delicious. And
38:48
I cannot wait to go back. And he doesn't take
38:51
reservations. So people get, pay people to sit
38:54
in a chair at two o 'clock in front of the restaurant.
38:57
And then they'll go jump in line at like five
38:59
o 'clock. And so, but the chef was so nice for
39:02
us. He was like, I'll save a table for you. So
39:04
just come in at eight. And so we did. And it
39:06
was, it was insanely good. It was so good. So.
39:11
People like myself think of a restaurant serving
39:14
a ham and cheese sandwich, whether hot or cold,
39:17
and they think, oh, ham and cheese sandwich.
39:18
That sounds like your average sandwich that you
39:20
make at home. So what is special about their
39:22
ham and cheese sandwich? What do they do to it?
39:25
It was the bread. The bread was so light and
39:29
fluffy. It was not dense at all. And it was buttered
39:33
perfectly and toasted. The bread was toasted.
39:35
And then the ham itself, you know, they have
39:37
shaved ham. at the grocery store, right? So it's
39:40
like really thin, kind of soft. And this ham
39:44
was so shaved and so soft and so warm, it just
39:49
melted. The whole, every bite melted in your
39:52
mouth. It just, you didn't need teeth. It just,
39:54
it was amazing. And oh my gosh, I can't wait
39:59
to go back again. But it was so good. And they
40:02
were just so generous to us. And if you get the
40:06
chance, go to Chubbyfish. Charleston. It's amazing.
40:10
And I take it when they were asking you like,
40:12
Oh, what do you want? And you were like, surprise
40:14
me. Um, is that related to the fact that you
40:17
make so many decisions, uh, you know, running
40:21
this farm that, uh, when you're on your downtime,
40:24
the last thing you want to do is make a decision
40:26
and you would just want to give that control
40:27
to somebody else. Absolutely. And I love to go
40:30
to a restaurant and tell the chef and the servers,
40:33
like you choose, you curate this night for us,
40:36
whatever you think is your best you know, meal
40:39
lineup, we're on board. You give us five courses
40:42
or 12 courses, we're going to eat them all. And
40:44
so and they love it. And so we do that often,
40:48
in fact, and, you know, especially in legendary
40:51
restaurants. And we're blessed and fortunate
40:54
that we get to because Quail are high end and
40:57
we get to go to some of the top restaurants around
40:59
the country. And you just oftentimes they'll
41:03
have to pull up a table. to put the other dishes
41:05
on the table if it's just, so I took my daughter
41:07
to California last year and we went to Darling,
41:10
Sean Brock's restaurant that he opened in West
41:11
Hollywood. And we, Matt and I, my husband, we
41:15
love to try everything on the menu. We might
41:18
not eat it all, we might eat like one or two
41:20
or three bites of it, but we want to try it all
41:22
because we don't get there often and so we want
41:24
to experience the menu. And so oftentimes they'll
41:27
bring up a table and put all the other dishes
41:29
on it, but then we also eat everything, so. Because
41:33
we don't want to be wasteful and it's just it's
41:35
a food journey that is something we love to do.
41:38
You gotta try it Yeah, chubby fish in Charleston,
41:41
South Carolina. That's that's something that
41:43
I definitely have to keep in mind And I was,
41:47
you know, it's great that you bring up the fact
41:48
that chefs love it when you give the control
41:51
of the menu to them. Because I always wondered,
41:55
oh, is it just much more easier and smooth for
41:58
them to have the customer make the decision?
42:01
But I would imagine that if a chef is... being
42:04
told, oh, surprise me that that's a certain burst
42:07
of creativity that maybe. Well, that's it. They're
42:10
they're food artists. Yeah. Right. So they're
42:13
they're all they're very artisan profiles and
42:16
personalities. And when you let them hold the
42:19
reins and the creativity, they they love it.
42:21
And so and then they get excited, you know, not
42:24
just this dish and that dish, but like, oh, my
42:26
gosh, it's almost like Top Chef, like the quick
42:29
fire on Top Chef. Yeah. You know, like you get,
42:32
you got 15 minutes and you got to produce this
42:34
dish and this line and course lineups. And so,
42:37
and they just, it energizes them. They have fun
42:39
and we have fun and it's, they knock it out of
42:42
the park usually. So like we went to restaurant
42:44
Danielle in New York and they've been buying
42:47
our quail for, well, since they've been open.
42:49
And we do the same thing. And you know, it's
42:52
whatever you want to feed us, we're happy to
42:54
eat. And it's just. blows your face off how good
42:57
it is. And they just get so excited about it.
43:00
And then we, you know, usually go in the back
43:02
of the kitchen and high five them at the end
43:04
of the night. And it's so much fun and take a
43:05
picture and farming is stressful, but it's also
43:08
a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. That's great.
43:11
Brittany, this was such an appropriately delicious
43:14
conversation. Thank you so much for getting me.
43:17
And for people that would like to get in touch,
43:21
follow you, keep in touch with what you're up
43:24
to, can you give us everything, the socials,
43:26
the websites, et cetera? Yeah, so the socials
43:30
mostly are at Manchester Quail. We're on TikTok,
43:34
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. There's some videos
43:37
that we've done. And then our website is manchesterfarms
43:41
.com and we ship all over the country. You know,
43:45
we do great little gift packs for people that
43:47
are hard to buy for and you can send them a little
43:50
quail love gift pack. Some of our favorite products,
43:52
we do bacon wrapped quail, semi boneless quail,
43:55
bacon or boneless breast, and then eggs. And
43:58
then, you know, also just go to your grocery
44:01
store and ask for quail and quail eggs on the
44:03
shelf if it's not already there. You'll find
44:04
our quail in the frozen meat section. and then
44:07
the eggs will be in the egg category. Do yourself
44:10
a favor and eat three to five a day and do your
44:13
blood work now and go back and do your blood
44:14
work in 30 days and you'll call me and say, oh
44:17
my God, it's changed, it's better, it's so good.
44:20
And I'm like, yep, yep, just eat some coiled
44:22
eggs and you'll heal yourself. So yeah, it's
44:26
a fun business to be in and we're grateful and
44:28
I can't thank you enough for shining some light
44:30
on our farm and sharing our story. And doing
44:32
what you do, you know, you're doing good work.
44:35
So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
44:36
Thank you. Thank you. I'll definitely have to
44:37
make a visit to Columbia, South Carolina sometime.
44:40
That'll be come see us. That'll be that'll be
44:42
top of the bucket list. All right, Brittany,
44:45
we'll have to do this again. And for all. Yeah,
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of course. And for all listening and viewing
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out there until next time. Let's deliciousness
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