Special edition! (Briar from the Grazing Daisy!!).
Today on the Indy Wild blog I’ll be talking with a good friend of mine! I’m very excited to introduce Briar Albaugh to you!
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INDY. Hi, Briar! I’m so excited to have you here today! I’ve been enjoying your informative and imaginative content for a long time, and it’s a pleasure to have you here with us on the blog!
To get us started, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?
BRIAR. Of course! My name is Briar; I am a Christian college student with a heart for plants, animals, and all things homesteading! I also enjoy running, reading, and spending plenty of time outdoors. My current endeavor is setting up an indoor garden in my apartment bedroom; it’s been a joyous process!
INDY. Well, I do know you like animals—you even worked at a zoo—do you have a dream pet?
BRIAR. Yes! When I worked at the zoo, I was tasked with training their two North American porcupines, and ever since, I have dreamed of keeping and teaching my own porcupine someday. Also, it would be fitting to name the porcupine Spork. Spork the porc? Sporkupine the porcupine! Mmmhmm, perfect name.
INDY. Where do you see yourself in five years?
BRIAR. Oooh! I love this question! 5 years… let’s seee… I will be 23. I will be done with college by then, preferably out in the middle of nowhere, trying to build my homestead from the ground up. I will probably have chickens, rabbits, quail, a garden, maybe beehives, and hopefully, I will be in a position where I can get some goats, but that might have to wait a little bit longer. We shall see. I also dearly wish I could become some sort of sourdough maestro so I can start gifting my friends and family the joy of freshly baked scrumptious bread. Oh! And canning! I hope that in five years, I will also have mastered the art of canning homegrown foods to preserve them for the off-season. Not to mention, I plan to capture the whole adventure in either words or film so I can take other people along with me on the journey!
INDY. Do you have a favorite plant?
BRIAR. Okay. Wow. So, out of 435,000 plant species in the world, you want me to choose one? That hardly seems fair XD. Ginkgo is my favorite tree, kohlrabi is my favorite vegetable, strawberry is my favorite fruit, sumac is my favorite thing to forage, and chicory is my favorite flower. There you go. I narrowed it down to five.
INDY. I understand you just ate guinea pig while in Peru; I’m interested to hear more about this.
BRIAR. Yes! Before I went to Peru, I said numerous times I wanted to eat a guinea pig if given the chance. On our second day there, we asked if we could try one. That’s when we learned that cuy is only served on special occasions, like holidays, and they weren’t sure if they could get one. Well, somehow, they got one, and they surprised us all on our last day by bringing out a fully cooked guinea pig dressed up in an entire outfit XD! After the photo shoot, it was time for the highly anticipated taste test. I had wanted this for so long I didn’t even hesitate as I lifted the grayish cube to my mouth. Honestly, it just tasted like a slice of slightly rubbery meat. It wasn’t bad; it wasn’t the best, it was something I’d try again for its novelty. Overall, 7/10.
INDY. What inspires you as a person?
BRIAR. Hmm. What inspires me? A whole lot of things. The part of me that gets inspired is easily triggered. Other people inspire me the most. I love hearing their stories, learning about their lifestyle, and watching how they are succeeding in life. When I see someone doing something successful, I want to jump on the productive train and do it, too! People who get things done are incredibly inspirational.
INDY. What are your favorite books?
BRIAR. My favorite books… well, I’d have to say the Bible—the best book ever written! But besides that, I really love classics like Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, and Swiss Family Robinson. Generally, though, I enjoy nonfiction books that teach me things, especially if they are homesteading books, autobiographies, or Christian life books (the deep philosophical ones are the best).
INDY. I know that, from beekeeping to gardening, you really know your stuff. Do you have tips for people learning about things they’re interested in? How can you really go from a hobbyist to an expert?
BRIAR. First things first, I’m not an expert (not yet, anyway). However, I believe the trick to becoming knowledgeable in a particular field is trying, failing, improving, and teaching. The most important part is to actually try. Don’t tell yourself you’ll research today and try some other day. Try today and fail tomorrow so that someday, you can look back and smile at what you’ve accomplished even though you weren’t an expert.
INDY. You post on your blog and your YouTube?
BRIAR. Yes, sir! My blog and channel are both called The Grazing Daisy. I post one to three blog posts a month, send one newsletter monthly, and post YouTube videos whenever something interesting happens.
INDY. Thank you so much for joining me (and us) today!! I’ve enjoyed our interview!!
BRIAR. Me too! Thanks for inviting me! I have had so much fun answering all these thought-provoking questions!
If you want to support Briar, you can subscribe to both her YouTube channel and her blog!!
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https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zjnfDGiYm1w
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-Indy
