About an hour outside Las Vegas on a wee rural microfarm live Helena, Sean and Emmet…a family of three that years ago moved from Las Vegas to live life a little quieter and closer to the land.
While Sean still works amid the city’s bright lights (quite literally: he’s an entertainment technician who works on many of the shows that come through Las Vegas), both he and Helena home school Emmet. And as a family, they all lend their efforts and expertise to building Dualing Cocks Hatchery, their cheeky-named biz where they raise exotic chicken breeds and a variety of other plants and creatures.
But where it gets good is that in the truest sense of their commitment to learning to live in harmony with the earth, their love of The Juice Standard’s juices have led them to repurpose something of ours that maintains the circle of life on their farm. (Hint: You’ll know the glow of their yolks a mile away!)
As Helena answers for herself and on beehalf of the men in her life…meet the Morse family!
ABOUT OUR FAMILY
In our experience, the biggest misconception about living in Las Vegas is…not recognizing that even living in a city, you can make a big impact [on the environment]. It can be as simple as riding your bicycle, starting a compost bin or picking up food waste from a restaurant.
The thing we love most about living outside the city is…having the ability to live a more sustainable, organic, back-to-the-land kind of life. Even though we only have a small desert garden that feeds us—even if we do live in a desert—the challenges this brings are merely new opportunities for us to grow.
If we had to pick a daily mantra or a quote our family tries to live by, it would be…“Waste not, want not,” and “Work hard, play hard!”
A favorite Vegas spot for our family that never gets old is…the parks, such as Floyd Lamb, Red Rock, Wetlands, and all of the great city parks. As simple as it sounds, the parks are really important to our family. We home school our son, and we often meet other families there. And often, in a desert, the only green space you’ll see is at a park.
The greatest thing about raising a family in the desert is this: Personally, I am all about permaculture. I’m obsessed with it. I also belong to a school of consciousness about 300 miles from Las Vegas, and I asked if I could contribute my time…talking about recycling, and the zero-waste movement. I believe in being a part of the solution and not part of the problem, to the extent that it is important to teach that to my son because he is part of the future. In some ways, being resourceful in the desert is a part of that.
…ON HEALTH IN LAS VEGAS AND TJS
When people ask me (Helena) what I do…I’m not quite sure what to tell them. First and foremost, I’m a stay-at-home, home-schooling mom. But I’m also in charge of the daily operations of the growing agribusiness, as well as taking care of all the unexpected events when “life happens.”
Since we have lived in Las Vegas, the biggest evolution in the healthy-living scene has been…people wanting to know where their food comes from. Wow…this is so important, with so many chemicals and additives in our food, as well as the rapid proliferation of genetically modified produce. And as far as how the healthy-living community has changed in this region, and with permaculture becoming more important to me (I am a member of the School of the Natural Order where I incorporate spirituality and permaculture) it’s prompted me to seek out other groups of people who are like minded. The MeetUp community has some really good groups. Had I not started educating myself on this journey I might not have been inspired to seek out new people.
No matter how busy we get as a family, this is what we do to make sure we eat healthy meals and snacks during the week: It’s definitely a challenge…even for a stay-at-home mom! You’re a teacher-cook-chauffeur-laundry lady….So I *do* love being able to walk into a Juice Standard store and get a Bee Royal for Emmet and know he’s going to get the freshest ingredients.
The fruit or vegetable you’ll always find in our kitchen is…bananas. Its the universal fast food!
…ON JUICE AND THE JUICE STANDARD
The reason we drink cold-pressed juice is because…it’s so nutritious, so convenient and so delicious.
The person in our family who introduced us to The Juice Standard’s juice to us was…Sean. He often works near the St. Rose store. He’d been driving by it, and one day he went in and did a juice tasting and suggested that Emmet and I go. We went in one day, tasted the juices and nut milks, and that’s how we got hooked.
The reason we drink TJS’s cold-pressed juice is for…its freshness. I feel The Juice Standard’s product is the closest I can get to juicing myself. Emmet’s favorite is Bee Royal. I love the nut milks.
Beyond juice, our connection to TJS runs even deeper than buying your products. I was at the store and one day started talking with the people behind the counter, asking about the kitchen and how it worked. And I don’t even know how it came about, but I explained what we do with our farm…and now, when we come in, we give them eight buckets to fill and we take pulp home to feed our chickens.
If it’s news to you that chickens eat juice pulp, here’s why we’re doing it: As my husband and I looked for alternatives to feeding grain—and I know this is going to sound weird, but—we turned to raising earthworms, and South American roaches (Dubia Blaptica, which are also often sold for reptile feeders) for their high protein content. Paired with your juice pulp, which is so amazing and looks so good and smells so good, it really helps us to participate in the zero-waste movement.
Now, when my girls [chickens] see me open up the buckets, they come running. And when we run out, and we have a day or two where we have to fee them grain, they are just not happy about it! The smell from the pulp is so fresh and delicious.
The biggest difference we’ve seen in the quality of our eggs is…the fiery orange-red color of the yolks. I know it’s packed with nutrients because of The Juice Standard’s pulp.
If people want to buy our eggs…right now, we sell through our friends. But I’m hoping to soon have enough to start selling at farmers markets. Right now, most of our eggs go to our hatchery. We raise rare and heritage breeds of chickens: at the moment, we have Basque and Chinese Silkies. They are two exotic birds.
Our family’s advice to a newbee juicer is…to go in and start with a tasting. Familiarize yourself with the different flavors. when I saw some of the green ones, I thought ohhhhh, that doesn’t look so good! But really, it’s delicious and so good for you.
To learn more about little Emmet and his chickens, check him out on Insta (@EmmetsHouse) and here on Facebook. Quite the little man.