The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Liz Nabi And Matthias John Joined Alex Urpí & Nickolas Urpí On “Today y Mañana!"

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Liz Nabi, Owner of Alight Flower Farm, and Matthias John, Owner of Matthias John Realty, joined Alex Urpí & Nickolas Urpí On “Today y Mañana!” “Today y Mañana” airs every Thursday at 10:15 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Today y Mañana” is presented by Emergent Financial Services, LLC, Craddock Insurance Services Inc and Matthias John Realty, with Forward Adelante.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Today y Mañana. I'm Alex. This is Nick. We're very excited to have you joining us on a rainy morning here in Charlottesville, Virginia. But that's just an opportunity to get to a nice place, grab whatever you need to keep yourself warm, and watch some Today y Mañana. I was going to say, at least there's something on the Internet to watch today. Exactly. There is something on the Internet to watch today, which is today, manana, because we have two fantastic guests

that are going to be joining us today. We're going to be joined shortly in the show by Liz Nabi. She is from A Light Flower Farm, and she's going to be coming on to talk about some beautiful flowers and just what she does. So a fantastic entrepreneur that we have here in Charlottesville.

And then later in the show, of course, is going to be our monthly meetup with Matthias for the month of October. Keep that word in mind. And so we're really looking forward to that. We'll cover numerous topics, as we always do with Matthias, and just see what he's up to and see what's going on out there in the fall

here in Charlottesville. So we're looking forward to that. Of course, as always, love being here on the I Love Seville Network set.'re looking forward to that. Of course, as always, love being here on the I Love Civil Network set. Appreciate our presenter, Emergent Financial Services, as well as our fantastic partners, Mattias Yonwilti, Credit Series Insurance, Charlottesville Opera, Forward Adelante. And, of course, we love you, our fantastic viewers,

who are already chiming in. We're getting some love from Ricardo Cruz Duran. Muchisimas gracias. a great friend of the program retarded oh so he is he's with the total mortgage so you can always check him out there's always appreciate him tuning in this morning and if you have any questions comments light shares be sure to send them our way we we love sharing the great comments about our guests. We love asking them questions. We love telling them how much the community loves them.

So that we love all those things. So be sure to send us anything our way that you would like us to talk about. I know Dr. Elizabeth Erpey is tuning in this morning. So we appreciate that. She's doing a shout out to her podcast hosts, which she likes. I mean, she said host, but I'll make it plural. I'll make it plural. I'll include Nick in there. So he is mildly appreciated as well. So how are you doing, Nick? I'm good. I'm ready to start. Ready to jump in

for today? Awesome. Awesome. So let's go ahead and do it. We are excited to welcome to the show this morning as our first guest, Liz Nobby. She is with A Light Flower Farm. Liz, thanks so much for coming on this morning. Thanks so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. It's great to have you on. So I know Nick obviously knows you. It's good to see you again. Yes, it's good to see you. I can't believe you remember the class so fondly. I'm so touched that so long ago. Yeah, well, it stuck more in my memory than a lot of other classes I had. That was one of my favorite classes. It was an amazing instructor.

Two things you love. History and art, yeah. And in a memorable way, which is fantastic. That's what matters, yeah. Well, you were also an exceptional student. So, I mean, you made it easy for teaching, definitely. If only he was an exceptional podcast host. No, I'm not messing with him.

I'm an exceptional co-host, not an exceptional host. I know my place. He is. You are an exceptional co-host. I don't get the big, honky microphone like Alex does. That's all right. That's all right. You're an exceptional co-host, so I appreciate that.

Stibling phone. Exactly. We like to needle each other. We do that a lot. co-host so I appreciate that. Sibling fun. Exactly, we like to needle each other. It's Xavier who's my dad who's normally on the podcast with me. He's not here for me to needle today so Nick will just have to take his place. But for those who

haven't met you yet Liz, maybe tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started a light flower farm. So I started it in 2016, so eight years or so ago. I actually had been teaching art history. That's how I know Nick.

And I love teaching. I enjoy researching, but writing was just not something I enjoyed. And I wanted to stay in Charlottesville. My family's here. And after you finish a degree in art history and you want to teach, you need to go somewhere else. And I was at a stage of life with a young son that I didn't want to do that. So I was actually helping my brother in his greenhouse at Sky, and that he had just started, and it made me feel like a kid again,

and just being around plants and nature, and it just, it was really calming, and it was nice after the kind of intellectual part of art history to kind of get my hands into something and explore that part. So I said to him, hey, maybe I could do this with flowers that I always loved. And he was like, go for it. And my husband, I was surprised he didn't put up barriers to say, are you sure this makes sense that you want to do this?

So I just started experimenting on my parents had a small farm in Keswick and kind of growing, seeing what I could do. And so I started with eight rows, 40 feet long by four feet wide, practiced over the summer. And by the fall, I was all in and decided that this was it. I finally found my calling. Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, so I did that and then formed the business. And we delivered cut flowers to lots of local markets in town. And this past year, we've just decided to just kind of specialize. As you're in business, you're always having to pivot and kind of rethink things, and we were just spread too thin. So we now sell exclusively through Foods of All Nations

as our primary partner. Got it. And they had us in... This is a very long answer, too. No, it's all right. We love to hear the stories. Well, you're going right into my next question, which is kind of like how you decided to turn it into a business.

So you're right there. Okay. So then they, from the very beginning, have been just amazing to us. We started as their local flour supplier back towards the bakery. And the customers are great. They were really excited about local flowers. And then in 2020, their main florist decided to focus on weddings. So Tortorelle Floral, which is amazing if you're looking for a wedding florist.

They decided to do that. So Foods of All Nations asked us to take over the flowers for the entire year. So, um, from March to November, it's our flowers. And then, uh,

the other parts of the year, or when we have fewer flowers because of the crazy weather, um, then we're bringing in wholesale flowers that I make into my own designs and bouquets. And then we also took over the gift shop. So you curate that little... So we curate the gift shop. Oh, that's beautifully done. I've noticed that for a long time.

No, that's me. I keep a low profile, but we share the shop, part of the shop with Kaspari, but the foyer when you enter and half of the gift shop and all the flowers are all ours. That's fantastic. Yeah. So that's part of why we focused on foods because we're becoming a gift shop and it's a whole other business in addition to flowers. That's awesome. That's awesome. So what types of flowers did you decide to grow like do you have numerous varieties or what where do you do you specialize in a few i love variety so i've tried just about everything that i can grow in virginia i like it to keep it interesting for customers and also for myself but uh now i feel like we're really focusing on the kind of showstopper flowers that we do best. So right now it's dahlia season,

which is my absolute favorite because of the colors and varieties and forms. And then we also do lots of beautiful tulip mixes. So not standard tulips, but double kind of peony tulips in a bunch of different colors. Peonies are really big for us. And ranunculus also is one of our favorites. So I'm shifting and changing to those things that we, I think, do really well

and that I love the most. That's exciting. Yeah. That's fantastic. So what are some of your best sellers at this time of year? So dahlias are... Dahlias are a big one. It's, yeah.

I brought you some dahlias. I didn't bring them over here. But yes, they're... I can grab them if you'd like. Sure, yeah. Here we can show people. You can see what it is. The beauty.

They don't have a super long base life compared to other flowers. Oh, that's beautiful. But these are kind of the flowers that are growing now with some eucalyptus that we grew at the farm. Oh, that's fantastic. But they're just, I feel like all you need is dahlias. You don't need everything else with it because they're just so... Well, do they vary in size and colors? All your fall colors are kind of covered with just this one variety. They smell amazing. I think that's a eucalyptus.

I'm not sure if a dahlia smells. Something smells. Well, eucalyptus is a great aroma. I love eucalyptus. That's fantastic. Now, to death of different colors, do you pick them at different times? So these are... Like fruit.

Yeah, I'm all for it. I have no green thumb, so these are legitimate questions from the heart. Okay, so with dahlias, you generally buy tubers. So think of like a potato. And you plant that, and each tuber, potato-like form, grows one variety of dahlia. So on a single plant, you would have like just the big orange one or just the small yellow one. Would that be this one? So yes, that's called, and they all have different variety names based on the breeder. So that one's Bloomquist Jean because they're a breeding family called the Bloomquist.

So each of those is actually a different variety of Dahlia. Yes. And I said, oh, my goodness. Yeah. So they're all like, they're in the same category, but they're all like a slightly different flower. Yeah, there are many different types. So it's, get into dahlias they actually show them i don't do any of that but they're all kinds of um decorative dahlias they're ball shapes they're in them there are a bunch of different styles or categories within it um so yeah those are all

different that's beautiful i would have never known you to do that with like all dahlias like they're all so different and so unique even though they're in the same I guess I'd be sitting there going like which one's that and my wife doesn't know either so we'd be like that's nice it's a shame that we don't know what it is

I mean they're I feel like they're one of the few flowers that just has I, there are just so many different varieties and so many different colors. And with my love of art, I feel like drawn to the colors as my palette, I think. Well, you arranged them beautifully as well. I mean, you have to say that, but yes. I don't have to say that. I couldn't just say nothing.

That's true. I have fun with them. That's fantastic. Yeah, that's beautifully done. A couple of shout-outs. Bill McChesney watching the show this morning. Monica Miller from Montana watching the show this morning. Caravello Vincenzo from Italy watching the show this morning.

Sicily watching the show this morning. So we are going international. He's got it right. Sicily. Sicily watching the show this morning. So we are going international. He's got it right. Sicily. Yes, I want to make sure I got that right. From Sicily watching the show this morning. So we are international this morning, which is fantastic. So Liz, what's the experience kind of been like for you as an entrepreneur?

Because you have obviously growing the flowers and being with them, which is the passion there. What's it like on the entrepreneurship side, you know, curating things for Food for All Nations and then, you know, turning this passion into sales and providing them? I think starting with the flowers helped because I'm an introvert. So my idea of doing sales, I know it's a part of the business. It's crucial. It's not my favorite part. I feel like the flowers have kind of

sold themselves. In that, once we started selling at Foods of All Nations, that connection was through my brother, and he sold his lettuce there. So I had a that helped me a lot. But the florists that we sell to they've found our flowers through foods or something so I haven't had to do a lot of like cold calling or

marketing in that way and then with our gifts we're also very lucky that uh foods has a dedicated clientele and so um even with a pandemic there are people that have to go there. So if I had a freestanding gift shop that like many of my peers in retail do, like that's, I feel like much more difficult. Yeah. Because you have to drive traffic to your individual store. And I benefit from people going to grab a bottle of wine and then they can pick up a housewarming gift or you go to get something food that you need but your kid has a birthday party the next day like you can grab something then instead of having to go many places so that's

helped me tremendously to be able to do that so yeah yeah, I think that's how. But in terms of entrepreneurship, I would say the thing that I struggle with most is staying, someone said recently that you need to, I think it was a flower farmer on profit, and she was saying you need to work on the business instead of in the business. And I am very much stuck in the business, I feel like,

and trying to, like, I do have help, but finding that balance between distancing yourself enough so that you can work on the marketing and the higher level things, but then still being close enough into that you can work on the marketing and the higher level things um but then still being close enough into that you can focus on quality and some of that so i i don't know if you have any tips on how to get the zoom out it is a recurring it's a recurring theme yeah it's like a work in progress every business owner struggles with because i don't think there is a true hardcore balance it's just just sort of like you have to,

today's this, today's that, tomorrow. And each business has its own struggles. I mean, one of the things I was going to ask you about was we've had horrendous weather. I don't know. That's another aspect of the business that, for instance, in our business, we don't have to take into account

because if it rains, the stock market will move regardless. But for flowers like do you how do you balance like just like how do you is it another layer of activity there to do when something like this is happening yes and no so yes in that the weather is crucial to how the flowers are going to look and behave and the base life and all of that um in addition to weather or other well it's it correlates with weather but pest problems are also i feel like the first couple years of being a flower farm you are living the dream it is amazing everything is beautiful and then you get to year six i feel like and all of the pests know where your farm is right so like all of trying to find you almost yeah like it's manageable and then it

just i mean like deer are always a problem but it's like spider mites and thrips and just all kinds of pests. So on the one hand, you just have to realize that Mother Nature is boss and there's nothing you can do. Like you just have to let it go. And, you know, even something that I grew great the year before, the next year it just might be a failure. Like that's just kind of the way it works. I think the thing that Feasible Nations, since we're there and we also provide flowers that are out of season and just kind of more standard florist bouquets, then it gives me an out if I'm having trouble in the field.

Whereas when I was going to all the different local markets, then it was much more of a stressor because it was only our farm flowers. So I like to do ours most, but I also have to be realistic that. Yeah. What you can. What I can do. And this summer was absolutely brutal. Yeah.

I mean, it just, with the not, no rain and just how hot it was. And a lot of pests. I've heard a lot of pests this summer because of the mild winter last year. They didn't. It was crazy. Not too few died. Yeah, no. And then there are these little things called thrips.

It looks like an eyelash. And they come in on the wind when it's warm. And then they're really hard to to deal with once and they make everything brown like the limbs like it'll look beautiful and the next day you're like oh it's brown it's because it's a thrip so um yeah and just come in on the wind and like and you probably have to have a good eye to spot them if they're like you can tell i feel like usually you see the flower quality go downhill. And then you realize. Yeah, that you have it.

So we actually put organza bags on our dahlias to keep the bugs out. To keep the bugs off. That's interesting. Yeah, so much that you have to kind of figure out and deal with. All the behind the scenes. Right. That's the thing is that with all the behind the scenes. Right. That's the thing is that there's the behind the scenes entrepreneurship and then there's the marketing and sales entrepreneurship.

Like there's all the hats you have to wear just coming on and off all the time. Instagram farm life is not farm life. Oh, that's not Instagram farm life. It is not. Absolutely. It's cropping all the weeds out of the photo, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Kevin Higgins watching the show this morning says even in this once in a thousand year storm the flowers still grow so thank you thank you Ms. Nabi I lucked out we didn't get hit hard in the way that lots of other he's thanking you for still bringing some brightness

to the area even on a gloomy cloudy day well listen that's when you for still bringing some some brightness to the to the area even even in the gloomy cloudy day. Well, listen this that's when you need a most Right pick me up. It really is. It really is. So do you when you curate? The diff shop. Yeah Do you kind of think about the season of your flowers and what you want to kind of pair with it? so initially that's how we how that's kind of how i did it but um the more i discovered that was out there in terms of gifts i really

picked things that i am drawn to and that i like and um have moved we still do some nature themed items but really kind of moved away from that. I mean, maybe I'll do that in springtime when the flowers start blooming again. But, yeah, more like we have UVA stuff for the people that come to the games. And we're right with foods right there. Yeah, thinking about where, yeah, who's coming. We definitely have the toys for the grab-and-go gifts. We have CNNs across the street. But parents are coming in

often. Yep. Candles. Then we have jellycat stuffed animals, which are super huge right now if you have a kid and they're so adorable. So yeah, it really varies just in terms of what I guess I'm drawn to or think our customers might like. I think you usually go into it and you're like, oh, this is what it's going to be. And these are the themes I'm going to use. And I think the more you do it, you realize, well, people may not want something to go with the theme. They want something that fills a need in their life. Yes. Right, where they need to go pick it up.

That makes perfect sense. So now you mentioned March through November. Yes. Are the dahlias kind of the last thing for the fall? They're it. So we will get frost. It just depends maybe as early as mid-october and then the season will be over yes um our farm is a little bit cooler than i feel like some of the other farms so sometimes we get frost earlier you can save the dahlias by running sprinklers all night and a layer

of ice will form on them and that will protect them from the temperatures that go below 32 degrees, kind of like the vineyards do, but they do it on a much larger scale. That's amazing. So the layer of ice protects them? Yes. That's fascinating. I had no clue. I would, to be honest, in my lack of knowledge, I would have thought, I would have been like, oh no, it's over. It has ice.

It's finished. It actually, I mean, I could be wrong on the science behind it, but it's more like that. That's amazing. It's not so much the freezing per se. It's that as the sun warms up, then it'll cause the cells in the flowers to expand

and kind of explode. So you're dealing with the sun. That's amazing. That might be completely wrong, but that's... But obviously it works. So if you wet them, they live. So we can do that, but I'd say that really by the end of October.

So if we don't get it mid-October, definitely we get something by like Halloween usually. You can keep them going, but your day length is shortening each day. And once you're below like 12 hours of sunlight, they just don't bloom at the same level. And not many Virginia growers have done winter growing it's just not cost effective to have a greenhouse I feel like to do that on the small scales that most of us are working on but you can do that and we've started to do some winter growing in that we're forcing tulips inside for cut flowers but otherwise I need a break actually

from farming to regroup it's fun work but it's a lot of work I was going to say that's part of the beauty of flowers in general is that there's a season for them and then a season to rest and it makes them all the more

enjoyable when you see them again that's the beauty of spring right and part of its beauty is that we're seeing things that we have missed for a while and if they had been there if it was spring all the time would we love it quite as much I don't know

probably not winter still could be shorter we're with you there just lengthen everything except winter. Just shrink it a little bit. Just a little bit. For me, I'm like, once Christmas is over,

I just want winter to be done. Right, yeah. I feel like you want the snow so bad for the holiday season and then it can just kind of go away. Absolutely, absolutely. After Three Kings, let's start warming up. Start warming up. Start warming up.

Exactly. Let those spring flowers start coming. So Liz, this has been fantastic. So people definitely physically, as far as location, can find you in Foods of All Nations. Yes. Where can people find you online, learn more, and see what you're up to,

especially, I guess, when flowers return in March. Yeah. So we are on Instagram. We are alightflowerfarm. Also, alightseaville is our gift shop handle. And on Facebook, both alightflowerfarm and alightseaville. And our website is alightflowerfarm.com. Alightflowerfarm.com. So the key word is alightflowerfarm.com. alightflowerfarm.com.

So the key word is alight. It's either going to be alightflowerfarm or alightseaville, and they will find you. Yes, and they can also email me at liz at alightflowerfarm.com or liz at alightseaville.com. We don't usually sell flowers directly, just because we don't have the volume, but it's worth a shot.

You can always ask and if i have extra i'm happy to share them that's fantastic awesome well liz this has been an absolute pleasure thanks so much for for coming on today it's been wonderful to to see your beautiful work there and and and to learn about it so definitely would encourage people to to go check out a lightflower farmarm.com and pass by. It's food of all nations. It's food of all nations. Picking up your sushi or whatever you like to get there, just check out the flowers.

Well, thank you so much. This was a lot of fun. I really appreciate you inviting me. I'm very honored to be here. It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure to have you on. Thanks for what you do. Good to see you again.

Definitely. Thank you. Take care. And we will go ahead. And as we rotate, it's always beautiful, I think. Good to see you again, definitely. Thank you. Take care. And we will go ahead and as we rotate, it's always beautiful, I think, just to see.

And now, the nice thing is now every time I go to that, to Food for the Nation, I always see, you can't not see the little drift shop. It's right there

when you walk in. It's so much fun. It's always cute. You know, I always like pass by sometimes and so it'll be nice and I think Judah's going to go studio cam here

if he hasn't already. I was ready. Yeah, we're a stand-up. Oh, it'll be nice. And I think Judah's going to go studio cam here if he hasn't already. I'm ready. Yeah, we're a stand-up Matthias. Oh, he did it already. So Matthias is joining us this morning. And here's the surprise that Matthias, it is Oktoberfest, so Matthias is here with the lederhosen. With the lederhosen. See me in full, very, very gear. In traditional. Smile over here.

And I've been promising this for two years and today's the day I am just thrilled I am thrilled for it that we thought about it the Lederhosen so we are thrilled for it it's awesome to see

and traditional this is from Munich this is from Munich. This is your traditional lederhosen that you've had for a while. Exactly. So that is traditional to the area in Bavaria, in Munich, and that area. Let's just say the Alpine area, because in some parts of Austria, you wear lederhosen as well so it's not only specific to German

for sake of example this is a Bavarian traditional outfit I say that in the hope that Jona is not watching but I'm just kidding yeah because where Jona is from they wear it too

yeah just right over the border Just kidding. Yeah, because where Jonah is from, they wear it too. Yeah, just right over the border. And I bring gifts. I actually found real Oktoberfest beer in a local wine store here in Charlottesville. I was going to say, let me hold up a bottle. Hold it up here. It's so funny. Matthias and I were having the same idea. We both found Jerry Brands.

You brought one too. You went with the Weinstefano and I had found Einde some Oktoberfest beer. Do you want to have some? You should bring You should have a bottle too.

There's lots of places around town where you can find them. I know for sure a breakfast beer. So you can buy them at Beer Run or that wine shop that is next to minor key on emily dude it's prepared all the beer and wine charts though the beer and wine imports exactly they have imported beer as well yep so that's always especially this time of year and and what what's beautiful about bavaria is that for people who go into German beer, they really do have a beer for like every season, every season, every holiday. When I was there for my honeymoon last year, it was May, so they had Maibach, which is like a May beer, essentially. And then apparently, they

had something special for that reason, which was a season which was Johannesbacht or something. So, which was really interesting. Was that for St. John? Or is that not religious-related at all? No, it was. It was the religious... I can't remember if it's...

Yeah, it must be St. John the Baptist or some kind of holiday that was upcoming. So you make a beer for the feast day. And in that one, in that area, he was bid. And then there was another by feast day that was really bid that they would ride. And if Monica Miller is watching, she could probably remind me what it was, that they would take a horse all the way up to like a hill. Monica says, hello Matthias, you look so Bavarian.

Very, very nice. Thanks. I appreciate someone acknowledging the effort. Oh no, it's beautiful. And it is dear. You know, it was I parked here in the parking house next door,

and I was wondering how many people are going to greet me and ask me, what the heck are you wearing? And then, I mean, you heard it. Right as we entered this building here, someone yelled in Bavarian accent, servus. A person I've never seen before. It took us five minutes to do the servus. A person I've never seen before. It took just five minutes just recognizing what I was wearing.

Which is basically like, hello. It's almost like I paid him to do that. Almost. Almost. Except I... But I feel like it's classic Charlottesville. Right? You're watching that in five minutes

in Leidenhausen and we have our first sandwich. Somebody from somewhere knows exactly what's going on, yeah. But if you want to see a crowd of people dressed like this, you can come and see us on Saturday. We will have like a German-American Association event. It's our regular monthly Stammtisch, but we make it an Oktoberfest event in Nelson

County at the Blue Mountain Brewery. Blue Mountain Brewery? Oh, that's not far at all. That's not far from there. No, they have a really nice beer garden. It's going to be sunny. Is it the one on 151? Yeah, exactly. Oh, what time is it? We will be there from 12 to 4, which

coincides with the live music. There's a band that will play, what Americans call O the live music. There's a band that will play, what do Americans call it, Oompa music? It's describing the Bavarian... Is that like Polka? Exactly. I know Polka, I've never heard of Oompa.

It's time diversion. Yeah, that's how they call it. I've seen that term several times. It's beautiful. That's fantastic that you how they call it. I've seen that term several times. But yeah, no, it's beautiful. That's fantastic that you have that. They have German beer there. They have their own beer, of course.

And they actually have pretty decent German pub food, or let's call it beer garden food. Beer garden food. So it's a nice atmosphere. And it has a very beer garden atmosphere. Yes, it does. And you see the mountains. The mountains, the tables, your picnic tables, your outdoors, your flowers.

So it definitely has that feel. And non-Germans are allowed. Yes. Even Sicilians. All the Germans that are listening and watching, all those that speak German, because a lot of Americans will be there that have some kind of association with Germany, or a spouse that is German, like

our friend Alex here, or those that are just interested, please come join us. That's my ticket in as my spouse. I'm going to say, Elizabeth, you are my ticket. My sister-in-law is Bavarian. I'm coming in. That's wonderful.

It's such a beautiful thing. You can be here in Charlottesville, in the South, in America, but you can still find a group with whom you can share the culture and history and atmosphere and good times

and good beer and a language that you share. Yeah, Americans are really obsessed with Oktoberfest. You know, I see a lot of events. It's an opportunity to drink. Exactly. And, you know, I brought this beer for you thinking that you might want to drink one as we are here. Well, we can at least do a prost. And I was also looking for a nano-alcoholic Octoberfest beer, and they have it.

No way. It's a California brewery that does Octoberfest beer, non-alcoholic. Alcoholic Octoberfest beer. Oh, man, if you have enough beers. And you, we should come and get it. Yeah, the whole place can enjoy it. Jerry? Jerry's going to want one, too.

Here, I can open it for you see this is the beautiful I do, I do, I prefer we're making everyone's right, I feel like we've got to take advantage of the fact that we actually do have a live studio audience we don't advertise it

on television we actually do have a live studio audience. Cheers. What would you say in German? Prost. To a beautiful October. That's good.

That's the kind of beer I like. Beautifully done. Have you ever been to the Oktoberfest in Munich? No, I have not. I went there, it was still May so they had different festivals apparently they do different festivals all year long for different things

they had just finished or were just about to do a festival because they had all the May polls up all the really large polls and they were about to do a festival where they would take everyone up to a because they had all the maypoles up, all the really large poles, and they were about to do a festival where they would take everyone up to a big hill with a horse

where there was like a little church and the whole area would come and do this. And it had something to do with a legend where someone had, a horse basically had been trapped in a church and somehow rang the bell to escape. And so there's this whole festival that happens, but I have not yet bid for our Toberfest, although I was told by...

And Judas cracked up. He's at the whole story. Yeah, at the whole story. It was a hilarious story. But I was told by Uncle Hans, my wife's uncle, that I need to return for our Oktoberfest. He wants to take us to Munich during that time where the beer halls, they have the

massive beer halls and beer darts where they put all the tables together and people just go and have a good time. When you hear Oktoberfest, it's not only referring to that big commercialized event in Munich, in the center of Munich,

which most Americans know about, right? Each village in southern Germany, even in southwestern Germany and part of Austria, they have their own Oktoberfest celebration. And usually it involves a tent and benches where people gather and have beer, but also eat and lots of music and games. Actually, the history of Torbafist is that King Ludwig I, early 1800s, he got married, and so he wanted to have a big celebration. And I think it was several days, five days or so, in the center of Munich. Well, now it's the center of Munich.

Back then it was outside, actually, a big meadow, the Theresienwiese. And he just had food and beer and music and a horse race. And that tradition continued. And while we no longer have the horse race, we now have merry-go-rounds. It's a big fair. Millions of visitors each year. It's an international event now. That's how

it actually started. It's not the same as the King Luke II. King Luke II is the crazy one. I think it's his son. Don't confuse him with the second. The second is the one that you call the crazy one. The one with the one that, well, you call it the crazy one. The one with the Neuschwanstein castle, the one that loved Wagner.

He built Neuschwanstein castle, or he started it at least. It's still not finished. But it is not the son of Ludwig I that I'm talking to. It's just the name, the elected name of Ludwig II. Oh, interesting. I didn't know that. So I think Ludwig II's father was King Maximilian. Oh, interesting. So I think Ludwig the second's father was King Maximilian.

Oh, wow. So Ludwig the first doesn't have any association. He lived later. That was the end of the 1800s and the one who got married was the beginning of the 1800s. I was trying to sneak Wagner into this conversation.

No Wagner connection. Monica Miller says prost. Oh, prost. And thank you to Edward Heron for watching. He was our guest a couple weeks ago. Which is a pleasure. Yes, thank you for watching. Now, does the style of beer change per season as well?

Or is it just sort of like whatever beer they feel like making? No, so for the October season, it's actually a fest beer. So it's a maltier version of the regular lager. But again, Germans are very strict about brewing beer. It has to align with the purity law. I think that's how you translate it to English. Interesting.

So when you go and buy beer here in the U.S., it is actually, Germans would call it a beer-like drink because it's not actual beer according to the original recipe. I think that's what I was told. There are strict rules, yeah, for how they do it out there and old monasteries. Judah was pointing out it's on the label of the bottle. It says

brewed under the purity law of 1516. Thank you, Judah. It has to be on the label. It's almost like in wine how there's some of the stamp of the denomination of origin controlled. It's probably similar. You have to do it according to a certain way. But there are still old

monasteries and stuff that they're either continuing to make beer or they – the brewery is now a separate entity, but it's where there used to be a monastery. Can't the monks come and just make sure they're doing it right? So especially back in the day, each village and town, they had their own brewery or facility where they made their own beer, right? And now, well, you can still find it, but it's more that corporations own several of those microbreweries. They combine them oftentimes. But it's still a typical German tradition.

And not unique to Germany, but since we're talking about it, yeah, that every town, they have their own beer. Yep, they have their little thing. In fact, the one that was near the town where we went, when I went then to my wife's grandmother's house, Uncle Hans showed us a basement

where, because way in the past, their ancestors had sold the beer from the monastery. So they would take the beer, put it in this little basement, and then sell it around the area. So they just, it was like a little town effort where, okay, you go get it, you put it here, and now you can go send it to other people.

And this is like, you know, 1800s when they're doing this. So it's just amazing that long history and culture. Now to see that it lives on here in people that have come, like you, Matthias, and the Stamtisch that have come here in Charlottesville, but it continues to

live on in its own way. Yeah, because after all, we have many Germans in Charlottesville. I didn't know that either when I moved here. Actually, was it last week that you had a guest on the show? It was Edward Herring. So he actually, I don't think he started it, but he oversees the German-American Association.

He speaks German. Well, he speaks probably eight languages. Oh, yeah, we knew. You met him. Yeah, he started speaking Spanish. I didn't know he spoke German, too. Wow. Yeah, he speaks fluent German.

Wow. That's amazing. So he'll be there on Saturday as well. That's right. Oh, man, so hopefully we get to see him. That's awesome. Are you coming? Yeah.

I'm going to try to come. I'm not far. I'll move my schedule. Yeah, especially I'm not far from there. I will try to rearrange my schedule. Yeah, no, I just tell Elizabeth, I've got to run some errands for four hours. I may come back smelling like beer.

Ali Savindi watching the show this morning. Thank you, Ali, for tuning in. Always appreciate it. But that's, yeah, that's fantastic. And just to, were you surprised? Because I know it's always a joy when we came to Charlottesville and began, when we moved here, you know, you move

here not knowing sometimes, you know, what groups are around, right? What kind of, you know, groups of people that, you know, all from a different country that you'll find here. And so we came, we knew there were some Latinos,

but we're like, you're not going to find Cubans in Sharjah. And then little by little, you get the joy of being like, oh, there are some Cubans here, there's some Cubans there. Was that kind of your experience

as little by little you realized, oh my goodness, there are other people who speak German here? Yeah, I moved here in 2014 and I assumed that I would at some point meet another German or a German family that is here because of UVA or any other reason.

But then I realized that there's actually a monthly reunion of the German Stammtisch, and so there are families that go there. I would say most Germans that live here, that moved here, are here because of UVA, which makes sense. They work in the German department or just as instructors in general. But I know Germans that work in all fields and made Charlottesville or the surrounding area their home. Just like myself, I was not affiliated with UVA when I moved here. Still not.

Right? No, but as I was preparing for today, I knew that you might talk about German population, so I went on the Internet and looked up because I was curious about the actual population. And here is what I found out. I love this. I was going to say, he's got secret information that we don't have.

There's actually this census website where you can look up the demographics for each city in the U.S. And that's how I found out. We have 232 German residents in Albemarle County and about 50 living in the city of Charlottesville. So let's say 300 here in the metropolitan area of Charlottesville. And I would say I only know 50 of them. So there are more of us hiding. There's a big stomp dish out there somewhere.

We just have to make it. That's right. And actually what I found interesting, we have a bigger population of Germans here than in Richmond. Oh. Interesting. Richmond has what, 230,000 residents? Charlottesville and Albmau maybe 130 total.

Do you think the mountains have something to do with it? No, I think it has to do with a very strong language department at UVA, German department or similar. They do have a strong department there.

Many Germans and they actually have an Octoberfest celebration too in two weeks at UVA in the German department. Interesting. That's amazing. Yeah, they have a strong German and a strong Spanish department, which I think also contributes to that. I was going to say, one of the things I found out, and one of the reasons I couldn't

further my education in ancient Roman history is because I did not take German, which is ironic. But when you're really going deep, you take German because a huge amount of ancient Roman scholarship is by German scholars from the 1800s. So you have to learn German to go into, and I'm like, I can't start a whole new language. I'm just going to have to go to work.

It reminds me of going to have to go to work. It reminds me of going to school in Germany and we all had to learn Latin for many years. And we were all complaining because it's a dead language. Why do we need to learn it? But now I'm glad because it laid the

foundation for all Romantic languages. It's not quite as dead as they pretend it is. It has many obstacles. It's a funny thing just by its own nature, it then makes learning others easier. Exactly. I thought just growing up,

our dad, he spoke Spanish, but we didn't really, when you have one parent who speaks Spanish and the other who speaks Italian, you end up speaking English in the house. You don't end up really getting deep into either one of them. So we didn't grow up speaking much Spanish.

And then I remember Spanish was very hard in high school. Then I took Latin at the end of high school. And then when I went back to Spanish in college, I said, this is so easy. Half the word is gone. But I'm curious, do you know other Italians

here I mean because of your parents and their origin he's more Irish right well he's Italian he knows every once in a while he'll reference something oh he's Italian

you meet just spend a little time I was going to say I think he's very easy to understand you meet just spend a little time and he I was going to say I think he's very easy to and obviously the Finazzo family at South the Finazzo family yeah is there from Sicily I believe and do you have like a get together

among Italians no we don't have a big Italian I don't know how many Italians did your number have I'm glad you asked oh yeah what are we looking at Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how many Italians. Did your number have? How many Italians? I'm glad you asked. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

What are we looking at? Here we go. No, not too many. Yeah. 57 in Albemarle County, 41 in Charlottesville. Yeah. Wow, there's more Germans. More Germans than Italians. Than Italians.

We met a lot of people coming from New York. That's the interesting thing, is that the thing that we'd find is that my parents would start talking to people. They'd be like, are you from New York. That's the interesting thing. The thing that we'd find is that my parents would start talking to people. They'd be like, are you from New York? And then we'd find out that there's a tremendous amount of people who came down from New York to Charlottesville. So there's like all these New Yorkers but not necessarily specifically Italian.

They're not in that number because this number is referring to foreign born Yes. So you might have some Italian Americans if they're coming down from New York or up north. Like your mother would go in in that number, but not you.

No, no. My mother was born here. Yeah, my mother was born in Brooklyn. So she was born here. But unless they waive the rules. So you're half Cuban. But we have half Cuban, right? So that's the thing, is that like, would we...

So your father was born 29 in Albemarle, 30 in Charlottesville. We need a Cuban we can get. Anyway, I was just... Is there anything else? I was in Capital Richmond. It specifies, let's go, considering the immigrants. And again, foreign... The influence of the university, a comfort level to people that don't just have roots in other places

but are actually born there themselves. Well, I guess UVA is important in that regard. When I moved here, and again, I wasn't affiliated with UVA, moved here because of relationship, very different reason. But I quickly realized that it's, although it's a small city, it's very cosmopolitan just because of the

reach of UVA. And I mean, we always talk about UVA, but we also have large, important here in Albemarle County and Charlottesville that are at UVA and Martha Jefferson. You know, the quality of employers here in the area. Well, we have a question from an audience member. It's Tom Johnson says, Guten Tag, Herr John. Sorry, I said John because I'm reading it. Why does Oktoberfest start in September, and why does German beer taste better than American beer?

So if you've got a two-prong question. Well, the second question, I was very proud of its breweries. It has to be, you know, the original recipe, the purity law. And I know I sound very German right now, but you follow the ingredients. Yeah, that's the case with me. I think when I, and again, I don't drink alcohol anymore. I'm drinking a non-alcoholic here, which is, you know, a German would reprimand me for drinking this, probably. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think a German lager is just the simplicity of the ingredients

that makes it a very typical German beer. Hard to compare to what American breweries do. I think it's very different in how they make it. I think that's the answer. And then the other part of the question is season. The weather gets less pleasant in October compared to September in Germany. And also the days get shorter. And so to take full advantage of this because everything is outdoors unless you go inside a beer tent.

They decided to start in September butfest has to end on the first Sunday in October. So that varies every year, of course. But it's 16 or 18 days of Oktoberfest celebration. It starts in September, will end in October. But the reason for that is really just weather and length of the day so it's almost like they count backwards right so it's like this day has to be the end and so

we need 18 days going back but we're going to name it after but we call it Oktoberfest but some people take it too far did you see that Borset here Borset here? Borset in Charlottesville, their resort.

They had an Oktoberfest beginning of September, I think. That's too early, though. Well, I noticed a lot of companies start sending everything out earlier because I think they want to take advantage of the buying season. Like, come buy the beer early. It's like Christmas, where Christmas is actually

from December 25th to January 6th, but we call Christmas as soon as Thanksgiving is over. That's Christmas. I think Americans don't have, America doesn't have a particular patience, I think, for holidays. We like to start them really early. That's right.

The anticipation, I think, is more fun for a lot of Americans than the actual... We were seeing Halloween, I don't know about your neighborhoods, we were seeing Halloween decorations two weeks ago. Last month already. And I was like, it's September 15th. Halloween is the last day in October.

No, the crazy part for me is when I came home from, you know, when we came home from Italy in August and I went to Costco to make a trip and there's Christmas stuff out. That was the one that was crazy to me. Yeah, you can buy Christmas cookies already. Yeah. It's crazy.

Well, and I think part of it is we have all, I think also we have, correct me if I'm wrong, we have less public festivals, I think, than a lot of places like Germany or a lot of places in Europe. There are more celebrations in between. In other words places in Europe, like there are more celebrations in between, like then, in other words, in Germany, it's not, nothing happens between Independence Day

in Germany and Christmas. There are this celebration or this feast or that feast, local towns will have their own little thing going on. And so there's, I think when you have more things to celebrate in your little area, you don't feel the need to say, well, I need to start Oktoberfest in August because I have nothing

going on in August. There are other things to do. Most likely, yes. Depending on where you are in Germany, I remember when we moved to northern Germany when I was older, we realized that there are less holidays in northern Germany than in southern Germany

because southern Germany, Bavaria, is mostly Catholic. And so there are more religious holidays than there are in other parts. Yeah, one of the beauties of being Catholic, being part Italian, you have no shortage of saints, have this you have no shortage of saints and therefore you have no shortage of potential feast days because you just have and they don't even have to be significant I mean on the big thing

sometimes you'll go to a town in Italy and there's a saint you've never heard of but there's a whole parade there's a whole parade going on and you'll sit there and say who was this person well this person lived in 1660 and they did this. But the whole town is...

It's like you read about them, they live this pure chaste, quiet life and we celebrate that by blowing out a party for two weeks. But I mean, we do it here too. We have lots of celebrations to commemorate origin or special events like Oktoberfest right now. Exactly.

Isn't it also Hispanic Heritage Month right now? It is through October 15th. And as we just found out, Charlottesville is comprised of many ethnicities and residents of different countries. So we have a lot to commemorate and celebrate. Speaking of which, so this is a very, very special podcast today. Oh, it is. Very different to our other. My father says hello to Matthias, and I'm sure he's missing out today because he likes beer.

Except my regards. We don't talk about real estate today, not about work at all. We just sit here in a funny outfit. It's a beautiful outfit. Because ultimately that's what we are, right? We're people. We do things.

We have tasks that we do in jobs and businesses that we have to help others. But when it comes deep down to it, we're people and we celebrate. We like to celebrate who we are and where we're from and the deep roots that we have in places far away, but that led us here. That's right. No, I'm actually happy that once a year I get the opportunity to wear this outfit for a few times now. Again, we have our Oktoberfest event. Didn't think

that I would at some point sit here in front of a microphone with this. But I'm glad you did. That also gives me the chance to show houses today in the afternoon. That'll be fun. That'll be a blast for your clients that you're showing some homes to. That'll be wonderful. Yeah, that'll be neat. That'll be a blast for your clients

that you're showing some homes to. That'll be wonderful. I should probably walk through the grocery store like this just to get some attention. Especially, I mean, if you were showing any land, like a field, you'd really look right at home.

I mean, that's actually the history of those leather pants. You know, the lederhosen. Originally, that's actually the history of those leather pants, you know, the lederhosen. Originally, that's what people wear in Bavaria and other southern parts of Germany and Austria, just because it's very durable, it's weather-resistant, and that's how you would work on the field. It's either cow leather or deer leather. This is deer leather. This is deer leather. But this, those lederhosen, they will last for another hundred years. And in fact, they age well. Well, that's the beauty of leather. It only improves with age. Can I ask you, as a closing

thing, I want to ask, when you put that on, are there like memories from your childhood or that kind of come to mind when you think about? Not from childhood, because even though we lived in Bavaria when I was young, we then moved away. And I didn't move back to Munich until I was an adult. So my memories are really Oktoberfest and beer tents. That's what I think of when I put the clothes on. And when I say Oktoberfest, it's so much more than beer.

It's just three weeks of celebration, and it's a lot of fun. Especially when you live in Munich and you don't have to pay expensive hotels. It's very hard for visitors to find accommodations during October 1st. So instead of childhood nostalgia, would you say there's a sense of almost national pride that comes with that instead? Like a sense of a cultural heritage? Yeah, I would say that, yes.

Americans typically and falsely think that what I'm wearing today represents German culture, which is not accurate because it's really specific to Bavaria. My parents live in the very north of Germany right now, in the border to Denmark. They would, there where they live, never wear this outfit. So when they come to the US and Americans ask them, oh, did you bring your

lederhosen, they would have to say, no, I never owned it. Yes, it's a regional thing. So very tied to place, i think yeah because people have been in a certain place for so long that it's tied very much to the well this is it's just typical the more further removed you are from a certain culture the less of the nuance like things the difference is yeah take over it's like pasta alfredo being an italian it's not really an italian it's a northern italian thing yeah so they're very specific to one region, and, you know, Sicilians would never have it. But look, sure, there's pride involved. You know, I live here now for 10 years.

My wife is American. My daughter was born here last year and will be American. But I will always remain German in a unique way. I will have dual citizenship and it's important for me to be both American, because I live here now and I'm fully integrated, without

forgetting where I come from. So every now and then I wear this to feel German. It's good to remind ourselves where our ancestors came from. And the struggles they went through. And that's how we ended up here

and how we became who we are. And if you look around in Charlottesville, as we know, it's very rich in different cultures and ethnicities, which is why I think part of what draws people here. I think so. Matias, this has been, I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed this show. It's just to be able to just relax and talk and just help people see the fact you know, the fact that, you know, for all we do, we're just people.

We're people that like to have a good time and appreciate where we come from and appreciate what we're surrounded by. And so it's been fantastic to have you on my pleasure with the heritage. We appreciate that after two years you delivered on your promise. After two years. Well, now we'll just have to make it an annual tradition. It's an annual tradition. Let's make it an annual tradition. It's an annual tradition. Let's make it an annual tradition.

Next October, come again. Different shirt then. Different shirt, same leader. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Always great to be here. Always a pleasure. Always a pleasure.

And you can catch Matias at Oktoberfest in Blue Mountain Brewery. Blue Mountain Brewery. This Saturday. This Saturday. What were the times again? 12 to 4. 12 to 4. 12 to 4. 12 to 4.

So be sure to check that out. I memorized it, yeah. You know, this is a great way, I think, to send people off for a couple weeks because we will not

have a show next week. That is correct. You know, we've got some well-deserved rest being taken by our production team. The production team.

So we will not have one next week, but we will be back the following week with some more today and mañana but we really appreciate everyone who tuned in today I was happy to see also some new faces

some new questions some new comments and just really appreciate everyone who tunes in I can't forget Elizabeth Erpe the wonderful Elizabeth Erpe the wife of Nithilus Erpe, who tuned in. So I don't want to leave her out. So just a really big thank you to everyone who joined us this morning. Appreciate all of you so much.

Appreciate our guests. Be sure to check out A Light Flower Farm from Liz. Be sure to check out Matias Yon Realty and get to meet Matthias. Hey, if you need to be in the real estate field and you want your house, your future home shown to you by a man wearing lederhosen, then you need to call Matthias. So that's all I can say there. And you have the realtors who will show up. If you don't know, yeah. I mean, I can't think of anyone else who would do that.

So that's my pitch, My only pitch for today. That's my only pitch for today. But really, no, appreciate just having the monthly meetup with Matias and all of everyone here. And appreciate Judah behind the camera making us look good. Jerry for being our wonderful live audience. The I Love Seville Network. Emergent Financial Services. Our amazing partners, Credit Series Insurance.

Matias, Yon Realty, Charlottesville Opera. I appreciate you for co-hosting with me today. And thank you all for watching this morning. Have a safe and wonderful week. And we will see you back in a few weeks on Today and Mañana. But until that time, hasta mañana. Bravo, boys.

How do you say hasta mañana in German? Great show, great show. That was a fun one. Mattias, How do you say hasta mañana in German? Great show, great show. That was a fun one. Matias, how do you say...