5 Foods You Can Grow and Your Baby Can Eat with @redleafranch Brian Brigantti

Brian Brigantti (1s):

I think Gardening teaches so many valuable lessons that other things just can't. Like it teaches responsibility. It teaches you like how to care for and nurture something and then reaping the reward of that.

Katie Ferraro (13s):

Hey there. I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietician, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby led weening here on the baby led weening Made Easy podcast I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weening. What if you could grow the food that your baby is learning how to eat even if you guys don't have a green thumb? And I definitely do not. My guest today, Brian Brigantti from Red Leaf Ranch is definitely convinced that you can and should be growing some of the super easy starter foods that your baby is learning how to eat.

Katie Ferraro (58s):

So Brian is a content creator. He is a gardener. He is like the most enthusiastic person about gardening that I've ever met in my life. He's really big on TikTok. If you guys are on TikTok, check him out at Red Ranch. He's also on Instagram, but I met Brian in person at a content creator's trip that we both went to in Vermont earlier this year. And I was just so inspired by his enthusiasm for gardening, for someone who like literally knew nothing about it. Just a very short period of time ago, like by the end of the trip, he convinced all of us that like, like all need to be doing more gardening. So I gave him my hundred FIRST FOODS list and I was like, Brian, can you come on the podcast? Just pick five of these Foods and tell us how easy it is to grow them. So that's what we're gonna do today.

Katie Ferraro (1m 39s):

Brian's gonna be walking us through carrots, bell peppers, asparagus, squash, and green beans. I hope you guys love this episode five, Foods You Can Grow and Your Baby. Can Eat with Brian Brigantti from Red Leaf Ranch.

Brian Brigantti (1m 54s):

Hi, thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Katie Ferraro (1m 57s):

Okay, I know this is not like usually your target audience, but my, the moms and few dads and grandparents listening are here because they wanna learn about ways that they can feed their baby safe, real wholesome food. So we are gonna talk about growing your own food that the whole family can enjoy. But before we get started, can you just tell us a little bit about your background, your story, I love your origin story and then how you kind of came to this line of work.

Brian Brigantti (2m 19s):

Yeah, of course. I was actually born and raised in Chicago. I lived in San Francisco, I lived in New York City. Like the city was really everything I've ever known in my life. And within New York City I was pursuing photography more specifically. And after growing up in the city, being in the city my whole life, the opportunity presented itself for me to move to the countryside or experienced the countryside. Cause my partner who I met in New York City, gross, amazing, stunning, gorgeous, luscious, carnivorous and tropical plants. And he was literally growing them in a makeshift greenhouse that he built in his backyard in Brooklyn. And when we were in Brooklyn more specifically, he decided to turn his passion into a business and it immediately exploded and he needed to find somewhere new to expand his greenhouses cuz there was only so much that little greenhouse in his backyard can do.

Brian Brigantti (3m 8s):

So he found property here in Tennessee. He moved on down and I decided to tag along. Cause honestly I was tired of city life. I was overwhelmed with how much we had to work given I didn't move here necessarily with the plan to like start gardening. I, I wanted to like move here just for the peace of mind and then travel back to New York to do my photography work and then come back and have that work-life balance. But then the pandemic happened and I wasn't able to travel anymore and I was just kind of stuck in the countryside. Not sure really what to do with myself, but I knew it was a really great opportunity to like pivot and learn something new. And my partner loves to garden. He literally was born in the forest.

Brian Brigantti (3m 48s):

He was meant to work with the earth, but I had never attempted it at all in my life. Now he focuses more on like perennials and landscaping and growing beautiful, beautiful landscapes. But he never really focused on food. So with the pandemic and with how uncertain like our food situation was gonna be in the next few months, I thought it'd be a great time for me to learn how to grow my own food. And oh my gosh, the moment I planted something I never looked back. I felt so deeply in love with gardening and here I am like three years later, gardening is my full-time job creating content on the internet and inspiring people how to do it. It's crazy how life has played out. I

Katie Ferraro (4m 26s):

Really feel, I feel like TikTok and the like the success stories that come out of the pandemic, so many people are like, okay, I was on my phone but I was also in my garden. And then I connected these two things like here I am on my garden, here I am putting that content on TikTok. And now you're like, I mean massive on these different platforms and getting to do your passion full-time. It's so inspiring. Did you immediately start posting your stuff on TikTok? Is that like, was that your primary platform from the beginning?

Brian Brigantti (4m 51s):

Oh like being a photographer, like my main platform was Instagram. So everything that I was doing within the first year of gardening, like I was sharing given I didn't like have a plan to like the intention wasn't to become what it is today. It's like I just wanna find like-minded people and share my adventure and like inspire others to do it too or see who else is doing it to get ideas. So I started sharing it on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. And I built a, a really nice little community there, but one of my friends reached out, I was like, Brian, your personality, like we just adore you. You have to get on TikTok, you have to get on TikTok. And I was like ugh, I'm already juggling three social medias. How am I supposed to juggle another one? Like I was so overwhelmed at the thought of an entirely new media that is so deep as well cause like there's so many different ways to create on TikTok.

Brian Brigantti (5m 38s):

But about a year after all the gardening started, I finally caved and made me a TikTok and the first six months were kind of slow on it, but in 2021 is when things really started getting crazy like within that summertime, like from May to September. But it went from 1500 followers to 1.3 million within that short span of time.

Katie Ferraro (6m 3s):

Do you think that was like based on the seasons and people are more interested, like you were saying spring is really big for you but so then like those people are starting to I guess reap the benefits of all of their hard work in the garden and all the summer produces out. Like does your content kind of ebb and flow with that calendar year thing going

Brian Brigantti (6m 22s):

On? Which is really cool and I feel like I'm in a really unique space in being a content creator on TikTok within gardening.

Katie Ferraro (6m 27s):

Oh cause you get a break.

Brian Brigantti (6m 29s):

Get a break. Like it's wintertime, I'm taking, I'm taking my feet up and I'm resting because on top of all the hard work that comes with gardening, like the physical labor and now having to create content on top of that, by the time November hits I'm exhausted and I'm so ready for the break.

Katie Ferraro (6m 45s):

So I've been wanting to ask you what is the basic difference between summer and winter produce? Summer gardening, winter gardening, again I, I am a person who knows absolutely nothing about gardening. You have inspired me to restart. I've starting and stopped and killed every sort of produce and people are like, you can't even grow tomatoes in California. Like, what's wrong with you? I don't know anything about gardening and it feels very overwhelming to me. Does it matter what part of the country you live in? Like we're recording this at the end, the dead of winter basically. Are you growing anything or are you like totally on a break? How does it work with the seasons?

Brian Brigantti (7m 16s):

Well in wintertime the only thing I can grow here is garlic. So I have tons of garlic in the garden. It's amazing. But when we talk about summer and winter crops, what we're really talking about, there isn't necessarily the season but the temperature that these plants like so summer crops like really, really hot. They don't like to go below like 50 degrees winter, spring and fall crops, they get much cooler. They don't like to go above like the eighties or or really above the nineties. They get stressed in that kind of heat. So really no matter where you are in the country, you are able to grow things. It's just depending on whether you wanna grow a hot crop or a cool crop. Now the further north you get the colder it is going to be and the shorter your summer season is you are able to grow hot crops but you have to grow within that small timeframe.

Brian Brigantti (8m 6s):

Sometimes if you're like, if you have a really short season you won't be able to but you have the luxury of growing a lot of cool crops. You know, it really just depends on on what you want to grow and you can adapt your space to grow certain things. For example, if you are in a cooler climate, I don know there's people that have like cold tunnels or even greenhouses where they have much more controlled or regulated situations and they can grow hot crops in like the middle of winter and in really hot climates, I know people who build shade houses to create a cooler environment to cold grow cool crops So, it's really just about understanding what a certain plant likes and being able to modify your setting to give back

Katie Ferraro (8m 43s):

To them. I love the idea of modifying your setting. It makes me think of, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal after college and I lived there for two and a half years and I lived in kinda the mid hills region adjacent to Darjeeling So, that tea growing region quite cold but not like Himalayas freezing, freezing. And I always thought it was so fascinating during the monsoon season, which was October and November, they right prior to that So it, it rains for two months straight and you can't grow anything. It it's just a deluge everywhere. But they would grow the gourds like pumpkin was a big one and lots of different squash and they would actually put them grow on the roofs. So they had tinned roofs and they would have the whole gardening system set up where they could actually grow the pumpkins on their roof because everything was getting destroyed on the ground and then they would store them in cool, you know like not sellers but above ground addicts basically.

Katie Ferraro (9m 29s):

And you could keep like a gourd for inordinately long time. I'm like why do pumpkins go rotten in like a day here? But like obviously they're not carving them. But I thought it was so interesting how they were adapting to their environment in order to have to some degree a variety of fruits and vegetables. So, it was crazy. You'd walk around the village and just see everyone growing pumpkins and squash on their roof. It was so neat.

Brian Brigantti (9m 46s):

That's so cool. Yeah, it's again, it's really about understanding the plant that you want to grow and putting them in a space where they will thrive. It doesn't really matter where you are, it's just adapting and if, if there's anyone we can learn how to adapt from its plants. Plants are the most resilient and most adaptable creatures on the planet. Like they've been here for millions and millions and millions and million, billions of years and

Katie Ferraro (10m 8s):

They're, and they're gonna be here long after us I hope.

Brian Brigantti (10m 11s):

Yeah, they're designed to like survive outside conditions. Meanwhile we're here like building houses, living in caves cause like oh no it's snowing. Like we can't do it. Like plants are very resilient.

Katie Ferraro (10m 20s):

Okay. I just am so fascinated by your story because I mean if you can go from living like as a city boy with absolutely no experience in gardening relocating, totally getting into this whole gardening culture. I'm not saying anyone can do it but it's very inspiring to be like well I don't really have an excuse not to try it. So before we get into talking about the particulars, some of the different vegetables that are easy to grow at home that parents might consider doing, just as someone who has made this transition and this like life change fairly recently, Brian, what do you think are the benefits of growing your own food? Like why would anyone want to do this or what are the benefits you've experienced since you've adopted this lifestyle?

Brian Brigantti (10m 55s):

One of the immediate things that I realized when starting to grow my own food was I actually had no idea what food looked like when it was growing. Like growing up in the city, I would just go to a grocery store, get my tomatoes, get a melon, get my kale, get some broccoli. And I had no idea how any of that food was actually growing. So when I started growing my own food I realized like oh my gosh, like broccoli is actually a massive plant. Tomatoes are huge. Like just having that understanding of what that food actually looks like, how it's grown, I grew a much deeper appreciation for that food. And then like through the actual practices of gardening, like I realized how important it is that we are in control of what we consume, of what we grow and growing it yourself allows you to get food that's much more nutritious.

Brian Brigantti (11m 43s):

And you are absolutely certain that there weren't any toxic chemicals used in the process as well. Like you know when you harvest something, the moment you snip something off the vine, it immediately starts to lose nutritional value. And when things are mass produced and like sent to a supermarket, like you have no idea how long it's been from point A to point at this point point C or D cuz there's like a lot of little in between places that think that produce needs to stop at before it gets to the grocery store. So by then you don't even know how nutritious the food is. So growing it yourself, you know you're getting very nutritious, high quality food and if you follow organic and unnatural practices, you know it's safe as well. Like you're not consuming any like toxic chemicals or anything like that and extra layer on top of all of that.

Brian Brigantti (12m 27s):

You are so much more connected to the natural setting around you. And that in itself just being that much more connected to mother nature is is so worth it to

Katie Ferraro (12m 35s):

Me. What about the cost? Is it expensive to start gardening? Do you end up saving money? I mean I have seven kids, my grocery bill is insane and I think they don't even eat that much but like oh my gosh, groceries are so incredibly expensive right now because of what's happening in our economy. I can imagine a lot of people are interested in home gardening because of the potential to save money. Is that correct?

Brian Brigantti (12m 55s):

Well think about why groceries are expensive. You know we're, we're outsourcing so much of our produce and inflation is just like throwing everything off the rails like it's so much more expensive for gas so of course it's gonna cost more to transport certain things. Not to mention the carbon emissions from that. It's so much more expensive to get resources and supplies for farmers to grow these things. Like if you are growing everything in your backyard, it really is dependent on how, how you want your garden to look. There are definitely cost effective ways to start a garden like just making a plot right in the ground. But if you wanna get fancy and like build raised beds and do something a lot more organized and more structured, of course that's gonna be more expensive but you don't have to do it that way. There's this beautiful method of gardening called the no-till gardening method where you literally just like throw cardboard.

Brian Brigantti (13m 38s):

I mean this is a very like simple version of it. You just throw cardboard on a plot on the area that you want to grow and throw soil on top of that, let it marinate for like two to three months and you are ready to start growing things immediately into that space. I'd say the most expensive like getting started costs would be getting the soil or getting mulch, you know getting, getting the amendments that you need for your soil. But once you actually have your garden started, it will not cost that much to upkeep a garden ever again. Like the initial cost is the start of cost. But after that you're just gonna keep saying reward and reward and reward. Hey,

Katie Ferraro (14m 13s):

We're gonna take a quick break but I'll be right.

Katie Ferraro (15m 36s):

So my audience is very well versed in the benefits of offering a baby's a diverse array of food. So I teach this five step feeding framework where we introduce babies to five new Foods a week. So one new fruit on Monday. We do a new vegetable on Tuesday, a starchy food on Wednesday, a protein food on Thursday, and then an allergenic food every Friday. So this whole five step feeding framework, it's the backbone of my HUNDRED FIRST FOODS PROGRAM where we help families safely introduce their babies to a hundred foods before turning one. So I, in preparation for this interview you guys, I gave Brian a copy of the HUNDRED FIRST FOODS list and then he picked out five foods that he thought parents could most easily grow at home. So Brian, if it's okay, I'd like to go through the five that you chose, which are carrots, bell peppers, asparagus, squash, like zucchini and then green beam. So could we kind of run down your list with suggestions and recommendations for each of these?

Katie Ferraro (16m 19s):

don don't wanna give it all away. Brian does have an amazing online beginner's gardening guide. I'm gonna tell you guys all about that too, but maybe you could just like kind of wet our appetite for those of those parents who are interested in doing this. But like where do I start? What would you say for carrots

Brian Brigantti (16m 34s):

Of course. Well I generated this list based off of like what I found easiest to grow in my space and like what yielded a lot. Like I had so much of all of these things I didn't even know what to do with it all carrots are super simple. I would say it is a cooler growing crop. So like spring and fall would be the it ideal time to grow carrots. And they're so easy to grow. You literally just make little trenches in your soil. Make sure with with growing any of these plants, you always wanna make sure you have really rich loose soil. So get yourself some good garden soil, fill it up with some compost or warm castings or warm poop. Warm poop is like black gold. It's like the most nutritious thing on the planet for your plant.

Brian Brigantti (17m 16s):

So, it would always recommend getting warm castings, but make sure you have some nice loose deep soil. Sprinkle your gar your carrot seeds in a little trench or make a few trenches and cover it up. Water them and just watch them grow. Now carrot seeds are very, very little so don't be so hard on yourself if you like can't space them out accordingly. Literally I just grab my seats and I just sprinkle them no matter how they fall, it can really fill up a little, a little trench. And as it starts to grow, all you have to do is thin them out as they're growing So that the more mature carrots have at least two to three inches in between them. And then with that your carrots will literally just continue to grow until you pluck them.

Katie Ferraro (17m 55s):

Ok. but there

Brian Brigantti (17m 56s):

Like soil is really

Katie Ferraro (17m 57s):

So easy to you. But I'm like every time I try to grow carrots I didn't know about thinning it out. So I think they all just bump into each other and end up with these like tiny little nubbins that are like more pathetic looking than like, than like baby carrots and like don don't even know the basics. Like I know it's easy to you but I think like even carrots can be challenging.

Brian Brigantti (18m 13s):

I mean I only learned this through experience the first year I grew carrots I did not do them and I had all these like little funny looking carrots and I noticed like some of them like sort of growing into one another on top of each other. It's really just like giving yourself the experience, allowing yourself to make those mistakes and learning from that. Now that I've grown carrots once, it's so easy for me to to know what to give carrots now So that they can grow their to their fullest potential. And something else is really cool about carrots here in the fall, if I forget to harvest my carrots, they will literally grow through the winter because it's like a root veggie, it'll just like grow underground. And as I'm getting my beds ready in the spring, I'm like digging through some beds and I'm like oh my gosh a carrot. Oh my god, a carrot. I just be, I'm just finding carrots.

Katie Ferraro (18m 54s):

It's the gift that keeps it on giving. I love it. Okay, what about bell peppers? Brian?

Brian Brigantti (18m 58s):

Oh my gosh, bell peppers, peppers in general are just like really, really productive givers. Like they will give you so many peppers. Peppers need quite a bit of room. I'd say like give them like a good like two to three feet of wiggle room around them cuz they can bush out or get really tall. But again, give them a really nice like rich loose soil to grow and they like it. Really hot peppers are hot growers so they are a summertime crop. So make sure you don't plant in times when it gets like below 50 degrees. They'll definitely grow slow if it's that cool, they like it super hot. So warm weather is definitely ideal for peppers. And something that I guess isn't really spoken on when I started learning how to garden is feeding your plants.

Brian Brigantti (19m 41s):

Like throughout the season, once your plant actually starts to grow and producing fruit, it has taken energy and nutrients to grow those fruits. And once it produces those fruit, it has expanded that energy, it has expended those nutrients. So throughout the season continuously feed your plants like maybe every three to four weeks, throw in some fertilizer like you can literally get granules that you can sprinkle on top or there's water soluble fertilizers that you can use to water in to the roots. Just continuously feed your plants. But even then, like if you have a really nice little bed setup with some rich soil, nice loose rich soil, if you plant a pepper in there, it's gonna give you so much for a while before it needs to be fed. Yeah, peppers are just really easy.

Brian Brigantti (20m 22s):

They're

Katie Ferraro (20m 22s):

All right. How about asparagus?

Brian Brigantti (20m 25s):

Ooh, asparagus is a really cool one. Within gardening there are plants called annuals, And. there are plants called perennials. Asparagus is really cool cause it's a perennial, meaning you plant it once and it'll live for years. It'll just keep going and going and going and going. Versus annuals, like for example here because we get that wintertime, peppers are considered an annual for me because they will die in the winter and I have to resell them in the spring. But asparagus, I plant it once here, make sure asparagus has a lot of room because they will every year it will get bigger and bigger and it will take up more and more room. But what's really cool about asparagus, it will live continuously for years and years and years and you do want to harvest them as soon as the shoots start coming up from the ground.

Brian Brigantti (21m 7s):

But yeah, asparagus is really easy and it'll just keep producing, it'll keep producing I think especially if you want like

Katie Ferraro (21m 13s):

Have, have you seen like those time lapse videos of asparagus growing? Like apparently it grows really super fast even when you're not watching a time lapse video. Is that true?

Brian Brigantti (21m 20s):

Yeah, they grow really quickly. Like I'd say like once they start sending out shoots, like you wanna harvest it within like the first week. Cuz there's also a point what we're essentially eating when we're eating asparagus is like the flower stock. So the taller it gets the more mature the flower stock gets and it starts shooting out its flowers. So you wanna get it when it's really young and it also won't be a fibrous, you know? So yeah harvest it young but again we'll keep producing for you and every year it'll give you more and more and more cause it will keep growing.

Katie Ferraro (21m 48s):

I have a question about asparagus. I always was under the impression that the thinner skinnier stalks were more tender and like the big fat ones were not cuz they're fibrous but someone told me I was wrong and you can actually have like super tender, bigger asparagus. Is that true?

Brian Brigantti (21m 60s):

Yeah, I, I wouldn't necessarily say it's because of the sun. I think it's more so like the age of the asparagus. Like the older the asparagus gets, the more mature the asparagus gets like into that flowering sage. The more the more fibrous it's gonna be. But the younger it can, A young asparagus dog can be thick, it can be skinny, just harvest it young.

Katie Ferraro (22m 22s):

Okay, now squash is one of like our favorite foods to do for baby led Weaning. It's so easy. Parents are like, don don't eat a lot of vegetables. I'm like, you can make squash safer babies to eat very easily. What about growing squash? Hard, easy. What are your thoughts?

Brian Brigantti (22m 33s):

I think squash is probably the easiest thing to grow. Literally again, get your nice little plot ready, some really rich loose lowy soil, get a really nice plot ready. All you have to do is plant the seed and like mid-spring or when temperatures are above like consistently above 50 degrees and all you have water it and all you have to do is watch that baby grow.

Katie Ferraro (22m 56s):

Where do you get your seats from or where do you recommend people do if they've like, like I just go to Home Depot, is that right or are you supposed to get 'em from somewhere else?

Brian Brigantti (23m 3s):

Right or or wrong way? There's, there's a lot of places you can get seats. Sometimes I source from local garden centers. Sometimes I go to Home Depot or Lowe's. If I want something really specific I I go online. Something that's really beautiful about gardening though is the, the communal aspect of it. There are a lot of like Facebook groups, Instagram groups, communities on TikTok and people will literally just share seeds with one another. And I think that's one of the greatest things that you can give to someone cuz it's future food, you know? And one seed can produce so much like with squash you plant one seed and you can get like 15 to 20 fruit off of one plant like and then squash grows so fast plants it a thing with squash. There's also this thing like when you start seeds indoors or you get like little stars and then you plant like a baby plant squash isn't one of those plants that I'd recommend doing that with.

Brian Brigantti (23m 52s):

Like you wanna plant the seed directly cause their roots are very fragile, very sensitive. So imagine like when you take it out of a pot and put it into soil, that little bit of friction there can really stress out a plant. Squash does not like that at all whatsoever. Same with beans, corn, carrots always direct. So sunflowers, things like that.

Katie Ferraro (24m 12s):

It's so funny cuz those vegetables are thought to be so hardy, right? Like zucchini, the different squash carrots you're like, oh yeah those are hardcore but they have very fragile roots. I love that You can't, you can't judge a vegetable bite. It's

Brian Brigantti (24m 23s):

What's happening underground is very different. They're very soft, they're very sensitive inside.

Katie Ferraro (24m 27s):

Love it. What about green beans Brian?

Brian Brigantti (24m 29s):

Oh green beans, green beans. Another one. Really easy to grow. I would recommend soaking any kind of bean before planting it because I just realized this recently through reading this book called Botany for Gardeners. But essentially a seed activates because it's kind of like a little sponge and it absorbs water and when it absorbs that water that's kind of what kick starts. It's growing phase. So if a certain plant doesn't have enough moisture during the seed stage, it won't sprout. So soaking that bean beforehand really makes sure it has all the moisture it needs to activate and to start sprouting So it's really beneficial for beans. Another one you want to direct. So now green beans like it warm as well.

Brian Brigantti (25m 10s):

Most beans like you're really hot and you have to be conscious of whether the bean that you plant, I mean we're talking about green beans, but beans can be either a bush plant or a vining plant. So a bush plant given the name, it will grow in a bush habit and it will just take up like a little chunk of room. But a vining bean will start climbing things. They want to latch onto things and grow upward. They like to grow vertically. So I recommend like trellising or even with bamboo sticks like around the, around the bean, give them something to latch onto So, it can grow vertically. They do their best when they grow like that. And beans are also special in the sense that they don't necessarily need the richest soil beans are really cool because they're actually nitrogen fixers of soil so they actually bring nutrients back into the earth.

Brian Brigantti (25m 55s):

So they're a really fun plant to actually like companion with other plants like with squash for example. Cause squashes need a lot of nutrients. So planting like bush beans around squashes allows you to bring nutrients back into the soil as the squashes feed feeding and growing. So beans are really cool

Katie Ferraro (26m 12s):

It sounds like. Okay a lot of work to get up and running, but then once you do, it's kind of like sit back and you know, watch your fruits, vegetables, etcetera grow. But like what sort of predators do you face maybe particularly where you are in Tennessee?

Brian Brigantti (26m 24s):

Oh this is a good question cuz they will vary from region to region. Here we get cabbage worn really bad, we get squash bug really bad. But I'm very, very, very adamant on never using any chemicals in my garden because it doesn't just affect the little predator that I'm going after. It'll actually affect the entire ecosystem above and below the soil. Like over time toxic chemicals as it rains will leach into the soil and it can have awful effects on your soil ecology. Not to mention it over time when that runs into groundwater, it goes into rivers and springs. It's like it's a ho mess. Don't use chemicals.

Katie Ferraro (26m 58s):

So what do you use to to combat cabbage worm and squash bug?

Brian Brigantti (27m 2s):

Well I'm just very present in my garden wine. I'm very like on top of a lot of my plants and I'm like handpicking things off. But it's very possible to create like little structures, like little tents for your cabbages. Cabbage worm goes after members of the Brassica family. So that's like cabbages, broccoli, kales, they're all related. They all have that kind of like thick Leaf that cabbage worms just love. So if you build like little tents or structures around them, it'll prohibit the the cabbage moth which is like those little white butterflies from landing and laying their eggs and wreaking havoc with squash bug. I have found it a little bit more challenging because some of them, some squash is vine, some bush.

Brian Brigantti (27m 42s):

So you really just have to kind of be present and aware of like where they are and like hand-pick them off or like hand-pick the eggs, you can see them. But another really strong tactic that I've used in the garden is companion planting and creating a biodiverse ecosystem within my garden. Like the more things that you plant, the more wildlife that's gonna attract So. that kind of creates a hierarchy within your garden. And if you attract something that, if you plant something that attracts a predatory insect that feeds on cabbage form or feeds on squash bug or other little insects like aphids, you know, you create kind of a hierarchy there and things kind of just take care of themselves. It gives you an excuse to plant more plants, which is always amazing but you take care of things the natural way.

Brian Brigantti (28m 24s):

I've never really had an outbreak of a pest. Like I do get quite a bit of squash bug and cabbage worm, but I still get a lot of abundance from the garden and things kind of play out on their own, which is really cool to see.

Katie Ferraro (28m 36s):

But, and you're in there every day as you point out so you see things probably before they become problematic. So I know I for 1:00 AM very inspired to kind of get back into the, the just growing sum of my own. Not, not anticipating that I can do it all and live completely off the land as like I'm just not inclined to do that. But I do think especially like my kids are of the age now where they can help and so having them see the food cuz you make such a good point, like I would argue that most Americans have no idea where their food comes from and it is an easy way to teach children more about okay, you know obviously lots of right you can teach science, you can teach math, you can teach reading all of this through gardening, but you can teach about nutrition and we also know there's research to show us that the more involved children are in the preparation of the Foods that the family eats, the more inclined they are to eat it.

Katie Ferraro (29m 21s):

So obviously we talk about food prepping with your kids and having letting your toddlers help you cook. But we can take it one step before that which is you can have them help plant maybe just some of these five or these five vegetables and they'll know so much more about where their food comes but also be so much more inclined to eat those Foods. I love this for, for parents Brian who are on the fence about adopting more home gardening, what can you say to convince them that this is something that they should do?

Brian Brigantti (29m 47s):

It's time to get off the fence, start a garden,

Katie Ferraro (29m 51s):

Get on TikTok and start watching Bright. Hey I meant to ask you what is the meaning behind Red Leaf Ranch the name of your account.

Brian Brigantti (29m 56s):

Funny enough, I mentioned previously that my partner owns a Carnivorous and tropical plant nursery. It's called Red Leaf exotics. So Red Leaf Ranch was just kind of a play of that like oh this is like the exotic parts of what we do here now this is the Ranch part so it's cool like as a whole it's Red Leaf but my part of it all is Red Leaf Ranch. But before getting into that, I do still wanna speak on why parents are on the fence.

Katie Ferraro (30m 22s):

Dude tell me I'm just lazy, I gotta be honest, lazy, here's my excuse. Lazy seems like a lot of work feels expensive to like ask my husband to build garden beds, buy all the soil and then I live in California, my water bill's already insane. Like the thought of watering something that I'm not, like the fact of adding more water to my water bill is a little frightening to me.

Brian Brigantti (30m 40s):

That's valid. That's valid. Whether are drought tolerant things that you can plant, like once a pepper plant starts going, it's actually one of the things that I water least in the garden, they do not need that much water. Compared to like I'd say squash would enjoy some quite a bit of water. Tomatoes not so much either. Like just plant things that are more drought resistant. But even on top of that, I think gardening teaches so many valuable lessons that other things just can't. Like it teaches responsibility, it teaches you like how to care for and nurture something and then reaping the reward of that and the amount of core memories that you'll probably be able to create when you are with your children in a garden is there's no other place you can create memories in that way.

Brian Brigantti (31m 23s):

And also going back to like teaching them like the the to appreciate their food. Like if you grow something they're gonna be a lot more inclined to eat it because they've worked so hard to grow that I, I really think gardening just teaches so many things that schools just can't teach and if you fail, if you mess up and and something doesn't work out in the garden, it teaches you to like persevere, keep going. There are just so many lessons. There are so many lessons that gardening can can teach you that are just not very easy to teach any other way. I'd say.

Katie Ferraro (31m 50s):

And I would also argue like that, especially with organic foods, they just taste better. Like a tomato that you buy a grocery store in California is 100% gonna taste like nothing. And a tomato that you grow in your own garden is gonna be amazing. So from my taste standpoint, we're teaching our children about flavors of Foods.

Brian Brigantti (32m 6s):

If anything gardening has kind of ruined me in the sense that I can't go to the grocery store and get food from there cuz it just doesn't taste the same. And plus there's something so exciting about gardening in the way that there're literally hundreds and hundreds of different varieties of every single fruit and veggie that, you know, like when we go to the grocery store we see like maybe five to six different varieties of tomatoes. but there are hundreds, there are purple ones, there are pink ones, there are orange ones, there are yellow ones, there are big ones, there are small ones, there are crispy ones, there are juicy ones like there are salt, many different kinds of tomatoes, peppers, melons. So just like inviting that kind of diversity into your, your food, it it's like, like yes it's diverse to like eat carrots, peppers, squash and green beans.

Brian Brigantti (32m 46s):

But it's even more diverse to have like a Japanese variety of carrots or like a Japanese melon or you know, different varieties of every single thing like that really just takes it to a whole new level. And every single one has a very different flavor profile and so many different ways that you can prepare it So, it just makes cooking that much more exciting and it just makes, it just makes food more exciting.

Katie Ferraro (33m 7s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break but I'll be right back.

Katie Ferraro (34m 17s):

I love your enthusiasm for it. First of all, I love how you're only 27 years old too and you just moved down. Do you think like gardening, I'm like, oh it's something people do when they're retired and have time to do it. And yet you've built this whole amazing community and I think you're really inspiring people of all ages to consider gardening more at home. I wanna know, like is your partner annoyed though cuz like you moved down there so like he could have more space for his plant business and then you like just like took over all of the land to grow all your food Or is he supportive of you I would assume too.

Brian Brigantti (34m 45s):

No, so supportive of it. He's everything. He's like blown away by like what I've been able to achieve here. If there's anything I I will say about myself, it's like no matter where I live, no matter what situation I'm in, I always try to make the most of it using what I have given. I, I haven't taken like over the entire land to do this. I have a little like 50 by 100 foot area that I garden in. If anything he's taken over the entire property and like he's gardening his hard out landscaping and creating these beautiful, beautiful scenes and of course like building the back part of the property for his nursery and he's self supportive of it and on top of it

Katie Ferraro (35m 19s):

And carnivorous, plants don't eat vegetables, right? So like your plants aren't threatened by his plants. You guys are living in harmony. I love it.

Brian Brigantti (35m 25s):

Yeah and it's really cool cause like, I mean he's very particular about his gardens. He does not let me plant anything in his gardens. He's like, don't even look at my garden So. It's nice that we have our own spaces to grow our own things and I mean I'm growing all all of this amazing food and I'm the one cooking it. Of course he loves that. He gets to taste it all.

Katie Ferraro (35m 44s):

Well Brian, tell us where can our audience go to learn more about you and your work and to get your Beginner's Gardening Guide because it's such a valuable resource for people who are gonna get off the fence and start growing more food for their whole family, including their baby.

Brian Brigantti (35m 55s):

Yes. Let me teach you please, it's so much fun. Well you can check me out on all my socials, all of them are at Red Leaf Ranch or you can check out our website https://www.redleafranch.com/. The guide is very visible on all of our socials and on our website. So please check us out there and if you have any like more in-depth questions, please don't hesitate to shoot me a message or email me too.

Katie Ferraro (36m 15s):

Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of your expertise and your talents with us. I am so excited for what's in store. I know you have some really exciting projects on the horizon, but can't say thank you enough for joining us. This has been a really special opportunity to chat with you

Brian Brigantti (36m 29s):

Thank you for having me. This was, this was amazing. This was awesome. Thank you.

Katie Ferraro (36m 33s):

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that interview with Brian Brigantti from Red Leaf Ranch. He's on Instagram and TikTok @RedLeafRanch. And also Brian has this amazing Red Leaf Ranch Beginner Garden guide. It's an online education experience with different levels of subscription. Depending upon what you need or you're interested in. I am gonna link up Brian Socials as well as his course in the show notes page, which you can find for this episode at https://blwpodcast.com/episodes/294. And I wanna say a special thank you to our network partners at AirWave Media. If you guys like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out some of the other podcasts from AirWave Media. We are on the internet at BLW podcast.com. And thank you guys so much for listening.

Katie Ferraro (37m 14s):

I'll see you next time.