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The Van Jones Show
Goat Cheese Queen
Aired December 22, 2014 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MIKE ROWE, HOST: Oh God. Come on, come on. You make look like a jackass on T.V. Come here, come here, come here. I'm sorry but you got to drink it. Yes. I did it. Shucking. Stay thirsty my friends.
OK. Where am I and why am I feeding a baby goat? Well, it started with a long drive of the California Coast up with the redwood trees just seemed to get taller and taller. In the fog along the longer rocky coast gets thicker and thicker.
It's a little place called Humboldt Country -- a middle of nowhere old hippie haven that's become an incubator for a new kind of American entrepreneur and it's where the ultimate earth mother went from poverty to prosperity. Selling more than $10 million worth of goat cheese last year plus goats are adorable. I mean really.
Doug (ph) is back on the shoot. Those (inaudible) watch my last gig. Well, remember the tall, hasty, albino chin, somewhat dour but he's a kind of guy who'll say, "Yes. Its 5:30 in the morning" behind the scenes but light it like its noon.
And if I get many crap at all, he'll go "Fine, fine, and nobody will see. Fine. And nobody will see you. I hope you're happy. (inaudible) about three hours." We're here.
JAYSON BAXTER, MARKETING DIRECTOR: I am Jason.
ROWE: Hey, Jason. Mike. How are you?
BAXTER: Nice to meet you.
ROWE: You, too.
BAXTER: Yes. So, we're going to get you guys all booted up. And...
ROWE: Good.
BAXTER: ... we have a coffee and bagels and stuff in there if you guys want anything.
ROWE: That's good news. Is there room?
BAXTER: Yes.
ROWE: Is there room for everybody?
BAXTER: Yes.
ROWE: So, get some coffee. Good morning, Doug.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: Good morning.
ROWE: Nice to see you.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: Nice to see you.
ROWE: This time (ph), I can see you. The rest of this people are shrouded mystery. I can't see anything. We'll meet them later with goats.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Mike, this is our founder Mary Keehn.
ROWE: Hey, how are you?
MARY KEEHN, FOUNDER, CYPRESS GROVE CHEVRE: Hey, Mike, it's good to meet you.
ROWE: It's so good to meet you.
KEEHN: You, too.
ROWE: Thank you for have us out here
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible)
UNIDENTIFED MALE: Yes. Yes.
KEEHN: So, everybody's getting coverall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You guys should cover if you'd rather...
ROWE: Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.
ROWE: Annie.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Annie.
ROWE: How are you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nice to meet you.
ROWE: Likewise. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are all largest...
KEEHN: We've got it?
ROWE: Yes. So, then, we are officially the -- our official beginning starts right now. This is right where we've starts. KEEHN: We are. Yes.
ROWE: This is our...
KEEHN: This is it.
ROWE: Where are we?
KEEHN: We are at Cypress Grove Dairy.
ROWE: Give me just now line of the day. What am I going to see and what do you think we're going to learn and what we're going to do?
KEEHN: So, we're going to see what a modern dairy goat farm is about. You know, as opposed to the kind that I have on my first started which is (inaudible) baling twine and...
ROWE: Baling twine.
KEEHN: ... you know, 50 goats.
ROWE: Right.
KEEHN: So, we're going to see 500 goats.
ROWE: You have 500 goats?
KEEHN: Yes.
ROWE: Now, as beginnings go, how do you think it's going so far?
KEEHN: With your neck?
ROWE: Yes.
KEEHN: Great.
ROWE: OK. I'm going to continue to talk to you until I'm convinced that I have the measure of the woman.
KEEHN: OK. We're off. Good?
ROWE: You have no idea how true that is.
KEEHN: OK, guys. For goaties -- hey, honey. Really, nobody in the U.S. is doing dairy goats very well. And so, it's our goal with this dairy to have open book model so people can see and be successful.
ROWE: Right.
KEEHN: So, kind of a cool thing is -- bedding.
ROWE: Yes.
KEEHN: So, we used -- like in a lot of dairies they use straw but we use rice haws and almond haws. It lowers our cost. ROWE: Right.
KEEHN: It's really absorbent. There's a belief system I have that everybody does something in this, you know, like if you make cheese, it has to be pretty good or you're out of business, right?
ROWE: Yes.
KEEHN: So, all the things that everybody does in the middle are normal but although weird things around the edge are what make you unique and successful or not. So, this is just one of many weird things around the edges. I called things on the merge.
ROWE: I love it.
KEEHN: So, you smelled goats before? So were you too sad?
ROWE: I did. I remember the smell. It such a specific smell...
KEEHN: You do?
ROWE: ... on your hands.
KEEHN: Yes. Yes.
ROWE: It takes a while you get it all back.
KEEHN: Well, the blacks actually have quite the specific smell.
ROWE: Yes.
KEEHN: The boy got, you know...
ROWE: Well, you know...
KEEHN: Yes. Definitely, rubber gloves if your hands are milking (ph) the guys.
ROWE: You're milking the goats?
KEEHN: No. But in...
ROWE: I don't think it's milking.
KEEHN: No, no. That's a whole another...
ROWE: What are we doing here? Come on goats.
KEEHN: Look at that. He's an excellent goat herder.
ROWE: What was that sound you just went with?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
ROWE: Goats. Goats, forward.
KEEHN: So this is the working man.
ROWE: The business end.
KEEHN: We like them...
ROWE: Really?
KEEHN: ... to be happy. Yes. We always have music on in the morning.
ROWE: Its fun of juxtapositioning.
KEEHN: This of that?
ROWE: Beautiful piano and...
KEEHN: And, goat bass.
ROWE: And she got it figured out. I think I'll bury there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excuse me.
ROWE: Certainly, what's your name again?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name's Jayson (ph).
ROWE: Jayson. Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the milker. I milk these guy -- girls.
ROWE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put on gloves on and you can strips on these goats. That's right.
ROWE: Yes, yes, yes. Well, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's some glove over there by the radio. So, I mean, you can pick up your favorite goat if you want to go ahead and...
KEEHN: Pick it.
ROWE: This is -- this would -- beautiful. What do you like?
KEEHN: Pick that one because she's got tips are going to do be easy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, right. Easy cheese for you.
KEEHN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys just give me a -- make a balloon and squeeze everything out of bottom of the balloon.
KEEHN: That's the easiest way I've ever figured to explain it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got this.
ROWE: So, this goes here. You flip this here. That goes there, that goes there.
KEEHN: There you go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that. Milking man.
KEEHN: He did one goat. You only got 499 less to go.
ROWE: Awesome. Where are we going from here?
KEEHN: Kids. So, when I heard these sides a normal farm might lose 10 to 18 percent of the kids. We lost two.
This is why we have this company. I tell you what is they're still going cute. You can't get rid of them. True. I love them.
ROWE: All right. I get it. I get it. They're cute. They're cute.
KEEHN: They love you.
ROWE: Do they have tooth on the top and the bottom?
KEEHN: Just the top.
ROWE: Just the top.
KEEHN: Yes. They're sharp. Well...
ROWE: Yes. They are.
KEEHN: ... they're hungry. It's chow time.
ROWE: Look right into my soul.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROWE: Up here, over about 33 acres of Humboldt County, California, Mary Keehn runs Cypress Grove Chevre, and they make what some people considered to be the best goat cheese in the world -- Humboldt Fog. But Mary's overnight success story took 30 years to unfold.
KEEHN: So I got my personal goat. I lived next door to a cow dairy in Sonoma.
ROWE: Yes.
KEEHN: And they had goats for brush control, so there have cows and the goats running in the wild. So my first daughter -- I wanted the best milk for her. I asked, the woman, "Could I buy your goat?" And she's just, "Honey, if you can catch one, you can have it."
ROWE: You can catch me, you going to have me.
KEEHN: (inaudible) woman. So I set out to with grain entice these goats everyday to get a little closer and little closer. And grabbed Hazel (ph) and Esmeralda (ph) -- they were my first two goats. So they're out of this wild herd, and then now look at this...
ROWE: And that's...
KEEHN: (inaudible)
ROWE: ... that's why this happened? Wait a minute, so what year was this?
KEEHN: This is 1971.
ROWE: Gosh, so you're a young girl.
KEEHN: Well, I had my first Anmum baby. Then I bought a really good buck, moved up to Humboldt, bred them, and several years go by, and pretty soon and then I've got 10 goats.
ROWE: Right.
KEEHN: And...
ROWE: But how are you paying the bills at this point?
KEEHN: I have the -- we lived on this 80 acres and had a garden. I made cheese at...
ROWE: Right.
KEEHN: ... home, you know, you just sell a little firewood, you do a little of this, a little of that.
ROWE: Yes.
KEEHN: It was about back to the land time. I mean, you know, I was a serious hippie.
ROWE: Yes.
KEEHN: If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it, you know.
ROWE: But you're doing it basically for yourself and your family.
KEEHN: Yes.
ROWE: I mean your...
KEEHN: Yes, that was totally that. Yes.
ROWE: You're suppose (ph) to say...
KEEHN: Yes
ROWE: You're not...
KEEHN: No, I was... ROWE: It was just not a capitalistic venture.
KEEHN: Oh, no, no, no, no. I was rowing down at capitalism at that time, you know.
ROWE: I want to hear the whole story. Where else can we go? Is there anything else we could...
KEEHN: Shall we go inside and...
ROWE: Is there anything else we do here? Do you need to...
KEEHN: Well, then let's go inside and see what Annie's (ph) up to.
ROWE: All right.
KEEHN: This is the nursery.
ROWE: How do you think of the new show of CNN, "Somebody's Gotta Do It? All right. Thank you.
KEEHN: Hi, Annie.
ANNIE ROWDEN, FEED KIDS, CYPRESS GROVE CHEVRE: Hi, good morning.
KEEHN: Thank you for being on T.V. right now.
ROWDEN: How do you do?
ROWE: Hi, Annie.
ROWDEN: Hello, how are you?
ROWE: I'm good. How are you?
ROWDEN: Very good. Thanks.
ROWE: I'm Mike.
ROWDEN: Nice to meet you.
ROWE: What are we looking at here?
ROWDEN: All right. We're going to see some little babies. Whisk it out to make sure it hasn't settled.
ROWE: At some point I have to ask you kind of important question...
KEEHN: Yes.
ROWE: ... which is when did you decide to become a rapacious capitalist?
KEEHN: I think it was when the kids needed to go the gemist (ph).
ROWE: Funny. Funny how that works out. ROWDEN: OK. So these guys are going to be very hungry.
ROWE: Yes.
ROWDEN: It's all about the feed.. You got to get the bucket in the ring before they get underneath it.
ROWE: Yes.
ROWDEN: Got to get the handle down...
ROWE: Right.
ROWDEN: ... into your hand...
ROWE: Handle down.
ROWDEN: ... and I'll jump right on. There are nine goats in there, you have 10 nipples, so only one will be free.
ROWE: Nine goats, 10 nipples. Sounds like you (inaudible) giddiyo, but you don't want to open that work
ROWDEN: There you.
ROWE: It could be worse (inaudible) 10 goats, nine nipples. That how you should do it, like musical nipples.
KEEHN: That's mean.
ROWE: And then, whoever is out, you pull out a nipple throughout of the goats, so that is nine nipples, eight goats -- no, eight goats, whatever that none sense (ph). Hello, goat. You got to be in there shoot (ph) the other? Yeah, can I go in?
KEEHN: Yeah.
ROWE: This is normally the kind of crap I'd never do, but I'm trying to make Doug happy. Let's go.
ROWDEN: Come on, goats.
ROWE: No, actually I think we have a show now. Come on, goats. Come on, goats. That's it Doug. Take one for the theme, "Doug, Will Now Milk The Goats Single-handedly." One nipple, 10 goats.
KEEHN: You got to watch this way.
ROWDEN: Here. Maybe if you go in and show him the bucket, they'll come right back to you.
ROWE: OK.
ROWDEN: Here, it won't...
ROWE: I heard you have one comes, all come -- "Hey, look at it, first come, first serve."
ROWDEN: OK. Just don't let it see it because they know all there and they'll...
ROWE: OK, right, right, right, right. Come -- oh, come on.
ROWDEN: Oh, my god.
ROWE: That's it. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes, goats, goats, goats, goats.
ROWDEN: Come on, goats.
ROWE: Come on, goats. That's it, Doug, a little a help.
KEEHN: A little help.
ROWE: There we go that were all in.
ROWDEN: All right. So...
ROWE: Right, right.
KEEHN: But now, they are in the...
ROWE: All right. All right, you got to get of your thing, you got to get out of your thing.
KEEHN: No, it ain't a little broken leg.
ROWE: We need you out of your thing. You got to get out of the thing. They're not out of the thing. They got to get out of the thing. There we go. That is very - come on. It look some of the (inaudible). Holy crap.
KEEHN: It's the taste. I'll give you some cheese (ph).
ROWE: That doesn't make you hungry. I don't know what will. Look at the tails. The tails are going in sync.
REEHN: I know. Little Nector (ph) knows.
ROWE: It's the same sound that was coming from the adjoining hotel room in our place last night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROWE: The sun is rising over the Cypress Grove Dairy in Humboldt County.
KEEHN: Look at that.
ROWE: And I'm at...
KEEHN: ... coming out through the fog. Pretty nice. ROWE: That is pretty nice. But I can't wait to eat my wait in Mary Keehn's exceptional cheese. Technically that's not my job. My job is to find out what makes Mary tick.
Hey do you want to take a quick moment again and explained briefly why it is that you made the transition from nurturing loving earth mother to rapacious capitalist?
Tell me again what happen. That had to be a moment.
KEEHN: There was a never a moment. This business just kind of grew gradually. I have enough money to live on. But then we made more money and so then there's that decision about what to do.
ROWE: Mary sounds a special brand at doing business. It's in the way she supplies the goat milk and it's not business as usual.
So how many farms provide you with milk?
KEEHN: We have about seven I think right now.
ROWE: Oh, so you don't -- you're not dependent only on the milk here?
KEEHN: Oh no, no, no, no. So we have our -- a lot of our farms were cow diaries...
ROWE: Yes.
KEEHN: ... and since we pay four times as much for the milk, they started switching. So we're giving the small, small cow diaries switching to goats but they were thinking that goats are small accounts and they were failing.
ROWE: Right.
KEEHN: That's this theory. So we can show them.
ROWE: That's a really important point. Do you get it? I feel the need to sum up...
KEEHN: Yes.
ROWE: ... just to confide, I didn't know that.
KEEHN: Yes.
ROWE: So...
KEEHN: It's a big deal.
ROWE: OK. So this is a big deal. The cheese that's coming out of Cypress Grove is not being created only by the milk coming from the goats here but rather by milk coming from goats and half of those another farm.
KEEHN: Yes. As far as Oregon and around here so this is only three years old.
ROWE: Yes. And Cypress Grove is 30 years and we kept trying and trying to educate but it didn't work because we didn't have straight crib (ph).
ROWE: I just let this now -- OK.
KEEHN: Yes. It's a big deal. We didn't want to do that exactly. It's a whole separate business...
ROWE: You better see this is how -- this happens all the time. It took me five hours. And now, I see what's happening. So imagine 30 years in your head. For 27 of those years, you make cheese.
KEEHN: We are doing it for milk.
ROWE: Why? Because people treat goats like cows.
KEEHN: Yes.
ROWE: Why? Because of what we are used to.
KEEHN: No, in America, it's all about cows...
ROWE: Right.
KEEHN: ... not about goats.
ROWE: But the matrix and the margins are completely different with goats.
KEEHN: We said, "OK, we're going to build our own dairy. It's going to be an open book system. You can see everything we do, we'll share. You can walk through or give you breeding stock. We will share nutritionists with you. We'll share a vet with you. We provide all those services for our dairies so they can be successful."
ROWE: Now, this is so weird.
KEEHN: It is weird.
ROWE: That's -- you turned it upside down.
KEEHN: Well, we went full circles.
ROWE: You know, what you did for 27 years, you talk the talk. Now, you're walking the walk.
KEEHN: We're milking the milk.
ROWE: You are milking. You got both hands on that otter.
That's pretty huge. Mary has essentially subsidized the local farms to create a goat-based medium economy around her business.
KEEHN: Look at that tree. It's called the big leaf maple. I love that tree.
ROWE: A big part of walking a walk is walking in here. A brand new state of the arc milking parlor with the most up to date goat milking technology available.
We'll come in to the parlor.
KEEHN: Please come in to the parlor. We have orders.
ROWE: And I have orders.
KEEHN: So check this pappy (ph) now.
ROWE: Wow. It's also called the pit parlor as you noticed. We're standing here so the goats would be up here.
ROWE: How much it costs?
KEEHN: Well, that whole facility is going to be a $3.5 million.
ROWE: The whole thing? OK.
KEEHN: Yes.
ROWE: We have 57 employees, 500 goats.
KEEHN: Yes.
ROWE: You're making great cheese. You're contributing...
KEEHN: What more do you need? Yes.
ROWE: ... you know...
KEEHN: I'm happy.
ROWE: Yes.
KEEHN: Once a month we have an all staff meeting where we ought to sit down and have lunch together and at that we made an announcement that we contributed to the school lunch program over the summer and everybody cheered.
It's not just the -- this level, you know, the business founder, everybody cares. And to me that's what is all.
ROWE: Yes. You're not going to cry, are you?
KEEHN: Yes. I cry all the time.
ROWE: I'll tickle you a little bit. No, no, I'm not good so -- there is not a...
KEEHN: But I do, you can't put that on but I do cry all day.
ROWE: But I am not going to make you cry. Well, you when you know what then I am going to...
KEEHN: I cry whenever I need you.
ROWE: I'm going to make you with -- My goal today is to make you blubber it with.
KEEHN: ...like what are you?.
ROWE: Do you know what, you're do better. You're a...
KEEHN: ...maybe because you know, that I do at everyday, I'm talking...
ROWE: Oh, it's almost...
KEEHN: I just love it though.
ROWE: It's almost as though you give a cry. Really I mean that you can.
KEEHN: I do too and I mean what -- how cool that is.
ROWE: It's pretty cool. I made you cry.
There is going to be a point in my future where the two of us can sit down and some idyllic bucolic place and maybe set something civilized while we enjoy piece of your cheese.
KEEHN: Annie, systems up to that one.
ROWE: This is going to happen Annie? At some point, do I have your sacred word?
ROWDEN: Yes.
KEEHN: And she doesn't mess around. That's one thing you can count on...
ROWE: We can count on you, Annie?
KEEHN: Yeah.
ROWE: Well why do we wonder of somewhere in the direction of the creamery.
KEEHN: OK. And to the creamery where we will go...
ROWEL: Where the possibility is some cheesy combustibles with little large on horizon.
KEEHN: You know what...
ROWE: You know what, I don't why I said that. I think that's from old monty python...
KEEHN: I think you must be. ROWE: Somebody talks about cheesy combustibles.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROWE: Seriously, is that not the cutest thing you've ever seen? Wait, hang on. Those goats are pretty cute too. These, also cute, very cute. These guys, adorable. Well, those are good too. You get the point? We have a lot of cute goat footage. We really want to use it now on a more important business.
And just so we're absolutely clear, that is the bigleaf maple tree. And question I've been hearing about all day, teased with brutally, the crew is taking its positions underneath the tree. We're going to sit down. We're going to have some cheese and take a break then we're going to go to the creamery where I'm guessing we'll have more cheese.
KEEHN: And your plate, sir.
ROWE: Thank you. What are we looking at?
KEEHN: We've got Midnight Moon, Humboldt Fog, Ms. Natural, Purple Haze
ROWE: Purple Haze.
KEEHN: Herbs de Humboldt and Sgt. Pepper.
ROWE: Oh, that's delicious. You don't (inaudible) totally go...
KEEHN: He'll go...
ROWE: ... right off this midst.
KEEHN: Falling off, yeah.
ROWE: Total psychopath. Are we going to see this being made over the creamery?
KEEHN: Yeah, yeah.
ROWE: So, that's like vegetable ash?
KEEHN: Yeah, and vegetable as opposed to volcanic. So, it's white pine, so it comes from a tree.
ROWE: Right. Well, why doesn't anybody want ash of any origin in their cheese?
KEEHN: The pH of the ash is high and the pH of the cheese is low, so it balances out the flavor profile of the cheese, so you don't get quite so much of that thing. Then it's a visual too. It looks like a cake and I think that's -- this is one of the first soft-ripened goat cheeses in the U.S.
ROWE: OK. The work is done, got it. Put your cameras down. Let's eat something. KEEHN: Yeah, eat.
ROWE: Not you, Marlene (ph), you keep shooting, you never eat. No cheese for you.
KEEHN: That is mean. Oh, you can't keep these knives. I mean, what time did you guys get up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 4:00.
KEEHN: Yeah, I got up to 4:00.
ROWE: Well, ladies first. It's traditional, especially anytime somebody gives me a shirt.
KEEHN: I know. Isn't that fantastic?
ROWE: She gave me a shirt and she gave me a fresh cup of coffee and she fed me. So, our plan is now to go to the creamery?
KEEHN: Yup, we're going to hop in the car, go to the creamery.
ROWE: This is your ride.
KEEHN: Yeah.
ROWE: Look at you with a Tesla.
KEEHN: Oh, I know.
ROWE: We want to turn this into what you call a driving montage.
KEEHN: OK, jump in there.
ROWE: You're really going to let me drive? Is VestaPoint down?
KEEHN: This is VestaPoint, the exit that we just passed.
ROWE: Why don't we go to the creamery, except the grown-up there, and get a shot (inaudible) us arriving?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, love it. Ride in.
ROWE: You're welcome buddy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not I don't like (inaudible).
ROWE: Isn't true that the only ideas you actually like are the ones that originate in your P-head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not at all, unlike...
ROWE: Name one example, one example of an idea that wasn't yours you like, one.
KEEHN: Here's kind of a cool thing. There's the fog. That's the name Humboldt Fog, is the line of blue sky.
ROWE: Doug (ph), did you shoot the fog (ph) Humboldt Fog?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I think more Marlene (ph) did.
ROWE: All right. Thanks, Marlene (ph). I guess (inaudible) doing something.
KEEHN: Thank you.
ROWE: We're here.
KEEHN: Yeah.
ROWE: All right. So, what's the plan?
KEEHN: So, the plan is we're going in the creamery.
ROWE: Yes.
KEEHN: Checking out where the milk arrives, pasteurization, and then we'll kind of walk you through the flow of cheese making.
ROWE: Fantastic. All right, guys, stay close.
KEEHN: This is where the milk comes in.
ROWE: Milk comes in, so that's...
KEEHN: It pasteurized.
ROWE: Got it. The milk then turned into this.
KEEHN: Magically.
ROWE: Where's the goat from here? This is starting right with the curd that we just saw.
KEEHN: So, there's the layer of ash. Since it's liquidate, you have to push it hard so it fixed. If it's not perfectly smooth, it will crash. That's the fun part. Next stage is ash on the outside. Isn't that cool?
ROWE: Yeah. So, the whole thing that is like seven days of...
KEEHN: At least, a minimum of seven days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We pull out (inaudible).
ROWE: This is terrible.
KEEHN: OK. So, you want to label them?
ROWE: So, basically, it comes out the other end. Good to go, wrapped, (inaudible).
KEEHN: Affinage.
ROWE: Affinage. You go, sis, right there. It's French. They put them in cursive so you know they're serious. What if we were to take some of this to go ourselves?
KEEHN: I think we should. Go sit under a redwood tree, eat some cheese.
ROWE: What if you and I were to do that very thing with...
KEEHN: Beer?
ROWE: Right, yeah.
KEEHN: I think that's the chicken.
ROWE: All right, let's do that. Let's eat cheese and drink beer in the redwood somewhere.
KEEHN: OK, go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cheese.
ROWE: Like that's never been done before, very funny.
KEEHN: OK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROWE: The woods are lovely, dark, and deep. But I have cheeses now to eat, not to mention, beer to drink, all under the redwoods of Humboldt County, after a long day of goat farming and cheese making with our accidental entrepreneur, Mary Keehn.
KEEHN: How many beers do we need?
ROWE: How deep is the ocean? Oh, Doug (ph), this has to be hard for you, man. This has to be very difficult for Doug (ph).
KEEHN: Does he like beer?
ROWE: Well, Doug (ph), as you may know, is an alcoholic, so yes.
KEEHN: Oh, yes. I didn't know that.
ROWE: So, yes, he does.
KEEHN: That's rough.
ROWE: Of course. (Inaudible) for you, Pete (ph). Don't run away from it, Pete (ph). Don't run away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, those are both. ROWE: You can either eat it or you can do something really artistic with it, like some sort of rock focusy thing, you know, how you guys love to do that. Do some crazy with that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to get weird.
ROWE: Give me a Humboldt County rock focus. That's it, oh yeah. Oh my God, better something else. Here at Humboldt County, we don't shoot anything completely in focus. But at least for (inaudible)
KEEHN: Soon to be dappled sunlight.
ROWE: Welcome to the dappled ambiguity of the redwoods.
KEEHN: And...
ROWE: You want sit there?
KEEHN: Yes, that's great.
ROWE: Can you hear that?
KEEHN: Yup, nothing. It's my favorite thing. This is good. It works for me.
ROWE: So, here's what works for me. Your story is, you know, they're never about what they tell me they're going to be about, right, you know, cheese making, (inaudible) this is about.
KEEHN: Yeah, I think this is about being open to possibilities, you know? So, here I am, a Marine Biology major, making goat cheese. That's pretty random, you know. You can be headed down this road, but this road presents itself...
ROWE: Yeah, but most people don't take that road.
KEEHN: Yeah. Well, I do. It's under the surface. It's not about making cheese and all. I mean, I could be doing a lot of different things, but it's about being able to be creative and working with people. And, you know, I'm really lucky that it turned out like this.
ROWE: All right, any parting advice for a budding entrepreneur?
KEEHN: Just think about what you're doing, and doesn't matter to you? And try not to have big regrets.
ROWE: But maybe a couple.
KEEHN: Yeah, you need a few for sure.
ROWE: Let's say cheers but you drink all your beer.
KEEHN: I'll have a sip.
ROWE: And cheese.
KEEHN: And plastic cup.
ROWE: It's OK just to leave it here, right?
KEEHN: Yeah, that's what we usually do. But it's better if you stomp on it because it'll biodegrade much faster.
ROWE: What you're looking at there is a Facebook posting from Julie Catherine Graham (ph) who says, "You simply must do something with the queen of color in Atlanta. Look her up. She did the most crazy and amazing color work on my cousin's poodle." Fine. You want to come in? No, it'd be fun.
DAWN OMBOY, PET GROOMER, KLIPPERS: Hi, Mike.
ROWE: Don't tell me. You're Dawn.
OMBOY: I'm Dawn.
ROWE: How are you?
OMBOY: Hi. I'm good.
ROWE: People suggested on Facebook that we -- actually, one person suggested and then all these other people have, Dawn, and said, "Yes, you definitely got to come check out Dawn."
OMBOY: Oh, that's cool.
ROWE: So, you should know, whatever it is you're doing, words gotten around.
OMBOY: Well, that's cool.
ROWE: OK. So, is it all about pet grooming, every kind of pet grooming, or is it mainly -- what are we going to do?
OMBOY: Well, what we're going to do today is put a little color on some dogs and just kind of bling them out a little bit. I like the wow factor. I like to make people smile.
ROWE: How many people do what you do? How many people...
OMBOY: I do what I do.
ROWE: How many people do that?
OMBOY: There's a small handful, but it's really growing. This is the most interesting case.
ROWE: What's this?
OMBOY: Trophy case (ph).
ROWE: Trophies for?
OMBOY: My retired competition groomer. ROWE: I didn't know people competed.
OMBOY: Yes.
ROWE: Well, congratulations. You got first place in the pet-styling competition for the Atlanta pet fair.
OMBOY: A few times.
ROWE: Good Lord. Is that you?
OMBOY: Yeah, that's me and that's me.
ROWE: What...
OMBOY: It's pretty awesome.
ROWE: OK.
OMBOY: This is the one where they start calling me the queen of color.
ROWE: Look at that. You look like the same Poli (ph) girl after a couple of pints in that one. I like it.
OMBOY: Well, let's go on in here and meet my dogs, oh, and my girl.
ROWE: These are your dogs? Oh my, this is good. This is...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Jennifer (ph).
ROWE: Jennifer (ph), right. Hello. Mike.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Adrienne (ph).
ROWE: Adrienne (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
ROWE: It's nice to meet you.
OMBOY: This is my mom's dog, Harry (ph).
ROWE: Which one is Harry (ph)?
OMBOY: Harry's (ph) the cone head.
ROWE: What's up with the cone of shame? What happened buddy?
OMBOY: He lost a leg three weeks ago to cancer.
ROWE: Oh, crap. I'm sorry to hear that. Which one -- I say which one, you know...
OMBOY: Yeah, the one is missing.
ROWE: I figured that out. Oh, and who's this?
OMBOY: That's my newest rescue. I just got him today.
ROWE: Oh, my. Yes, this is -- what do you call him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's going to name him Mike (ph).
ROWE: We got a new name? Hey buddy. Good boy.
OMBOY: (Inaudible) you got a new buddy.
ROWE: All right, you don't have a name yet. We'll see what we can do. Hey handsome.
OMBOY: I bet you can't look at the (inaudible) in the room and (inaudible) belongs to.
ROWE: Seriously?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We match. She's my little minion.
ROWE: Oh, my God. (Inaudible) you lost some sort of bet sweetheart. Oh, my God. Are we going to paint this one at all?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, you know.
ROWE: I don't know about painting a pit bull. Dog was awesome. OK, that's a good boy. All right, so...
OMBOY: So, we're going to...
ROWE: ... everybody does the same basic kind of work, is that -- that's obviously, you did that. I mean, clearly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't color, no.
ROWE: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I haven't learned yet.
ROWE: Is it complicated?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don't think it is.
OMBOY: You don't think so?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It might be.
OMBOY: Oh, we'll find out. It's a little more complicated than you think.
ROWE: Who's this?
OMBOY: This is Brook. This is my girl. This side has got a koi fish that comes down up around here and wraps around her leg, pretty cool.
ROWE: Why did you think? I mean, what made you look at her and go koi fish?
OMBOY: Well, you've got the bottle.
ROWE: A bottle and a cone. This is an exercise of profound utility. Oh, no.
OMBOY: Because the bottle has got to go right now. Can we?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
OMBOY: He was like I was just getting started. OK, let me tell you about Harry (ph) real quick. Before I took him to the clinic to drop him off to have his leg removed, I dyed a dotted line on him and the words on dotted line.
ROWE: Get out of here. Don't even tell me that. Do you have a picture of that?
OMBOY: Oh, yeah, somewhere.
ROWE: Well, look, somebody's going to need to show me that.
OMBOY: I'll walk you into the picture.
ROWE: Is it OK to pick him up?
OMBOY: But -- yeah, Harry (ph).
ROWE: Harry (ph), you're freaking everybody up. I'm so afraid (inaudible) is going to step on you. You only got the three legs left, I couldn't bear. Come here buddy. Come here, come here, come here, come here. Oh, my goodness. Oh, Harry (ph).
OMBOY: Harry (ph) decided that he didn't -- he was getting all this attention, he would've given that leg a long time ago.
ROWE: You might say he went (inaudible). All right, what are we going to do to (inaudible)?
OMBOY: What we're going to do to her is turn her head pink and her pom-poms pink and then we're going to do a leopard pattern on her and maybe a couple of flowers.
ROWE: Let's make it happen.
OMBOY: It's gong to take both of us, so...
ROWE: Well, tell me what to do.
OMBOY: You take this.
ROWE: Yeah.
OMBOY: You're going to pull the hair up and spray just a little bit. I'm going to brush it back and dry it even.
ROWE: Tell me more about what's in here.
OMBOY: This is -- it's a hair dye for dogs.
ROWE: Of course it is. How long you have the place?
OMBOY: 28 years.
ROWE: Adrienne (ph), how long have you been here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Almost two years.
ROWE: Yeah? You love it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do.
ROWE: You're just saying that because your boss is here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
ROWE: You really do love it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, I do. I've had other offers to work at other places, but I turned them down.
OMBOY: Hey, all right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I turned them down.
ROWE: Your one of the employees who's in demand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go check that.
ROWE: You absolutely want that. This is a very well-behaved dog, I'm going to say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's a good girl.
ROWE: How many people are painting dogs?
OMBOY: Oh, well, a lot. And it's gone international now. You know, when I first started doing this, it was real secretive. Nobody wants to share what they knew.
ROWE: Really?
OMBOY: Yeah. Any time I would ask anybody, "Well, how did you get that color, what did you use?" And they would always say, "Vegetable dye."
ROWE: It's a lie to you.
OMBOY: Oh, and you know I did it too.
ROWE: You lied?
OMBOY: Yeah, a couple of times. ROWE: Come on, Dawn, you're better than that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROWE: You're in the Greater Columbus, Georgia Area. I'm discovering that there is a somebody who considers every dog a blank canvas. We're not good bedazzler, but are we?
OMBOY: No.
ROWE: Her name Dawn. And while we turn these pooches into dazzling works of art, I'll try to find out what makes a person become one of America's premiere K9 colorist.
OMBOY: He's having fun.
ROWE: Do me a favor. Just -- I know you hate to talk about yourself and what not, but just make me understand why you do this?
OMBOY: Well, when I was a kid I thought I wanted to be a hair dresser, but then I found out I had to work with people.
ROWE: That's a problem with hair. So much of it is attached to humanity.
OMBOY: But they grow so much more of it and they're so much more appreciative. Dogs love what we do when we do it. Some of the competitors even -- when their dogs don't grow enough hair in places they need it, they'll add hair.
ROWE: Extensions.
OMBOY: They call them wiggies.
ROWE: No, no. You got to sign, right it out of here. So, it's like, "Oh, no, those are feather...
OMBOY: Those are feather extensions. Do you know where the feathers come from?
ROWE: I want to say birds, but...
OMBOY: All the chickens in my backyard.
ROWE: What? My phone is crazy. My phone just started playing the "Somebody's Gotta Do It" song. Check this one.
OMBOY: That's pretty cool.
ROWE: It's not bad, but I don't know why stuff goes off in my pocket now all of a sudden, but I still listen to it. Catchy, right?
OMBOY: Yeah. That's something (inaudible). We like that, don't we, Brook (ph)?
ROWE: You've probably seen a lot of things over the years on TV. You maybe even seen a lot of things on this show, but you have never seen this. You have never seen this man singing this song on a poodle, painted the colors of the rainbow. It simply never happened. That'll never happen again, but it's happening now.
OMBOY: You know why?
ROWE: Why?
OMBOY: Because somebody's gotta do it.
ROWE: This is a fish. It's leaping out of the water, marking (ph) through the air and landing just like so. That's a fish. What kind of fish do you think that is, Dawn?
OMBOY: It's a koi.
ROWE: A what?
OMBOY: A koi.
ROWE: It's a koi, right.
OMBOY: Yeah.
ROWE: Koi, like a Koi -- of course. So, we will now put the Somebody's Gotta Do It logo.
OMBOY: All right, you do the brackets first.
ROWE: Right.
OMBOY: And then I'll go inside the lines with pitches some more ink.
ROWE: You don't strike me as a person who stays inside the lines.
OMBOY: I have a friend who says you got to think outside the poodle.
ROWE: All things being equal. Let's stay outside the poodle.
OMBOY: OK, do a bracket there.
ROWE: All right.
OMBOY: Big bracket. I can make it work.
ROWE: Pretty good. Well, we're in Atlanta. We need something to do with all these painted dogs. You'd be a good girl, Brook (ph). Thanks for being our billboard. All right, somebody's...
OMBOY: Gotta do it.
ROWE: Don't you laugh at me, damn it.
OMBOY: I like that concentration face.
ROWE: I ran out of room, didn't I? Oh, crap. I should've let you do it.
OMBOY: It does not look bad for a starter.
ROWE: That sucks.
OMBOY: You know, that'll stop traffic.
ROWE: Sure, it does.
OMBOY: You want to go see?
ROWE: Yeah.
OMBOY: All right.
ROWE: All right.
OMBOY: I'm right here. I have a flat tire.
ROWE: I see that.
OMBOY: Yeah.
ROWE: Want to change it?
OMBOY: I don't even know where the spare is. Oh, you got a potty. Come on, dog.
ROWE: Got a dog barking around? Oh, oh.
OMBOY: No. Oh, somebody's got to pee.
ROWE: Somebody's gotta do it right here. Somebody just did it. So, this is a goodbye from Columbus, Georgia. It's been fun, Dawn.
OMBOY: Mike.
ROWE: Thank you. I've really figured you for a hugger.
OMBOY: I am a hugger.
ROWE: This is good and weird. We appreciate it. There's only one logical shop to go out on though, and it's gotta to be...
OMBOY: Let me turn -- let me turn from him.
ROWE: It's got to be -- wait for it.
OMBOY: Brooke (ph).
ROWE: Wait for it. And good bye.
OMBOY: Bye.
ROWE: You know, somebody has to do it, or perhaps you have to do it yourself. You should go to mikerowe.com and tell me all about it. As you can see, we'll do virtually anything on the program. Anything passes for content nowadays, so whatever your idea is, share it there and we'll come to you. Thank you.
