(lively music) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

My name is Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth-generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

But today we're gonna be talking with Vanessa Alvarez-Biver, how you doing?

Good, how are you?

Good.

You have a name, the last name, is one of those names that is not spelled the way it is pronounced.

- No.

- So Beaver, but it's B-I-V-E-R?

- Correct.

- Okay.

How confusing is that to most people?

- Yeah, I know, Yeah, they never get it right.

- Yeah, does that bother you?

- I mean, I'm used to it by now.

- Does it bother?

I could see not bothering you like the first time.

Does it bother you like, for someone that you've known for, I don't know, whatever time and they still say it wrong?

- I mean, you know, it's just commonplace, so I don't think about it too much.

- That's good, because I'm the type of person, once I see it, and like, if I would've called you like, Bever first, that's all I would call you.

- Yeah.

- We should probably get onto something else.

(laughs) You're from Freeberg, Illinois?

- Yes.

- Where's that at?

- It's down near Belleville.

- Okay, so you're south of here, south of Peoria, how?

- Three hours.

- Three hours?

- Um-hmm.

- Okay, was it a nice drive?

- Yeah, it was nice.

Yeah, It rained last night though, 'cause like I said, I drove to my friend's house in Springfield and visited with them and stayed the night and then drove the rest of the way and it rained like crazy.

- So you just call up your friend and say, hey, we're doing a show in Peoria that nobody's gonna watch.

Can I say at your place?

- Yeah.

That's what friends are for.

- That's what's, just like the song, Lionel Ritchie always said.

(laughs) Okay, you're a farmer down there.

Did you grow up on a farm?

- I did not, I did not.

My husband did and we met at Camp Ondessonk, down in Southern Illinois, and we were counselors and anyway, he wanted to take over the family farm.

So we moved to Freeberg and yeah.

My previous farming experience was FFA in high school.

- Okay, which is, for people that don't know, it's like a ag organization, but it's not, right?

- Right, yeah, it did not, it, like I learned things, but not anything that was gonna help me be a farm wife.

Like, I learned how to judge soil and animals and how to do parliamentary procedure, but I didn't know how to be a single parent during the spring and the fall.

(laughs) I learned how to weld, too.

- You learned that in FFA?

- Yeah.

- Did you, are you good at it?

- I went to contests for welding.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Stick or Mig?

- Stick.

- Okay, that's, I mean, that's the real way.

- Yeah.

- To weld, yeah.

At any point in this interview, are you gonna stand up and say, I rise to a point of order?

- No.

- Okay.

That's parliamentary, Robert's Rules of Orders.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

I was, I don't wanna brag.

- Um-hmm.

- But I was runner up in Section Nine, parliamentary procedure in FFA.

I don't know if you maybe heard that or not.

- No, I didn't, I'm sorry.

(laughs) - Little things.

You have a interesting, so you were born in Florida?

- Um-hmm.

- And your dad was from Colombia?

- Correct.

- Okay, so was he a citizen when you were born?

- Yes.

- Gotcha, but you are a dual citizen.

- Yes.

- Explain that to me.

- So we lived in Florida for a year and then we moved to Southern Indiana.

And anyway, so my dad, when he became a U.S. citizen, you have to renounce your Colombian citizenship.

- [Rob] Um-hmm.

- And then within, I think it's about five or so years ago, he went back and got his Colombian citizenship.

So he's a dual citizen, which made me eligible to also be a dual citizen.

- So even though he renounced, you can still go back.

- Right.

- Colombia's a lot nicer than we are, wow.

(laughs) - Yeah.

I should have looked it up on, Colombia's the one right below Panama, right, right?

- Panama, I don't think so.

- It's got Venezuela on top.

- Don't ask me, this is an ag show, not geography.

- Colombia is in Europe somewhere around Tasmania.

- Yeah, exactly, no, it's in South America.

It's beautiful.

- You've been there?

- Yeah.

- Okay, what were you doing, just visiting or?

- Yeah, yeah, most of my dad's family is still there.

- Gotcha.

- Yeah.

- You unfortunately went down to SIU.

- I did.

- Salukis, huh?

- Yep.

- What was your degree in?

- Zoology.

- What were you hoping to do with that?

- I was hoping to be the next Jane Goodall.

- Oh, you wanted to do like the silverbacks, right?

- Yeah, I wanted to study apes.

That didn't happen.

- Did the great university down at Carbondale have a big ape school?

(laugh) - Well, I mean, I think when you study zoology, you get your degree in zoology and then you would further, when you got your masters and stuff, you would keep narrowing in on the animal that you would want to eventually study.

- Gotcha, where'd you meet your husband?

- At Camp Ondessonk.

- That's right at the camp.

How old were you?

- 18, we were counselors.

- So that was before college?

- Well, it was kind of in the middle.

Like I had already, I have a July birthday, so I had already taken a year in.

- Gotcha.

- At Vincennes.

- The, like a junior college?

- Yeah.

- Gotcha.

- Yeah.

- Southern Illinois is confusing.

- Yeah, well, Vincennes University is actually in Indiana.

- Makes it more confusing.

That's where, okay, that's where you were from Southern Indiana?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Okay, I'm sorry about that.

(laughs) They got a big beef house down there.

That's the only thing I know about Southern Indiana.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, okay.

(laughs) - I mean, I am, there's a race track by where I grew up.

The, what's it called, Speedway?

I don't remember.

- It doesn't matter.

- Yeah, it doesn't matter.

I don't live there anymore, so.

- So you, you're dating, you're now husband.

At some point you had to come to the realization, hey, if I marry this guy, I'm going to be on a farm.

- Yes.

- Were you okay with that?

- You know, I didn't really realize.

I feel like the ag industry might be a little bit romanticized in media.

- What?

- Where like, you've got songs like, "She Thinks my Tractor's Sexy."

I'm here to tell you it's not that attractive when he's gotta be working all day on a tractor.

Like, come home and help me with kids.

- Get's a little gamey in there, doesn't it?

- Yeah, you know.

- You see the music videos where the guy's driving the tractors and they're like, clean.

- Yeah.

- That's not true.

They come home very dirty, very tired, a little bit crabby.

So yeah, it was, I didn't really realize what it was gonna be like.

- Okay, this interview's gone on for a while, you have not thanked me for being a farmer, just saying.

- Oh, thank you for being a farmer.

- You're welcome.

(laughs) There is this kind of way that maybe people in agriculture, that aren't in agriculture, see farming.

And it is very cool 'cause we have big equipment and that, but yeah, the stuff they don't see.

I've heard it so many times by people that I've interviewed that have married into a farm.

There's definitely a learning curve and it's like, it would be nice to know that, yeah, during spring, during whatever busy time that my spouse is gonna be gone for a while.

- Um-hmm.

- Is that what you found?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- For sure.

You sometimes you see these commercials or whatever and they, you see them having dinner in the field and he comes off the tractor and everybody's happy and that's not it.

He's stressed, he's tired, he's dirty, and he doesn't wanna stop the combine to have dinner with us.

He wants me to throw food at him, so he can keep going.

- [Rob] Yes.

Or ride with him so that, it's not that happy like, let's pause during harvest and have dinner.

- The combine should never stop.

- Right.

- Yeah, because I mean, anytime it stop you're not getting anything done.

- Right.

- When we first got married, Emily was, she was wanting to do everything correct, right?

So she made these like, big meals and it was great and she went to a lot of work.

And then finally I had to say, can we maybe have something that I can eat with one hand?

- Right.

- Instead of like a full course.

- Yep.

- With the silverware- - Put it in a bowl.

- Yeah, but it's, I mean, when you marry into a farm, there's stuff you just have to learn.

- Yeah.

- What are you guys raising on your farm?

- We have corn and soybeans and then popcorn.

- Popcorn?

- Um-hmm.

- Not everybody probably understands or even knows that the bulk of the corn out there that they see driving down the interstate is not sweet corn, it's not popcorn.

- Right.

- It's a, that's a whole different animal.

- Yep.

- Does it look the same?

- Yes and no.

If you're driving by, you're not gonna really notice the difference.

- [Rob] Um-hmm.

- But like I did on some of our social media, I took pictures and I show that sometimes the popcorn is not as tall or it's just not as hardy of a stalk.

- [Rob] Um-hmm.

- But yeah, I mean you're not gonna notice it probably unless they're side-by-side.

You might notice it's a little bit smaller and it is not as, like I said, hardy, but.

- Now has your husband's family, have they been growing popcorn for a long time or is this new?

- No, this is a new venture.

This is something that my husband had the idea of, let's start something with the kids just to see them, to show them how you start a business and how you grow something and they can be involved in all different parts of it.

You've got not just the business aspects, but the growing aspects and it's been a huge learning experience for all of us.

- Oh, I imagine.

- The kids are not only learning the farm stuff, which would, they would probably have learned anyway, but you know, we're doing Farmers' Markets, so they have to talk to people, they have to learn to handle money, they have to learn how to use a Square.

They learn that it's not just a- - A square?

- You know the Square point-of-sale thing, where you type in, it's like a little cash register.

- Oh, I did, yeah, okay.

- It's super easy.

- See, this is why I never make people that don't know farming stuff, I never make fun of 'em.

- Yeah.

- Because when you turn it around, I ask really, you probably thought I was a complete moron with that.

- No, it's fine.

If you don't, if you're not in, if you're not in the, in that kind of small business, then you might not know.

But it's just, it's like a credit card reader and you're ringing for sales and everything on it, yeah.

- Gotcha.

With the farming, a lot of what the average farmer, I'm gonna say, which is what it is, we grow our corn, we grow our soybeans, and we send it to elevator, ethanol plants.

We never deal with the customers.

You guys, you're talking to the people that are actually using your product.

- Yes.

- Is that intimidating?

- I like talking to the customers.

- [Rob] Um-hmm.

- Sometimes they, sometimes it gets a little bit redundant when I'm answering the same questions all the time.

But I do, well here's the one thing, is I get a lot of, and I addressed on social media as well, is that a lot of people will say, oh, is your popcorn non-GMO?

- [Rob] Um-hmm.

- Every Farmers' Market I have at least one if not more, ask me that.

All popcorn is non-GMO.

I couldn't grow GMO popcorn if I wanted to, you know?

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And then some people will follow that up with, oh, so you don't spray anything on it?

And I'll say, I think you're asking two different questions.

I think you wanna know if it's organic?

- [Rob] Organic, yeah.

- Right, but even organic farms can use certain sprays.

They just have to be, but anyway.

So there's a lot of that stuff that can kinda get a little redundant.

I don't mind answering questions and like, I've always tell people that you can ask questions about where your food comes from.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And I enjoy getting to know people and helping educate them that way.

And I do like to hear their stories.

A lot of people have nostalgic memories of popcorn, usually with a grandparent or, or whatever, so - Oh, yeah, yeah.

We used to have the, the one that, I don't know, it had like the motor down here and then it popped and then it went over.

- Oh, like an air popper?

- Is that what it's called?

- I think so.

- Yeah, but you can do 'em anyway.

You still do it with the pan?

- Yeah.

- Right?

- That's my favorite way.

- Do you put a lid on it?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Yep.

- This is popcorn.

- Yep.

- I mean, to most people, they're gonna look at this and they're gonna say, well, that's just an ear of corn.

I don't know what the- - Some people think it looks like Indian corn 'cause it is.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, it's got the color to it.

Definitely smaller kernels.

- Yes.

- Now, I mean, but very hard.

So as a farmer, I'm looking at this and I'm going, how do they get all this through the combine, because this is such a small kernel and that, but compared to your conventional harvest of corn, is it similar?

- Yeah, I mean, as far as Matt brings it in the same way, with a combine - [Rob] Um-hmm.

- And yeah, I mean it'll go, when we bring it in, we put it in big bulk bags that have a moisture barrier.

So it's not, we're not putting it in a big truck to haul it anywhere.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- We put it, we actually made a little shoot off of the auger off the combine, and then we put it in these big bulk bags that have a moisture barrier, because you have to harvest popcorn at the right moisture or else it's not gonna pop the way it's supposed to.

And we actually harvest it a little bit wet and we put it in these big bulk bags and then we put screw-in dryers in there and dry it to where it's just about right.

Then we send it off to a farm in Indiana to get it cleaned.

- Gotcha.

- And then it comes back to us and we do everything else.

- What color combine?

- It's green, I hope that's the right color for you.

- That is a right color.

(laughs) To get it cleaned, I imagine that's very specialized equipment.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, so it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for you guys, a smaller operation, to- - Right.

- To invest in all that.

- Yeah, not at this point.

- Yeah.

So you have the package here.

- Um-hmm.

- So this is, you send them, do you send them the cob and all?

- No.

- Okay, so this is, it's shelled?

- No, I mean, the combine takes everything off, yeah.

- Okay, and you were telling me earlier that this is actually a microphone.

- It is, so people on social media love when I use this, so where's the camera?

I'll do it for you.

- I don't know.

- Where should I look.

- Oh hell, there's three of 'em.

- Okay, so watch, this is what's gonna happen.

Okay, this is like magic, okay?

Hi, this is Vanessa from Seven Forks Farm coming to you from the set of "A Shot of Ag."

I'm here with Rob today.

- Oh, I like being on the other side.

- There and now it's a cob.

Magic.

- Maybe you could ask me a few questions.

- Would that be easy?

- Guess we'll go back.

No, it just felt nice that somebody actually wanted to know about me for once.

- Yeah.

- And now I see it was just a gimmick.

(laughs) - People love it.

Maybe I can leave that with you if you'd like.

- I would like that.

(laughs) What are you doing on social media?

- So we have Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

- [Rob] Um-hmm.

- And I am just making a fool of myself.

- Okay, I mean you have to be entertaining, right?

- Yeah.

- To get attention.

But are, are you teaching people like- - Yes.

- Like you said the GMO question?

- Yep.

- Or actually how to pop popcorn?

- Both, yeah.

I have addressed the GMO question a lot and then I also do different popping methods.

I take them on the combine, I show them, I don't know, all kinds of little bits about, not just the farming aspect, but the farmer's wife aspect.

And then some of it's just randomness.

At least on TikTok because that's like the wild west out there.

I don't know.

- It is a bit weird, isn't it?

- It is, and you've just gotta be weird with it.

You just have to go with it.

- I honestly don't know the answer to this question.

If I threw this in a fire, it would pop, right?

- Like actually in the fire, I mean?

- Yeah.

if I took the whole bag, threw it in the fire, you'd probably get a few, right?

- You'd probably get a few, probably most of it would burn because you have to have the right, I mean, it's gonna, I think that most of it would probably burn up before it would pop.

- Okay.

- Cause it would be too, it would get too hot, too fast.

- I say we try it.

(laugh) What is the best way, way to pop popcorn?

- So there, a lot of people like the microwave method, just because it's easy.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And you can do that a couple different ways.

They make silicon poppers, they also have paper bags, like a paper lunch sack and you throw like a third cup of kernels in there.

If you want, you can put a pat of butter and fold it over twice and stick it in the microwave.

- [Rob] Ah, that doesn't sound bad.

- Right, and it's just like the microwave popcorn you buy.

But I prefer the directions that are on the back, the stove top.

You just add some oil to the pot, add the kernels.

- Vanessa.

- Yeah.

- You're gonna have to make that print bigger.

I don't have my cheaters, so I have no idea what it says.

- I'm sorry.

- Okay, you can watch my TikTok.

- You might want to take that back to the R&D, maybe to make that.

(laughs) It has to be kind of almost a frustrating experience to figure all this stuff out.

I mean even the, the packaging, because I can't imagine there's a like a textbook, right, there it says, how to grow Popcorn 101.

- Right, right.

- Yeah, and like a lot of it, the first, our first call when we started was to the health department to say how do we do this the right way?

- [Rob] Um-hmm.

- What do we have to have on the bag and how does it have to be like sealed up and stuff like that?

- Do you ever like put a little prize in the bottom like the cereal does?

- No.

- You ever thought about it?

I mean, think about that, you could.

Nobody else does it for popcorn.

- That's true.

- The kids will get it.

They'll rip this thing open, they'll spill it all over, then they'll have to buy another bag of popcorn.

All because they got the little Captain Crunch statue in there, yeah.

- Right, I mean maybe.

I'll take that to the team and talk about it.

- R&D, yeah.

(laughs) Is this taste different than if I go and get Orville Redenbacher?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- When Matt first told me he wanted to real-colored popcorn, I was like, okay.

Well I mean I think it's gonna whatever, just grab some and throw it out there, right?

- [Rob] Um-hmm.

- And so he's like, no Vanessa, we have to try the different kinds and see what we like the best.

And I was like, Matt, it's popcorn.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- It's gonna taste the same like or whatever.

- But because we both have science backgrounds, he bought all these different colors and we did blind taste tests.

And I was actually really surprised at the difference in the taste of the different colors.

So purple is what we have here.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And it's gonna have a hint of sweetness and a really great crisp, tender texture.

It's not like a sugary sweet.

Like I say sweet, and people automatically think kettle corn.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And it's not like that at all.

It's just a hint of naturally occurring sweetness and the texture's is really great.

It's that crisp-tender texture.

And we do grow a red and that has a more slightly robust flavor.

It's got a slightly nutty flavor and it's got a really great crunch.

- I have a friend that grows hulless.

- Um-hmm.

- Does this have hulls?

- So the purple does, the red is, it's marketed as hulless, but we don't market market it as such because all popcorn has a hull.

- [Rob] What is the hull, by the way.

- That's what holds it together, right?

So that's the colored part that holds it together.

- Yeah, like the outside.

- Yeah, and so I guess they call it hulless because maybe it's supposed to be a smaller hull or whatever, but.

- Reduced hulls.

- Reduced is what it, yes.

That would be more truth in marketing, I guess.

- You could have a reduced hull's little figurine in the bottom of it.

- Right, that's what we should do.

- I'm telling you.

(laughs) - I mean those cereal companies, they have that stuff figured out.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

With growing popcorn, you're selling directly to the consumer, like we talked about.

That has always, it's almost scared me that I would ever have to do that, because I don't, I know how much work I put into stuff.

I don't wanna defend it.

- Yeah.

- As kind of a personal pride thing.

Does that ever get to you?

- I mean it is kind of like I said, like you asked, does it taste different?

There's a lot of of that where I feel like we, people don't understand that and I've got to explain it a lot.

- [Rob] Um-hmm.

- But you know, I am very proud of it and the kids are proud of it and so I just keep pushing forward because that's why we started the business as a family business, and I know the kids are proud and I want to make them proud.

- Yeah, let's talk about that family, Seven Forks Farm.

- Um-hmm.

- Why do we say that?

- Because there are seven of us.

My husband and I have five kids.

- Okay, and some or all adopted?

- They are all adopted from South Korea.

- Okay, we've had you on the radio show and we've talked about this before, too.

- Um-hmm.

- You say something that I struggle to understand, but you don't want to tell their story.

- Correct?

- Can you explain that?

- Well, a lot of people ask a lot of questions about our family and how it was formed and- - [Rob] Um-hmm.

- And basically all I will say is that they are adopted from South Korea.

Anything beyond that is their story.

And I don't want them to one day grow up and be like, Mom, you told everybody all the details of my life and that wasn't your place to do that.

- I've never thought about that before.

And it's literally never even come into my mind, but when you say it, it makes perfect sense.

Is that something that somebody told you or is that just kind of a revelation that you came up with after you adopted kids?

- Kind of both.

When you adopt kids you have to go through a lot of training.

And so there's some of that, in learning, that is they have a whole story before they come home to you and that's their business, not anybody else's, unless they wanna tell.

Like I've told them, they can tell everybody in the world if they want to, or they don't have to tell anybody.

But yeah, when it, I also like really sought out adoptee blogs and adoptee Facebook groups and all that stuff to learn how to be the best adoptive parent that I can be.

- Um-hmm, so five kids, a generic age range, like all under?

- Six to 16.

- Six to 16?

- Yeah.

- Woo, you got it all.

I mean, with the six-year-old, you're still going nuts and now you're entering the 16, where you're hopefully, at least a 16-year-old can drive themselves.

- He can.

- Yeah.

- He's actually a finger-style guitar player.

And so sometimes I still kind of like drive him to gigs.

- Oh really?

- Yeah.

- Okay, where'd he get musical?

Are you a musician?

- So one of our friends was offering really cheap guitar lessons.

And so I was like, why did you go take guitar lessons?

And he is like, sure Mom.

This was like three years ago, mind you.

- Yeah.

- And then the pandemic happened and he was, he couldn't go to guitar lessons, so he started watching YouTube videos of finger-style guitar players and learned it that way.

And he actually just competed in the thumb pickers contest in Kentucky, and won second place.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- So you were talking, not the strumming.

- Not strumming.

I'm talking about using all your fingers.

I don't know, it blows my mind every he has it- - Can he do the banjo?

'Cause that's what I always- - He does the banjo, too.

- The pick.

- Yeah, now, I mean he's, yeah.

Finger-style means that you're kind of using all your fingers to do.

- Do you have him playing at the Farmer's Market?

- He does actually place the Farmer's Market.

- Yeah, that would make perfect sense.

- Yeah.

- Okay, what do you want people to know about your popcorn?

- I want people to know that it is, when we say family grown popcorn, we mean it.

The kids are involved in as much as they can be involved in.

We are proud of our product.

We're working really hard at it.

We really want to produce a premium popcorn.

You know, we want something that not only you enjoy eating, but you're proud to give as gifts and to recommend to your friends and family.

- And where can people find you on social media?

- And all of our socials are under @SevenForksFarm, you gotta spell out the seven, - Oh, that's a lot of letters.

(laughs) - We're also on Etsy for those that wanna try our popcorn that aren't local to us.

- Etsy, that's like a online store?

- Yes.

- Amazon, type of thing?

- Well, yeah, it's smaller.

It's for like, more homemade goods and things like that.

- Gotcha.

- I wanna thank you for coming out.

I appreciate the drive time that you put into it.

- Yeah, thanks for everything.

- We had you on the XM show, I thought your story was fascinating.

I love your passion for both agriculture and for raising popcorn.

So one, I as a farmer, know that someone like yourself is out there talking about agriculture in such an articulate and passionate way.

I don't know, I just wanna thank you, yes.

- Thanks for having me.

Vanessa Alvarez-Biver.

- Yes, good job.

- From Freeberg?

- Yes.

- Yeah, I won't say it wrong again.

Thank you for taking the time to be on.

I really, really do appreciate it.

And go check out her popcorn.

I'm gonna try it and I'm just gonna throw this in a fire.

Vanessa, thank you very much.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

(lively music)