Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine, Hey bestie is today on the bright Side.
Speaker 1: We're headed to the farm. Y'all Food Network star and
Speaker 1: cokebook author Molly Ye is here to talk family recipes,
Speaker 1: go to sweet Halloween treats, and she's answering all the
Speaker 1: questions you've wanted to know about life on a farm.
Speaker 1: It's Monday, October twenty First, I'm Simone Boyce.
Speaker 2: I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Speaker 2: Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to
Speaker 2: share women stories, to laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 1: On my Mind Monday is brought to you by missus
Speaker 1: Meyer's Clean Day, inspired by the goodness of the garden.
Speaker 3: Happy on my Mind Monday, Simon.
Speaker 4: Happy on my Mind Monday. What's on your mind this week?
Speaker 2: Danielle Okay, I was scrolling Instagram like I do every night,
Speaker 2: Don't tell my Mom, and I came across this post
Speaker 2: by Elvest, which is an account that I love and
Speaker 2: learn a lot from. It was started by Sally Krawchek,
Speaker 2: who's a businesswoman and an advocate for women's financial empowerment,
Speaker 2: and she co founded Elvest, which is basically a digital
Speaker 2: investment platform designed specifically for women to talk about money
Speaker 2: and to close the gender investment gap. So everything on
Speaker 2: this account is money related. Okay, this post was about
Speaker 2: micro retirement, which is essentially women rebranding their retirement era,
Speaker 2: so like taking many sabbaticals throughout their lives instead of
Speaker 2: waiting until traditional retirement age.
Speaker 3: And all the comments were, of course about money.
Speaker 4: Oh you know, I am all about this idea, are you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course I'm done with waiting as a philosophy,
Speaker 1: as a concept, as a life approach.
Speaker 4: I just don't want to wait anymore. Life is too short.
Speaker 1: I get these reminders all the time of just how
Speaker 1: precious and fragile and short life is. Yeah, why are
Speaker 1: we waiting till the end of our lives to do
Speaker 1: the things that we want to do?
Speaker 2: It's really interesting you say that, because I saw this
Speaker 2: post and then got interested and curious about this idea,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to see if this was a one
Speaker 2: off thing or if young women were really talking about
Speaker 2: this and considering it. And I came across this story
Speaker 2: in the Wall Street Journal that doubles down on the idea.
Speaker 2: So the article explored how workers are choosing to spread
Speaker 2: their retirement over the course of their careers rather than
Speaker 2: saving it all for one big break at the end.
Speaker 2: For example, one person interviewed quit her high powered job
Speaker 2: at thirty one years old and spent six months hiking
Speaker 2: the Pacific coast, and her reason was, I don't want
Speaker 2: to wait till I'm in my sixties. I won't have
Speaker 2: the same energy to physically tackle something so demanding.
Speaker 1: Okay, I do like the sound of this, but I
Speaker 1: also think that there's some financial risk involved, because there's
Speaker 1: a reason why we do save our money for the
Speaker 1: end of our lives. When we're not working, we're going
Speaker 1: to need that money. Did you find anyone talking about
Speaker 1: that aspect of this? Yeah, the comment section was a
Speaker 1: lot having to do with that. I think millennials in
Speaker 1: particular are part of this experience economy. Like if you
Speaker 1: ask millennials statistically, we feel as if the experience is
Speaker 1: worth the cost, or like that yolo you only live
Speaker 1: once phrase is like very big and millennial culture.
Speaker 3: But two things come to mind for me.
Speaker 2: One is I have a mentor who used to say
Speaker 2: to me, if you don't plant roots when you're young,
Speaker 2: you tip over when you're older. And it's hard to
Speaker 2: think about that because you want the experience, you want
Speaker 2: the bag, whatever it is. But if you don't plant
Speaker 2: those roots when you're young, you do tip over. You
Speaker 2: have to plan. On the other hand, I think my
Speaker 2: father is a very wise person, and I ask him
Speaker 2: a lot of questions about what he would do differently, regrets, etc.
Speaker 2: And he said to me the other day he had
Speaker 2: two regrets. One is he would have had a third kid.
Speaker 2: It's just me and my brother, which I thought was
Speaker 2: really interesting because my dad's not really a kid person,
Speaker 2: so I don't know how where that came from. But
Speaker 2: the second one is he's such a play and he
Speaker 2: said he thought later in life, I'll do this when
Speaker 2: I have more money, I'll do this when i'm retired.
Speaker 3: I'll do this.
Speaker 2: And he said he didn't have enough experiences or fun
Speaker 2: along the way. He waited too long. It's a really
Speaker 2: weird balancing act. I don't quite know the answer. It's
Speaker 2: a really great reflection that your dad shared. I definitely
Speaker 2: do not want to end up at the end of
Speaker 2: my life with that regret, the regret of not experiencing
Speaker 2: enough or not traveling enough. I do try to do
Speaker 2: it some now, but I honestly think I could lean
Speaker 2: into it even more, like.
Speaker 3: You would take more trips with your kids or alone.
Speaker 1: I don't think my kids are old enough to bring along.
Speaker 1: They're just they're really a handful at this stage. But
Speaker 1: I think that's going to change in short order. You know.
Speaker 1: I do think that is a real consideration, and there
Speaker 1: are real reasons, valid reasons why people can't travel all
Speaker 1: the time or experience things. There's work, there's responsibilities. If
Speaker 1: you're co parenting, that's something to consider as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all in all, I really like the sound of this.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of the fire trend that I saw
Speaker 1: people talking about a few years ago, which is financial
Speaker 1: independence retire early. I think that there is a way
Speaker 1: to satisfy both desires to be able to experience things
Speaker 1: in the now while also being prudent for your future.
Speaker 1: And I think the solution is passive investing. You know,
Speaker 1: like setting aside a certain amount of money from your
Speaker 1: paycheck and you do it automatically so you don't even
Speaker 1: see it go away from your account. And if you
Speaker 1: invest that in the right places, you can generate passive
Speaker 1: income that will set you up for success and retirement.
Speaker 2: I was also wondering like this This girl took a
Speaker 2: six month mini retirement, as she called it, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: maybe you could just take like.
Speaker 3: A two week break and still keep your job.
Speaker 1: That's a vacation, Danielle, have you ever? Have you ever
Speaker 1: heard of one?
Speaker 4: You don't really take them.
Speaker 2: You need to take them, I know, but I'm just thinking, like,
Speaker 2: maybe there's a way to do both.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It feels I have had, you know, like in what
Speaker 2: we do, we're not always fully employed on a day
Speaker 2: to day basis, and so I have had times where
Speaker 2: I've been more free and I just feel anxious. I
Speaker 2: don't know if I could like go hike Mount Kilimanjaro.
Speaker 4: Oh no, Danielle, this is no.
Speaker 1: You can't be anxious while you're on your sabbatical, on
Speaker 1: your many retirement.
Speaker 4: You gotta just be present.
Speaker 1: I think the solution is being present, because if you're anxious,
Speaker 1: that means you're thinking about either the past or the future.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess, I don't know. I still don't know
Speaker 3: how I feel about this.
Speaker 2: I'm actually really curious what the bright side besties feel.
Speaker 3: I wish we could do a poll.
Speaker 1: Well why not, I mean, we'd love to hear what
Speaker 1: you think, hit us up on Instagram at Hello Sunshine,
Speaker 1: and on TikTok at the bright Side Pod.
Speaker 4: One more thing I want to add.
Speaker 1: I've found that the best time to take extended breaks
Speaker 1: from life are whenever you're one chapter and starting a
Speaker 1: new one. So if you're coming to the end of
Speaker 1: a job contract, build in you a three month mini
Speaker 1: retirement so that you can really soak up life before
Speaker 1: you get involved in that next position.
Speaker 3: Yeah, transition phases are good. That's a good call.
Speaker 1: Well, our guest today knows a little something about stepping
Speaker 1: away from the hustle and bustle of daily life. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about The Food Network's Molly. Ye See, Molly always
Speaker 1: thought she'd be a classical percussionist. Her craft even took
Speaker 1: her all the way to Juilliard. But between the intense
Speaker 1: rehearsals and training there, she found her true love food
Speaker 1: blogging and recipe creation. And she also found her romantic
Speaker 1: love there too. Molly and her husband met in those
Speaker 1: famous halls at Juilliard, but instead of performing together, they
Speaker 1: found themselves embracing a very different life. They made the
Speaker 1: bold decision to leave the city behind and take over
Speaker 1: his family's beat farm in Northern Minnesota.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a beat farm.
Speaker 3: This is such a like, this is such a different path.
Speaker 3: So excited to hear this story.
Speaker 2: I feel like if this or me, it would be
Speaker 2: like an episode of the Simple Life. I'm so curious
Speaker 2: to see where Molly's journey took her.
Speaker 1: Well, doesn't it sound like a romantic comedy. I mean
Speaker 1: it practically just writes itself.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 1: She went on to become the host of the Food
Speaker 1: Network series Girl Meets Farm, which follows Molly as she
Speaker 1: embraces her life in the country and makes dishes inspired
Speaker 1: by her Chinese and Jewish heritage. And now Molly and
Speaker 1: her husband co own a cafe in East Grand Forks,
Speaker 1: Minnesota called Bernie's.
Speaker 4: Plus. She's also a New York Times best selling author.
Speaker 2: Wow, I can't wait to hear about all of this.
Speaker 2: And I'm bummed I missed this conversation, As you said, Simone,
Speaker 2: I was on a vacation. But I know it's going
Speaker 2: to be a treat no pun intended.
Speaker 1: After the break my conversation with Molly. Ye, welcome to
Speaker 1: the bright Side, Mollie.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Molly Gosh, what a.
Speaker 1: First for us. You're our first guest who lives on
Speaker 1: an actual farm. So this is a huge rail.
Speaker 4: Oh I'm honored.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is big, and we are really farm curious
Speaker 1: on this show. I think a lot of city dwellers are,
Speaker 1: so tell us everything. What does a typical day on
Speaker 1: your family's bet farm look like?
Speaker 5: I was once farm curious myself. I still am farm
Speaker 5: curious myself, because even after almost thirteen years of living here,
Speaker 5: I feel like I don't even know the tip of
Speaker 5: the iceberg because every day it's different, and my husband's
Speaker 5: job is dictated by the weather or the wheat markets
Speaker 5: or tractor breakdowns. How like the seeds are growing, which
Speaker 5: again it's all dependent on the weather.
Speaker 4: So it's just it's always changing.
Speaker 5: No two days are alike, and I have to make
Speaker 5: something that can sit for a while for dinner. So
Speaker 5: there's a lot of soups and a lot of just
Speaker 5: like rice that can stay in the rice cooker, because
Speaker 5: who really knows if he's going to be in in
Speaker 5: five minutes or if he's going to be in an hour,
Speaker 5: And am I going to have to give the kids
Speaker 5: snacks so that they don't totally starve by the time
Speaker 5: he gets in. We're in between wheat harvest and beat harvest,
Speaker 5: which is a little bit of a caulmb before the storm.
Speaker 5: Beat harvest goes for twenty four hours a day and
Speaker 5: it is basically the last big push before the snow falls.
Speaker 5: And it's really intense and can be very muddy and
Speaker 5: involves these just massive pieces of machinery that are bigger
Speaker 5: than any car you would ever see in a big city.
Speaker 5: They still look like transformers to me. When I was
Speaker 5: farm curious, I didn't imagine so much machinery and so
Speaker 5: much mud and so much checking the weather like an Ironically,
Speaker 5: as you're telling me about this lifestyle and your husband,
Speaker 5: I'm thinking he must be a really patient man.
Speaker 4: What are the qualities that a good farmer has to have?
Speaker 5: So much patience nimbleness, I mean the ability to kind
Speaker 5: of change what you're doing at the last moment, and
Speaker 5: that might mean canceling a family vacation in the middle
Speaker 5: of the summer because a bug has decided to eat
Speaker 5: your crops, or this summer there were a lot of
Speaker 5: groundhogs that all of a sudden Nick had to become
Speaker 5: an expert at getting rid of groundhogs because they were
Speaker 5: eating his beets. Yeah, it's ground talk.
Speaker 4: Control.
Speaker 5: It's learning about soil preservation so that the soil will
Speaker 5: be healthy for generations to come. It's knowing how to
Speaker 5: weld and fix a tractor, and being able to predict
Speaker 5: the weather. I mean, nobody is better at predicting the
Speaker 5: weather than Nick. Because I'll open up my silly little
Speaker 5: basic iPhone weather app and be like, oh, it looks
Speaker 5: like it might rain in three days, and Nick will
Speaker 5: be like, no, we're going to be getting measurable rain
Speaker 5: tomorrow night, actually, because look at this weather system on
Speaker 5: my fancy farmer radar app, and so we're probably not
Speaker 5: going to be able to do this thing in the field.
Speaker 5: Therefore we can maybe have a date night in four days.
Speaker 5: So it's just like putting all these pieces together. But
Speaker 5: it's yeah, it's being a weather man, it's being a
Speaker 5: business owner, it's being a mechanic. So many different things,
Speaker 5: and patients is definitely one of them.
Speaker 1: Okay, Molly, I feel like we have to rewind a
Speaker 1: bit because you live on a beat farm now. But
Speaker 1: this is such a surprise twist and you're happily ever after.
Speaker 1: I mean, you grew up in Chicago, you moved to
Speaker 1: New York to study percussion at Juilliard. Tell me what
Speaker 1: happened next.
Speaker 5: I fell in love with food when I moved to
Speaker 5: New York, like kind of discovered restaurants there, and food
Speaker 5: trucks were really big when I lived in New York.
Speaker 5: And Okay, so I played classical percussion, and percussion is
Speaker 5: everything that you hit to make music out of. There
Speaker 5: would be a lot of rehearsals where I would be
Speaker 5: waiting in the back of the orchestra for my one
Speaker 5: symbol note or my one big triangle moment, and so
Speaker 5: there was just a lot of waiting around and in
Speaker 5: that time I was I found that I just really
Speaker 5: wanted to plot where my next meal would be.
Speaker 4: So I would leave rehearsal and.
Speaker 5: Go downtown, go to go you know, food truck chasing,
Speaker 5: and try all these new things. And that was giving
Speaker 5: me so much creative fulfillment, and sometimes it was giving
Speaker 5: me more creative fulfillment than playing music was. So I
Speaker 5: kind of had to come to this realization of what
Speaker 5: is truly fulfilling me creatively and.
Speaker 4: Is it the food? Is the music?
Speaker 5: I didn't know when I graduated, And so when I graduated,
Speaker 5: I decided to stay in New York and pursue both
Speaker 5: and be a freelance musician and also take some little
Speaker 5: food writing gigs that I was starting to get.
Speaker 4: And around that time I started dating Nick.
Speaker 5: He was also a student at Juilliard, and at one
Speaker 5: point we both sort of realized that we really wanted
Speaker 5: to be back near our families in the Midwest, and
Speaker 5: he mentioned, Oh, my family has this farm in northern Minnesota,
Speaker 5: and I said, yes, let's go there. It is easy,
Speaker 5: yes for you, Yes, yes, it was why because at
Speaker 5: that point I was ready to be not living in
Speaker 5: a city anymore. I had moved out to Brooklyn, and
Speaker 5: I had this great, big, beautiful kitchen, big by New
Speaker 5: York standards. And when I started dating Nick too, like
Speaker 5: all these things came together where I just realized what
Speaker 5: a homebody I am and how much of a desire
Speaker 5: I had to be working on recipes in my blog
Speaker 5: and then stay inside on a Friday night with Nick
Speaker 5: and watch Netflix and order pizza. And you don't pay
Speaker 5: me your brand to stay in on a Friday watched
Speaker 5: Appolines and order pizza. So when we started talking about
Speaker 5: leaving the city, it felt like a relief because I
Speaker 5: could see that he wanted to be closer to his
Speaker 5: family and that the city didn't totally agree with who
Speaker 5: he is. And for me, as much as I love
Speaker 5: the city, it just kind of occurred to me that
Speaker 5: I'm ready for something quieter and a little bit more
Speaker 5: time to focus on the work that I really wanted
Speaker 5: to be doing.
Speaker 1: Then, so you're saying Brooklyn is a gateway drug to
Speaker 1: farms one hundred percent, right, that's the pipeline, the Brooklyn
Speaker 1: to farm pipeline.
Speaker 4: I mean usually it's like Brooklyn to Hudson Valley, right exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just hop the title of zip codes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, War States kept driving the minivan a little.
Speaker 4: Bit further west.
Speaker 1: Okay, can I be nosy about the Juilliard chapter for
Speaker 1: just a minute, because I wonder if our timing overlapped.
Speaker 1: I worked as a reporter on Fox five News in
Speaker 1: New York, and I actually did a lot of stories
Speaker 1: at Juilliard. I was a theater kid, my mom was
Speaker 1: an actor, and like from the outside looking in, I
Speaker 1: always had this fascination about Juilliard and I felt like
Speaker 1: whenever I went there, it was like pulling back the
Speaker 1: curtains at ODZ because it is the most prestigious performing
Speaker 1: arts school in the world. And you're laughing at me
Speaker 1: because you went there, so you probably don't have the
Speaker 1: same perspective on it.
Speaker 5: No, I love it at you because it's it's exactly
Speaker 5: that terrifying, Is it really?
Speaker 4: Yes? I mean it's I will say it's a lot.
Speaker 5: Of extremes because you have people who are just at
Speaker 5: the top of their game and they're all in and
Speaker 5: they they don't do anything else other than pole in
Speaker 5: the aircraft.
Speaker 1: And then you have those other people that work hard
Speaker 1: and also play hard.
Speaker 4: And I fell into that category.
Speaker 5: And then Nick was more of like the do nothing
Speaker 5: except trombone and don't even sleep and play trombone for
Speaker 5: twenty four hours.
Speaker 4: A day, like Whiplash, like that movie Whiplash. That's what it's.
Speaker 4: That's the mental image I have in my mind.
Speaker 5: So in with Blash, there are a couple of scenes
Speaker 5: where Miles Teller gets singled out for playing the wrong
Speaker 5: thing in you know, his band that he's playing with,
Speaker 5: and that is the most terrifying feeling.
Speaker 4: And I almost had to turn Whiplash off because.
Speaker 5: You do not want to be singled out in front
Speaker 5: of the orchestra for playing the wrong thing.
Speaker 4: That's terrifying. There were a lot of terrifying moments.
Speaker 5: There are a lot of creatively fulfilling, satisfying moments. And
Speaker 5: I also made some of my nearest and dearer's closest
Speaker 5: friends there. Yeah, but it was intense. If you didn't
Speaker 5: bring your a game one day, you really felt it.
Speaker 4: And so that taught me a lot of things that
Speaker 4: I use now.
Speaker 5: Teaching how to perform under pressure was just one of
Speaker 5: the biggest things that I could have learned there, And
Speaker 5: so that was that was huge. And just becoming comfortable
Speaker 5: with confronting your weaknesses, that was.
Speaker 1: Always fun, always fun, my favorite, the best.
Speaker 4: I recommend weakness training. We love it.
Speaker 1: Yes, you actually attended Juilliard with a truly elite class.
Speaker 1: Danielle Brooks, John Batis, Philip Asu, Hannah Nielman, who we
Speaker 1: all know as Ballerina farm Don't you think it's a
Speaker 1: little wild that you both ended up choosing the farm life?
Speaker 4: So wild?
Speaker 5: And I just I love her. I love her bacon.
Speaker 5: Their bacon is so good.
Speaker 4: Oh, I gotta try it. I haven't tried it yet.
Speaker 5: I mean, all those people that you just named are
Speaker 5: are so freaking sweet and so good at what they
Speaker 5: do you just have to love them, and so it
Speaker 5: is incredible to see them achieving these incredible things. Because Yeah,
Speaker 5: when Daniel Brooks was on Oranges, the New Black I
Speaker 5: Soccer character, and I was like, that is so authentic
Speaker 5: and that is.
Speaker 4: Who she is in real life.
Speaker 5: She is that good, ubly, wonderful human and just made
Speaker 5: me love for even more.
Speaker 1: Did you grapple at all with mourning the sunk costs
Speaker 1: of your music career, like investing so much time into
Speaker 1: being a classical percussionist only to make this hard pivot
Speaker 1: and walk away from it.
Speaker 5: No, Because I truly did feel like, and I still
Speaker 5: feel like this way, that the skills in the training
Speaker 5: that I did when I was a musician are completely
Speaker 5: transferable to cooking food, creating recipes and performing on camera
Speaker 5: cooking food for people.
Speaker 4: There are so.
Speaker 5: Many skills that I still use today that just yeah,
Speaker 5: I wouldn't have honed if I was in a musician.
Speaker 1: You are such a like emblematic success story when it
Speaker 1: comes to nonlinear careers.
Speaker 4: Thanks.
Speaker 1: I just think it's so cool that, like, you thought
Speaker 1: you were going to do this one thing and you
Speaker 1: end up becoming wildly successful at this other thing that
Speaker 1: takes you like so far away, both physically and just
Speaker 1: figuratively away from that initial dream.
Speaker 5: For me, it's all about the creativity and finding what
Speaker 5: is creatively satisfying.
Speaker 4: It's the same feeling that I get playing a.
Speaker 5: Piece of music that I'm really into, as I get
Speaker 5: from creating a cake recipe that I'm very proud of.
Speaker 5: It's not completely separate in my brain. It's that same
Speaker 5: sort of feeling that I'm trying to achieve. At the
Speaker 5: end of the day, if you fail, you still have
Speaker 5: hopefully and edible batchup cookies. Another thing, if you fail,
Speaker 5: you hit some wrong notes and you're.
Speaker 4: Like, what do I have to shell for this? And
Speaker 4: you're hungry. You hit the wrong notes and you're still hungry.
Speaker 4: That's the problem.
Speaker 1: So you and Nick, your boyfriend at the time, you
Speaker 1: both leave New York. You move back to his family's farm,
Speaker 1: where Nick is a fifth generation beat farmer. I have
Speaker 1: this idea of farm life being very demanding but also
Speaker 1: very tranquil.
Speaker 4: Is that true?
Speaker 1: Like, how do you think being on the farm changes
Speaker 1: your brain?
Speaker 5: You just hit it on the nose, really, because yes,
Speaker 5: because you go outside and you look around and you
Speaker 5: see land.
Speaker 4: To the end of the horizon. You see the huge sky.
Speaker 5: There is never any traffic where we live, and it's
Speaker 5: it is tranquil. But at the same time there's Nick
Speaker 5: trying to harvest his fields before the snow falls, and
Speaker 5: there is a time crunch for that. And so it
Speaker 5: is this interesting sort of paradox that happens on a
Speaker 5: daily basis. And if I ever say, oh, living out
Speaker 5: here is peaceful, Nick will correct me it's not. And
Speaker 5: but I think it just it. It's rejuvenating and it's
Speaker 5: energizing for me. It's not that way for a lot
Speaker 5: of people. And I know people who have moved to
Speaker 5: this area and it hasn't been a great fit.
Speaker 4: And that's okay.
Speaker 5: And for me, if I would have tried moving here
Speaker 5: even five ten years earlier, it could have been a
Speaker 5: very different story.
Speaker 4: But I was ready for this energy, shall we.
Speaker 5: Say, because it I look at this as my own
Speaker 5: practice room. Of course, in the city, it was a
Speaker 5: little four foot by four foot room that I would
Speaker 5: stand in all day and practice and xylophone. Here it's
Speaker 5: this big farm where I stand in all day and
Speaker 5: practice cake recipes. But if you want there to be
Speaker 5: no distractions, there are no distractions.
Speaker 1: We read that your husband promised you that this new
Speaker 1: life that he was bringing you into would be exactly
Speaker 1: like Gilmore Girls. Did it end up being true?
Speaker 5: Yep, Oh yeah, yeah, it's totally gilmirls.
Speaker 4: It's funny.
Speaker 5: I just was watching gil Mere Girls yesterday when I
Speaker 5: was making a plumcake.
Speaker 4: It's a lot colder than Gilmar Girls.
Speaker 5: There's a lot more snow, but this small town energy
Speaker 5: is certainly there.
Speaker 1: This life that you're living now. I kind of threw
Speaker 1: out that term farm curious as a joke, but I
Speaker 1: think there's something deeper behind it. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people are either farm curious or small town curious
Speaker 1: after the pandemic. You know, people who always thought they
Speaker 1: would live in big urban city centers. How has being
Speaker 1: part of the fabric of a small town changed you.
Speaker 5: It feels like you're always surrounded by family. Sometimes I
Speaker 5: literally am, because my husband's family is connected by blood
Speaker 5: to like half of this town.
Speaker 4: But there's always somebody that you know around.
Speaker 5: There's always somebody to the other day, I was lifting
Speaker 5: my two year old out of the grocery cart and
Speaker 5: getting her in the car and trying to get the
Speaker 5: cart back into the little trolley and this couple was
Speaker 5: walking by and they said, Oh, we'll take this cart
Speaker 5: for you, don't worry about it. And oh, by the way,
Speaker 5: our son went to school with your sister in law,
Speaker 5: and we're so and so. And those types of interactions
Speaker 5: happen all the time, where somebody's introducing themselves because they're
Speaker 5: somehow connected, and then they're also helping you out, and
Speaker 5: it makes you want to help other people out too.
Speaker 1: I think one of the reasons why your show has
Speaker 1: been so successful is because you have such a unique
Speaker 1: voice as the daughter of a Chinese father and a
Speaker 1: Jewish mom. If you could only communicate with a stranger,
Speaker 1: someone you were meeting for the first time using recipes,
Speaker 1: what's the one family recipe that you would show them
Speaker 1: that defined your childhood?
Speaker 5: Black sesame, bobka hmm, because black sesame is one of
Speaker 5: my favorite flavors, and that's something that's so nostalgic for
Speaker 5: me whenever we would go out for Chinese food, and
Speaker 5: it's such a huge dessert flavor in Chinese food. And
Speaker 5: then bobka, which is from my Jewish side, and.
Speaker 4: It comes together in a fun, swirly loaf.
Speaker 5: And I feel like black sesame was meant to be bobkaized.
Speaker 5: If that's a part, it's a mashup that really works
Speaker 5: on a flavor level, on a texture level, and it
Speaker 5: shows that part of me that is so near and dear,
Speaker 5: which is my heritage.
Speaker 1: Recipes are they're almost like these historical artifacts in a
Speaker 1: sense because there's such a story behind them. When I
Speaker 1: think of the recipe that defined my childhood, it's my
Speaker 1: mom's apple cobbler, And I just recently discovered that there
Speaker 1: was this whole story behind the apple cobbler recipe. And
Speaker 1: she went to her roommate's house in college and her
Speaker 1: mom made the cobbler for her, and she loved it
Speaker 1: so much that she demanded that she get the cobbler recipe,
Speaker 1: and she had to like fight tooth and nail because
Speaker 1: it was a trade secret.
Speaker 5: Is a recipe hand written on a milk card, it's handwritten.
Speaker 5: Recipes teams better.
Speaker 4: They do, You're right. Why is that is that? Because
Speaker 4: they've been perfected over the course of years, there's that
Speaker 4: lung in there.
Speaker 5: And I mean, I think if you're talking about the story,
Speaker 5: if your mom is telling you about what she had
Speaker 5: to do to get this cobbler recipe as your Heck, yeah,
Speaker 5: it's gonna taste better for.
Speaker 1: Sure because you know that there was some elbow grease
Speaker 1: that went into it. Yes, it's time for another quick break.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back, and we're back with Food Network
Speaker 1: star and cookbook author Molly Yay. So earlier you mentioned
Speaker 1: how the weather and the seasons are so integral to
Speaker 1: life on the farm in Minnesota, fall is here. The
Speaker 1: seasons are changing all around us. Are you a fall girly?
Speaker 5: One hundred million percent? I have been waiting for sweater weather.
Speaker 5: Sweaters and soups are my happy place.
Speaker 1: So take me into like the Minnesota food world during
Speaker 1: this time of year. What are some of your favorite
Speaker 1: food related traditions.
Speaker 5: We're in such a great season right now because tomatoes
Speaker 5: and zucchini and corn are kind of coming to it
Speaker 5: and so I'm getting sick of fresh tomatoes just at
Speaker 5: the right time. And my squash craving is starting to
Speaker 5: really grow and it can see my squash growing in
Speaker 5: the garden, so it's almost squash soup season.
Speaker 4: As soon as the weather cools down, we're going to
Speaker 4: be ready to roll.
Speaker 5: But for Minnesota, Minnesota can grow anything and everything. The
Speaker 5: only parameters that Minnesota really has is the short length
Speaker 5: of the growing season. There's such great soil, really great conditions.
Speaker 5: Mine is a pretty bad, sad garden. Everybody has a
Speaker 5: rhubarb patch, a lot of people have apple trees. So
Speaker 5: many things grow here, which I think kind of gets
Speaker 5: forgotten when you think of all the snow that also
Speaker 5: falls here. But this is one of the greatest times
Speaker 5: of the year because so many things are good and
Speaker 5: fresh and ready taste good when they come out of
Speaker 5: your garden. After this, it'll kind of go into root
Speaker 5: vegetable season because of the winter and hardy greens and pickles.
Speaker 4: There's a reason that pickles are so big here because you.
Speaker 5: Know, before tons of refrigeration and processed food and shipping
Speaker 5: in fresh vegetables, people got their nutrients through pickling their
Speaker 5: vegetables from the garden. So I really love leaning into
Speaker 5: the pickle scene here and getting in my kimchi and
Speaker 5: sauerkraut in the winter when so much it's so good.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I love eating with the season too, because
Speaker 5: they are so defined and things taste so much better.
Speaker 4: When you just feel, you feel better.
Speaker 5: It just feels correct to be craving squatched right now.
Speaker 4: Okay, we've got Thanksgiving coming up.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, Molly, but when I became
Speaker 1: a mom and I started the holidays, I felt completely
Speaker 1: overwhelmed and bamboozled. I was like, my mom did this
Speaker 1: every year, multiple times a year. Like, the amount of
Speaker 1: work and preparation that goes into it is mind blowing.
Speaker 1: So please, if you have any hacks that you can
Speaker 1: share to help your girl out, please let me know.
Speaker 5: Okay, hold on, I was just thinking about this amount.
Speaker 5: Do you know what I just realized just yesterday. Our
Speaker 5: moms they did it seemingly so easily when we were growing.
Speaker 4: Up holiday kids. They're three and four.
Speaker 5: Okay, so you don't remember your holidays from when you
Speaker 5: were three and four, right, You remember your holidays from
Speaker 5: probably when you were ten, eleven, twelve. So like, imagine
Speaker 5: how much more comfortable you're going to be hosting. Yeah,
Speaker 5: in five, six, seven, eight years, we remember the version
Speaker 5: of our moms after they had gotten ten years of
Speaker 5: experience hosting under their.
Speaker 4: Belt and past the toddler phase.
Speaker 5: Yes, because after the toddler phase, we won't have little
Speaker 5: kids hanging onto our knees, while we're trying to chop onions. Yeah,
Speaker 5: or like kids climbing up onto places high places where
Speaker 5: they shouldn't be and we have to drop everything that
Speaker 5: we're doing every five minutes to go and peel them
Speaker 5: off of the piano.
Speaker 4: One day, they're going to be so much more independent.
Speaker 5: They might be able to help us out in the kitchen,
Speaker 5: or they might be occupied with their other things.
Speaker 4: I think at this point, I'm all about lists.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm all about prepping stuff in advance, so I
Speaker 5: take full advantage of freezer space. Like I'm starting off
Speaker 5: three days in advance, just doing little bits here and there,
Speaker 5: and then knowing that they'll be fine in the refrigerator
Speaker 5: or the freezer until the big day.
Speaker 1: Molly, before we let you go, I have to ask
Speaker 1: you about this dream of yours that I've read about
Speaker 1: that you want to become a summer camp counselor at
Speaker 1: your summer camp. I too, am obsessed with summer camp.
Speaker 1: I had such a magical experience at summer camp. I
Speaker 1: just love everything about camp. Like I've thrown my kids
Speaker 1: camp themed birthday parties. My kids room is camp themed.
Speaker 1: I just I love it.
Speaker 4: I want to visit that's please so fun.
Speaker 5: Everything about it, except for the bucks, everything about it
Speaker 5: is the best.
Speaker 4: And so when my kids are old enough to.
Speaker 5: Go to summer camp, we've been actually preparing by watching
Speaker 5: The Parent Trap.
Speaker 4: Oh we just watched it. We just watched it the
Speaker 4: other day, Lindsay Lohan or oh Linda, of course. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's so good. But it's perfect a one hundred percent.
Speaker 5: It so holds up beautifully, And now that my girls
Speaker 5: are into it, I'm over the moon.
Speaker 4: So as soon as they're old enough for summer camp.
Speaker 5: I am applying to become any sort of counselor or
Speaker 5: teacher that they have room.
Speaker 4: This sounds great.
Speaker 1: You know. Another option is they do have family camps now,
Speaker 1: which this is something that I want to do where
Speaker 1: you can go as a family to a camp, like
Speaker 1: when they're not hosting a bunch of kids and you
Speaker 1: just get to like be with your family there and
Speaker 1: hop on the blob and go on the lake. I
Speaker 1: want to do that the blob. Yes, the plot. That's
Speaker 1: so fun, Mollie. This has been so much fun. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining us on the bride side.
Speaker 4: This is so much fun. Thank you so much. I'm honored.
Speaker 1: Mollie Ya is the host of the Food Networks Girl
Speaker 1: Meets Farm, a New York Times best selling author and
Speaker 1: the owner of Bernie's, a cafe in East Grand Forks, Minnesota.
Speaker 4: Her new book, Sweet Farm, is out next March.
Speaker 3: That's it for today's show.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow, we're talking all about Reese's Book Clubs Lit Up Program,
Speaker 2: a fellowship that uplifts and supports unpublished and underrepresented.
Speaker 3: Right now, we're joined by mentor Laura.
Speaker 2: Taylor Nami and mentee Chatham Greenfield to talk all about
Speaker 2: the program and its impact.
Speaker 1: Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side and connect
Speaker 1: with us on social media at Hello Sunshine on Instagram
Speaker 1: and at the bright Side Pod on TikTok oh, and
Speaker 1: feel free to tag us at Simone Boye and at
Speaker 1: Danielle Robe.
Speaker 2: Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: See you tomorrow, folks, Keep looking on the bright side.