Apple Pie, and History Coming to Life: The Magic of Riley's Farm - Jim Riley - S5E6

Tucked away in the historic apple-growing region of Oak Glen, California, lies Riley's Farm – a 760-acre colonial living history experience that's become a beloved family tradition for thousands of Southern California families. Join Coach Mikki and farm owner Jim Riley as they explore how this remarkable destination evolved from a family vacation property into an immersive historical experience hosting 80,000 schoolchildren annually.

Riley shares the serendipitous journey that led to creating a place where history comes alive through Revolutionary War reenactments, colonial dinners, and seasonal harvests. What make extraordinary isn't just its apple orchards or homemade pies – it's the opportunity for families to actively participate in American heritage rather than passively consume entertainment. From pressing apple cider in traditional presses to dancing in converted barns after farm-to-table meals, visitors create memories that digital experiences simply can't replicate.

The conversation reveals something deeper happening at Riley's Farm – what Jim describes as a "mystical connection" many feel to agricultural rhythms. "Most of us are only three or four generations removed from the soil," he explains, suggesting that farm experiences tap into cultural memories embedded in our collective consciousness. As families disconnect from technology and reconnect with tactile experiences, they often discover joy in simple pleasures and gain appreciation for the sacrifices made by earlier Americans who built our nation through tremendous hardship and heroism.

Whether you're looking for a unique family outing, seeking to understand American history beyond textbooks, or simply craving the taste of freshly pressed cider and homemade caramel apple pie, Riley's Farm offers an authentic escape from modern life. As Coach Mikki attests from years of visits, "It leaves a memory that you'll cherish." Discover how you can experience this unique destination or support its preservation by visiting rileysfarm.com today.

We look forward to seeing you succeed! - www.KeepOnSharing.com - Code - KOS

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Riley's Farm
• 3:00 The Origins of a Colonial Experience
• 5:59 Creating Family Memories and Traditions
• 10:36 The Spiritual Connection to Farm Life
• 14:53 Preserving History and American Heritage
• 19:50 Supporting Riley's Farm and Final Thoughts

Transcript

unknown: 0:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 0:17

Hey, I'm Coach Mickey, and I'm so glad that you've joined us. And if this is your first time joining us, come on in and make yourself comfortable. And for those of you that join us on a regular basis, we are so glad that you do. And we're extremely happy to hear your comments, your questions, and your suggestions. And I love the fact that each and every one of you take the opportunity to reach out to my guests. And today is no different because this is a guest that I'm very excited to have and I'm very honored to have because I know his time is very valuable. However, this has been a part of my life and my family's life for many, many years. And to bring Mr. Riley onto my podcast is going to be a pleasure and fun and give you guys some insight of something that you may not know is even here in Southern California, where you can bring your family to do some incredible things. I am talking about Riley's Farm. Riley's Farm is an amazing place for your family. We've gone apple picking every year. We have done all their events. And if you are looking for a place for your family, it you will be amazed. So thank you, Mr. Riley, for joining us today. I really appreciate you.

SPEAKER_02: 1:23

Thanks for having me. Appreciate it very much.

SPEAKER_00: 1:25

So I know Riley's Farm is a little bit unique. That's a lot unique, actually, than anything else that you would find. So I just would like to ask, so what um what inspired you to start this colonial way of uh bringing this to life to everybody on a regular basis?

SPEAKER_02: 1:44

Well, it was a little bit serendipitous. Um my uh my parents uh met out uh in California in World War II in San Francisco, and um they moved to Southern California. And uh at the time in the late 40s, early 50s, Southern California was actually a pretty rural place. Um they lived in Arcadia for a while. It was all um cornfields and chicken coops back then. It was a pretty rural environment. And and uh my dad bought a ranch in Yukaipa uh in the 50s, it was kind of our vacation place through the 60s, and um and then some land came up for sale in Oak Glenn. And Oakland is uh an apple growing area, has been since the 1880s or so, and uh the family kept buying land until we amassed about um 760 acres altogether, and we uh were approached because we had these big open fields by Civil War enactors to do a uh Civil War battle reenactment. And one thing led to another. I I when we built our home, I always loved the 18th century, so my wife and I built um a colonial style home, and uh we were going to do 18th century dinner theater, and that was uh doing all right, but but really not taking up as fast as we wanted to, and we were approached by two mothers of fifth graders to a uh Revolutionary War program for children, and I always thought that wouldn't work because when I was a kid they just took us to museums and bakeries and and I couldn't see California kids, you know, uh with uh fake muskets going off to battle, and um, and yet it it just exploded in popularity. We were within three or four years we were sending 80,000 students a year in um living history uh for colonial America and um and then extended to many of our other programs. We had already started uh Sleepy Hollow, which is our most popular show, and uh and Living History just kind of became the theme of the place. We it's it's a place where you can come and see uh Gold Rush, uh Civil War or American Revolutionary or Living History of various forms. It kind of just basically developed uh um through chance.

SPEAKER_00: 4:07

Well, it's it's amazing. Um, I've had an opportunity myself with my family, like I said, to experience not only your farm, uh to go up and and apple pick, but also to uh get our pumpkins and then also you know do uh pressing the apple cider. I mean, it's a full experience. And and through the years with with my two kids, I've had the opportunity to bring them up and and multiple of friends of theirs, and each and every time, you know, we leave and and it's it we it's such joy. And you make your farm makes you feel like family uh when you come. And I've had an opportunity to do your your dinner events, and they are nothing like I've ever experienced because they're so inclusive. And and I've it's a it's a and it's an experience, I guess. If I have to tell you anything, it's something that you leave with a smile on your face, and uh we get excited every year to to come up and experience this. But I I know your farm also, besides that, and you're being humble because you've got amazing food too. Your your food and your dinners are are incredible, and the people and the staff do everything they can to make you feel like you're in a colonial environment, and and it's they're very inviting and and friendly.

SPEAKER_02: 5:17

Oh, we we like hearing that. We we want we want to hit on all eight cylinders, and we do have and we do have uh great barbecue, and really in terms of uh the environment, I always tell the employees that the subtext here is love. You have to you have to love your guests, basically. And um, and so we tend to attract a lot of really great young kids who work for us. And uh we're as I was saying the other day, we've been urged to have a singles event because so many people have met and married here on that. Um we're thinking about having one of our dances be dedicated to to singles.

SPEAKER_00: 5:54

So that's fun. Well, what a what a great thing to hear that people have actually met there. What a what a great environment to meet someone because again, it's so wholesome and and uh like I said, there's so much to do when you're out on your farm. And it's and it's beautiful. Your farm is beautiful. I mean, I know um you just recently had something where we had the meteor shower. I saw where you could actually come up and and uh sit outside and and watch the meteor shower, and that was new. I don't know if I that that was something you've done before or if that was just something new you just offered. I just happened to see that on your website.

SPEAKER_02: 6:27

This is the second year for that. We um um were a little bit away from the light pollution. So you people kept remarking that they get to see a pretty uh pristine summer sky. So on uh moonless nights, it's actually pretty dramatic. We we this last one and it was funny, it was a full moon, so it wasn't as dramatic a sky, but people just uh liked hanging out and uh having dinner and sitting on the lawn until one or two in the morning. So it was um it's it was a really great, great group of people. And we've we've just been blessed with with wonderful guests, I mean, who've supported us over the years. So, and you know, in terms of um being wholesome, you know, it's not that hard to do anymore in Southern California. I mean, we live in the era of drag queen story hour and all kinds of and uh dramatic incidents of craziness or whatever. So I think the people they just like to feel like they're gonna go going back to grandma's house on some level.

SPEAKER_00: 7:26

Well, and I think it's also family. It's very family-oriented because a lot of things, things around here, I should say, even in Southern California, is is very um theme-oriented. I mean, well, yours is theme-oriented, but it's a different feel. It's completely different. It's a completely different feel. It is not packing in people and and uh just running them through. You it it's you have a home, you have a place. It's like going into someone's home and and you do it with respect too. I mean, and that's what it is. Your farm is your home. And uh, but the way the grounds are set up, and like you said, the the staff that's there and having the opportunity to apple pick. I mean, I think now these days, kids, I mean, they they think that getting fruit is going to the market, but having an experience to be able to go pick berries or or pick the apples. And then um, and one of my favorite things that we do as a family is you have those big bushels of apples that and you take them, you put them in that old-fashioned press. And my kids got such a kick out of being able to press their own apple cider, you know, and bring that. And then your your dinners, I mean, we mentioned the dinners, but what people don't understand is it's not just the food and the environment's amazing, but it's what you do after. Because one of the things I absolutely love is everybody chips in, clears out all the tables out of your barn, and then you've got the the apple on the string and the pie eating contest and the dancing, you know, and it'd be it's it's a group of people that come together and do something so fun, almost like a village coming together and and just experience an incredible night out doing something together that you can all enjoy.

SPEAKER_02: 9:05

Yeah, you know, it's it's funny. I mean, um, having fun, the the concept of having fun, we're so passive about the way we consume entertainment. We have everything. We have our iPads, movie theaters. We're we're used to being passive consumers of entertainment. But here um we we make you get up and dance, you know, we we invite you to carve your own pumpkin, engage in apple bobbing, you know, and um in terms of the farm itself, I I'm convinced that um there's sort of a mystical connection most people have to the rhythm of farm life because most of us are only three or four generations removed from the soil. So when you when you walk across an apple farm and you smell that kind of fermenting smell of apples that are falling on the ground and the bees and the this is rich um texture of the earth and um you know, horses, um, it it's um I think it it evokes memories you may not have specifically, but that are cultural or spiritual, you know. So it people feel like they're going back home.

SPEAKER_00: 10:19

Well, I also think it's a matter of digital detox, too. Like you said, we're so attached to so many electronic devices to take uh four or five hours to to remove yourself from it and experience it and watch your your kids running around on the grass or running through the uh the pumpkin patch that you have, which is massive, to pick, you know, pick a pumpkin, you know, that experience and just to watch that and experience it is just you can't describe it. You don't get that off of your phone, you don't get that off of the computer. That's something you have to go out and do and and and do physically. And and I think you see, like I said, there's something about that that dirt, that earthy feeling that's very spiritual. And that's one of the things I've loved. And even taking up uh my kids' friends, they were like, oh my gosh, I mean, it's the best time. They you can just see the joy on their face and and it's uh it's good. I mean, it's it's a good thing to be able to have a place that you can experience like that. So before I go any further, I wanted to uh let everybody know that's listening if this is something you would like to attend or you'd like to go, or even just visit their website because Riley's Farm is just so much more than that. And I'm gonna give you a little shout out here, Jimmy, because this is my favorite. So I just got some of this and it's the apple cinnamon syrup, which is my favorite, and and and then your pumpkin syrup. So if you guys are looking for something like this for fall, go to the Riley's Farm website. The link is either below or you're gonna find it in uh bedded into the podcast where it says uh Riley's Farm and go ahead and click on that. But this is um, these are things, even if you can't experience it because you're not in California, you can experience it anywhere in the world with um with these products that you have. And your apple pies, oh my gosh, your apple pies are amazing. They are, I mean, and Mrs. Riley makes the biggest apple pies, uh, caramel apple pies, that are absolutely incredible. And uh so I just um I wanted just to give you a shout-out because I really do believe in you. And I know your farm is struggling. Um, and I would like to also be able to give a shout out to and say, listen, there's a there's a link there. If there's something you would like to do to to help Riley's farm, please, please, please, please go to the link and and and click on that and order something or at least experience it uh virtually through the website.

SPEAKER_02: 12:39

Yeah, we appreciate that. You know, we um um one of the things I was gonna say about the experience is that uh I learned early on as a host that you can have the best soundtrack in the world, but it can never replace live music. And one of the most touching things is to see a young mother, you know, come up with a baby in her arms and she's introducing her baby to music. You know, she's standing right next to the fiddler, and it's I can't put my finger on why that is so much more satisfying. I mean, okay, we have access to the best digital music in the world, you know, symphonies and you know, champion uh, you know, uh um Scottish fiddlers and that sort of thing, but but live music is irreplaceable. And in terms of helping us, um uh business in California is very, very difficult. Liability and um and the various infrastructure that we have to pay for is so enormous that we really have to be a huge enterprise in order to pay the property taxes and just to be able to live here. My my wife and I just went off salary this summer because it was so expensive. And so um if if you've been blessed, and I'm not asking people who are struggling, but if there are people who've been tremendously successful and they they want to see places like this survive, we do take contributions. We're not tax deductible, so you won't be able to write it off. But we've just had enormous support. I've raised like$46,000 in the last four months just from contributions, and we really didn't need it this summer. So um if you want to see us stick around, you might consider that.

SPEAKER_00: 14:21

Well, and that's why I wanted to do this podcast because I know I've got quite a few listeners around the world, and and I truly believe in Riley's Farm, and this is to me one of the places that needs to stay and be maintained for families for the future. Because again, once you once you've gone out there and you've experienced it, it's it leaves a memory that you'll cherish, you know, not only for being there, but also with your family. And and I think it's one of the last few places that that I've had a chance to go to that still exists. So I would like to stay see you around for many, many, many more years. Um, so if you can, and and as Ms. Raleigh said, you know, if you have been blessed and you have an opportunity and you can, you know, offer something and every little bit helps, you know. Uh, and I always tell my friends whenever I'm I'm doing things or raising money, I'm like, you know, if you give up a seven dollar cup of coffee and come on over to my house, I'll make you one. And give it to a good cause. So so you know, think about that today. Next time you order a pumpkin spice latte, think, you know what? I could save an apple farm with this.

SPEAKER_02: 15:27

So uh it's one of my favorite things to do at the end of the day of the Revolutionary War tour is to um tell those kids that they don't remember anything about what they've they've seen. Uh we want them to know that there were men uh and women who loved them enough to die for them.

SPEAKER_00: 15:50

And you're right. And that I think the military, and I my family comes from uh I come from a strong military family, and and you're right, and I think people forget that there's people out there sacrificing their lives. And and somebody had said something to me just recently, and it really stuck with me. It said for all through all the wars, whether it's gone through Revolutionary War or Civil War and who we are as individuals, and you know, we've all come from somewhere, um our whoever our family was that went through all that survived all that to bring you to where you are now and who you are today. So your your family had to go through all of that. And and the same thing when you when you start looking backwards and seeing the history of of where uh maybe your lineage has come from, somewhere, somewhere along the line, someone had to experience uh a war that that brought you to where you are. And and you're right, and I think history needs to be told because what's that what do they say? You know, if you do history will repeat itself if you don't learn from it. And and I think you know, any mistake you want to learn from it, so you're not making the same one over and over again. But I think having that knowledge of our history is is extremely important, you know, and it and it is it's a it's a fact, it's what would have happened, it's the experience, it's the people that died for us, and you know, they they need that story told. And uh I don't think it needs to be changed. I think it needs to be where it is.

SPEAKER_02: 17:17

Yeah, I mean I think um certainly you can study America's mistakes, we need to learn from those mistakes, but you also have to, and I think this is really important, you have to give kids a sense that there were tremendous victories in their past, there's tremendous heroism in their past. All you have to do if you really ever want to fall back in love with the American tradition is read uh the Medal of Honor accounts, they're all online. You read some of the um of the enormous sacrifice that um Americans made to give us what we have. Um and um we're talking about deprivation and you know, Japanese prisoner camps and um and tremendous heroism on the battlefield, and even the pioneers crossing the plains, I mean, burying children along the way to get out here and to create. I mean, I I can guarantee people who criticize American history, they would not want to live in uh 1840s Arizona, it was not a hospitable place. And uh there they had their ancestors to thank for making um our country livable and prosperous.

SPEAKER_00: 18:36

Yeah, you're right. I've and I've had an opportunity to travel across the country, and when you look out at some of these plains, like even going through Utah and Arizona, and oh my gosh. And we I was just I was just out with a friend, her and I did a hiking trip, and I said, could you imagine having to go through here in in a uh buggy, you know, pulled drawn by horses and being a female, being a woman with children doing this? I mean, it would it would be uh it would be extraordinary. That's that's toughness. That's not physical toughness, that's mental toughness to be able to do that and survive and then still raise your family. And along the lines, I mean, this was these this land wasn't even uh really totally discovered. So they were up against all kinds of things and and elements and weather. And and you're right. I mean, just the just the environment alone would have been difficult to deal with, let alone just the struggle of physically getting there.

SPEAKER_02: 19:31

Yeah. Hey and I don't, I don't think uh we we take sort of our cultural values for granted, but but we're still living on the cultural capital, for example, that the New Englanders created when they arrived in the Bay Colony. I mean, this very biblical culture that believed in um hard work and the Ten Commandments, that created enormous wealth. Uh, because if you if you live in an honest culture, uh you're not worried about you know protecting your assets all the time. You're you're you're worried about creating more wealth. And I think that we we take it for granted um that it's easier to do business in America for a reason. There's a reason why people want to cross the border illegally. It's because this culture that we've we've been blessed with is more productive than most cultures on the planet.

unknown: 20:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 20:22

Well, I'm I'm gonna switch gears for a second because I just got your book and I want to ask you about it before we run out of time. Um, I just got this. I'm looking forward to reading it. I just received it like two days ago, so I haven't had a chance to look at it, but I'm looking forward to to reading it. So tell me a little bit about this book that you wrote.

SPEAKER_02: 20:39

Um it was kind of my journey to Radzi's farm, deciding, you know, um uh how we would live here and what we were going to try to accomplish. But but basically I have this you may laugh at this, but I have this feel I have this impression that the years between 18 and 27 are some of the most selfish years in most people's lives. I mean, you're young and immortal, you don't think ever anything is gonna happen to you. And uh it was just a um uh story of my spiritual transformation transformation from an agnostic to a Christian and um from someone who didn't really believe in anything to someone who started remembering all the stories my mother told me when I was a kid. So just my story.

SPEAKER_00: 21:26

Well, I love it. Yeah, but those are the best kind of books when they're all your stories because they come from the heart. And that's you know, so I'm looking forward to to reading. And when I come out, because I will be out to your event, I will find you so you can sign it for me. Okay. Sure, sure. So uh so Jim, is there anything else you'd like to share? And uh again, because we're we're we're coming up on time here, but before we do, please, uh if you would like to support Riley's Farm, if you'd like to visit the website, if you'd like to go out and visit them personally, if you're here in town, um again, link is down below. Or uh please you can find it embedded in the podcast where it says Riley's Farm. Just click on it and that'll take you right to the website. So I uh thank you so much for being with us. Um I'm looking forward to seeing you and and a thank you for many, many years of bringing joy to to not only myself, but to my family and to to the friends and the family that I've had an opportunity to bring. And uh I wish you many blessings and and thank you and very grateful for everything that you're you're doing, Mr. Riley, and for what you've been through, because I know you're on your own journey with this, and I I really hope that this is something that becomes part of your past based on what's transpiring with with the courts and everything else, and you can just keep moving forward with doing what you've been doing for so many years, which is just bringing so much joy to other people.

SPEAKER_01: 22:44

Well, I appreciate it, Mickey, very much. Uh I thank your audience as well.

SPEAKER_00: 22:48

All right, you guys, thank you for joining us. Um, I look forward to hearing from you. And please, again, uh visit Riley's Farm. And then also, if you have any questions or comments you'd like to leave for me, please make sure that you do down below. And um, I will look forward to seeing each and every one of you. And remember, the most courageous thing you can do is be yourself. Until then, I'll see you.