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What can flower people learn from tree collectors?

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For Amy Stewart, whose 2007

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book flower

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confidential ignited the spark of the

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Movement.

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The tree world is filled with people who

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are as equally fascinating and inspiring

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as the flower world contains

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first Amy and I discuss her new book,

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it's 50 vi of remarkable people whose lives

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have been transformed by their passion for trees,

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as well as her approach to writing and

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illustrating humans and their beloved specimens.

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The thing I got from a lot of

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these collectors was this endless sense of learning

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and curiosity.

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You know, it's sort of boundless,

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and and and I think for a lot

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of flower farmers, there's this sense of seeking

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in the sense of maybe there's something else

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I can do. Maybe there's something else I

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can find. 1 of the collectors in the

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books said, I know 90 year old tree

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collectors. And honestly, I think that's I think

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that's why they're 90. Like, I think that's

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why they're still going.

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Hello again, and welcome back to the Slow

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flowers podcast with Deborah Printing. This is episode

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671.

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This is the weekly podcast about slow flowers

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and the people who grow and design with

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them. It's all about making a conscious choice,

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and I invite you to join the conversation,

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and the creative community as we discuss the

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vital topics of saving our domestic flow more

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farms and supporting a floral industry that relies

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on a safe, seasonal and local supply of

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flowers and foliage

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This show is brought to you by slow

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flowers dot com.

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The free online directory

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to more than 750

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d flo, shops and studios who design with

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local, seasonal, and sustainable flowers.

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And to the farms that grow those blooms,

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It's the conscious choice for buying and sending

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flowers.

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And thank you to the Gardener workshop, which

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offers a full curriculum of online education.

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For flower farmers and farmer flo.

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Online education is more important than ever, and

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you'll want to check out the course offerings

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at the Gardeners work workshop dot com.

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I'm thrilled today to share my recent conversation

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with Amy Stewart

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The New York Times best selling author of

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the tree collectors, the drunken bot, wicked plants,

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and several other popular non titles about the

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natural world,

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Amy is best known in the slow flowers

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community for writing flower

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confidential. The good the bad and the beautiful

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in the business of flower which first dropped

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into our lives in 2007.

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Amy wrote the forward to my 2012 book

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that launched S flowers movement, the 50 mob

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okay. And I'm honored to call her a

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dear friend. Amy has also written several novels

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in her beloved cop sister series, the which

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are based on the true story of 1

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of America's first female, deputy sheriff and her

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2 rem sisters.

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There's 7 books in the series and you'll

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want to read them all.

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Her books have sold over a million copies

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worldwide and have been translated into 18 languages.

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Amy lives in Portland Oregon with her husband

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Scott Brown, a rare book dealer who can

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usually be found at his shop downtown brown

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books.

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Today, you'll learn about the tree collectors, and

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Amy and I discussed connections between the tree

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community and the floral community.

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When she discovered the universe of tree collectors,

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Amy expected to meet h cultural fan driven,

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to plant every species of oak or maple.

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But she also discovered that the urge to

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collect trees springs from something deeper and more

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profound, a longing for community, a vision for

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the future or a path to healing and

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reconciliation

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In this slightly humorous informative, quite po at

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volume, Amy shares captivating stories of people who

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spend their lives in pursuit of rare and

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wonderful trees.

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And are transformed in the process.

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I'm delighted that Amy has populated her lively

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tree comp with her own hand drawn watercolor

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portraits

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of the extraordinary people and their trees inter

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with side trips to investigate famous tree collections,

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arbor burial gloss, and even tips for unauthorized

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forestry street. This book is a stunning tribute

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to a devoted group of nature lovers making

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their lives and the world, more beautiful, 1

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tree at a time

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Let's jump right in and get started and

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welcome Amy Stewart.

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Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Slow flower

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show with Debra Printing.

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I'm so thrilled today to welcome a return

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guest.

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Amy Stewart, Many of you recall that Amy

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spent a guess on this podcast before.

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She's also kind of the godmother of, the

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plural industry that we know

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as we know it in the sunflower flowers

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world because she's the author of flower

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confidential, hard to believe. So I'm gonna welcome,

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Amy to join us. We're going to talk

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about her new project.

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Hello, Amy.

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Hello.

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Good to see you. So good to see

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you. Thanks so much for doing this. I

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know some people might say, okay, Amy. You

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wrote a book

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called.

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The tree collectors. And

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what does I have to do with flowers.

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But, you know, I'm all about h topics,

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and I think that's our roots that inform

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everything you and I do and many of

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the, you know, practitioners in the sunflower flowers

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world. So

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There's a lot to learn here. There is.

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And and I should say there is a

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Camel camilla collector, and

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I actually just heard from the international Lilac

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society who's very excited about the... So, you

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know, trees and flowers, it does happen. And

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also, I'll just tell you, flower confidential is

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actually 2007.

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Not 17.

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Oh, I'll correct that. Yes. It's been a

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ridiculously long time. You know what? I had

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2017 in my mind because that's when we

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had the first slow flower summit. Yeah. When

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you... And I cooked up the whole idea

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of celebrating the 10 year anniversary of flower

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confidential. Right?

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Alright. No.

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I'm corrected. I said Time flies. Time flies

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is alright. But, you know, that... You... The

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staying power of flower confidential is consistently

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you know, referred to as kind of the

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pivot point, the turning point for people's awareness

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about

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what's going on behind behind all these flowers

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that we're consuming. You know, we we we

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kinda be politely just assume they were local.

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We blindly assumed they were grown down the

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street. Or in our own region, and you

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peel back the curtain

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and showed people a different story.

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And, you know, I'd never could have imagined

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that it would actually impact anyone's life. Like,

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I definitely...

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I didn't have that ambition. It was more...

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I saw it as more of sort of

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a g whiz kinda of booked like, oh,

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who new.

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And even when I started working on writing

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it, the environmental

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issues weren't

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forefront in my mind,

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but they grew. Like, as I was working

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on the book, but also culturally for all

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of us. We were starting to talk... It's

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weird to think that there was a time

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when we weren't talking about this stuff very

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much, but that was true in, like, 2003

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2004

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when I was just starting.

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But it really surprised me when people started

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coming out to me at vince and saying

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things like, I dropped out of college and

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rented an acre of land and now... I'm

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an organic flower farmer, and I'm like, oh,

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please don't tell your mother that I'm responsible

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for this. Like, I'm gonna get calls.

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My gosh. It's so true. And, you know,

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the reason that you didn't quite... You weren't,

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like, treating this as a...

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I don't know social engineering experiment experiment. You

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were just, like typical Amy curious,

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highly curious.

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About a topic and you took a deep

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dive.

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And, I guess, that's just how you operate

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as a as a writer. You you write

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to learn. Right? Sure. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I

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realized there's this thing that I don't know.

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And then III start thinking about all the

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things I don't know about it.

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And then, you know, at some point, like,

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often within the next few hours, I think,

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well someone's write a book about this. So

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I'm just gonna get this out from the

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library, and then I'll know, and then I

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find out no one's written a book about

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it, and then I'm off to the races.

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So that was certainly what flower confidential was

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all about. Like, I can't believe no one's

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written this book on it. Right. Right. Yeah.

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I mean, you've done this with all kinds

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of Flo and fauna in,

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the natural world.

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And now you've done it with trees.

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So

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we're gonna talk about the tree collectors.

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Amy, you have a little

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trailer that you recorded that I just... Pulled

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up from Youtube. I think I'm show it

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and That'll kind of... It's just a few

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minutes that'll give us an introduction, and then

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we'll dive into our conversation. So let's get

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that going here. Pulled Breakout. Tales of arbor

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burial

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obsession.

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I wrote and illustrated this book with portraits

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of the people and their trees.

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The idea for this book came to me

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about 10 years ago when I met a

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guy who told me that he collected trees.

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And I said, wow, trees are really kind

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of a weird thing to collect because, like,

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they're really big and hard to move. So

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I don't know. How does this even work?

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And he told me that he lines his

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trees up like books on a books shelf.

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And that his goal is to collect 1

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of every different kind of tree that grows

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in his climate,

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until he runs out of space, which, of

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course, he did because all tree collectors run

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out of space.

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So I met a few more tree collectors

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over the years and what really surprised me

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was that everybody had a really different story

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about what they collected and why

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and how they're lives had been transformed

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by their relationship with trees.

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I met people who plant trees to

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honor their loved ones,

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or to heal the wound to the past

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or build community

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or say a habitat

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or even to make an art project

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And you don't always need a lot of

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land to collect trees. Some of the people

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in this book collects pine cones or leaves

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or seeds

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or they graft 40 different fruits onto just

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1 tree or plant a tiny forest in

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an ordinary sized backyard.

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Some people are collectors in the sense that

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they're catalog

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rare or historic trees in their community.

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And you know, even this act of catalog

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00:10:29,808 --> 00:10:30,625
of noting

272
00:10:30,999 --> 00:10:32,372
is a form of collecting

273
00:10:32,746 --> 00:10:34,016
because it makes sure that they won't be

274
00:10:34,016 --> 00:10:34,810
lost or forgotten.

275
00:10:35,701 --> 00:10:38,805
I'm really honored to be able to pay

276
00:10:38,805 --> 00:10:40,260
tribute to these people

277
00:10:40,715 --> 00:10:43,842
and to the power that trees have in

278
00:10:44,138 --> 00:10:45,109
all of our lives.

279
00:10:45,827 --> 00:10:48,961
I thought these were really moving and inspiring

280
00:10:49,339 --> 00:10:49,839
stories

281
00:10:50,456 --> 00:10:52,611
that made me look at trees in a

282
00:10:52,611 --> 00:10:54,945
new way and I hope they'll do the

283
00:10:54,945 --> 00:10:56,384
same for you. Thank you.

284
00:10:57,745 --> 00:10:59,825
Okay. That was a great introduction.

285
00:11:00,879 --> 00:11:01,997
Amy, that was really fun.

286
00:11:02,876 --> 00:11:04,953
I... What I'd love the most is that

287
00:11:04,953 --> 00:11:06,391
picture of you at the bottom of a

288
00:11:06,391 --> 00:11:07,430
tree staring up.

289
00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:11,441
Like in awe, and this is just 1

290
00:11:11,655 --> 00:11:14,038
moment that you must have experienced over the

291
00:11:14,038 --> 00:11:15,707
course of many, many months working on this

292
00:11:15,707 --> 00:11:15,945
book.

293
00:11:16,978 --> 00:11:18,901
Yeah. For sure. Love it.

294
00:11:19,697 --> 00:11:22,481
50 vi of remarkable people whose lives have

295
00:11:22,481 --> 00:11:25,822
been transformed by their obsessed obsessive passion for

296
00:11:25,822 --> 00:11:26,061
trees.

297
00:11:26,951 --> 00:11:27,849
Written and

298
00:11:28,304 --> 00:11:30,215
illustrated by Amy Stewart. So,

299
00:11:30,931 --> 00:11:32,842
first of all, I guess, what's came first?

300
00:11:33,001 --> 00:11:35,798
The idea of wanting to illustrate these people

301
00:11:35,798 --> 00:11:37,704
or just chased down their stories Like, how

302
00:11:37,704 --> 00:11:39,531
did you wrap your arms around this. Like,

303
00:11:39,769 --> 00:11:41,437
I meant imagine you're in the Redwood forest.

304
00:11:41,596 --> 00:11:42,946
You're trying to get your arms around the

305
00:11:42,946 --> 00:11:45,294
base of a tree. It it's a big

306
00:11:45,514 --> 00:11:47,434
it's it's a big topic to to buy

307
00:11:47,434 --> 00:11:47,674
off.

308
00:11:48,634 --> 00:11:50,794
It is. And, you know, this is 1

309
00:11:50,794 --> 00:11:53,206
of many ideas. Had sort of been kicking

310
00:11:53,206 --> 00:11:54,960
around for a long time. I mean, I

311
00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:56,236
think if you asked most writers,

312
00:11:56,715 --> 00:11:58,310
they have a whole bunch of book ideas

313
00:11:58,310 --> 00:11:59,745
that are just sitting in a drawer that

314
00:11:59,745 --> 00:12:02,230
didn't didn't never quite launch that So this

315
00:12:02,230 --> 00:12:04,848
is 1 of them. And, what happened is

316
00:12:04,848 --> 00:12:06,753
that I'd always kinda of been an oil

317
00:12:06,753 --> 00:12:08,895
painter, but oil paintings don't make for good

318
00:12:08,895 --> 00:12:09,768
book illustrations.

319
00:12:10,419 --> 00:12:12,897
But more recently, I had gotten into working

320
00:12:12,897 --> 00:12:15,853
on paper more, watercolor and ink and gouache,

321
00:12:16,253 --> 00:12:17,872
and other things that are classic

322
00:12:18,331 --> 00:12:19,310
illustrator mediums.

323
00:12:19,945 --> 00:12:22,105
So all the people, like, including my agent,

324
00:12:22,345 --> 00:12:23,865
you know, who had said, why don't you

325
00:12:23,865 --> 00:12:24,985
illustrate your own books and I was always

326
00:12:24,985 --> 00:12:26,745
like, you know nothing about art? If you

327
00:12:26,745 --> 00:12:28,184
think I can do that.

328
00:12:28,998 --> 00:12:31,393
But it started to become more possible because

329
00:12:31,553 --> 00:12:33,309
I just learned those skills.

330
00:12:34,426 --> 00:12:36,342
So that made me think in terms of,

331
00:12:36,422 --> 00:12:38,269
well, if I was gonna do it, illustrated

332
00:12:38,269 --> 00:12:40,493
bug. What would it what would that be?

333
00:12:40,970 --> 00:12:43,353
And I went through my file of old

334
00:12:43,353 --> 00:12:45,895
book ideas, and some of them seem to

335
00:12:45,895 --> 00:12:48,159
sort of have more potential show somehow.

336
00:12:48,696 --> 00:12:51,328
If you added art, like, something about making

337
00:12:51,328 --> 00:12:52,625
it a little more gifting

338
00:12:53,242 --> 00:12:54,837
and and maybe gave it a little bit

339
00:12:54,837 --> 00:12:56,135
more breathing space

340
00:12:56,512 --> 00:12:57,012
and

341
00:12:58,443 --> 00:13:00,680
I don't know. Just sort of injected some

342
00:13:00,680 --> 00:13:03,557
air into the idea in a in a

343
00:13:03,557 --> 00:13:04,995
way that's kinda hard to describe.

344
00:13:05,567 --> 00:13:07,396
But, yeah. So I'm going through all these

345
00:13:07,396 --> 00:13:09,066
ideas. And my husband who's a rare book

346
00:13:09,066 --> 00:13:11,769
dealer and very interested in all kinds of

347
00:13:11,769 --> 00:13:14,394
collecting and in all kinds of collectors. He

348
00:13:14,394 --> 00:13:17,193
kept saying, What about tree collectors? Why why

349
00:13:17,193 --> 00:13:18,705
isn't that 1 on the list? And every

350
00:13:18,705 --> 00:13:20,296
time it fell off the list, he would

351
00:13:20,296 --> 00:13:21,012
bring it up again.

352
00:13:22,539 --> 00:13:22,938
And

353
00:13:23,656 --> 00:13:24,453
I am Scott.

354
00:13:25,410 --> 00:13:27,245
Thank you, Scott. But and, yeah, But it

355
00:13:27,245 --> 00:13:28,840
led me to kinda reach back out to

356
00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:30,515
the people I'd met over the years who

357
00:13:30,515 --> 00:13:32,325
had told me they were tree collectors and

358
00:13:32,524 --> 00:13:34,280
I was able to locate them all, even

359
00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:36,515
though I'm terrible at remembering people's names, I

360
00:13:36,515 --> 00:13:39,309
got back to all of them. And it

361
00:13:39,309 --> 00:13:41,440
just started to come together, like, oh, I

362
00:13:41,638 --> 00:13:43,227
maybe there is a book in this. Yeah.

363
00:13:43,545 --> 00:13:44,021
I love it.

364
00:13:45,531 --> 00:13:47,619
It's no small feet because it is an

365
00:13:47,914 --> 00:13:48,708
international global.

366
00:13:49,741 --> 00:13:49,955
I think

367
00:13:51,112 --> 00:13:52,309
population of people featured.

368
00:13:53,346 --> 00:13:54,943
I don't know. We must have been chatting

369
00:13:54,943 --> 00:13:56,539
or something when you said that there were

370
00:13:56,539 --> 00:13:58,788
people who you had to interview or maybe

371
00:13:58,948 --> 00:14:00,464
I read it in your in your acknowledgement.

372
00:14:00,624 --> 00:14:02,380
There were people who did not share your

373
00:14:02,380 --> 00:14:04,077
language and you had to use translators.

374
00:14:04,535 --> 00:14:07,422
Yeah. That's wild. But we... Believe it or

375
00:14:07,422 --> 00:14:09,416
not, those were some of my favorite interviews.

376
00:14:10,054 --> 00:14:11,410
What I would do is I would find

377
00:14:11,410 --> 00:14:12,128
an interpreter,

378
00:14:12,925 --> 00:14:15,238
just, you know, online, I would just track

379
00:14:15,238 --> 00:14:15,796
somebody down.

380
00:14:16,449 --> 00:14:17,805
And then I would explain the book to

381
00:14:17,805 --> 00:14:19,561
them and explain the point of the interview.

382
00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:21,236
And a lot of times, these are people

383
00:14:21,236 --> 00:14:22,135
who do business

384
00:14:23,630 --> 00:14:26,032
translation. Right? Why I corporate whatever.

385
00:14:26,748 --> 00:14:28,817
And so I'm explaining the project, and I

386
00:14:28,817 --> 00:14:30,589
give them a list of questions.

387
00:14:31,536 --> 00:14:33,207
Which is kind of a bummer because I

388
00:14:33,207 --> 00:14:35,116
like my interviews to be a conversation where

389
00:14:35,195 --> 00:14:36,866
I don't have a list of questions. But

390
00:14:36,866 --> 00:14:39,029
what choice did I have, So I would

391
00:14:39,029 --> 00:14:40,462
give them my list of questions. And then

392
00:14:40,541 --> 00:14:42,611
I would say, you're gonna conduct the whole

393
00:14:42,611 --> 00:14:45,158
interview. Like, don't really stop... Don't stop and

394
00:14:45,158 --> 00:14:47,759
translate everything for me because it's gonna become

395
00:14:48,039 --> 00:14:50,830
clunky and awkward gonna take 4 hours. So

396
00:14:50,830 --> 00:14:52,346
we're gonna be on Zoom the 3 of

397
00:14:52,346 --> 00:14:52,585
us.

398
00:14:53,223 --> 00:14:54,898
I'll just be sitting there in case you

399
00:14:54,898 --> 00:14:56,413
have questions, you can turn to me and

400
00:14:56,413 --> 00:14:59,083
ask me. But otherwise, you too have this

401
00:14:59,302 --> 00:15:01,459
conversation, and I gave them some pointers about,

402
00:15:01,938 --> 00:15:03,557
feel free to dig in more,

403
00:15:04,016 --> 00:15:04,675
you know

404
00:15:05,787 --> 00:15:07,863
add your own questions. Put down the rabbit

405
00:15:07,863 --> 00:15:10,817
hole on a specific answer. Right. Right. And

406
00:15:10,896 --> 00:15:13,132
I sort of explained in particular, these are

407
00:15:13,132 --> 00:15:15,781
areas that I wanna get more specific in.

408
00:15:15,941 --> 00:15:17,777
So especially if they go in in these

409
00:15:17,777 --> 00:15:18,016
areas.

410
00:15:18,814 --> 00:15:20,091
But they were so much fun for me

411
00:15:20,091 --> 00:15:22,007
because I'm just sitting there on Zoom, watching

412
00:15:22,007 --> 00:15:24,336
2 people speak Jeff knees to each other

413
00:15:24,336 --> 00:15:25,315
or speak portuguese

414
00:15:25,772 --> 00:15:28,165
or polish to 1 another. Right They're they're

415
00:15:28,165 --> 00:15:29,441
having so much fun.

416
00:15:30,079 --> 00:15:32,472
Like, they're getting really into it, and I

417
00:15:32,472 --> 00:15:33,211
just felt

418
00:15:33,764 --> 00:15:35,362
And was so moving to just sort of

419
00:15:35,362 --> 00:15:37,760
realize like, here's this person that I'm never

420
00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:39,518
gonna meet. They're halfway around the world,

421
00:15:40,557 --> 00:15:43,169
but they share these interests. They share these

422
00:15:43,289 --> 00:15:46,238
passions. They're willing to be open and express

423
00:15:46,238 --> 00:15:48,150
themselves. And I was so glad they were

424
00:15:48,150 --> 00:15:49,665
doing it in their own language, so it's

425
00:15:49,665 --> 00:15:52,150
not a struggle. Right. And then I would

426
00:15:52,150 --> 00:15:54,722
send the Zoom video to the interpreter

427
00:15:55,259 --> 00:15:58,048
and and ask them to not transcribe it

428
00:15:58,048 --> 00:16:00,133
word for word, But, to give me the

429
00:16:00,133 --> 00:16:02,201
meaningful bits, and then I come back to

430
00:16:02,201 --> 00:16:03,474
them and say, I need a little bit

431
00:16:03,474 --> 00:16:04,986
more on this section or I need a

432
00:16:04,986 --> 00:16:06,075
word for word translate.

433
00:16:06,514 --> 00:16:08,192
Wow When gonna put it in quotes, and

434
00:16:08,192 --> 00:16:09,711
we would work back and things like that.

435
00:16:09,950 --> 00:16:12,268
Wow. It's like we you deployed these deputy

436
00:16:12,268 --> 00:16:15,145
writers or, you, or, you know, in interviewers

437
00:16:15,145 --> 00:16:18,345
too Right. Collect these stories. Yeah. You're in

438
00:16:18,345 --> 00:16:20,017
your own... You're a collector in and of

439
00:16:20,017 --> 00:16:22,245
yourself. I love that. Well, I have to...

440
00:16:22,484 --> 00:16:24,713
I I have to say, thinking back to

441
00:16:24,713 --> 00:16:27,195
the first conversation, we had about this book.

442
00:16:27,990 --> 00:16:29,821
You emailed me and said you were gonna

443
00:16:29,821 --> 00:16:30,458
start working on this.

444
00:16:31,651 --> 00:16:34,618
Kinda during Covid, I believe. I

445
00:16:35,089 --> 00:16:37,640
you were looking... And, Amy, I have learned

446
00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:40,132
so much from you about your intentional for

447
00:16:40,589 --> 00:16:42,661
representation and inclusion, and

448
00:16:43,394 --> 00:16:46,035
bringing everyone into the world of florida culture

449
00:16:46,035 --> 00:16:48,754
or flu culture, but you were really specific

450
00:16:48,754 --> 00:16:50,434
to say, I, you know, this is not

451
00:16:50,434 --> 00:16:51,049
gonna be

452
00:16:51,568 --> 00:16:53,084
is there my where it's not yours old

453
00:16:53,164 --> 00:16:55,500
White guys book. You know? And that's just

454
00:16:55,878 --> 00:16:57,654
coming out of where culture sometimes

455
00:16:58,272 --> 00:17:00,437
the perception is that's who gets to talk

456
00:17:00,437 --> 00:17:00,937
about.

457
00:17:01,311 --> 00:17:03,378
And you were really able to find,

458
00:17:04,491 --> 00:17:07,089
people in communities that have never... Been able

459
00:17:07,209 --> 00:17:09,461
been asked about their tree collections or

460
00:17:10,554 --> 00:17:12,305
I'd love that. As maybe you can talk

461
00:17:12,305 --> 00:17:13,818
about some that are really special to you

462
00:17:13,818 --> 00:17:14,694
that really

463
00:17:16,142 --> 00:17:17,653
I don't know, changed your perception of who

464
00:17:17,653 --> 00:17:20,277
is a tree collector. Yeah. Well, this was

465
00:17:20,277 --> 00:17:21,151
really important to me.

466
00:17:22,344 --> 00:17:23,537
In part because...

467
00:17:26,178 --> 00:17:28,172
Anytime you talk about collectors in any field.

468
00:17:28,411 --> 00:17:30,883
It does tend to be wealthier people. It

469
00:17:30,883 --> 00:17:32,877
tends to be more white people. It tends

470
00:17:32,877 --> 00:17:35,190
to be more North Americans and Europeans.

471
00:17:35,762 --> 00:17:36,954
And it tends to be more men.

472
00:17:37,669 --> 00:17:40,289
So that's just the demographic, whether you're collecting

473
00:17:40,289 --> 00:17:43,149
cars or you're collecting books or you're collecting

474
00:17:43,149 --> 00:17:46,422
trees, Yeah. Right. Especially trees because they require

475
00:17:46,422 --> 00:17:48,329
land and who has land and who doesn't

476
00:17:48,329 --> 00:17:49,123
have land. Right?

477
00:17:49,759 --> 00:17:50,792
So going in...

478
00:17:51,365 --> 00:17:53,445
This is, I think so important when we

479
00:17:53,445 --> 00:17:55,384
think about inclusion is

480
00:17:55,684 --> 00:17:58,244
it's not so much about... This is my

481
00:17:58,244 --> 00:18:00,173
table. And I need more of you to

482
00:18:00,173 --> 00:18:01,845
come sit at my. I wanna check the

483
00:18:01,845 --> 00:18:03,994
boxes kind of thing. Right Yeah. It's it's

484
00:18:03,994 --> 00:18:04,233
about...

485
00:18:05,109 --> 00:18:06,542
My table isn't working,

486
00:18:07,273 --> 00:18:08,868
like, we need a different table.

487
00:18:09,347 --> 00:18:11,978
And so my premise of, I'm gonna write

488
00:18:11,978 --> 00:18:13,116
a book about collectors

489
00:18:13,652 --> 00:18:16,019
couldn't be. It's only people who have big

490
00:18:16,140 --> 00:18:18,859
plots of land. It had to be what

491
00:18:18,859 --> 00:18:21,980
are other ways of seeing collecting. And as

492
00:18:21,980 --> 00:18:24,799
soon as you do that, the population changes

493
00:18:25,274 --> 00:18:25,752
radically.

494
00:18:26,151 --> 00:18:28,781
Right? So it was about me asking a

495
00:18:28,781 --> 00:18:30,535
different... Deciding that I was gonna ask a

496
00:18:30,535 --> 00:18:33,086
different question. But then, yeah, also being super

497
00:18:33,086 --> 00:18:35,015
deliberate. Like, everyone I talked to. I said

498
00:18:35,015 --> 00:18:36,531
the same thing. I said I'm looking for

499
00:18:36,531 --> 00:18:38,764
more women. I'm looking for more people who

500
00:18:38,764 --> 00:18:40,838
aren't in North America or Europe.

501
00:18:41,635 --> 00:18:43,071
I'm looking for people who aren't white.

502
00:18:43,723 --> 00:18:45,865
I'm looking for people who aren't rich. And

503
00:18:45,865 --> 00:18:47,530
a lot of collectors were sort of stumped,

504
00:18:47,847 --> 00:18:50,464
Like, that, you know, they kinda couldn't come

505
00:18:50,464 --> 00:18:52,620
up with a lot of folks. So I

506
00:18:52,620 --> 00:18:53,888
did do a lot of digging on my

507
00:18:53,888 --> 00:18:55,950
own. I went on to Youtube and Tiktok

508
00:18:55,950 --> 00:18:57,718
to look for people who were

509
00:18:58,090 --> 00:18:58,883
obsessed with trees.

510
00:18:59,375 --> 00:19:01,535
But but, I love it. But had never

511
00:19:01,535 --> 00:19:04,255
joined a tree collecting society, and never will

512
00:19:04,255 --> 00:19:05,375
join 1. Right?

513
00:19:06,015 --> 00:19:08,355
So, yeah. I went to all these other

514
00:19:08,494 --> 00:19:11,064
places. To try to track these folks down.

515
00:19:11,542 --> 00:19:13,855
But, you know, I found people who collect,

516
00:19:14,174 --> 00:19:15,769
well, like I said in a video, like,

517
00:19:16,088 --> 00:19:17,604
you can collect part of a tree. You

518
00:19:17,604 --> 00:19:18,720
can collect pine cones,

519
00:19:19,611 --> 00:19:22,076
there's a whole thing about collecting wood samples.

520
00:19:22,792 --> 00:19:25,495
Yes. That's right. That doesn't a crazy chapter.

521
00:19:25,814 --> 00:19:28,778
Yeah. There's an international wood collecting society

522
00:19:29,089 --> 00:19:32,130
and they have a standard size for their

523
00:19:32,130 --> 00:19:34,369
wood samples, which is about the size of

524
00:19:34,369 --> 00:19:35,190
an iphone

525
00:19:35,569 --> 00:19:35,809
that,

526
00:19:36,864 --> 00:19:39,336
makes them easier to sort and keep keeping

527
00:19:39,336 --> 00:19:40,772
files. Like, yeah. Yeah.

528
00:19:41,569 --> 00:19:44,281
So there's that. But then there's also people

529
00:19:44,281 --> 00:19:46,928
who collect trees in the sense of go

530
00:19:46,928 --> 00:19:49,082
picking up acorns in your neighborhood and grow

531
00:19:49,082 --> 00:19:50,618
them in pots on your patio

532
00:19:51,155 --> 00:19:52,431
until they get too good for the pot,

533
00:19:52,591 --> 00:19:54,346
and then you can either plant them somewhere

534
00:19:54,346 --> 00:19:55,861
or toss them out and start more, but,

535
00:19:56,020 --> 00:19:58,824
like, you know, there's a million ways to

536
00:19:58,824 --> 00:20:01,157
to do this that don't have to involve

537
00:20:02,171 --> 00:20:04,500
a lot of land. Yeah. Well, you kind

538
00:20:04,500 --> 00:20:06,259
of organize the... I love the way you

539
00:20:06,259 --> 00:20:07,140
organize the

540
00:20:07,859 --> 00:20:08,759
table contents

541
00:20:09,779 --> 00:20:13,075
by the role that the individual how you

542
00:20:13,075 --> 00:20:15,474
saw their role as a healer, and colleges,

543
00:20:15,634 --> 00:20:16,275
and artist,

544
00:20:16,994 --> 00:20:17,394
curator,

545
00:20:17,954 --> 00:20:19,554
educator, community builder,

546
00:20:20,208 --> 00:20:20,708
ent,

547
00:20:21,481 --> 00:20:21,880
seeker,

548
00:20:22,835 --> 00:20:25,462
preservation, and visionary. So you're kind of saying,

549
00:20:25,621 --> 00:20:27,771
okay. What's their relationship with their own world,

550
00:20:28,343 --> 00:20:30,493
Right. And how do trees fit into that.

551
00:20:31,767 --> 00:20:32,723
I thought it was a good way to

552
00:20:32,723 --> 00:20:33,940
organize it because

553
00:20:34,555 --> 00:20:37,539
that alone breaks up this sort of curated,

554
00:20:37,838 --> 00:20:40,415
you know, collection in an arbor, which is

555
00:20:40,475 --> 00:20:42,632
where we would start normally. Right? Right.

556
00:20:43,670 --> 00:20:46,317
Yeah. It's... It's hard putting human beings into

557
00:20:46,317 --> 00:20:46,796
categories.

558
00:20:47,274 --> 00:20:47,513
So,

559
00:20:48,151 --> 00:20:50,064
I I resisted it a little bit because

560
00:20:50,064 --> 00:20:52,536
there is definitely crossover between those categories.

561
00:20:52,949 --> 00:20:54,627
But I think it does send a message.

562
00:20:54,787 --> 00:20:56,545
And this was the big surprise for me

563
00:20:56,545 --> 00:20:58,862
working on this book. Honestly, at the beginning

564
00:20:58,862 --> 00:21:00,540
of it, I thought I was gonna be

565
00:21:00,540 --> 00:21:02,862
sucking to like, plant geek who geek out

566
00:21:02,862 --> 00:21:03,894
about their geek plants.

567
00:21:04,529 --> 00:21:07,227
And I wasn't expecting the level of personal

568
00:21:07,227 --> 00:21:09,546
stories that I was getting. Yeah. I wasn't

569
00:21:09,546 --> 00:21:11,456
expecting... You know, there's a there's a a

570
00:21:11,456 --> 00:21:12,889
woman Marie Bo,

571
00:21:14,799 --> 00:21:15,299
she's

572
00:21:15,754 --> 00:21:18,707
in England. And she collects maple trees. And

573
00:21:18,707 --> 00:21:20,611
and her big thing when she started talking

574
00:21:20,611 --> 00:21:21,800
to me. I mean I just found her

575
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:24,597
through the Maple society, she was... She responded

576
00:21:24,597 --> 00:21:26,352
to my, you know, saying, I'm looking for

577
00:21:26,352 --> 00:21:27,548
women and a bunch of people were like,

578
00:21:27,707 --> 00:21:29,701
I'm a woman talk to me. So very

579
00:21:29,701 --> 00:21:31,935
love. That's how I found her, but then

580
00:21:31,935 --> 00:21:34,344
she starts talking to me about what these

581
00:21:34,344 --> 00:21:36,581
trees mean to her, and a big piece

582
00:21:36,581 --> 00:21:38,899
of it is that she wasn't able to

583
00:21:38,899 --> 00:21:39,458
have kids,

584
00:21:40,018 --> 00:21:41,536
and it... That was really hard for her.

585
00:21:41,776 --> 00:21:42,755
That really hurt

586
00:21:43,068 --> 00:21:45,695
and that the maple trees have filled this,

587
00:21:46,252 --> 00:21:48,322
hole in her life that she felt was

588
00:21:48,322 --> 00:21:49,994
left behind by not being able to become

589
00:21:49,994 --> 00:21:50,732
a mother

590
00:21:51,125 --> 00:21:52,884
And the thing she said that just knocked

591
00:21:52,884 --> 00:21:53,944
my socks off

592
00:21:54,325 --> 00:21:56,804
was she... The the thing in Maple trees

593
00:21:56,804 --> 00:21:58,644
is it's pretty easy to come up with

594
00:21:58,644 --> 00:22:00,493
a new variety. You know, I mean, a

595
00:22:00,493 --> 00:22:02,959
seed drops and it starts growing, and it

596
00:22:02,959 --> 00:22:05,187
could be an interesting new variety. It's not

597
00:22:05,187 --> 00:22:06,141
hard to do with Maple.

598
00:22:06,875 --> 00:22:07,195
So,

599
00:22:07,835 --> 00:22:10,154
she's really hoping that she's going to get

600
00:22:10,154 --> 00:22:13,375
an offspring from her trees that's worth cultivating,

601
00:22:13,929 --> 00:22:16,721
and and actually sort of introducing and naming.

602
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:19,374
And she said I wasn't able to give

603
00:22:19,592 --> 00:22:21,427
a name to a baby, and I would

604
00:22:21,427 --> 00:22:22,862
like to give a name to a tree.

605
00:22:23,994 --> 00:22:26,148
And It just erased cry. Like, I can't

606
00:22:26,148 --> 00:22:27,744
tell you how often and I cried listening

607
00:22:27,744 --> 00:22:29,920
to these stories. I mean, it's just

608
00:22:30,538 --> 00:22:31,038
people

609
00:22:31,415 --> 00:22:33,017
something that I think, you know, I mean,

610
00:22:33,096 --> 00:22:34,206
you've got a lot of people listening to

611
00:22:34,206 --> 00:22:36,425
this podcast to or flower farmers. And, you

612
00:22:36,425 --> 00:22:38,589
know, what I realized is you spend a

613
00:22:38,644 --> 00:22:41,695
lifetime that putting down roots, like literally putting

614
00:22:41,695 --> 00:22:42,735
roots into the ground,

615
00:22:43,535 --> 00:22:45,934
and it does transform your life. Yeah. The

616
00:22:45,934 --> 00:22:47,455
thing you have at the end of that,

617
00:22:47,709 --> 00:22:49,063
there's a lot of 70 and 80 year

618
00:22:49,063 --> 00:22:51,133
old tree collectors in this book. And the

619
00:22:51,133 --> 00:22:52,567
thing you have at the end of that

620
00:22:52,567 --> 00:22:55,115
is this life well lived and this life

621
00:22:55,115 --> 00:22:58,155
that is so... Because intertwined. I mean, the

622
00:22:58,155 --> 00:23:00,382
roots analogy is just so useful here, but

623
00:23:00,382 --> 00:23:02,848
this life that is so intertwined with other

624
00:23:02,848 --> 00:23:03,348
people

625
00:23:03,658 --> 00:23:06,912
who are literally connected with you through these

626
00:23:06,912 --> 00:23:07,388
plants.

627
00:23:08,103 --> 00:23:09,611
And it doesn't matter if there oak trees

628
00:23:09,611 --> 00:23:11,278
that are gonna out live you or if

629
00:23:11,278 --> 00:23:13,681
they're, you know, Sunflower in a in a

630
00:23:13,681 --> 00:23:14,080
field,

631
00:23:14,878 --> 00:23:17,431
you have that to show for yourself in.

632
00:23:17,910 --> 00:23:20,320
Show for what your life has meant. And

633
00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:22,240
it honestly made me sort of question my

634
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:22,799
life choices.

635
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,600
I was gonna, I was kinda like, why

636
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:26,900
don't I have

637
00:23:28,172 --> 00:23:30,406
a miniature forest that I can point to.

638
00:23:30,646 --> 00:23:31,465
And so

639
00:23:31,923 --> 00:23:34,077
here are where my people are. Here's where

640
00:23:34,077 --> 00:23:36,640
my values and my priorities are. Here's what

641
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:38,889
my life has met and it is tangible,

642
00:23:39,502 --> 00:23:41,728
and it's in the ground right here. Well,

643
00:23:42,285 --> 00:23:43,875
because I know you live in a,

644
00:23:44,750 --> 00:23:46,675
priorities townhouse, Condo.

645
00:23:48,188 --> 00:23:49,700
Maybe you have some house punch on your

646
00:23:49,700 --> 00:23:52,406
windows sill. But your your collection is in

647
00:23:52,406 --> 00:23:54,812
the isn't any stories, Amy. And in this

648
00:23:54,812 --> 00:23:55,312
art.

649
00:23:56,486 --> 00:23:58,320
I I just wanna say that Marie bo

650
00:23:58,320 --> 00:23:59,755
store you called at the mother of trees.

651
00:23:59,994 --> 00:24:01,110
So that's so great.

652
00:24:01,682 --> 00:24:03,910
I do remember my 1 little, like, a

653
00:24:03,910 --> 00:24:06,376
personal connection to this book is during Covid,

654
00:24:06,614 --> 00:24:07,830
I was on a

655
00:24:08,779 --> 00:24:09,758
special shopping

656
00:24:10,138 --> 00:24:10,377
expedition,

657
00:24:11,416 --> 00:24:13,494
I don't know how I got per permitted

658
00:24:13,494 --> 00:24:15,172
to do this, but to,

659
00:24:15,731 --> 00:24:17,270
go to the nursery

660
00:24:18,060 --> 00:24:20,439
in port townsend in Washington owned by, Sue

661
00:24:20,439 --> 00:24:22,897
mill and Kelly Dod. Yeah. And,

662
00:24:24,325 --> 00:24:24,563
they,

663
00:24:25,848 --> 00:24:27,201
You had just told me about this book,

664
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:28,952
and so I took a photo of them

665
00:24:28,952 --> 00:24:30,464
and texted it you and I'm like, here's

666
00:24:30,464 --> 00:24:32,693
a couple and, you know, Sue is of

667
00:24:32,693 --> 00:24:33,091
1 of the...

668
00:24:34,061 --> 00:24:36,845
Amazing plant collectors of the world, and

669
00:24:37,243 --> 00:24:39,868
their far... Their nurseries called Far reaches farm.

670
00:24:40,107 --> 00:24:41,857
And so Lo behold, they showed up in

671
00:24:41,857 --> 00:24:43,624
the book, And I, are they the only

672
00:24:43,624 --> 00:24:44,978
couple. You don't have a lot of,

673
00:24:45,774 --> 00:24:48,641
ts. Pears. Right? They're the only couple. I

674
00:24:48,641 --> 00:24:50,871
mean, there there are definitely 3 collectors in

675
00:24:50,871 --> 00:24:52,976
the book. Who are married and their spouses

676
00:24:53,032 --> 00:24:53,532
involved

677
00:24:53,906 --> 00:24:56,051
to a greater or lesser extent. Yeah. But,

678
00:24:56,448 --> 00:24:58,410
yeah. When I started talking to them, who

679
00:24:58,688 --> 00:25:00,595
I realized quickly, I couldn't

680
00:25:00,992 --> 00:25:03,376
focus on 1 or the other because they...

681
00:25:03,773 --> 00:25:05,680
So for people who don't know, they they...

682
00:25:05,934 --> 00:25:08,797
Fell in love on basically a tree collecting

683
00:25:08,797 --> 00:25:09,854
or a plant collecting

684
00:25:10,229 --> 00:25:12,218
expedition. Right. It's is a great story. It

685
00:25:12,218 --> 00:25:14,063
is a great story. And it... So in

686
00:25:14,063 --> 00:25:15,733
the book, it's the only time that I

687
00:25:15,733 --> 00:25:17,665
did this in the whole book. But their

688
00:25:17,802 --> 00:25:20,189
their story of how they met is exactly

689
00:25:20,189 --> 00:25:22,432
like those stories and when Harry met Sally

690
00:25:22,432 --> 00:25:24,343
where the old couples were talking about how

691
00:25:24,343 --> 00:25:26,732
it was Love at first sight. Literally, that's

692
00:25:26,732 --> 00:25:28,166
how it broke down. And I'm like, I'm

693
00:25:28,166 --> 00:25:30,395
gonna write this out, like a screen play,

694
00:25:30,968 --> 00:25:33,281
So that everyone can hear them in their

695
00:25:33,281 --> 00:25:36,334
voices, the way they... Yeah. So I love

696
00:25:36,552 --> 00:25:38,944
worth telling their sweet story of falling in

697
00:25:38,944 --> 00:25:40,460
love a while plant collecting.

698
00:25:40,952 --> 00:25:42,862
I love it. Yeah. That's great.

699
00:25:44,453 --> 00:25:46,703
The... I was going to show my pages

700
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:48,369
from the readers copy, but they're in black

701
00:25:48,369 --> 00:25:50,047
and white. So I think I'm ask you

702
00:25:50,047 --> 00:25:51,405
to show us some of your,

703
00:25:51,964 --> 00:25:55,081
stack of paintings Yeah or illustrations rather. Well,

704
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:56,060
you said

705
00:25:56,373 --> 00:25:58,386
paper medium, but what did you use

706
00:25:59,637 --> 00:26:02,185
pencil and watercolor, how did you illustrate these?

707
00:26:02,503 --> 00:26:04,309
I decided to after much

708
00:26:04,988 --> 00:26:07,483
experimentation. I decided to use watercolor

709
00:26:08,261 --> 00:26:10,655
and water soluble colored pencils.

710
00:26:11,134 --> 00:26:13,184
Okay. And and the reason is it's a

711
00:26:13,304 --> 00:26:15,052
for anyone out there who's an artist, you

712
00:26:15,052 --> 00:26:17,913
probably know 2 things that are very challenging

713
00:26:17,913 --> 00:26:20,138
to draw are people and trees.

714
00:26:20,867 --> 00:26:23,013
You'll you'll always hear artists talking about how

715
00:26:23,013 --> 00:26:25,317
they're intimidated by people, especially if you have

716
00:26:25,317 --> 00:26:26,294
to get their likeness

717
00:26:26,668 --> 00:26:29,631
accurately. It can't be... Out human being for

718
00:26:29,631 --> 00:26:32,663
sure. But trees are also weirdly tricky because

719
00:26:32,663 --> 00:26:34,499
they're generally all 1 color, but you have

720
00:26:34,499 --> 00:26:36,015
to get the shading and make it seats.

721
00:26:36,269 --> 00:26:38,102
And and there are artists who kind of

722
00:26:38,102 --> 00:26:40,573
avoid trees for that reason. And I thought

723
00:26:40,573 --> 00:26:41,869
that that the watercolor

724
00:26:42,326 --> 00:26:44,252
and these colored pencils would give up, kind

725
00:26:44,252 --> 00:26:46,183
of a softness and at humanity

726
00:26:46,557 --> 00:26:47,987
to the people, because I didn't want them

727
00:26:47,987 --> 00:26:50,235
to look like car signatures or cartoons,

728
00:26:50,927 --> 00:26:52,730
but also, they very much look can draw

729
00:26:52,928 --> 00:26:55,235
Right? Like, this is something that I want

730
00:26:55,235 --> 00:26:56,826
people to flip through this booking and sort

731
00:26:56,826 --> 00:26:58,973
of go, like, oh, I can draw that.

732
00:26:59,132 --> 00:27:01,121
Like, in sort of in some theoretical way.

733
00:27:01,454 --> 00:27:03,923
Like, this is they're accessible. They're not, like,

734
00:27:04,798 --> 00:27:05,674
they're accessible.

735
00:27:07,028 --> 00:27:10,706
Precise botanical illustrations even. Right? Exactly. There they

736
00:27:10,706 --> 00:27:12,538
should look like I was sitting there in

737
00:27:12,538 --> 00:27:14,847
my sketchbook even though, I was working from

738
00:27:14,847 --> 00:27:16,440
photos a lot because people are all over

739
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:18,351
the world and it was Covid. So, you

740
00:27:18,351 --> 00:27:20,442
know, But I'm just... I'll I'll show the...

741
00:27:20,762 --> 00:27:22,679
I'll show just the the book,

742
00:27:23,478 --> 00:27:25,236
you can see that for every 1 of

743
00:27:25,236 --> 00:27:26,275
these I did at.

744
00:27:27,402 --> 00:27:29,069
Illustration of the person and then,

745
00:27:29,942 --> 00:27:31,633
an illustration of their garden.

746
00:27:32,244 --> 00:27:34,625
So I had that in every case that

747
00:27:34,625 --> 00:27:36,472
was sort of my That's a hunch... That's

748
00:27:36,472 --> 00:27:39,025
a hundred illustrations right there, and then use

749
00:27:39,025 --> 00:27:40,003
all this bonus

750
00:27:40,381 --> 00:27:42,535
content, which I really appreciated.

751
00:27:43,108 --> 00:27:45,098
Where... And I'm sure that, like, you've got

752
00:27:45,098 --> 00:27:47,406
this 1 called this as a society for

753
00:27:47,406 --> 00:27:47,963
every tree,

754
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:50,351
and you have a little drawing of a

755
00:27:50,431 --> 00:27:52,204
European box wood and Top,

756
00:27:52,833 --> 00:27:55,294
for that society and a Emilia for that

757
00:27:55,294 --> 00:27:58,786
society. So altogether, you had hundreds of illustrations

758
00:27:58,786 --> 00:28:00,770
in this book. There were there were over

759
00:28:00,770 --> 00:28:01,509
300

760
00:28:01,738 --> 00:28:04,042
Jpeg, but I had to upload for this.

761
00:28:04,201 --> 00:28:07,299
So... That's amazing. Yeah. Oh, my goodness.

762
00:28:08,331 --> 00:28:10,079
Yeah. But I feel like the

763
00:28:10,714 --> 00:28:11,214
the

764
00:28:12,404 --> 00:28:13,684
how do you make a tree look real?

765
00:28:13,924 --> 00:28:15,605
You're not trying to do a scientific drawing.

766
00:28:15,765 --> 00:28:17,765
You're trying to Right. Capture a moment in

767
00:28:17,765 --> 00:28:19,845
time and the person who loves that tree.

768
00:28:20,099 --> 00:28:22,099
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was the challenge. So

769
00:28:22,099 --> 00:28:23,539
do you wanna see some of my just...

770
00:28:23,859 --> 00:28:25,460
You posted them on your social media a

771
00:28:25,460 --> 00:28:26,819
couple, like, maybe last week, and I was

772
00:28:26,819 --> 00:28:28,419
like, I wanted to show that on our

773
00:28:28,419 --> 00:28:30,989
interview. Yeah. Sure. I'm just gonna... A mother

774
00:28:30,989 --> 00:28:31,944
load of drawings.

775
00:28:32,422 --> 00:28:34,333
I know. This is only a small portion.

776
00:28:34,572 --> 00:28:36,165
I just reached in and grabbed the top

777
00:28:36,165 --> 00:28:38,076
of the stack, but I'll just show you

778
00:28:38,076 --> 00:28:40,827
that it's sometimes they were just sort of

779
00:28:40,966 --> 00:28:41,466
abstract

780
00:28:42,564 --> 00:28:45,201
paintings of, like, looking up at trees. That's

781
00:28:45,201 --> 00:28:48,158
wonderful. For like section openers. And the reason

782
00:28:48,317 --> 00:28:50,641
I decided to be looking up at trees

783
00:28:50,696 --> 00:28:52,917
is that that's how we humans see them.

784
00:28:53,155 --> 00:28:54,289
You know I wanna

785
00:28:54,598 --> 00:28:57,295
I wanted to imply a human viewer with

786
00:28:57,295 --> 00:28:58,167
and the scale of,

787
00:28:59,119 --> 00:29:01,285
we're so minis minuscule compared to the grand

788
00:29:01,578 --> 00:29:01,975
Right.

789
00:29:02,864 --> 00:29:05,494
Like... So this is Vivian kaye who lives

790
00:29:05,494 --> 00:29:08,523
in San Jose. And and she and I

791
00:29:08,523 --> 00:29:10,038
just hit it off so much. So she

792
00:29:10,038 --> 00:29:10,915
grows per simmons.

793
00:29:11,809 --> 00:29:13,807
In her garden. And so for her, rather

794
00:29:13,807 --> 00:29:15,885
than do another tree I just did the

795
00:29:15,885 --> 00:29:17,643
pre simmons because she's sort of all about

796
00:29:17,643 --> 00:29:18,143
the.

797
00:29:18,522 --> 00:29:20,620
Those are few. For her, this is really

798
00:29:21,013 --> 00:29:23,634
it's it's become something that's really about connecting

799
00:29:23,634 --> 00:29:25,166
with her Korean

800
00:29:25,619 --> 00:29:26,017
family,

801
00:29:26,493 --> 00:29:30,325
her her her auntie and grandma and mom

802
00:29:30,325 --> 00:29:33,114
and all of that generation. She mails them

803
00:29:33,114 --> 00:29:34,172
boxes of

804
00:29:34,708 --> 00:29:36,914
cement, which is such a part of their

805
00:29:37,114 --> 00:29:39,105
history and their culture and their heritage and

806
00:29:39,105 --> 00:29:41,653
such a treat in Korean culture. And she's

807
00:29:41,653 --> 00:29:43,087
like, you know, this is kinda how I

808
00:29:43,087 --> 00:29:44,919
can stay connected with them. Like, it's super

809
00:29:44,919 --> 00:29:47,326
hard with your you know, with your grandparents

810
00:29:47,326 --> 00:29:48,203
and with your elders,

811
00:29:49,001 --> 00:29:51,156
especially a family of of immigrants, Like, it

812
00:29:51,156 --> 00:29:52,831
can be sort of tough through the generations.

813
00:29:52,991 --> 00:29:55,802
Yeah. But we we understand this about each

814
00:29:55,802 --> 00:29:57,640
other. The language of food. I love it.

815
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:00,537
This is how we connect. Yeah. That's beautiful.

816
00:30:01,316 --> 00:30:03,165
That's really vivid too. Like, not just a

817
00:30:03,165 --> 00:30:06,130
green book. There's color coming out of blooms

818
00:30:06,187 --> 00:30:09,049
and fruit and obviously place. So...

819
00:30:09,924 --> 00:30:12,173
Right. It's But you haven't talked about before

820
00:30:12,173 --> 00:30:14,170
about how many colors of green you have

821
00:30:14,170 --> 00:30:16,167
in your on on your painters ballot. Right?

822
00:30:16,487 --> 00:30:18,498
That's right. That's right. Yeah. I want. That

823
00:30:18,498 --> 00:30:20,249
that was actually an issue. Like I really

824
00:30:20,249 --> 00:30:22,716
was looking for, you know, how do I

825
00:30:22,716 --> 00:30:25,422
inject color was really a thing. So for

826
00:30:25,422 --> 00:30:25,581
instance,

827
00:30:26,394 --> 00:30:27,913
1 of my... Every time I show you

828
00:30:27,913 --> 00:30:29,271
1 of these, I'm gonna say, like, this

829
00:30:29,271 --> 00:30:31,349
was really my favorite person. And and I

830
00:30:31,429 --> 00:30:33,187
I really mean it. It's know this is

831
00:30:33,187 --> 00:30:34,066
very sincere.

832
00:30:36,079 --> 00:30:36,318
But,

833
00:30:37,994 --> 00:30:39,372
doctor Ali Hu

834
00:30:39,909 --> 00:30:41,447
in, in Ethiopia,

835
00:30:42,862 --> 00:30:44,946
has been working, and and this is an

836
00:30:44,946 --> 00:30:46,771
example of really trying to say what else

837
00:30:46,771 --> 00:30:48,913
can a collection be? Because I wanted someone

838
00:30:48,913 --> 00:30:51,214
that was somewhere in Africa? Like, how do

839
00:30:51,373 --> 00:30:52,166
I pull that off?

840
00:30:52,896 --> 00:30:56,793
And, what he's doing is he's working on

841
00:30:56,793 --> 00:30:57,270
the

842
00:30:58,224 --> 00:31:00,315
church for of ethiopia.

843
00:31:00,944 --> 00:31:02,162
So in Ethiopia,

844
00:31:02,699 --> 00:31:04,395
almost all the trees are gone

845
00:31:04,772 --> 00:31:06,230
because of livestock.

846
00:31:07,245 --> 00:31:10,457
So the the landscape tape was entirely denoted

847
00:31:11,008 --> 00:31:12,622
except that the the churches

848
00:31:13,316 --> 00:31:15,703
have a little wall around them, and there's

849
00:31:15,703 --> 00:31:18,744
this tradition in the ethiopian church that when

850
00:31:18,744 --> 00:31:20,422
you walk in you're entering the garden of

851
00:31:20,502 --> 00:31:23,378
Eden. So there's these stone walls that basically

852
00:31:23,378 --> 00:31:25,775
keep the livestock out, so that trees can

853
00:31:25,775 --> 00:31:26,095
grow,

854
00:31:26,589 --> 00:31:28,984
And these are the only trees left.

855
00:31:29,623 --> 00:31:31,538
And so he realized if we're gonna have

856
00:31:31,538 --> 00:31:33,773
any trees at all in Ethiopia, I have

857
00:31:33,773 --> 00:31:34,811
to work with the,

858
00:31:35,784 --> 00:31:37,539
the pastors, the the priests,

859
00:31:38,177 --> 00:31:38,655
and

860
00:31:39,453 --> 00:31:41,048
they have to come up with the solution.

861
00:31:41,766 --> 00:31:43,999
So they did the... They came up with

862
00:31:43,999 --> 00:31:47,362
these ideas about we're gonna spans, the... We're

863
00:31:47,362 --> 00:31:49,194
we're gonna have a little wall around the

864
00:31:49,194 --> 00:31:49,592
edge,

865
00:31:50,309 --> 00:31:51,823
and we're gonna build it out of stone

866
00:31:51,823 --> 00:31:53,257
that we're gonna pull out of the farmers

867
00:31:53,257 --> 00:31:54,691
fields, which they will appreciate,

868
00:31:55,660 --> 00:31:58,284
and we're gonna make it not about excluding

869
00:31:58,284 --> 00:32:00,748
people, but we're gonna make it about, you

870
00:32:00,748 --> 00:32:04,106
know, inviting people in and expanding this circle.

871
00:32:04,425 --> 00:32:07,296
And so for this 1, I drew just

872
00:32:07,296 --> 00:32:09,928
looking down at the landscape from above. Wow.

873
00:32:10,168 --> 00:32:12,162
Like, a, like, a drone photo of the

874
00:32:12,162 --> 00:32:14,642
top of the circle, that is so beautiful.

875
00:32:15,118 --> 00:32:17,661
And just the symbolism of what that... How

876
00:32:17,661 --> 00:32:18,932
that's inviting people in.

877
00:32:19,726 --> 00:32:21,885
Right. So the others like this care about,

878
00:32:22,044 --> 00:32:24,663
let's let's save these trays. Right. And the

879
00:32:24,663 --> 00:32:27,441
fact that he's done, off, off the top

880
00:32:27,441 --> 00:32:28,711
of my head, I'm forgetting, but, you know,

881
00:32:29,123 --> 00:32:31,506
It's a small number of of, he's... He

882
00:32:31,506 --> 00:32:32,856
works for a non nonprofit. He's a bot,

883
00:32:33,016 --> 00:32:34,366
and he works for a nonprofit, and there's

884
00:32:34,366 --> 00:32:36,193
sort of a small number of churches that

885
00:32:36,193 --> 00:32:37,623
he's done so far because it's sort of

886
00:32:37,623 --> 00:32:38,338
1 at a time.

887
00:32:38,989 --> 00:32:40,346
And I asked him how many they are

888
00:32:40,346 --> 00:32:41,804
and he said 30000

889
00:32:43,140 --> 00:32:46,093
In the country of Ethiopia. Yeah. Wow. And

890
00:32:46,093 --> 00:32:47,211
he's done, you know,

891
00:32:48,101 --> 00:32:48,498
hundreds.

892
00:32:48,974 --> 00:32:51,832
Wow. But he's doing moving. Yeah. Right? That

893
00:32:51,832 --> 00:32:53,420
does not put him off. That does not

894
00:32:53,420 --> 00:32:55,167
tell him this is impossible. He's is like,

895
00:32:55,659 --> 00:32:57,174
he was like this was all 1 big

896
00:32:57,174 --> 00:32:58,690
forest before, and it can be 1 big

897
00:32:58,690 --> 00:32:59,966
forest again. And

898
00:33:00,604 --> 00:33:03,156
I love that story. You have a few

899
00:33:03,156 --> 00:33:04,374
quasi celebrities.

900
00:33:05,564 --> 00:33:08,039
In the book, I guess 1 can't write

901
00:33:08,039 --> 00:33:11,253
about trees without finding a few rockstar collectors

902
00:33:11,312 --> 00:33:11,812
or

903
00:33:12,190 --> 00:33:14,606
quirky collectors who are known

904
00:33:14,998 --> 00:33:16,350
Do you wanna share any of those stories?

905
00:33:17,941 --> 00:33:19,372
Yeah. You know, I...

906
00:33:20,088 --> 00:33:21,678
So well, let me tell you about 1

907
00:33:21,678 --> 00:33:23,522
that got away first of all. I'll tell

908
00:33:23,522 --> 00:33:25,828
you 1 of my biggest regrets, and I

909
00:33:25,828 --> 00:33:27,656
hope that by talking about this, maybe I'm

910
00:33:27,656 --> 00:33:30,279
gonna find another collector who does this. But,

911
00:33:30,995 --> 00:33:33,001
I'll There are a few tree collectors out

912
00:33:33,001 --> 00:33:34,696
there who are interested in growing

913
00:33:35,072 --> 00:33:35,572
wood

914
00:33:36,187 --> 00:33:38,577
and tone wood is trees that are used

915
00:33:38,577 --> 00:33:40,010
to make musical instruments.

916
00:33:40,424 --> 00:33:42,984
Oh, wow. Yes. Oh, sorry.

917
00:33:43,544 --> 00:33:44,044
Right.

918
00:33:44,424 --> 00:33:45,865
And because the wood has to have a

919
00:33:45,865 --> 00:33:48,585
very particular quality to have the resonance that

920
00:33:48,585 --> 00:33:48,984
you need.

921
00:33:49,559 --> 00:33:51,559
And, you might have... I don't know if

922
00:33:51,559 --> 00:33:53,400
you, if you got this far, but,

923
00:33:54,519 --> 00:33:54,920
Diane,

924
00:33:56,039 --> 00:33:57,240
Diane Allen Jones,

925
00:33:57,971 --> 00:34:00,119
is in New Orleans, and she's a landscape.

926
00:34:00,357 --> 00:34:02,107
I'm sorry. Diane Jones Allen is in New

927
00:34:02,187 --> 00:34:03,937
Orleans, and she's a landscape architect.

928
00:34:04,589 --> 00:34:06,750
And she once did a project in New

929
00:34:06,829 --> 00:34:09,469
Orleans at Lily Armstrong Plaza where she got

930
00:34:09,469 --> 00:34:10,449
to put in

931
00:34:11,564 --> 00:34:14,295
african trees that were used to make musical

932
00:34:14,353 --> 00:34:16,743
instruments in that plaza. Oh wow. But she

933
00:34:16,743 --> 00:34:18,257
also has her own personal tree collection that

934
00:34:18,257 --> 00:34:20,904
I was talking about So anyway, among celebrity

935
00:34:20,904 --> 00:34:23,558
tree collectors, I did have a musician

936
00:34:24,015 --> 00:34:26,898
who is into tone wood. So but they

937
00:34:26,898 --> 00:34:28,724
dropped out of the process. They were, you

938
00:34:28,724 --> 00:34:31,266
know, too busy couldn't do it whatever. So

939
00:34:31,424 --> 00:34:33,410
I was So putting the word out to

940
00:34:33,410 --> 00:34:34,521
the tone with collectors.

941
00:34:35,648 --> 00:34:37,234
Get in touch for the book number 2.

942
00:34:38,423 --> 00:34:39,137
Right. But

943
00:34:39,771 --> 00:34:41,754
but I was so delighted to find out

944
00:34:41,754 --> 00:34:43,023
about Edward Everett Horton.

945
00:34:43,594 --> 00:34:46,311
Okay. So yes. So so the... And and

946
00:34:46,311 --> 00:34:47,910
also, there are not many people in this

947
00:34:47,910 --> 00:34:50,467
book who are who are not alive. Like,

948
00:34:50,627 --> 00:34:51,666
I really wanted this to be a book

949
00:34:51,666 --> 00:34:53,516
of living people. Not... People who lived 200

950
00:34:53,516 --> 00:34:55,829
years ago. But, there are a few people

951
00:34:55,829 --> 00:34:57,105
who are no longer with us who are

952
00:34:57,105 --> 00:34:59,257
in there, and that includes him. And so

953
00:34:59,257 --> 00:35:01,091
he was an actor who acted with Fred

954
00:35:01,091 --> 00:35:03,256
air, people He was in the gay divorce.

955
00:35:03,574 --> 00:35:05,325
I mean, if you're into the golden age

956
00:35:05,325 --> 00:35:07,871
of Hollywood Cinema, you know who Edward Everett

957
00:35:07,951 --> 00:35:08,746
Horton was.

958
00:35:09,318 --> 00:35:11,883
And, so he lived down in Southern California,

959
00:35:12,097 --> 00:35:13,923
and he was pretty successful for his day,

960
00:35:14,083 --> 00:35:16,703
pretty well known, smaller parts, but character actor.

961
00:35:17,592 --> 00:35:18,410
And he

962
00:35:18,785 --> 00:35:19,740
was a tree collector.

963
00:35:20,456 --> 00:35:22,365
And he was very funny in the press.

964
00:35:22,603 --> 00:35:24,170
So he would do these interviews

965
00:35:24,609 --> 00:35:25,967
and talk about

966
00:35:26,447 --> 00:35:28,444
you know, talk about his obsession with trees,

967
00:35:28,684 --> 00:35:30,841
and there's a story about him at 1

968
00:35:30,841 --> 00:35:32,775
point that he was late showing up to

969
00:35:32,775 --> 00:35:34,535
the studio for a film,

970
00:35:35,015 --> 00:35:36,614
and he said it's because he was up

971
00:35:36,614 --> 00:35:37,974
all night with a sick tree.

972
00:35:39,175 --> 00:35:41,102
You must have just felt like you hit

973
00:35:41,102 --> 00:35:43,088
gold when you find his interview. Feel like

974
00:35:43,167 --> 00:35:43,962
I did gold.

975
00:35:44,677 --> 00:35:46,901
Yes. And it's a thing. I I knew

976
00:35:46,901 --> 00:35:47,139
it.

977
00:35:47,775 --> 00:35:51,048
Right. Right. So so funny and interesting and

978
00:35:51,048 --> 00:35:53,594
delightful, and he does have archives. Again, like,

979
00:35:54,231 --> 00:35:55,663
it was hard to travel to all this

980
00:35:55,663 --> 00:35:57,652
stuff, but I found someone in Wyoming who

981
00:35:57,652 --> 00:35:59,496
could go into his archives funny for me

982
00:35:59,656 --> 00:36:02,122
at the university there and dig through him

983
00:36:02,122 --> 00:36:04,350
to see, you know, what can find out

984
00:36:04,350 --> 00:36:07,135
about his connection with with trees. Oh my

985
00:36:07,135 --> 00:36:08,503
gosh. I love that story.

986
00:36:09,699 --> 00:36:11,534
That is such a great story. And, you

987
00:36:11,534 --> 00:36:13,608
know, there's... The... This the 3... The way

988
00:36:13,608 --> 00:36:15,203
you have that the book organized is so

989
00:36:15,203 --> 00:36:17,298
interesting because you see the portrait

990
00:36:18,328 --> 00:36:20,555
and you read the person's story, and then

991
00:36:20,555 --> 00:36:22,623
you see maybe a tree from their garden,

992
00:36:22,862 --> 00:36:23,362
and

993
00:36:24,612 --> 00:36:26,143
it that you could pick this up and

994
00:36:26,143 --> 00:36:27,901
just, you know, read... As almost like a

995
00:36:27,901 --> 00:36:29,899
daily meditation, You can almost get through the

996
00:36:29,899 --> 00:36:30,298
whole year,

997
00:36:30,938 --> 00:36:32,397
reading 1 tree story

998
00:36:33,175 --> 00:36:33,789
a week

999
00:36:34,148 --> 00:36:35,903
right. Maybe you wanna read faster. I mean,

1000
00:36:36,063 --> 00:36:37,738
I I have just like... I like the

1001
00:36:37,738 --> 00:36:38,695
idea that there's

1002
00:36:39,413 --> 00:36:40,311
a lot of

1003
00:36:40,928 --> 00:36:42,523
education in this. A lot of things I

1004
00:36:42,523 --> 00:36:43,560
did not know, like,

1005
00:36:44,768 --> 00:36:46,119
collective nouns for trays,

1006
00:36:47,630 --> 00:36:49,538
what you call a collection of birch,

1007
00:36:50,969 --> 00:36:51,469
a

1008
00:36:51,937 --> 00:36:53,207
Bet you lead him. Is that what how

1009
00:36:53,207 --> 00:36:56,699
you saying? Right? Yeah. Or pane for for

1010
00:36:56,699 --> 00:36:59,735
pine trees or que Ke for oak... Trees.

1011
00:36:59,974 --> 00:37:01,655
I know. I love these words.

1012
00:37:02,295 --> 00:37:03,735
I know you do. And I think that's

1013
00:37:03,735 --> 00:37:06,215
so fabulous that you have that. Okay. What

1014
00:37:06,215 --> 00:37:07,994
is this 1? Joey Santo

1015
00:37:08,454 --> 00:37:10,967
tips, for unauthorized forestry.

1016
00:37:11,347 --> 00:37:13,503
Okay. There's gotta be a story here. He's

1017
00:37:13,503 --> 00:37:14,862
1 of my fit. Well, here Go again.

1018
00:37:15,021 --> 00:37:16,300
He's 1 of my favorite people on the

1019
00:37:16,300 --> 00:37:16,380
book.

1020
00:37:17,512 --> 00:37:20,226
Go to his Youtube channel, which is called,

1021
00:37:21,662 --> 00:37:23,179
Crying pays, but Doesn't.

1022
00:37:23,897 --> 00:37:27,100
Okay. It's great. Yes. And and he works

1023
00:37:27,100 --> 00:37:29,250
under and and and and he'll be Tony

1024
00:37:29,409 --> 00:37:31,877
Santo. So he's sort of... He's created a

1025
00:37:31,877 --> 00:37:33,564
little bit of a character for himself. Well,

1026
00:37:33,723 --> 00:37:35,715
he's from Chicago. So he... But he... So...

1027
00:37:35,874 --> 00:37:37,308
But he's got this kind of,

1028
00:37:38,344 --> 00:37:40,597
he's got this sort of Chicago Gangster

1029
00:37:40,973 --> 00:37:44,173
persona when he's talking about now. K. But

1030
00:37:44,173 --> 00:37:46,241
his Youtube channel is unbelievable, So he is

1031
00:37:46,241 --> 00:37:48,707
someone that I found through Youtube, basically. And

1032
00:37:48,707 --> 00:37:50,634
he really knows his stuff. But 1 of

1033
00:37:50,634 --> 00:37:53,052
the things he did several years ago was

1034
00:37:53,111 --> 00:37:54,550
he was living in Oakland,

1035
00:37:55,109 --> 00:37:56,148
and there was a,

1036
00:37:57,426 --> 00:38:00,391
Macarthur Parkway in Oakland was... Meant to be

1037
00:38:00,391 --> 00:38:00,891
landscape

1038
00:38:01,265 --> 00:38:03,965
with trees down this very wide median strip,

1039
00:38:04,362 --> 00:38:06,189
but they did a terrible job, the city

1040
00:38:06,189 --> 00:38:07,222
and the trees died,

1041
00:38:07,714 --> 00:38:09,392
And so he just took it over and

1042
00:38:09,392 --> 00:38:12,769
started planting trees. So it's like Gorilla gardening

1043
00:38:13,148 --> 00:38:15,885
only with trees. Yeah. Yeah. And

1044
00:38:16,198 --> 00:38:18,581
and he has. So yeah it is crazy.

1045
00:38:18,899 --> 00:38:21,282
And they're still there. Like, again, talking about

1046
00:38:21,282 --> 00:38:23,427
a legacy, you know, you really realize when

1047
00:38:23,427 --> 00:38:24,404
you plan a tree

1048
00:38:24,713 --> 00:38:26,468
you are leaving a legacy. I mean, if

1049
00:38:26,468 --> 00:38:28,701
the tree survives, it almost certainly will will

1050
00:38:28,701 --> 00:38:30,853
out live you. So, yeah, he has all

1051
00:38:30,853 --> 00:38:33,006
these suggestions for how to do it. If

1052
00:38:33,006 --> 00:38:35,679
you're gonna... Sneak a tree into

1053
00:38:36,059 --> 00:38:38,539
a public space where you're not invited to

1054
00:38:38,539 --> 00:38:40,940
do so. Like, he suggests make sure the

1055
00:38:40,940 --> 00:38:42,300
tree is kind of big enough,

1056
00:38:42,954 --> 00:38:45,594
that when the maintenance crews come by, it'll

1057
00:38:45,594 --> 00:38:47,514
look like it's always been there. If it's

1058
00:38:47,514 --> 00:38:50,074
too small, they might know that you're sampling.

1059
00:38:50,234 --> 00:38:52,489
Yeah. I love it. Right. Oh my gosh.

1060
00:38:52,889 --> 00:38:54,726
Return often to the scene of the crime

1061
00:38:54,726 --> 00:38:57,204
to pull weeds. 1 of his 1 his

1062
00:38:57,204 --> 00:38:57,443
rules.

1063
00:38:58,163 --> 00:39:00,161
Right. Oh my gosh. I love it.

1064
00:39:01,855 --> 00:39:02,355
Their

1065
00:39:02,734 --> 00:39:04,835
their the idea of people

1066
00:39:07,215 --> 00:39:09,054
cherish or honoring their heritage.

1067
00:39:09,389 --> 00:39:11,803
Mh through their trees is definitely

1068
00:39:12,181 --> 00:39:13,856
a big part of this book because, you,

1069
00:39:14,015 --> 00:39:15,313
as you said, you're you're

1070
00:39:15,849 --> 00:39:17,764
coax out their stories. But the 1 that

1071
00:39:17,844 --> 00:39:19,692
I was really interested in I mean, we

1072
00:39:19,692 --> 00:39:21,521
could talk on talk about is the

1073
00:39:22,077 --> 00:39:23,668
Joe Hamilton, the rightful air?

1074
00:39:24,383 --> 00:39:25,258
Yes. Is that...

1075
00:39:27,723 --> 00:39:28,757
That's a really special 1.

1076
00:39:29,968 --> 00:39:32,525
Joe Joe Hamilton blew me away. He...

1077
00:39:33,324 --> 00:39:34,922
And I... And I'll say, of of of

1078
00:39:34,922 --> 00:39:36,655
all the interviews I did, you know, Every

1079
00:39:36,774 --> 00:39:38,450
recorded them as we do when we do

1080
00:39:38,450 --> 00:39:40,366
interviews on on Zoom or whatever. And that

1081
00:39:40,366 --> 00:39:42,202
was the 1... Like, I had to play

1082
00:39:42,202 --> 00:39:44,117
it over again for my husband that night.

1083
00:39:45,804 --> 00:39:48,187
For him to understand how powerful this story

1084
00:39:48,187 --> 00:39:51,762
was. So this... The Joe's story really gets

1085
00:39:51,762 --> 00:39:53,748
most closely at the question of who has

1086
00:39:53,748 --> 00:39:54,621
land and why?

1087
00:39:56,466 --> 00:39:57,262
In the south,

1088
00:39:57,898 --> 00:40:00,445
there's there's this issue and it's called Heirs

1089
00:40:00,445 --> 00:40:02,673
property. And so what it is is it's

1090
00:40:02,673 --> 00:40:05,415
black families who, have land

1091
00:40:05,948 --> 00:40:08,809
that maybe came into their possession immediately following

1092
00:40:08,809 --> 00:40:09,604
the civil war.

1093
00:40:10,478 --> 00:40:12,885
I'm not really an expert on exactly

1094
00:40:13,354 --> 00:40:16,465
how things washed out in the immediate aftermath

1095
00:40:16,465 --> 00:40:17,821
of the civil war, but I had a

1096
00:40:17,821 --> 00:40:18,799
general impression

1097
00:40:19,257 --> 00:40:22,048
that some farms got split up. And in

1098
00:40:22,048 --> 00:40:22,846
some cases,

1099
00:40:23,419 --> 00:40:27,276
people who had worked on the farms as

1100
00:40:27,575 --> 00:40:28,634
enslaved people

1101
00:40:29,093 --> 00:40:32,290
ended up getting land as things were sort

1102
00:40:32,290 --> 00:40:34,782
of dis band. Yeah. That may not be

1103
00:40:34,782 --> 00:40:36,620
the most air night way of explaining it,

1104
00:40:36,780 --> 00:40:39,736
but it happened. Yeah. Oh so that... So

1105
00:40:39,736 --> 00:40:41,988
that land or land that's bought acquired through

1106
00:40:41,988 --> 00:40:43,107
other means. Whatever it is,

1107
00:40:43,826 --> 00:40:45,663
there are... There's a real issue with black

1108
00:40:45,663 --> 00:40:48,380
families not having clear title to their land

1109
00:40:48,380 --> 00:40:50,725
or Right. As they weren't in the system

1110
00:40:51,101 --> 00:40:53,648
that paperwork wasn't right. And I mean, I'm

1111
00:40:53,648 --> 00:40:55,876
talking... I'm, you know, I'm talking really going

1112
00:40:55,876 --> 00:40:58,690
back. We're talking manual record keeping anyway. Right?

1113
00:40:58,849 --> 00:41:00,289
And like they're digitized.

1114
00:41:00,690 --> 00:41:03,409
Yeah. As you can imagine an unbelievable amount

1115
00:41:03,409 --> 00:41:03,909
of

1116
00:41:04,289 --> 00:41:07,492
discrimination and outright. Fraud that happened for families.

1117
00:41:07,730 --> 00:41:10,433
So the reason it's called Heirs property is

1118
00:41:10,433 --> 00:41:13,000
that the county tax assessor

1119
00:41:13,788 --> 00:41:15,783
may not be super clear on who has

1120
00:41:15,783 --> 00:41:17,538
title to the land, but they want their

1121
00:41:17,538 --> 00:41:18,416
property taxes.

1122
00:41:19,054 --> 00:41:21,304
So They know who they're gonna... They're gonna

1123
00:41:21,304 --> 00:41:23,304
hit up for that that... Right. And it

1124
00:41:23,304 --> 00:41:25,784
basically says it's a that property tax bill

1125
00:41:25,784 --> 00:41:28,664
is sent care of heirs of this property.

1126
00:41:28,999 --> 00:41:31,155
Right? And oh, okay. It's like, whoever you

1127
00:41:31,155 --> 00:41:32,592
people are, you better send us some money.

1128
00:41:32,751 --> 00:41:36,046
So right. So the process of clearing title

1129
00:41:36,105 --> 00:41:38,021
improving that you own the land you have

1130
00:41:38,021 --> 00:41:39,713
is a really different difficult 1, and there's

1131
00:41:39,713 --> 00:41:41,951
these organizations that help. So, like, in South

1132
00:41:42,031 --> 00:41:44,429
Carolina, it's the... They're called, I think the

1133
00:41:44,429 --> 00:41:46,187
center for Air property, and they just do

1134
00:41:46,267 --> 00:41:48,400
South Carolina, but there's other ones in other

1135
00:41:48,519 --> 00:41:49,712
stick because every state's is gonna be a

1136
00:41:49,712 --> 00:41:52,019
little different. And so in Joe's case,

1137
00:41:52,973 --> 00:41:53,212
his,

1138
00:41:54,166 --> 00:41:55,382
I think great great

1139
00:41:55,774 --> 00:41:56,893
maybe triple great

1140
00:41:57,612 --> 00:41:58,012
grandfather,

1141
00:41:59,050 --> 00:42:00,589
got hold of 800

1142
00:42:00,649 --> 00:42:01,149
acres

1143
00:42:01,767 --> 00:42:04,005
coming out of the civil war and being

1144
00:42:04,578 --> 00:42:05,213
free man.

1145
00:42:05,847 --> 00:42:08,068
And so Joe's family,

1146
00:42:08,545 --> 00:42:09,679
Joe had inherited

1147
00:42:10,449 --> 00:42:12,353
04:40... It was down to I think, 40

1148
00:42:12,353 --> 00:42:12,670
acres,

1149
00:42:13,405 --> 00:42:15,664
So he's trying to figure out

1150
00:42:16,444 --> 00:42:18,444
how to get title to the acreage he

1151
00:42:18,444 --> 00:42:21,085
does own because it's unclear, but also what

1152
00:42:21,085 --> 00:42:21,405
happened?

1153
00:42:21,898 --> 00:42:23,333
What happened to the rest of that land.

1154
00:42:23,731 --> 00:42:25,962
Right. And so he's... He went through this

1155
00:42:25,962 --> 00:42:29,148
incredible process searching the deeds and looking through

1156
00:42:29,148 --> 00:42:31,872
what whatever you can find newspaper records property

1157
00:42:31,872 --> 00:42:34,022
maps, all the things and what he sees

1158
00:42:34,022 --> 00:42:35,376
is this history of,

1159
00:42:37,925 --> 00:42:39,916
bad decisions, you know, he was sort of

1160
00:42:39,916 --> 00:42:42,325
like Look, this guy, my great grandfather, like,

1161
00:42:42,564 --> 00:42:44,161
he wouldn't have had a lot of business

1162
00:42:44,161 --> 00:42:44,400
smarts,

1163
00:42:45,278 --> 00:42:47,194
and and he would've have been taken advantage

1164
00:42:47,194 --> 00:42:49,523
of, and there were days when you you

1165
00:42:49,523 --> 00:42:50,870
know, you go to the bank and you

1166
00:42:50,870 --> 00:42:52,535
take out a loan, that's gonna be paid

1167
00:42:52,535 --> 00:42:54,121
back when the crop comes in, but then

1168
00:42:54,121 --> 00:42:56,103
the crop fails and you lose land to

1169
00:42:56,103 --> 00:42:56,499
the bank.

1170
00:42:57,229 --> 00:42:59,461
Or... Right. Just you make other bad business

1171
00:42:59,461 --> 00:43:00,896
deals outright theft,

1172
00:43:02,570 --> 00:43:02,969
of, you know,

1173
00:43:03,766 --> 00:43:06,255
reasons. Outright theft and fraud all kinds of

1174
00:43:06,255 --> 00:43:07,534
reasons. So at at the end of the

1175
00:43:07,534 --> 00:43:09,855
day, he couldn't get back any near the

1176
00:43:09,855 --> 00:43:11,934
acreage that was lost, but he could lock

1177
00:43:11,934 --> 00:43:12,974
down what he had.

1178
00:43:13,630 --> 00:43:15,789
And this land... This particular land in South

1179
00:43:15,949 --> 00:43:16,449
Carolina

1180
00:43:16,750 --> 00:43:18,750
isn't really... You're not gonna build condos on

1181
00:43:18,750 --> 00:43:21,789
it. Yeah. It's it's timber land. There's there's

1182
00:43:22,283 --> 00:43:24,590
they grow a lob lol pines in South

1183
00:43:24,749 --> 00:43:27,317
Carolina, they're used for telephone poles and and

1184
00:43:27,851 --> 00:43:28,726
furniture and other things.

1185
00:43:29,536 --> 00:43:32,083
So the best highest and best use of

1186
00:43:32,083 --> 00:43:34,310
the land. The most the most economical use

1187
00:43:34,310 --> 00:43:37,731
of the land is sustainable, long term timber.

1188
00:43:38,304 --> 00:43:41,008
And that's kinda what the Air property program

1189
00:43:41,008 --> 00:43:42,838
is about. It's, like, we'll teach you how

1190
00:43:42,838 --> 00:43:46,192
to plant for future generations. So it's nice

1191
00:43:46,192 --> 00:43:49,288
because it's about generational wealth. Right? And that's

1192
00:43:49,288 --> 00:43:50,264
the thing that

1193
00:43:50,796 --> 00:43:52,940
a struggle for black families, particularly in the

1194
00:43:52,940 --> 00:43:53,972
south. It's that lack of...

1195
00:43:54,703 --> 00:43:57,257
The generational wealth that comes with owning land

1196
00:43:57,257 --> 00:43:59,571
and having a right base like that.

1197
00:44:00,369 --> 00:44:02,378
So that's what he's done is he's put

1198
00:44:02,378 --> 00:44:04,606
it into long term timber production that will

1199
00:44:04,606 --> 00:44:06,993
happen long after he's gone. So, like, as

1200
00:44:06,993 --> 00:44:08,982
a tree collector, yeah. I mean, I sort

1201
00:44:08,982 --> 00:44:10,414
had to explain to him. I'm sort of,

1202
00:44:10,494 --> 00:44:13,625
like, look, put Your collect quote unquote, air

1203
00:44:13,625 --> 00:44:16,344
quotes, collection of trees is 1 tree planted

1204
00:44:16,344 --> 00:44:18,505
over and over again, and it's planned for

1205
00:44:18,505 --> 00:44:20,990
a different purpose. It's not planted to g

1206
00:44:20,990 --> 00:44:23,297
the ego of someone who wants to have

1207
00:44:23,297 --> 00:44:25,127
every species of oak in the world because

1208
00:44:25,127 --> 00:44:25,842
it's so cool.

1209
00:44:26,494 --> 00:44:28,887
It's planted to create generational wealth. Yeah. It's

1210
00:44:28,887 --> 00:44:31,119
your it's your inheritance. It's your legacy. It's

1211
00:44:31,119 --> 00:44:31,779
a legacy

1212
00:44:32,156 --> 00:44:34,628
that can be passed on directly from coming

1213
00:44:34,628 --> 00:44:35,585
right out of the civil war.

1214
00:44:36,319 --> 00:44:36,819
So

1215
00:44:37,519 --> 00:44:39,519
I hope his story. Yeah. I hope his

1216
00:44:39,519 --> 00:44:40,579
story empowers

1217
00:44:41,199 --> 00:44:43,199
other people to kind of get there.

1218
00:44:44,733 --> 00:44:47,045
Ownership tied up and, you know, locked down

1219
00:44:47,045 --> 00:44:47,784
and really

1220
00:44:49,198 --> 00:44:49,517
you know,

1221
00:44:50,474 --> 00:44:51,612
correct that

1222
00:44:51,989 --> 00:44:55,106
the problems of bad record keeping. And as

1223
00:44:55,106 --> 00:44:55,504
you said,

1224
00:44:56,298 --> 00:44:57,275
fraud and

1225
00:44:57,887 --> 00:44:58,205
you know,

1226
00:44:58,999 --> 00:45:01,873
outright discrimination. So That's a great story. Like,

1227
00:45:02,032 --> 00:45:04,175
that's sort of why I love the way

1228
00:45:04,175 --> 00:45:06,264
your mind works is that you're not

1229
00:45:07,510 --> 00:45:10,067
you're not linear. You're very certain killer and

1230
00:45:10,067 --> 00:45:10,806
how you

1231
00:45:11,181 --> 00:45:12,796
explore a topic, and that's

1232
00:45:13,171 --> 00:45:14,842
why this book is so rich with,

1233
00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:18,981
amazing amazing stories. And, yeah, the illustrations make

1234
00:45:18,981 --> 00:45:20,593
it killer so special, Amy.

1235
00:45:22,591 --> 00:45:25,468
Your art really has become a huge part

1236
00:45:25,468 --> 00:45:27,786
of your, life as a writer now. I

1237
00:45:27,786 --> 00:45:28,800
mean, that's just

1238
00:45:30,274 --> 00:45:32,983
if anyone has not discovered Amy subs stack,

1239
00:45:33,860 --> 00:45:35,772
newsletter. It's... How often do you publish that

1240
00:45:35,772 --> 00:45:37,536
once a week? I try to do once

1241
00:45:37,536 --> 00:45:40,099
a week. Yeah. Yeah. And there's lots of

1242
00:45:40,631 --> 00:45:42,957
amazing illustrations specifically to

1243
00:45:43,647 --> 00:45:45,076
go with a story. Like,

1244
00:45:46,608 --> 00:45:48,126
And, I'll put the link in our show

1245
00:45:48,126 --> 00:45:49,883
notes for people to subscribe to the free

1246
00:45:49,883 --> 00:45:52,280
version or you can, pay get a paid

1247
00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:54,447
edition. Which has, I think more content or

1248
00:45:54,447 --> 00:45:56,836
something like... It's our lessons. Yeah. Oh, our.

1249
00:45:57,155 --> 00:45:59,146
The paid lesson is straight up our tutorials.

1250
00:45:59,385 --> 00:46:00,660
Here's how to here's how to do this.

1251
00:46:00,819 --> 00:46:01,536
Here's how to do that,

1252
00:46:02,428 --> 00:46:04,341
So that's more for the the people who

1253
00:46:04,341 --> 00:46:05,936
follow me for art. You know? I mean,

1254
00:46:06,015 --> 00:46:07,530
it's it's it's 1 of those things that

1255
00:46:07,530 --> 00:46:09,125
can happen. Like, people know you for a

1256
00:46:09,125 --> 00:46:10,400
bunch of different reasons. Right?

1257
00:46:10,894 --> 00:46:12,414
We like your art, other people like you

1258
00:46:12,414 --> 00:46:13,934
for your writing, and I like you for

1259
00:46:13,934 --> 00:46:14,974
both. Oh, thanks.

1260
00:46:15,775 --> 00:46:17,614
So how are you gonna, launch this... The

1261
00:46:17,614 --> 00:46:18,894
book. The books out in a few weeks.

1262
00:46:19,054 --> 00:46:19,110
No

1263
00:46:20,338 --> 00:46:22,478
will you be, able to do some book

1264
00:46:22,478 --> 00:46:24,776
signings and book events and, how can people

1265
00:46:24,776 --> 00:46:26,124
find out what where you're going to be

1266
00:46:26,124 --> 00:46:26,362
when?

1267
00:46:26,931 --> 00:46:28,518
Yes. So I'm going on the road,

1268
00:46:29,312 --> 00:46:31,454
I've got a a little tour plan for

1269
00:46:31,454 --> 00:46:33,993
mid July going into August. So if you

1270
00:46:33,993 --> 00:46:36,175
go to my website, which is just amy

1271
00:46:36,232 --> 00:46:36,947
stewart dot com,

1272
00:46:37,742 --> 00:46:39,730
there'll be a list of events there, and

1273
00:46:39,730 --> 00:46:42,512
please come. It's so it's so important and

1274
00:46:42,512 --> 00:46:45,394
so helpful when people turn up, and and

1275
00:46:45,394 --> 00:46:47,555
bring their tree stories to share with you...

1276
00:46:48,114 --> 00:46:50,035
Bring you... You know what? It's so amazing.

1277
00:46:50,355 --> 00:46:51,795
I did AII

1278
00:46:51,795 --> 00:46:53,289
did a talk at a little what writer's

1279
00:46:53,409 --> 00:46:55,397
conference here in Oregon a couple months ago.

1280
00:46:56,271 --> 00:46:57,942
So way before the book is gonna come

1281
00:46:57,942 --> 00:46:59,771
out. But I had a copy, which I

1282
00:46:59,771 --> 00:47:01,202
just, you know, waved in front of the

1283
00:47:01,202 --> 00:47:03,213
audience just to say, hey, this is coming

1284
00:47:03,683 --> 00:47:06,870
People had stories about tree collections. Like this

1285
00:47:06,870 --> 00:47:08,782
was not an audience that was expecting to

1286
00:47:08,782 --> 00:47:10,535
talk about trees. That's not why they were

1287
00:47:10,535 --> 00:47:12,686
there. So I know. People are totally gonna

1288
00:47:12,686 --> 00:47:13,139
have

1289
00:47:13,578 --> 00:47:16,130
stories, which well, hearing... Maybe it's a fun

1290
00:47:16,130 --> 00:47:18,284
use of the of the pun coming out

1291
00:47:18,284 --> 00:47:20,517
of the wood work yeah with stories. Right.

1292
00:47:21,315 --> 00:47:21,953
Well, that's great.

1293
00:47:23,405 --> 00:47:25,644
What is the actual pub publication date? It's

1294
00:47:25,804 --> 00:47:26,605
July sixteenth.

1295
00:47:27,085 --> 00:47:28,925
Okay. Pre orders encouraged,

1296
00:47:29,405 --> 00:47:29,485
please.

1297
00:47:30,379 --> 00:47:32,283
There... It's available now, and you can get

1298
00:47:32,283 --> 00:47:34,505
a signed copy through Amy site, which I

1299
00:47:34,505 --> 00:47:35,378
believe is yes,

1300
00:47:36,092 --> 00:47:37,123
on your website as well.

1301
00:47:37,773 --> 00:47:39,597
Yeah. I partnered up with a bookstore here

1302
00:47:39,597 --> 00:47:41,579
in town, Broadway books, so they're taking all

1303
00:47:41,579 --> 00:47:43,165
the orders, and then I'll go over there

1304
00:47:43,165 --> 00:47:45,227
and sign copies for everybody when on in.

1305
00:47:45,719 --> 00:47:47,234
I love it. What is the tree that

1306
00:47:47,234 --> 00:47:49,706
you visit the most on your neighborhood walks

1307
00:47:49,706 --> 00:47:50,742
in in Portland?

1308
00:47:51,300 --> 00:47:53,533
Because I know you've scour them all? And

1309
00:47:53,533 --> 00:47:56,821
painted them all. Right. Right. Well, there are

1310
00:47:56,821 --> 00:47:57,540
a couple of,

1311
00:47:58,259 --> 00:48:01,215
enormous doug fir that I walk past, you

1312
00:48:01,215 --> 00:48:03,302
know, the... The footage in my little video

1313
00:48:03,302 --> 00:48:05,133
of me and the forest. It's... That's kind

1314
00:48:05,133 --> 00:48:06,806
of my daily walk. That's sort of what

1315
00:48:06,806 --> 00:48:08,398
it looks like for part of it. I

1316
00:48:08,398 --> 00:48:09,991
can cut into the to the woods there.

1317
00:48:10,642 --> 00:48:13,608
So, I think everybody loves a massive old

1318
00:48:13,824 --> 00:48:15,494
tree. Right? And there there are a couple

1319
00:48:15,494 --> 00:48:16,847
of really fantastic ones.

1320
00:48:17,420 --> 00:48:18,940
But I I live in a very tree

1321
00:48:18,940 --> 00:48:19,679
line neighborhood

1322
00:48:20,059 --> 00:48:23,199
here in Portland, and it is something that

1323
00:48:23,739 --> 00:48:25,980
definitely affected the the book and how I

1324
00:48:25,980 --> 00:48:27,586
think about. How I thought about the book,

1325
00:48:27,665 --> 00:48:29,252
but also how I thought about the trees

1326
00:48:29,252 --> 00:48:31,156
is that if you're a tree collector,

1327
00:48:31,632 --> 00:48:33,401
you sort of have this ac ac,

1328
00:48:34,186 --> 00:48:35,934
nature with trees. You're like, oh, I like

1329
00:48:35,934 --> 00:48:38,319
that 1. I'll take that, please. And, you

1330
00:48:38,319 --> 00:48:39,988
know, you can't have them because they're growing

1331
00:48:39,988 --> 00:48:41,260
in the sidewalk or they're growing in a

1332
00:48:41,260 --> 00:48:43,739
pot pod. But you're visiting them. Their friends.

1333
00:48:44,137 --> 00:48:46,306
Yeah. And you sort of start to have

1334
00:48:46,362 --> 00:48:49,065
opinions about them and pass judgment on this

1335
00:48:49,065 --> 00:48:51,228
1 is better than that 1. And I

1336
00:48:51,228 --> 00:48:53,539
think that's another interesting thing actually because a

1337
00:48:53,539 --> 00:48:55,393
lot of us have this generalized

1338
00:48:55,849 --> 00:48:57,603
love of tree... Like, trees are good. We

1339
00:48:57,603 --> 00:48:58,081
love trees.

1340
00:48:58,654 --> 00:49:00,888
But trade collectors really walk around going, oh,

1341
00:49:00,968 --> 00:49:02,005
no, no. No. It's...

1342
00:49:02,723 --> 00:49:05,197
That's the best 1 of the bunch, and

1343
00:49:05,197 --> 00:49:07,044
it's right there. It's kind of like what's

1344
00:49:07,044 --> 00:49:09,112
happening with bird bird watching, I think that

1345
00:49:09,112 --> 00:49:11,101
that there's just... We have this have had

1346
00:49:11,101 --> 00:49:11,260
this...

1347
00:49:12,532 --> 00:49:15,172
You know, bird book blindness. And we also

1348
00:49:15,172 --> 00:49:17,080
have had tree blindness where we don't really

1349
00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:19,625
know the species and the and the... Even

1350
00:49:19,625 --> 00:49:21,000
the families. And now

1351
00:49:22,428 --> 00:49:24,106
as we all wanna spend more time in

1352
00:49:24,106 --> 00:49:27,382
nature and maybe appreciate what our environmental in,

1353
00:49:27,461 --> 00:49:29,554
you know, world has for us. Mh We

1354
00:49:29,554 --> 00:49:31,951
are looking more closely. And I think the

1355
00:49:31,951 --> 00:49:34,449
tree collectors tales of arbor burial

1356
00:49:34,987 --> 00:49:36,905
obsession is going to kinda be a guide

1357
00:49:36,905 --> 00:49:39,393
book. To get us through some of those,

1358
00:49:40,191 --> 00:49:40,691
just

1359
00:49:41,307 --> 00:49:43,381
whoever has taken a plant Id class,

1360
00:49:44,418 --> 00:49:46,890
1 quarter in a community college like, I

1361
00:49:46,890 --> 00:49:49,299
have, that's not enough. I need more help.

1362
00:49:49,858 --> 00:49:50,974
Yes. For sure.

1363
00:49:51,693 --> 00:49:53,688
I love it. Amy, anything else you wanna

1364
00:49:53,688 --> 00:49:54,645
mention before we wrap up?

1365
00:49:56,809 --> 00:49:57,922
No. Just,

1366
00:49:58,480 --> 00:49:59,991
I think the thing that I would say

1367
00:49:59,991 --> 00:50:03,290
to your audience into the... To the flower

1368
00:50:03,347 --> 00:50:05,971
community is, in addition to what I already

1369
00:50:05,971 --> 00:50:07,481
said about kind of the way that,

1370
00:50:08,436 --> 00:50:09,810
what you do really

1371
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:12,380
allows you to have a life

1372
00:50:12,760 --> 00:50:13,820
that is connected

1373
00:50:14,199 --> 00:50:15,739
to other people through

1374
00:50:16,199 --> 00:50:17,000
plants. Right.

1375
00:50:17,719 --> 00:50:20,014
But also, the the the thing I got

1376
00:50:20,133 --> 00:50:22,297
from a lot of these collectors was this

1377
00:50:22,510 --> 00:50:24,278
endless sense of learning and curiosity.

1378
00:50:24,966 --> 00:50:26,417
You know, it's sort of boundless,

1379
00:50:27,439 --> 00:50:29,432
and and and I think for a lot

1380
00:50:29,432 --> 00:50:31,823
of flower farmers, there's this sense of seeking

1381
00:50:31,823 --> 00:50:34,294
in this sense of, maybe there's something else

1382
00:50:34,374 --> 00:50:35,982
I can do. Maybe there's something else I

1383
00:50:35,982 --> 00:50:37,891
can find. And and I had a... 1

1384
00:50:37,891 --> 00:50:39,402
of the collectors in the books said, you

1385
00:50:39,402 --> 00:50:40,516
know, I know

1386
00:50:41,232 --> 00:50:43,478
I know 90 year old else tree collectors.

1387
00:50:43,638 --> 00:50:45,556
And honestly, I think that's I think that's

1388
00:50:45,556 --> 00:50:48,053
why they're 90. Like, I think that's why

1389
00:50:48,832 --> 00:50:52,036
why why they're still going. And and so

1390
00:50:52,195 --> 00:50:53,945
I I think anytime you're working with plants

1391
00:50:53,945 --> 00:50:55,297
and I think this is very true in

1392
00:50:55,297 --> 00:50:57,445
the in the floral world is it's the

1393
00:50:57,445 --> 00:50:59,139
key to longevity and happiness

1394
00:50:59,529 --> 00:51:02,395
to stay curious and and keep innovating and

1395
00:51:02,395 --> 00:51:05,022
keep making discoveries and there's just endless opportunities

1396
00:51:05,022 --> 00:51:06,853
for that. In the floral world as well

1397
00:51:06,853 --> 00:51:07,490
as the tree world.

1398
00:51:08,222 --> 00:51:09,574
I love it. I love it. Well, next

1399
00:51:09,574 --> 00:51:11,325
time I see you when person, maybe we'll

1400
00:51:11,325 --> 00:51:13,314
go for a tree walk. And you can

1401
00:51:13,314 --> 00:51:15,556
show me what you know. And I I

1402
00:51:15,556 --> 00:51:17,780
think there are so many crossover and so

1403
00:51:17,780 --> 00:51:18,518
much relevance

1404
00:51:18,971 --> 00:51:21,750
to just understanding the ecosystem that we are

1405
00:51:21,750 --> 00:51:22,806
all in. And

1406
00:51:23,991 --> 00:51:26,085
what our responsibility is to

1407
00:51:26,700 --> 00:51:27,975
to honor that and not

1408
00:51:29,329 --> 00:51:31,414
not, I don't just don't take it for

1409
00:51:31,414 --> 00:51:33,324
granted because it's very special, and it's it

1410
00:51:33,324 --> 00:51:35,472
can go go away. So it's it's worth

1411
00:51:35,472 --> 00:51:38,757
honoring and and educating ourselves, so we can

1412
00:51:39,943 --> 00:51:42,257
live a more well informed tree life. I

1413
00:51:42,257 --> 00:51:43,215
don't know what's the word

1414
00:51:44,332 --> 00:51:45,710
for a tree fan.

1415
00:51:46,167 --> 00:51:47,936
Is there 10I

1416
00:51:47,936 --> 00:51:50,005
don't know. Alright. I'm gonna cut that out.

1417
00:51:50,244 --> 00:51:51,836
Never mind. Maybe it would be, like, no.

1418
00:51:51,995 --> 00:51:53,189
Let's try to figure it out. Maybe do

1419
00:51:53,189 --> 00:51:54,621
would be like Den file.

1420
00:51:55,351 --> 00:51:55,510
Okay.

1421
00:51:56,936 --> 00:51:58,441
Check it out. I just made that out.

1422
00:51:58,916 --> 00:51:59,075
Alright.

1423
00:51:59,867 --> 00:52:01,610
Amy, thank you so much. This has been

1424
00:52:01,610 --> 00:52:03,615
so delightful. All. I've enjoyed it so much.

1425
00:52:04,493 --> 00:52:04,732
Congratulations.

1426
00:52:05,450 --> 00:52:05,769
Thanks.

1427
00:52:24,019 --> 00:52:25,850
Thanks so much for joining me today. Please

1428
00:52:25,850 --> 00:52:28,318
visit s flowers podcast dot com for episode

1429
00:52:28,318 --> 00:52:29,852
671

1430
00:52:30,069 --> 00:52:32,554
to watch the replay video of my conversation

1431
00:52:32,554 --> 00:52:35,190
with Amy, you'll also see her short book

1432
00:52:35,190 --> 00:52:37,507
trailer and some of her the original paintings

1433
00:52:37,507 --> 00:52:39,665
that fill the pages of the tree collectors.

1434
00:52:40,399 --> 00:52:42,635
I'll also share links to Amy's upcoming book

1435
00:52:42,635 --> 00:52:44,151
tours. She might be coming to a town

1436
00:52:44,151 --> 00:52:46,467
near you, as well as the link to

1437
00:52:46,467 --> 00:52:49,021
subscribe to her must read newsletter. It's good

1438
00:52:49,021 --> 00:52:51,270
to be here. A behind the scenes look

1439
00:52:51,270 --> 00:52:53,604
at the creative process, her book and podcast

1440
00:52:54,061 --> 00:52:57,010
recommendations, an occasional cocktail recipe, a work of

1441
00:52:57,010 --> 00:52:59,732
art, an illustrated story, and lots of rye

1442
00:52:59,732 --> 00:53:01,876
humor. Her newsletter makes me laugh out loud

1443
00:53:01,876 --> 00:53:03,860
and how often does that happen in our

1444
00:53:03,860 --> 00:53:04,257
everyday lives?

1445
00:53:05,686 --> 00:53:07,592
Our next sponsor thank you goes to historic

1446
00:53:07,592 --> 00:53:10,390
cold creators of the revolutionary cool bot, a

1447
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popular solution for flower farmers, studio flo and

1448
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1450
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1451
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your own, they also have turnkey units avail.

1453
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Learn more at store at cold dot com.

1454
00:53:28,505 --> 00:53:30,425
Summer is in full swing, and I just

1455
00:53:30,425 --> 00:53:32,585
wanna take a moment to celebrate the exciting

1456
00:53:32,585 --> 00:53:35,306
news that appeared in last week's, New York

1457
00:53:35,385 --> 00:53:35,704
Times,

1458
00:53:36,578 --> 00:53:39,839
writer Amanda Mc piece, your wedding flowers could

1459
00:53:39,839 --> 00:53:42,000
be in your backyard, both blew up the

1460
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:44,541
web with excitement from our slow flowers community.

1461
00:53:45,176 --> 00:53:48,353
She wrote, ms p attributes the rising interest

1462
00:53:48,353 --> 00:53:50,789
in local flo, partly to social media blew

1463
00:53:50,909 --> 00:53:53,060
where couples and flo have shared photos of

1464
00:53:53,060 --> 00:53:53,777
romantic bo,

1465
00:53:54,415 --> 00:53:56,008
featuring non conventional flowers.

1466
00:53:56,805 --> 00:53:59,612
The story also quoted at talented lineup of

1467
00:53:59,612 --> 00:54:02,728
our slow flower society members, including Jessica Stewart

1468
00:54:02,728 --> 00:54:03,847
of Bra and Blossom,

1469
00:54:04,406 --> 00:54:05,045
Lenny Larkin,

1470
00:54:05,619 --> 00:54:08,164
of B side Farm, Heather Henson of Bore

1471
00:54:08,324 --> 00:54:11,188
Blooms and Becky Fe of prairie girl flowers.

1472
00:54:11,824 --> 00:54:13,995
And the response from our social media community

1473
00:54:14,291 --> 00:54:16,861
underscores how much support there is for the

1474
00:54:16,861 --> 00:54:20,376
topic of local, seasonal, and sustainably grown flowers,

1475
00:54:20,776 --> 00:54:21,495
especially for weddings.

1476
00:54:22,229 --> 00:54:24,307
As of July fourth, our post of this

1477
00:54:24,307 --> 00:54:27,443
story reached 21500.0

1478
00:54:27,503 --> 00:54:29,500
accounts. That's 21500

1479
00:54:29,500 --> 00:54:29,660
accounts.

1480
00:54:30,867 --> 00:54:32,875
Including 87 percent non followers,

1481
00:54:33,646 --> 00:54:36,028
we directly engaged with 1300.0

1482
00:54:36,028 --> 00:54:38,569
accounts, the post shared was shared a hundred

1483
00:54:38,569 --> 00:54:40,895
and 70 times and generated 40 comments.

1484
00:54:41,613 --> 00:54:43,448
For people who think local flowers are a

1485
00:54:43,448 --> 00:54:46,241
french topic this level of engagement does not

1486
00:54:46,241 --> 00:54:46,560
lie.

1487
00:54:47,054 --> 00:54:49,048
Thank you, Amanda for reaching out to chat,

1488
00:54:49,287 --> 00:54:52,079
this story represents 1 great reason to join

1489
00:54:52,079 --> 00:54:54,950
slow flower society. When the press calls, we

1490
00:54:54,950 --> 00:54:56,306
love to highlight our members.

1491
00:54:56,959 --> 00:54:59,106
Ps. If you miss the story, check out

1492
00:54:59,106 --> 00:55:01,435
our show notes for the link in today's

1493
00:55:01,571 --> 00:55:01,730
episode.

1494
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:05,388
Our next sponsor thank you goes to Red

1495
00:55:05,547 --> 00:55:08,984
Twig Farms. Based in new Albany, Ohio, Red

1496
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farms is a family owned farm,

1497
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specializing in P, Da, tulip and branches,

1498
00:55:15,036 --> 00:55:16,960
a popped in pe bo okay by mail

1499
00:55:16,960 --> 00:55:19,583
program and their spread the hope campaign where

1500
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customers can purchase 10 tulip stems for essential

1501
00:55:22,842 --> 00:55:25,082
workers and others in their community. B Learn

1502
00:55:25,082 --> 00:55:27,624
more at red twig farms dot com.

1503
00:55:28,736 --> 00:55:30,484
I'm so glad you joined us today. The

1504
00:55:30,484 --> 00:55:32,947
sunflower podcast is a member supported endeavor.

1505
00:55:33,676 --> 00:55:36,614
Downloaded more than 1000000 times by listeners like

1506
00:55:36,614 --> 00:55:39,392
you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing.

1507
00:55:39,869 --> 00:55:40,742
It means so much.

1508
00:55:41,471 --> 00:55:43,772
As our movement gains more supporters and more

1509
00:55:43,772 --> 00:55:46,311
passionate participants who believe in the importance of

1510
00:55:46,311 --> 00:55:47,818
our domestic cut flower industry.

1511
00:55:48,469 --> 00:55:50,784
The momentum is contagious. I know you feel

1512
00:55:50,784 --> 00:55:52,858
it too. If you're new to our weekly

1513
00:55:52,858 --> 00:55:55,092
show or a long running podcast, check out

1514
00:55:55,092 --> 00:55:56,050
all of our resources,

1515
00:55:56,625 --> 00:55:58,545
at far society dot com.

1516
00:55:59,744 --> 00:56:01,984
I'm deborah P, host and producer of the

1517
00:56:02,304 --> 00:56:04,144
Flower show and the Far podcast.

1518
00:56:04,719 --> 00:56:07,101
The s bars podcast is engineered and edited

1519
00:56:07,101 --> 00:56:08,134
by Andrew B.

1520
00:56:08,849 --> 00:56:11,152
The content and opinions expressed here are either

1521
00:56:11,152 --> 00:56:13,573
mine alone or those of my guests. Alone

1522
00:56:13,708 --> 00:56:15,478
independent of any podcast sponsor

1523
00:56:15,851 --> 00:56:18,154
or other person company or organization.

1524
00:56:18,869 --> 00:56:20,670
Next week, you're invited to join me the

1525
00:56:20,709 --> 00:56:23,566
putting more slow flowers on the table, 1

1526
00:56:23,566 --> 00:56:26,106
stem, 1 base at a time. Thanks so

1527
00:56:26,106 --> 00:56:27,851
much for joining us today, and I'll see

1528
00:56:27,851 --> 00:56:29,335
you next week, putting