Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
We're chatting about the people, places, events, and flavors that make Johnson City, Tennessee a lovely place to live. An interview show hosted by Colin Johnson.
Proud member of the Maypop Media family of podcasts.
0:00:00 - (Colin Johnson): It is a beautiful June day here in Johnson City. I am excited to welcome mister David Wiley onto the podcast. He's owner, operator manager. He does all the jobs, I think, at Serenity Knoll Farm. So I'm gonna, I'm like, excited to hear about this because Mitch and Marissa have been over there to do a cooking class, and he was telling me how awesome it was, and so I was like, oh, I need to learn more about that. And here you go. Here we are. The Lord has provided you in my space to learn all about serene mill farms. Welcome to the podcast.
0:00:32 - (David Wiley): Thank you, Colin. It's great to be here.
0:00:34 - (Colin Johnson): Do you do lots of podcasts, David?
0:00:36 - (David Wiley): No, but I do a lot of talking.
0:00:39 - (Colin Johnson): Well, I'll keep us on track, hopefully. So this is Johnson City Living podcast. You live in the greater Johnson city area. What is your favorite thing about Johnson City or Jonesboro?
0:00:51 - (David Wiley): Well, it's part and parcel why so many people are moving to this area. And I think about it in terms of five factors, and that is low population density, scenic beauty, recreational opportunities, cost of living, and most of all, a friendly people in the area. So, I mean, I'm meeting people from all over the country that are moving to the area. I'm at the Jonesboro Farmers market selling our product every Saturday morning. And a great place for people to kind of put their finger on the pulse of the community is to show up at the farmers market, because you can meet people casually, you can connect up with local farmers and kind of get a feel for what's going on in the area.
0:01:42 - (David Wiley): Do a lot of Q and A if you're curious about places to go and people to see and restaurants to go to. So the farmers market for me is my happy place. So, you know, it's a wonderful area. I've traveled all over the world and I always look forward to coming back to the mountains of East Tennessee.
0:02:04 - (Colin Johnson): It is just a great place to live and a great place to come home to, for sure. Tell us about where'd you grow up? Where were you born?
0:02:11 - (David Wiley): I was actually born in Knoxville. We actually, our family lived in Oak Ridge during world war two, where my father was a claims attorney for Aetna.
0:02:20 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, wow.
0:02:21 - (David Wiley): And he was responsible for the workers compensation program in defending the insurance company in court during that period of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Y twelve. And then in 1952, we were transferred to manage the claims office in Memphis. And that's principally where I grew up. I went to twelve years of school at Whitehaven High School, which is in the area where Elvis Presley's house is.
0:02:51 - (David Wiley): It was a great place to grow up. And there's still a very active Facebook group that talks about how wonderful it was as a kid to grow up in that Whitehaven area. And then I went off to college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and got a degree in marketing there.
0:03:11 - (Colin Johnson): Nice.
0:03:12 - (David Wiley): That was back during the Vietnam War years. So it was. There was a lot of strife in the country and controversy over the war. A lot of social change going on during that period that has kind of formed or reshaped our culture as we know it today. But I went back after college and taught school for a couple of years. I worked for an advertising agency for three years. I worked for a. I worked for a professional soccer team on the major league level for two years, doing sales and marketing and game day operations.
0:03:57 - (David Wiley): And that was kind of a thrill of a lifetime. I mean, I've done a lot of interesting things, but to actually be on the inside of the professional sports world at the major league level, looking out, as opposed to a fan looking in, gave me a whole different perspective on sports.
0:04:15 - (Colin Johnson): Which team was it?
0:04:16 - (David Wiley): It was the Memphis Rogues of the North American Soccer League. This is when the ownership group of the franchise owners in the US were bringing in the european and south american players who were at the pinnacle of their career. They still had enough oomph and they sure still had enough name recognition to where they could use them as a springboard to sell more tickets to see the stars of old. I mean, if. If you're 15 or 16 years old in the English one, premier English one division, you're almost an old timer, because they really, the stars of the. Of the division I leagues are quite young, mixed. Mixed up with some of the old timers. But it was a fantastic experience.
0:05:07 - (David Wiley): I played recreational soccer during those years and thought I was pretty good. But gosh, I remember one day going out and going, getting involved in a practice session, and within ten minutes I knew that I could not hold a candle in any sort of way to these professionals who was a whole different level. A whole different level. But it was a great to introduce Memphis to professional soccer. We kind of had modest success.
0:05:41 - (David Wiley): The owner of the club, Avery Fogelman, was also half owner of the Kansas City Royals with Ewing Kaufman. So I got to hang out with pretty big top, some big dogs there. And I remember on my birthday, his assistant, Avon Fogelman's assistant, called me up and said, evan and I are flying to Chicago tonight on his plane. Do you want to go to the game with us? I said, well, heck, yeah. So we flew to midway.
0:06:11 - (David Wiley): There was a limousine there to pick us up, took us out to comiskey park, which doesn't exist anymore, but that's where the game was, and walked out on the field, and I actually touched home plate. And he turned around to me and said, do you realize who has stood in this spot?
0:06:31 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, wow.
0:06:31 - (David Wiley): And I said, gosh, you know, I hadn't really. I'm just. I'm so awestruck by just being here. He said, mickey Mantle, yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, all of these super iconic baseball stars have been where you're standing right now. And I almost, almost went, wow, this is just overweight.
0:06:54 - (Colin Johnson): Very special.
0:06:54 - (David Wiley): Yeah, that's super cool. But anyway, I enjoyed that, that world of professional sports.
0:06:58 - (Colin Johnson): How did you come from Memphis all the way to. I was born in Memphis and my family's from there. We wound up in east Tennessee because of Etsu. How did you come to Johnson city?
0:07:09 - (David Wiley): I'm still trying to figure that out, Colin, but what I tell publicly is that Memphis became a very difficult place for me. I was passionate about Memphis, especially downtown redevelopment, with the theater and Beale street and the riverfront, all the festivals, whether it was blues or barbecue. And I was just gung ho about Memphis, but it just became a very challenging place for me. And one day, I don't know what happened. I kind of sort of raised the flag of surrender and said, you know, I can't fix this.
0:07:51 - (David Wiley): There was a lot of drugs and theft and crime and stuff like that, and I just felt uneasy about living there. And I said, you know, why don't we go somewhere else? So it just so happens that the company that I still work for now, Henry Schein, had an open territory in the Tri cities. And so I asked my wife at the time, I said, what do you think about moving to East Tennessee? She said, I am packing my bags. Now. Let's say she was in agreement with that. It's hard to imagine that very few people live more than about 50 miles from where they were born.
0:08:36 - (David Wiley): You know, I look back at some of my high school friends, college friends who grew up there. A lot of them worked for Fred Smith at FedEx because the jobs were there who are still there.
0:08:48 - (Colin Johnson): Sure. And you're 100 miles away because you were born in Knoxville, right?
0:08:52 - (David Wiley): I was born in Knoxville, but grew up in Memphis. Grew up in Memphis. So coming to East Tennessee was like a whole new world. Very different on a lot of levels, I have to admit. And so it ended up that we found, or actually my ex wife found this place out on Bacon Branch Road, where serenity and old farm exists today, the day that they were putting the for sale sign up. And the house is an a frame house that has a pointed deck on the front of it. And if you were standing there, it reminds you of that image of the Titanic comes standing there looking out over the bow.
0:09:39 - (David Wiley): And she said, this is where we're going to live. And I went, gosh, how could you not want to live here? So it ended up being ten acres with the house, and we decided to park company in 2003, and I tried to decide what to do with the rest of my life, to live a healthy life, to live a purposeful life and do something good for the community.
0:10:07 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, I love it. And that's the genesis of Sorn.
0:10:12 - (David Wiley): Well, what really led me down that pathway was a traditional folk dance called contra dance. And I'm not short for controversial. Well, I guess. I guess on some level, on a social level, there were occasionally some controversies. But, you know, it's most of the contradict communities around the country and around the world, because I've danced in three foreign countries, are managed by volunteers who form a nonprofit organization. To do what I did was to build community using a traditional folk dance called contra dance.
0:10:57 - (David Wiley): And so if you look at the construct of the Contra dance model, it's something that everyone can do, from children up to seniors. And so the whole premise was to build communities, to have a social event that was alcohol free. Alcohol and smoke free. It didn't matter what your sexual orientation was or what you did for a living or what your political views were. It did not matter. We were all together on the dance floor for one purpose, and that was to connect with each other and move to music.
0:11:34 - (David Wiley): And I started going to contradances in Asheville and looking at their models and how they built their communities, I said, we can do this in Jonesbrook. So Jonsboro had some really, really historic programs that are well supported by the community, with their storytelling program, with their repertory theater, with their music on the square program. And I said, what we need to do is to have a place where people can move to music and connect with each other. So I started a nonprofit, built a website, started hiring bands and callers, and we kicked it off January 6 of 2006 and probably did in the 15 years that I was involved, we did about 35 events a year.
0:12:23 - (David Wiley): So, you know, quite, quite a few events.
0:12:26 - (Colin Johnson): It's a lot. It's almost one a week.
0:12:30 - (David Wiley): They were actually two a month first and third Saturday.
0:12:32 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha.
0:12:33 - (David Wiley): So I was trying to drive traffic to Jonesboro as a part of their tourism program. I wanted people to have a reason other than those that were already in existence to come to Jonesboro and experience what Jonesboro was. So it turned out that we had just huge success along the way. And then in 2010 we were able to get a donation of 100 boxes of finished hardware flooring from the Mullikin flooring company to put a real dance floor in the visitor center.
0:13:12 - (Colin Johnson): Nice.
0:13:12 - (David Wiley): So if you go in there today and look at that floor, that floor was donated by the historic Jonesboro Dance Society, which changed the whole personality of that room for sure. It was kind of, you know, that building is probably 30, 40 years old.
0:13:29 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:13:29 - (David Wiley): And it had a concrete floor on there and you just cannot dance on a concrete floor. It just doesn't work. So we upgraded that whole image and the whole feel of the visitor center and that gave me an opportunity to start programming some high quality events where I would go out nationally and bring bands and collars in. So we started getting people from Florida and New York and California coming in to spend the weekend with us, which I thought was pretty darn exciting to be able to build a program like that that had nationwide appeal.
0:14:04 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, that's awesome. What for our listeners, what would you say you love most about Jonesboro?
0:14:10 - (David Wiley): Well, I think Jonesboro is a unique town. It's historic. The streetscape still takes you back to the 18 hundreds. It's a place where they have some fun events and the new marketing director there are doing all kinds of themed events to draw people to town, whether it's bring your, bring your puppy dog to town or, or some of their other themed events. And it's just a real nice, easy place to be. Their holiday events like Halloween and Christmas and all that are very family focused.
0:14:55 - (David Wiley): The only thing that I would like to see are some better restaurants there. I think that that's the only thing that I think is lacking in the Jonesboro area.
0:15:05 - (Colin Johnson): I would agree. I think that's a great summation of it. I guess a lot of people are like, you know, Johnson City's just down the road when we go there.
0:15:11 - (David Wiley): And that is a problem for those who are running the town of Jonesboro is to overcome that feeling that most people when they think about going out to eat, they're going to go away from Jonesboro as opposed to coming to Jonesboro. When I moved there, you know, coming from Memphis, especially in the midtown area of Memphis, there was a bar restaurant on every corner. And, you know, it's just all I wanted to be, to do was to be able to have a hamburger and a beer after 08:00 p.m.
0:15:39 - (David Wiley): and I'm not sure that that can still.
0:15:42 - (Colin Johnson): That's right. That's right. It would be hard down there, but.
0:15:44 - (David Wiley): It'S a really well run town.
0:15:47 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:15:48 - (David Wiley): Has a lot of upside potential, and we are very much a part of it. Our company, our serenity and Old Farm LLC, is a sponsor of several events. The Jonesboro locally grown farm to table dinner and also some of the events that are part of the farmers market every Saturday. I'm happy and proud to be a sponsor of some of those events.
0:16:17 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Did you help get the cooperative going? Like that little shop on the end right as you come in just in front of the library? The Jonesboro, it's like a store operating. It's like a farmer's market that's year round. It's awesome.
0:16:29 - (David Wiley): Well, I can tell you about that. Cause I tell people in my dealings at the farmers market that the town of Jonesboro, I hope this is correct, bought this old Exxon station and donated it to the nonprofit that we are all a part of. It's called JONeSbOrO, locally grown, and to create a food hub there that is supported by the network of growers, farmers, packers. So we're very proud that our market is a producer only market and that all of the items that are for sale at the Boone street market, which is what you're referring to.
0:17:12 - (Colin Johnson): Yes, sir. Thank you.
0:17:14 - (David Wiley): Is, they say, locally grown, but they do have a 100 miles radius where someone who's producing a packaged good or value added product or fresh produce or baked goods or any of the meat products, beef, pork, lamb, that kind of stuff, can, can sell in that market. And I've been to farmers markets all over the world, and nobody has anything like we have.
0:17:43 - (Colin Johnson): It's really cool. Yeah.
0:17:44 - (David Wiley): And so actually, it's kind of a little known place there because I talk to people all the time and they go, well, where is that?
0:17:54 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, yeah.
0:17:55 - (David Wiley): I describe it to them and they kind of start drooling over the thought of going over there and buying local goods, and they go, well, where is it?
0:18:03 - (Colin Johnson): Where is it? Yeah. Well, talk to me about Serenity and Knole farms. Cause that's what you're the purveyor of right now, right?
0:18:10 - (David Wiley): Serenity knoll farm. And then the way I introduce people that come to our place is I welcome them to our cooking class, tell them that I live in the house down the hill. And this is my dream come true.
0:18:26 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:18:26 - (David Wiley): And the dream, essentially is to have a place that is both safe and comfortable to gather. When we're in a cooking class, we're talking about gathering around the food table to both prepare and share and enjoy the company of others. It's just one of those things that I'm driven to do is to be able to be a part of the local food system, both as a vendor for produce and some of the other value add products we have, but also have a place where people can come and do recreational cooking classes.
0:19:03 - (David Wiley): We may be the only one in the area that has an ongoing program. It's not to say that there's some cooking classes here and there, sure. But our school now is five years old. I can remember when Margie Kendall and I started the program in 2018, mostly because of her efforts, because she is a passionate foodie and wanted, she had dreamed of having a cooking school and if she hadn't popped out two babies, she'd probably still be working for.
0:19:37 - (David Wiley): But yes, Serenity Knoll is a unique place. It has a million dollar view from our platform up on top of the hill. We have a 1500 square foot open air event space and in an 800 square foot commercial kitchen. And then probably about two acres in cultivation of seasonal vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers. And it's just a great place to be. Sounds amazing when people drive up there for the first time.
0:20:12 - (David Wiley): I hear the word wow a lot. I mean, it's hard for me to be objective calling because I live there. I'm just telling you as I welcome people to my home.
0:20:22 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:20:22 - (David Wiley): And that's the way I describe it. Welcome to my home. Here we are. You know, I want you to have a wonderful experience, and the cooking classes is truly an experience. I've done cooking classes in Barcelona and London and in different places in Italy and all over the United States. And it's all about the experience of possibly expanding your horizons in the culinary world. We have a variety of different classes that might include greek or italian or indian, or we do a wood fired pizza class every Thursday night, which is my baby.
0:21:04 - (Colin Johnson): That sounds really good. So you are a teacher there as well?
0:21:07 - (David Wiley): I am, and I am not culinary training in the classic sense. I never went to an accredited program, but I have had an enormous interest in food, both from the fascination of growing food and also what do you do with it? I can remember back when, before the Internet, when we had different food, food and wine, magazine, cooking light. I collected volumes of magazines and looked at recipes all the time.
0:21:39 - (David Wiley): And my motto then, and still to this day, was, I'm never going to cook the same thing twice.
0:21:45 - (Colin Johnson): There you are.
0:21:46 - (David Wiley): Because there's an endless amount of content out there. I had been subscribing to the New York Times daily blog, and, wow, that is just an amazing collection of food suggestions. And I'll see something that I've never even heard of. You know, I think I'm going to give that a try. That sounds interesting. That's so those who are interested in trying something different or learning knife skills or how to put all the pieces and parts together from a complex recipe and see the workflow that takes those ingredients to an end point, that you can sit down and enjoy a meal together. That's. That's our goal.
0:22:31 - (Colin Johnson): I feel like. And you can maybe speak to this, but I feel like cooking and, you know, culinary experiences, like, the culinary, like, cooking part of it is becoming a lost art. And I love that you're teaching that. And because I love, I want to learn how to do it. And I think Carly, my wife, would, we need to come do it, because I think that's something we need to, you know, pass down to the others as well. What do you. How do you feel about that?
0:22:57 - (Colin Johnson): It feels like there's such a. I'll.
0:22:59 - (David Wiley): Give you an alarming, alarming statistic. And I repeat this often, 30% of Americans do not cook a single meal. Okay? And we're talking about millions of people, 30, that have become accustomed to someone else preparing their food, either by making a selection in the fast food market or dining out or doing the home deliveries of food that have become popularized. And so I think that that takes a lot of the joy away from the dining experience just to have someone else do it for you.
0:23:38 - (David Wiley): But if you have no confidence or no skill in that area to prepare food, and I'm not saying that it's an easy thing, because there's a lot of moving parts to preparing a meal. But with practice, like anything else, you know, you're gonna get better at it. You may have a failure now and then.
0:23:58 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:23:58 - (David Wiley): You know, part of the fun is exploring that world. I mean, we have to eat to live. And so part of the joys of living is eating or enjoying wine or whatever you like to have with your meal. And so our goal is to kind of give people an opportunity to break free or break through and give it a try. I can give you an example of, I've had a few ladies bring their husbands, and I'm going to say, or their partners I say dragging them kicking and screaming to one of our classes.
0:24:36 - (David Wiley): But on the way out in the Columbo style, they would turn around to me and say, that was fantastic. I can't wait to do that again. So if people open up to the experience, yeah, we have regular clientele that tune into all of our classes. You have people that come to, are.
0:24:54 - (Colin Johnson): You doing it online? Can people watch online?
0:24:57 - (David Wiley): We are not currently doing it online.
0:24:59 - (Colin Johnson): Okay, so you're saying tune in meaning just being there?
0:25:02 - (David Wiley): Tuning in by being there. I would love to be able to have an online presence. I follow six or seven accomplished, established cooking schools around the world, and they all have an online presence. And we would also like to develop a kids cooking program, but it takes time and resources to do that. And right now, with all of what we're challenged to do, we can barely keep up with what we have. But those, when you talk about teaching cooking is a lost art, and that's because our children are not being taught.
0:25:41 - (Colin Johnson): Yep.
0:25:42 - (David Wiley): And I'll give you an example. We have adults that have aspiring young cooks at home. Some of them could be eight or nine or ten years old, who cannot wait to help mom or dad in the kitchen. And so they'll call me up and say, well, my son, I really, really want him to develop some skills in the kitchen. Could I bring him to your gumbo class? And I asked the parent two things. What is their attitude and what is their aptitude?
0:26:11 - (David Wiley): If they score high on both of those, bring them on. And so, you know, we're not there to babysit your kids. We want them to be engaged as if they were adults. We want them to learn and to be able to take something away that they can carry into the kitchen at home, that should be great. So if they say they score well on both those, I said, bring them.
0:26:31 - (Colin Johnson): On, bring them on.
0:26:32 - (David Wiley): Because I've seen some youngsters that were eight to twelve years old come in and just steal the show.
0:26:38 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, I bet.
0:26:39 - (David Wiley): And that just warms my heart.
0:26:40 - (Colin Johnson): We watch these cooking classes with our shows on tv, and there's some little guys just wearing it out. I mean, well.
0:26:46 - (David Wiley): But the food network has done an amazing job of marketing their young chefs program.
0:26:51 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, it's awesome.
0:26:52 - (David Wiley): And I don't know whether your audience knows that the nine, there are nine high schools in the region that have a culinary arts program. I did not know that.
0:27:02 - (Colin Johnson): That's amazing.
0:27:03 - (David Wiley): I would probably. If you have an opportunity to bring them into your podcast community, your family is to find someone who's in charge of their program and come in and talk about it.
0:27:15 - (Colin Johnson): Oh.
0:27:15 - (David Wiley): Because I think parents would be. Would love to hear more about that, especially if they have a youngster at home who is wanting to move into that culinary career path.
0:27:28 - (Colin Johnson): I love that.
0:27:28 - (David Wiley): That's great. But we've got a great resource in the high school programs.
0:27:32 - (Colin Johnson): We'd love to do that. Um, talk to us about, like, your classes. Um, like, if Carly and I wanted to come and. And take some classes on. Do you offer just certain, like you said, knife skills? But then can you. Can you, like, do you have a whole course that you like? Okay, here's where you start. And after a year, you're at here and you've taken 20 classes or something like that.
0:27:51 - (David Wiley): We do not have coursework. Okay. Our, uh, classes are singularly themed. Uh, our culinary director is sheridan nice, who was a restauranteur here in the area for quite a number of years, and she is eminently qualified to teach on many, many subjects. That's awesome. And her resume clearly shows that she trained with julia child in France on more than one occasion.
0:28:18 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, fun.
0:28:19 - (David Wiley): Sheridan knows food like nobody else. She has a very gentle style of teaching. Her. Attendees at her class just love being in the kitchen with her. She tries to keep me in line, which I'm not sure is possible. I'd take more than one, but no, our classes are singularly focused. There are online classes and some. I was looking at one today where they had a six week course where you could come once a week for six weeks, and you were progressively moving down the line of. Of both skill and complexity of the class.
0:29:01 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool.
0:29:01 - (David Wiley): We're not in a position to do that right now. Maybe someday.
0:29:06 - (Colin Johnson): What are some of the types of classes that you do offer? Like somebody like to. Well, tell us about the different topics that you guys have taught.
0:29:14 - (David Wiley): We have a variety of different instructors. One of our chefs is Carla Grimaldi, who is a career professional chef. Her and her husband moved here from New York. She was an executive chef in Manhattan for 30 years.
0:29:30 - (Colin Johnson): Holy smokes.
0:29:30 - (David Wiley): She is greek, married to an Italian. So we have a greek asset on our team. That's awesome. One of her classes, although, is not greek by any stretch, but it sells out every time. And that's her steak night. Date night.
0:29:46 - (Colin Johnson): Oh.
0:29:47 - (David Wiley): So you come in and you do a pan seared ribeye with herbed butter, roasted asparagus, roasted potatoes with parmesan cheese and chocolate mousse. It sells out every time.
0:29:58 - (Colin Johnson): Every time. That's what I'm having at night.
0:29:59 - (David Wiley): And what that tells us is that there's a lot of meat eaters in our region.
0:30:04 - (Colin Johnson): We do like our.
0:30:04 - (David Wiley): But yet people are looking for that date night experience.
0:30:07 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, yeah.
0:30:08 - (David Wiley): And so I was joking that I could do a Mac and cheese date night, and it would sell out.
0:30:13 - (Colin Johnson): It would sell out for sure. Hot dogs, date night.
0:30:16 - (David Wiley): We do indian classes. Sheridan does a beautiful indian greek street food. Indian street food. We have a husband and wife team that come in and do asian dumplings, which sells out every time. We have another chef who moved here from California named Kat McNama. All of her classes seem to sell out. So it's a variety of different things. We're trying to offer something for everybody or something for anybody, for that matter.
0:30:47 - (David Wiley): I teach donuts and churros once a quarter, which is a fun class. And I have a class coming up next week on the 14th, which is a laminated pasta class.
0:31:02 - (Colin Johnson): Interesting.
0:31:02 - (David Wiley): That will be fun.
0:31:03 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, that's fun. Where did you learn, or where did you have an affinity for cooking? Where'd that come from? Did your mom or dad, were they a chef?
0:31:14 - (David Wiley): My mother and father cooked a lot, and we kind of lived the principle that if you didn't have what was on the recipe, you could make do with whatever was in your pantry.
0:31:28 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:31:28 - (David Wiley): So. But I do understand the lore in my family talks about my grandfather. My parents were native New Yorkers, so I am told that my grandfather owned a very elegant restaurant in the New York City area. And I don't know whether you're familiar with the John H. Macy company, but the Macy family and their rivals in New York were the gimbels. And story has it that the Macy's and Gimbels would come and eat at his restaurant, not on the same night, of course, but, of course, so many businesses were completely wiped out during the depression years in the late twenties, and I think that's what happened. But there's food in my family. That's cool.
0:32:24 - (David Wiley): I don't know where it came from. For me, when I was young, I couldn't wait to start a garden. And then, like I said, I was a bachelor for many years, and my motto was, if I don't cook, I don't eat, and I like to eat.
0:32:38 - (Colin Johnson): There you go.
0:32:38 - (David Wiley): I like it. I think it's something, like you said, is a lost art, that people are curious about things.
0:32:46 - (Colin Johnson): A little fearful, too. I think, like, some people are like, well, I'm gonna screw it up. It's not gonna taste great. I'm gonna waste money, waste time. A lot easier to just go to pals.
0:32:56 - (David Wiley): There is a fear factor there.
0:32:58 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:32:58 - (David Wiley): And that does keep a lot of people from giving it a good old try. But it's not to say that in the course of my cooking life that I didn't mess up something here or there. But, you know, it's fun. It's an interesting part of life. If you travel the world and if you go to Turkey or to Greece or to Spain or Italy or the British Isles, you'll find that their food choices are very different. They're very interesting.
0:33:32 - (David Wiley): They're very historic. And it's always nice to kind of be in that space with different ethnic groups and explore different foods. I'm not a big fan of indian food. It's just so incredibly spicy. But it's very popular in the US.
0:33:50 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, it is. My colleague likes the curries, but she's very bland curry. She likes the flavors that they offer, but doesn't want the spice with you.
0:33:59 - (David Wiley): I just found out the other day from one of my friends that in Washington, DC, indian food is so popular, they have drive through indian places.
0:34:09 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool.
0:34:10 - (David Wiley): How about that?
0:34:10 - (Colin Johnson): That'd be good. I think that's something. I saw something on shark tank about somebody starting one of those. Yeah, that's cool. And what does the future of Serenity know look like for you? What do you think if you could go out five or ten years and.
0:34:26 - (David Wiley): Well, it's going to have a lot to do with a building project that we got going on right now. I've always felt like if we had some housing on farm, people would come for a weekend event or just to come to a cooking class and spend the night as a nearby getaway. And so I'm in the process of building five one bedroom cabins. And so that's going to change the whole dynamic because I have read about and studied and have beginning, begun talks with some chefs around the country to come in and do a chef's weekend.
0:35:04 - (David Wiley): So we would bring in a highly qualified chef to do five classes, two sit down dinners, two nights at the farm for a number. I don't know what the numbers might be yet.
0:35:17 - (Colin Johnson): Got to work that out, but it.
0:35:18 - (David Wiley): Would be a higher end experience.
0:35:21 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Very intensive.
0:35:22 - (David Wiley): Very intensive and very meaningful. And to be able to be in the space, both in a professional space in the kitchen, but casually during a meal to do q and a and talk about the things that we're talking about right now. How'd you get there? And, you know, what inspired you and that kind of stuff. So plus, we have started a yoga program there that we do every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. we do a yoga brunch.
0:35:50 - (David Wiley): And I'm very interested in building our yoga community in the same way that I did the contradance community. Yeah, I love it because this old guy needs to do yoga as often as possible.
0:36:00 - (Colin Johnson): Same, same. I need to stay limber, but I.
0:36:03 - (David Wiley): See us growing and developing and refining our business and hopefully settling into a good routine, offering high quality experiences. The view up there is incredible. The sunsets. I would like to do some movie nights and some sunset yogas. And we also are connected with a very talented herbalist, Leslie Vernon, who's done some wellness classes for us, which are very interesting. I'd like to do more of those kinds of things.
0:36:36 - (David Wiley): So, you know, the canvas is not completely empty, but it sure is room on there for us to develop new programs and encourage more people to come and visit our farm.
0:36:48 - (Colin Johnson): It sounds amazing. I'm looking forward to coming visiting it myself. How do our listeners connect with you?
0:36:54 - (David Wiley): Well, we are on two social media platforms. We're pushing 10,000 followers on Facebook.
0:37:01 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, wow.
0:37:01 - (David Wiley): Serenity nold Farm on Facebook, where we distribute all of our content for our classes and events and post pictures and give our followers a chance to critique us both good and bad. Also on Instagram, we have a presence there. We also have a website where our visitors and guests can register for classes or look at our class schedule and see what's going on there. The podcast is a great, great way to.
0:37:36 - (David Wiley): To get to know people in our area. And we're actually talking to the producer of this podcast about doing some video production for us. Good.
0:37:47 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, they'll do a great job for us.
0:37:48 - (David Wiley): I mean, there's still people in the area that do not know who we are or what we do.
0:37:53 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:37:53 - (David Wiley): And so we've just now started advertising on wets FM radio.
0:37:59 - (Colin Johnson): Yes.
0:38:00 - (David Wiley): And that seems to be going well.
0:38:02 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:38:02 - (David Wiley): So, you know, I'm not. I'm not shy from a camera or a microphone, and I just pretty much shoot from the hip when you come to our classes, if I'm involved, I try to make really meaningful connections with our guests because we may have somebody that comes there who says, do you all do team building? Because I have a business and we would love to do an outing here. Could I bring 20 people here for a private event? Of course you can.
0:38:34 - (David Wiley): Let me connect you up with our director. You all can plan the date and the content and time and the cost. We would love to have you. We've had the bank of Tennessee come on two or three occasions to do strategic planning meetings, and we fed them elegantly and they really enjoyed being an.
0:38:52 - (Colin Johnson): That sounds awesome. It sounds like an amazing place. I'm super excited. And it's got to feel pretty good pulling up there and seeing what you've created and what the, what your team and the grouping and, like, so, you know, nobody does it alone. Right. You've got lots of other people that have helped out.
0:39:09 - (David Wiley): We've got a. We've got a great team right now. Sheridan. Nice, our culinary director. We're meeting new food content creators all the time. I actually have met a few at the farmers market that came to talk about food and what we grow and said, by the way, what's your story? And he said, well, I was a chef for 30 years in such and such a place. I said, would you be interested in coming to teach in our classroom?
0:39:43 - (David Wiley): We had an interview at the Roots vietnamese restaurant two weeks ago, and I met the owner while I was there.
0:39:52 - (Colin Johnson): Yes.
0:39:52 - (David Wiley): And he came out to look at the farm as a potential source for some of his veggies in his restaurant. And I kind of stimulated him a little bit about possibly teaching some vietnamese classes.
0:40:06 - (Colin Johnson): That would be cool.
0:40:07 - (David Wiley): So that would be very cool. So we've got a culinary dresser, got some talented chefs. Deborah Bird is my farm manager, and she is in charge of growing food on farm and working with our part time employees and our volunteers. And I guess I'm the spokesperson. So I go to the market on Saturdays, which I really, really, really enjoy.
0:40:32 - (Colin Johnson): If people are wanting to get some of your produce, farmers market's the best place to do that.
0:40:36 - (David Wiley): The farmer's market is a great place, especially in Jonesboro, because it's a producer only market. I think Johnson City has way more people that come, but they're an open market, and there's not always the highest degree of authenticity there. I mean, there are people that buy on the wholesale market to resell, but we really prefer to align ourselves in the producer only model. And so people that come to the market, at least from my perspective, are already motivated. I can tell you case history after case history where someone came to me and had been diagnosed with some chronic disease and by virtue of changing their food habits, were able to resolve whatever the disease process.
0:41:23 - (Colin Johnson): Wasn't that crazy?
0:41:25 - (David Wiley): It's.
0:41:25 - (Colin Johnson): Well, well, it's not crazy. It's really probably.
0:41:29 - (David Wiley): I say this all the time. You know, food is a curative thing. Food is healthy.
0:41:35 - (Colin Johnson): We order what we eat.
0:41:37 - (David Wiley): We have a big problem with chronic disease in this area, and I think so much of it can be attributed to the diet.
0:41:46 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Did you watch the show fat, sick and nearly dead where the guy went around just blending stuff all over the. I think he was in Australia, but he only ate raw vegetables every day, made of, and he just, he got lost like 60 pounds, got rid of all of his prescription medicine.
0:42:03 - (David Wiley): I applaud that because I really believe that each individual has to make their own choices about what impacts their health. I say that no practitioner should ever touch a patient for the first time or prescribe anything for them without reviewing a seven day food diary. Oh, that's a good idea because that is so revealing. You can't eat sausage and gravy and biscuits at hearty's every morning and be healthy.
0:42:31 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:42:32 - (David Wiley): So, you know, I think if people in the community, via visits to the farmer's market, where they're connecting with the grower and talking about producing chemical free food because of the prevailing opinion that the mainstream food supply has a lot of toxicity to it, you know, so if you want a really clean, wholesome diet, then support local farmers, people that have embedded dirt in their knees like I do, there you go.
0:43:05 - (David Wiley): And can talk about, I give out a lot of recipes at the farmers market, so if somebody comes up to my booth and they see that we've got fennel there, which is a beautiful plant, and they go, well, what do you, how do you prepare that? So I, I have a rack of recipes and I said, let me help you with that. Here are four suggestions. Why don't you try it? And they go, okay, I think I will. So it's probably suggestion selling at its best to say, look, if you've never done this before and you're interested in trying it, I can help you.
0:43:37 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. What time is the farmer's market? When the time are you typically at the farmer's market? So if our listeners wanted to connect.
0:43:43 - (David Wiley): With you, I arrived at the farmer's market around 715 to set up. The market officially opens at 08:00 a.m. and goes till noon, but there are people there at 730 ready to buy.
0:43:57 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, I'm sure. And so tell us the listeners, the location.
0:44:01 - (David Wiley): Farmers market is behind the courthouse building, which is on main street.
0:44:06 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha.
0:44:07 - (David Wiley): Just past their restroom area.
0:44:09 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:44:10 - (David Wiley): It's kind of tucked away in the corner back there. And it's a great place for people to gather. There's always live music. There's the Jonesboro locally grown organization has a great information table that you can come in, and also there's a program there that I am sponsor of, which is a walk around Jonesboro. And they will give you $5 worth of tokens to spend at the market.
0:44:43 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, nice.
0:44:44 - (David Wiley): Now, one of the things that warms my heart and thrills me to no end is to see parents with small children giving them a lesson in commerce. So they'll come up to my booth and they will say, well, do you want some strawberries, Billy? Yes, I want. So give the gentleman five tokens. So we're actually going through the experience of exchanging these tokens for goods.
0:45:11 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:45:11 - (David Wiley): So I think that that is a great lesson. That's awesome for young, young kids to understand that, like my mother said, money doesn't grow on trees.
0:45:19 - (Colin Johnson): There you go.
0:45:20 - (David Wiley): You've earned this by doing this walk around town. There's one family that I love dealing with. They've got seven children, and they come to the market every week and they gather up all their coins and they're. All of them are buying something. It's a great experience.
0:45:38 - (Colin Johnson): That's super cool. That's super cool. Last question. What really just gets you fired up? Like, you're like, let's go.
0:45:45 - (David Wiley): Who we thought. I'm a competitive guy. I've been in the professional sales world for a long, long time. And I think being able to put my energy and passion into this dream that I've created of building a business, building a brand, being a part of the local food system as a function of public health, that really excites me.
0:46:11 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:46:12 - (David Wiley): For an old guy like me to get up at 530 on Saturday morning and load up and go to the farmer's market, you gotta be passionate about it. You gotta be passionate about it. So I love what I do. I love talking to people. I love entertaining people. When people come to the farm for a class or a farm tour or any of our other non food class events, it's like welcoming people into my home. And I love doing that because of the uniqueness of our model, the uniqueness of the place.
0:46:44 - (David Wiley): It's just a thrill every minute to be able to connect up and engage people on our platform.
0:46:51 - (Colin Johnson): That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thanks for what you're doing down in Jonesboro and starting the contra dance and now this farm and the cooking and making people healthier and better. I really appreciate it and applaud you and I wish you just tons of success, and I can't wait to come see it. In person.
0:47:08 - (David Wiley): Well, Colin, thank you for inviting me to be on your podcast. And I hope. I hope that everyone will come out and visit or try one of our classes or support our effort at the. At the farmers market. It's. It's a labor of love. It's not something that we'll probably get rich over, but we're very passionate about our core values and being a part of the local food system, so we appreciate everyone's support.
0:47:32 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Well, thank you so much. Thank you, listeners for listening, and I'm sure you enjoyed it just as much as I did. David is one cool guy, and I've enjoyed hanging out with you, so thank you so much. And if you're interested in moving to Johnson City or Jonesboro, where I grew up in Jonesboro, and meeting David in person, you can reach out and connect with me. We'd love to help you make Johnson City the east Tennessee area your new home and help you sell your house there or wherever you're coming from. And, yeah, if you're interested in building wealth as well through real estate, we love helping people do that. We manage a ton of property for folks, and it's just a great way to build a retirement income one day. So thank you so much. Have a great day.