Worm Composting, Laughter Yoga, and Sprouting: Sustainable Living for Tiny House Dwellers

In this episode of the Less House More Moola podcast, host Laura interviews Cathy Nesbitt, an ecopreneur known as, Cathy Crawly Laughing Bean Queen. Cathy shares her journey of creating sustainable solutions through worm composting, laughter yoga, and sprouting. She discusses the importance of self-care, the benefits of laughter, and how to incorporate these practices into daily life, especially in small living spaces. The conversation emphasizes the interconnectedness of health, wellness, and environmental responsibility.

Cathy's Links

https://www.cathyscomposters.com/

https://www.cathysclub.com/

https://www.cathyssprouters.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathynesbitt/

https://www.youtube.com/@CathyLaughter

Go to thetinyhouseadviser.com

Transcript

Less House More Moola Podcast (00:41)
Well, welcome Kathy Nesbitt to Less House More Moola podcast. I have a feeling that we're going to do some laughing today. So I'm super excited about that.

Cathy Nesbitt (00:52)
Caution, there will be giggles.

Less House More Moola Podcast (00:54)
I know.

And don't we all need them right now? Giggles. For sure. Well, thanks so much for joining me. If you would, would you introduce yourself? You have such a great number of things going on in the world. So introduce yourself. And then I'm curious if you can share with us what it means to be an egopreneur, because that's how you refer to yourself on LinkedIn. So tell us more about that too.

Cathy Nesbitt (00:59)
More than ever, more than ever, yeah.

Absolutely, my name is Cathy Nesbitt. I am, well my working title is Cathy Crawley Laughing Bean Queen. I offer simple solutions for today's challenges, worms for amending the soil, worms in the house, even your tiny house, sprouts for eating, grow your own, and laughter for overall health and wellness. And yeah, it's the 23rd anniversary of my worm composting business. Wow.

Less House More Moola Podcast (01:48)
Amazing.

Yeah, you've been working at this a long time.

Cathy Nesbitt (01:53)
I've been at it for a while. So what it means to be an ecopreneur, it means having a business, so being able to pay the bills in a sustainable fashion. So taking care of the planet and the bills at the same time.

Less House More Moola Podcast (02:08)
I would guess that there's more than one listener out there who's trying to figure out, hey, if I were able to downsize into a less costly living situation, how could I then reorient my time towards doing some good in the world and maybe creating some benefit for the world at large? So we're super excited to hear more about your

three different areas of health and wellness or are doing good in the world. So you've got the three things going on, the Cathy crawlers, the giggles, the bean queen. Tell us how you came to each one of those passions of yours.

Cathy Nesbitt (02:53)
I'm located in Canada, just north of Toronto, and in 2002 the landfill for the Greater Toronto Area closed. And we couldn't find a place to site a new landfill. So we started to export our garbage to the United States. Sorry.

everybody. Almost at the... I laugh because I'm a laughter teacher. Not at the severity of the situation because it's ridiculous when I think about how irresponsible for a country to export their garbage to another country. Like not our problem anymore now it's your problem. And it cost us big for the privilege to export our garbage. Our tax dollar is hard at work.

Less House More Moola Podcast (03:35)
Yeah, and I don't think that that's the first case of that. From what I understand from a lot of the recycling is that a lot of our recycling gets exported and kind of sent back across the ocean on boats to, other countries that are processing that waste. It's actually kind of interesting. I just had a conversation with a native.

plant nursery owner here in northern New Mexico. And she tried to get, she's this beautiful rammed earth building. And she proposed to the city of Santa Fe that she build the building out of blocked trash. So I guess we crush our trash here into these perfectly square cubes that get sent somewhere else to be disposed of. And so she tried to build a building out of those trash cubes.

Cathy Nesbitt (04:14)
Mmm.

Less House More Moola Podcast (04:26)
and was turned down, so she did rammed earth instead. And her thought about the trash was, let's just all throw it out on the roads. And so that way we can see it, it's right in front of our face. And so I think that's kind of an interesting perspective, right? We tend to send our trash away and hide it away. When maybe if it were in our face a bit more, we would do something about it or be a little bit less wasteful.

Cathy Nesbitt (04:38)
Mm-hmm.

Less House More Moola Podcast (04:55)
So you were in that situation where the landfill closed and you all couldn't find a new place to open a landfill. And so how did that bring the worms into your life?

Cathy Nesbitt (05:06)
Yeah so six million people in the greater Toronto area half live in condos townhouses without space for outdoor composting and yeah and I had an idea indoor composting with worms so I just I was an accidental entrepreneur I call myself because I didn't I didn't grow up

in a family of entrepreneurs. We were all employees. We worked 30 years. Got a, you know, then you get a gold watch. Why do you need a watch when you retire? I don't know. I never understood the expressions of the day. So, yeah, so I just set forth with a solution. And Laura, people don't buy what they need. They buy what they want. And they didn't want what I was flogging. They needed it, but they didn't want it.

Less House More Moola Podcast (05:50)
You

Yes,

but you've been doing this for so long since 2002.

Cathy Nesbitt (05:58)
Yeah, so I started, you know, I would have a table wherever I could and I realized that people were afraid of what I was offering. You know, maybe they were traumatized as a child after a rainy day or a fishing incident, who knows. So if you were traumatized as a child, you're not looking to that as an adult as a solution. So I started to take on school workshops. And I'm so, I'm so happy to report that over 100,000 students have now seen my presentation.

And so once you're exposed to something, you can't not know it. You know it now.

Less House More Moola Podcast (06:34)
Yeah, so the next generation, right, is aware and exposed. And I think that's such an important part of our life journey because it's kind of like that expression, you can't be what you can't see. And until you're exposed to something the first time and maybe it comes to you in different areas of your life, you kind of dismiss, dismiss, dismiss, dismiss.

And so it's great that you're kind of planting the seed early for young people about a way that they can turn their food waste into something super valuable, especially in a world in which topsoil is, is going away. It's all eroding and being destroyed. And we need to all be working really hard to be creating as much great soil for plants in the future, for crops in the future.

Cathy Nesbitt (07:25)
Absolutly, I love that you said the unseen because we do send our garbage away like there's some away place. There isn't out of sight out of mind. So it does need to be in our face so that we can be aware of it. There is no away. You know, we put our garbage at the curb, but then the magic truck comes along and we're not aware. I think that trips to the landfill ought to be mandatory so we can see what we're creating.

Less House More Moola Podcast (07:53)
This will make you laugh. Sometimes we've gone, we take trips to the landfill and my husband sometimes refers to me as his dump honey.

Cathy Nesbitt (08:06)
You

Less House More Moola Podcast (08:07)
Because we're like, it's our favorite place.

And not because we find anything there, but just because it's such a task, you know. But yeah, if we all, it's kind of like the food thing, right? If we all knew where our food came from, we would be a little bit more conscious about what we're purchasing and the conditions of which it is grown or raised.

Cathy Nesbitt (08:33)
Absolutely. So planting seeds, of course I'm planting seeds. It's soil. The worms are the soil makers. And then we plant the seeds so we can grow more food. And then we eat the food and give the scraps to the worms. So it's one of those closed loop systems where you're eating, feeding the worms. The worms are feeding you through their black gold, their poop becomes the nutrient rich fertilizer or soil that we can grow more nutrient rich food.

Less House More Moola Podcast (08:56)
Mm-hmm.

Awesome. So let's get into the, the vermicomposting a little bit more because as you know, I'm in a tiny house and listeners are considering maybe smaller living arrangements. How can this be done in a smaller space and what are the basic requirements? I've been through a whole permaculture design certificate. We definitely talked about this, but I didn't really have a sense for, it seems like

it gets bigger over time. how, you know, what are the basic requirements and how is it done in a small space?

Cathy Nesbitt (09:32)
Perfect. So any container will do. What I say if people are living in a small place, imagine a tiny apartment in New York. They're not large either. Get a container that fits the space where you want to put it.

and you can even create a functional piece of furniture. If you're handy at all you could build a like a stool or a table that's your worm bin. I'll use a Rubbermaid tote just for everyone knows what that is, so any plastic container.

You need a carbon-nitrogen mix. So the carbon is your shredded paper, that's your browns and composting your paper, brown leaves, straw, cardboard, drink trays, that kind of material. The nitrogen is your food scraps, your peels from the kitchen, coffee, tea, banana peels, etc. The worms require both. It's aerobic process, meaning with oxygen. So you've got your bedding, which is your paper, you add in your food scraps, you add in the worms. It's got a lid, it's aerobic, meaning with oxygen

It doesn't smell like rotting food and the worms convert that material into soil so they're poop they eat all of the material then they poop it out and that's what you use on your plants. They're reducing the volume, they breed more than rabbits so yes you can expand your system if if you're like I'm creating more scraps than my worms can keep up with then you can expand the system if you have space otherwise you can just manage what you can in the space that you have.

Less House More Moola Podcast (11:05)
So, but are the worms growing in numbers?

Cathy Nesbitt (11:10)
They are, yes, and they also fill their space based, they will breed to fill their space based on available space and available food. You would never be overrun with worms. They have this built-in mechanism that if it gets too crowded, the adults start dying off to make rooms for the babies. Amazing.

Less House More Moola Podcast (11:32)
Interesting. And so

then from how do you separate the worms when you go in and you clean out your, your black gold? How do you separate the two in order to pull out the, the part that you want to use for your garden?

Cathy Nesbitt (11:47)
Yeah, there's a few methods if people are comfortable handling the worms. Easiest is dump the dump and sort. You dump it out on a plastic tarp or sheet. Put it in small round piles. So imagine you've dumped it out in one big huge pile. The worms just need to escape from the light. So it's going to take a long time for you to sort through. So if you put it in small like little piles, little anthills kind of.

It's going to be a faster. The worms will go down away from the light. You just scoop off the soil until you come to worms again. Let it settle. They're going to escape again. You just keep scooping off the soil until you are left just with worms. Set up your new bedding. Add the worms back in and use the black gold, the harvest. Use that for your plants.

Less House More Moola Podcast (12:33)
And how frequently do you have to do that process and say that big rubber made tote that you have?

Cathy Nesbitt (12:39)
Yeah, maybe once or twice a year.

And Laura, when I started my business, I met a woman. It's so amazing what happens when we're out to pay attention. A woman contacted me. I just started my business and she had a worm bin for 10 years and she said, it's becoming a bit much. I'd like to move it along. Would you like it? So I said, yes, I didn't want the system. I wanted to meet this woman who knew more than I did. So she said, OK, let me get the soil out and I'll contact you. She called me in two.

weeks and said I got the soil out but the worms have died and she said do you want the container so I said yes I didn't care about the container I wanted to meet the lady when I arrived at her house she was a woman in her maybe late 70s early 80s in a wheelchair she had MS

And my initial thought was, wow, look at you caring so much about the planet when you have your own issues. How beautiful. And I asked her, when was the last time that you harvested your worms? She never did. Laura, in 10 years, the worms are reducing the volume as long as you keep on adding their surface dwellers. So as long as you keep adding paper and food on top, their poop is on the bottom. They're just going to keep on there as long as there's room. She would take out the soil she needed for her

gardens over the 10 years she would just take out what she needed and kept on feeding them. So I said wow like can you imagine you never have to as long as you keep on creating the right environment.

Less House More Moola Podcast (14:13)
Amazing. so glad we dug into the details because in my mind, it seems a little bit like another thing to care for, but yet it seems very simple in fact, and a great way to make use of all the scraps that I haven't yet built my big, composting for yet because I've got to

build a building and do all the things. And so maybe the worms are a quicker and easier solution.

Cathy Nesbitt (14:36)
It's one way and if we look at nature, no one's looking after the worms.

And I've done garbage cleanups in places, I don't know how long the garbage was there, something that struck me was we came across this mattress in the forest. Like how the heck did the mattress get there? Somebody with their pickup truck, they're like, here's a nice resting place mattress. I don't know what they think or tires, whatever it is. And that mattress, all of the fabric was gone. It was buried like the worms had buried it. So that's what the worms do is they consume the

material and they take back the land. They literally take back the land. So all that was left was the springs and the metal parts. I was amazed.

Less House More Moola Podcast (15:22)
And so here in the desert southwest where I am, know, worms are not so common, so you have to go get them from somewhere. Is there a particular type of worm that you use for this?

Cathy Nesbitt (15:33)
Yes, good question. There are thousands of types of earthworms. Only four have been identified as suitable for vermicomposting. We're looking for surface dwellers.

So in other parts, not the desert, but in other parts, the worms are the plows of the soil. So they live below the frost line and come up and down. And they go up and down the same hole. Those are like night crawlers or dew worms. So we're using red wiggler worms, European night crawlers, Canadian night crawlers, and perionics, which is a tropical worm.

Less House More Moola Podcast (16:07)
I know there's red wigglers around here, I've heard about them.

Cathy Nesbitt (16:11)
Yeah,

the warmer states have large worm, red wiggler farms.

Less House More Moola Podcast (16:18)
Yeah,

awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you for helping demystify that a little bit because that's definitely something that is has been on my radar. Let's take a little break from the serious topic of worms and let's talk about your laughter yoga.

Cathy Nesbitt (16:36)
Yes, please.

It's so much more fun. So in 2012, 10 years into my worm mission, one more person said, ew, worms in the house. And I'd heard it hundreds of times. I just wasn't paying attention. In that, you know, I believed everybody needed to have what I was selling. But we don't buy what we need, we buy what we want. And they didn't want what I had.

So 2012, ew worms in the house. And I questioned everything. I was like, my gosh, how am I going to do this if people still haven't heard of it or they still think it's gross? And the very next day I was introduced to laughter yoga.

Laughter yoga is not about fancy pants or poses. It's not doing yoga and laughing. It's laughing as a cardiovascular workout. It started in India in 1995 by a medical doctor, Dr. Kateria, and his goal is world peace. Laughter has changed my life, Laura. I realized in 2012 when I started doing laughter that on a certain level when people said, worms in the house, I took it personal.

And I think entrepreneurs often do. If we are so passionate about what we're doing and then somebody dismisses us, we do take it personal, I think, because we believe so much in what we're doing. So it's a challenge when people challenge us. The laughter gave me permission to, or an understanding, I think, that when somebody said, they weren't saying, ew, I'm gross. They were saying, ew, I don't want what you have.

Less House More Moola Podcast (18:18)
Yeah, I was just thinking about how I have thought so many times about the challenge of of positioning the value of my role as a financial advisor, right? And people are like you said, they they buy what they want, not what they need. Right. And so it's a very difficult conversation to have with many people. And I'm like,

only harder when you're trying to put worms in somebody's house. Like financial advice or vermicomposting. Those are the two hardest sells ever.

Cathy Nesbitt (18:50)
you

Right, they need what you have. Like they'll be better off financially if they have a plan.

Less House More Moola Podcast (19:02)
you

Cathy Nesbitt (19:08)
and people don't want to think about that.

Less House More Moola Podcast (19:10)
So fun. So tell us more about laughter as cardiovascular work.

Cathy Nesbitt (19:16)
Yeah, so it's laughing as an exercise. When we're laughing, when we're laughing full on, we're completely present. We're not thinking about that thing we said or that meeting that's coming up. right here. We're not even thinking, in fact. And when we're laughing full on, our knees get weak, so we couldn't even run away. We can only laugh full on when we're in a safe environment.

which a laughter club brings. It's just people coming together. It's not jokes or comedy, because those are cultural. know, two people going somewhere. It's not funny for those two people.

So there's little games to inspire the laughter. And there's kind of clapping and chanting, although that sounds kind of like, that's why I don't do it. That just allows us. So the clapping, we're clapping palm to palm, which activates meridians. And that gives us something to do with our hands. For the folks that are in their head, they're very logical. They're always thinking, I'm going to think my way out of this. OK, good luck to that. We got to feel our way out.

that gives them something to do. So the rhythm is one, two, one, two, three, and the words are ho ho, ha ha ha. And you start a club, especially in person, with ho ho, ha ha ha. Everybody's doing it. It's contagious. And our body doesn't know the difference between real and simulated laughter.

So even if you don't feel like laughing, you can come and laugh, ha ha ha, ha ha ha. As soon as we start doing that, we start secreting the love drugs, dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins, versus cortisol and adrenaline. What I've realized since really diving into this laughter game is it's really just managing our nervous system. When we're in stress, we're secreting

cortisol, adrenaline, epinephrine, and we're not breathing fully. When we're laughing, we're secreting all the love drugs and we're fully oxygenated because we're exhaling when we're laughing, ha ha ha. In order to keep on ha haing, we need to take a nice deep inhale. So the laughter, the yoga part of laughter yoga is the practice of the laughter and the deep diaphragmatic

Less House More Moola Podcast (22:15)
So, I definitely think that this is so important. There are so many ways in which we have to learn how to better care for ourselves and, and better rest And certainly, laughter is a part of our natural process for releasing stress or releasing the cortisol and the anxiety and all of that. And yet at the same time, like we've got to plug that in.

Like taking our vitamins into our daily life. So what you have a club obviously and that's a way of bringing people together. Is there some way that we can plug laughter into our daily routine?

Cathy Nesbitt (22:53)
Yes, absolutely.

laugh whenever you're thinking, I laughing? I actually had, I posed a smile challenge to my laughter club people and it was whenever you're thinking, am I smiling? Smile and not just a little smile showing teeth and just grinning. Whenever I'm driving around, that's my resting face. I do my best to have a smile as my resting face. I want people to look at me and wonder what I'm up to. Like why is she grinning like that? What's going on?

So when I'm driving I'm looking at the person beside me, like I'm paying attention to the road, but if we're at the lights or something, I'm looking at the person beside me grinning and I hope I catch their eye and then like they're maybe looking like, what's happening? Or you know when people, when you smile at somebody for the most part they smile back. So you start, you know as a laughter teacher my goal is to get people smiling and giggling and the challenge I think Laura is when we feel good

We forget about the things for the maintenance. We forget about going through the gym. We're like, my list is so big. I'm going to take that one. I'm not going to go for the walk today because I don't have time. I would suggest putting that first, making that a priority. Because when we look after ourself, our cup is full. And then we can give the extra.

to those around us. When we're depleted and we're just running from one place to the next and not taking time for ourselves, that's when we get sick, that's when we get tired, that's when we get frustrated with life because we're not filled up. We need to fill ourselves first.

Less House More Moola Podcast (24:35)
It's so interesting because there's so many things about laughter that are so cultural and so enmeshed in all of the complexities of our life. I recently heard a comedian talking about how she kind of survived her really difficult childhood by looking for the ridiculous in life.

And, you know, there's folks who look for the silver lining in things, and there are folks who look for the negative in everything and looking for the ridiculous presents us with an opportunity to laugh at the world that we live in a little bit more. And yet at the same time, like women specifically, we're so inculturated to laugh. Like there's studies that show that,

girl babies get smiled at a lot more, and so they're sort of taught to have that smile on their face. Women are taught to have that smile on their face. But then on the other end of that is too much laughter, right? And a female politician gets criticized and critiqued. And so just going around with laughter on your face when you're by yourself, people will look at you like there's, like there's something going on with you exactly to your point. What is she up to?

Cathy Nesbitt (25:23)
Mmm.

Less House More Moola Podcast (25:46)
And, you know, why is she allowed to be so happy in this moment? so laughter is almost an act of rebellion. And we're rebelling against sort of the, you know, the pressure that's going on around us to take everything so seriously and to be ever so concerned about everything. And being concerned about ourselves mean we have to incorporate some laughter into our body in order to be able to process.

Cathy Nesbitt (25:55)
Mmm.

Less House More Moola Podcast (26:14)
the challenges of the world that we live in. a of, a lot of layers to that laughter onion.

Cathy Nesbitt (26:22)
Laughter is the opposite of stress and it's really fascinating because people will say to me, Cathy how can I laugh? There's so many things going on. It's so stressful right now and my response is it's easy to laugh when everything's fine. Laughter yoga is a tool that we have in our toolbox that we can employ at any time to help us get out of that stressful situation.

It relieves, as you said, it relieves the pressure of the situation. Why do we laugh at inappropriate times? Like at the funeral or if somebody trips and falls. It's that stress, like our body's too tight. So it's the pressure cooker. We start laughing to relieve the stress, the pressure.

Less House More Moola Podcast (27:15)
So good. So if someone's interested in learning more about laughter, yoga, are you the best resource for that?

Cathy Nesbitt (27:22)
Of course, yes, I would say yes, because you must.

Yes, I have a free club online. It's every Tuesday coming up on five years in June. It'll be five years every Tuesday. So beautiful free 30 minutes of super fun self care. It's nine thirty a.m. Eastern on Zoom. All are welcome. I incorporate tapping brain, Jim Chi Kong. I really I really just want people to get out of stress and into joy because when we feel good, we do good.

That's it. And I really want people to care about the planet. But when you're in a mental crisis, it's not possible.

Less House More Moola Podcast (28:00)
For sure. we'll make sure that we share that in the show notes. 930 Eastern time every Tuesday. And this is not something where you have to show your face, right online. So like for me, it's like 730 in the morning. Can I do it from my bed?

Cathy Nesbitt (28:16)
You absolutely can. It's, I mean, it is making eye contact. So we do prefer that people have their camera on. However, when I first started my club, I would ask, because now I have about 30 people, there's not, it's so successful now, yay. There's not time to ask everyone, how did you like it? But at the beginning, I would say, hey, how did you like it? And this one week, a person came, they had their camera off, which was fine. They were just had a phone number. So I said, hey, phone number, how did you like it?

opened their mic, they didn't turn their camera on and she said that she hadn't laughed for three or four years and was in this dark place and felt a glimmer of hope coming to the laughter club and from that moment I said okay if anybody needs to laugh and they don't want to be seen for whatever reason please just come to the club you don't need to have your camera on. All are welcome.

Less House More Moola Podcast (29:18)
super excited to share that because we all need, more of that in our bodies.

Cathy Nesbitt (29:23)
We do, yeah. Yeah, we're in charge of our own pharma. When we're stressed, we're secreting one chemical. When we're laughing, we're secreting another. And we get to be in charge.

Less House More Moola Podcast (29:33)
We are in charge of our own pharma.

That is a great quote.

So let's jump over now to sprouting, which is another thing. I'm like, this sounds like something I probably need to be doing. So tell me more about sprouting. How did that show up in your life?

Cathy Nesbitt (29:57)
My life is like a magic carpet ride, it's the truth. At my very first event in 2002, at my exhibiting, it was April 2022, so very close to Earth Day, very exciting, perfect time to really launch my worm business. There was a gentleman selling this sprout grower that now I sell, but I've used for 23 years. He was a ballroom dancer, professional ballroom dancer, 72, again, I came from

employee back room. I didn't know anyone that worked at 72. So there was this man, wow, in his white shirt with his black, you know, he was a gentleman with his, you know, posture and he was super healthy. I was like, wow, look at you. And I didn't know anything about sprouts or sprouting. And he said, when I asked him, what is this sprouter? What is this thing? He said, you know, it's a sprout grower. It's about the one that I have is about the size of a dinner plate. So for a small place, it's perfect.

You don't need any light so it can be done right in the cupboard on top of your dinner plates. It's food grade plastic stainless steel mesh. You put your beans on it's hydroponic so just water in the bottom. don't again you don't need soil so all my offerings are kind of separate but they're together. And the mung beans are the fastest so those are the bean sprouts from Chinese food the white white bean sprouts. Those are the ones that we that I eat every day. They're the fastest.

and they will germinate in about 24 hours. It's the heat and humidity. So every day you can have fresh food. And here's the beautiful part about why you want to add sprouts to your life. They're hydrating, alkalizing, regenerative, biogenic, and contain up to a hundred times more digestive enzymes. So those those words that I sound so smart because I am. Hydrating. So as soon as we're getting thirsty, we're already starting to be dehydrated. So

beans are juicy. Alkalizing in an acidic body that's where cancer and other diseases can take place. So the sprouts are alkalizing food they're helping balance the pH in our body. Regenerative they help to re fortify our cells.

Biogenic, kind of one of my favorite things. They're life-force giving. People are like, you have so much energy. It's like, well, I've been eating biogenic food for 23 years. I don't go a day without sprouts. It's my health plan. So they give us energy and then the enzymes.

When we're born, we're given a certain amount of enzymes. If we're not eating enzymes in salad or raw vegetables, our body uses our reserves. And as we age, we start to get digestive issues. It's getting younger and younger because our food is broken. And we may go to the doctor and the doctor will say, here's a prescription for enzyme pills.

instead of taking a pill, which I hope has some green element in it, some live plant food, I hope so, you could grow your own for pennies a day. And you know what's in it. It's super fresh. They grow fast and you just buy the beans. You buy the seeds. So for the people living in tiny homes, it's the perfect thing because you can do it in jars like there are systems, but just buy some beans, add some water, grow your sprouts.

and then eat them every day.

Less House More Moola Podcast (33:31)
And so you recommend the mung beans because of their speed. And then do you eat the beans themselves or just you cut the sprouts off and you toss the beans and you start again?

Cathy Nesbitt (33:37)
Yes.

so you eat the whole thing, you actually don't let them grow into bean sprouts. As soon as the root is the size of the bean or the seed, that's when they're ready. So you just eat the whole thing.

Less House More Moola Podcast (33:56)
it.

sometimes in the grocery store I'll see a container and it's sprouted, know, beans in there are just, I mean that's exactly what you're making. You're taking the beans and you're sprouting them and just as soon as they're a little sprouted you're not growing them into microgreens.

Cathy Nesbitt (34:13)
Correct, that's right. And microgreens for the listeners are sprouts that have a couple of leaves. As soon as they have leaves, now they're considered microgreens. Some people still call them sprouts. It's fine, semantics.

Less House More Moola Podcast (34:26)
And where do you get your mung beans from?

Cathy Nesbitt (34:28)
The beans China is the largest producer. I know people are not crazy about that There's India grows a certain number as well You want to you want to get?

organic and I know people question China but in Canada and I know in the US you we have another certifying body it's called Eco-cert in Canada I don't know what the body is in in the US so whenever things are grown overseas and then they come into the country they're tested and if they're not

they're not up to the standard they get passed down the chain so they might go to bulk barn if you've got I don't know if bulk barn is Canadian or American but they'll go to another facility where they're not now they're not considered organic they're not labeled as organic anymore or they ought not be

Less House More Moola Podcast (35:20)
And so like logistically, where do you get them from? Are you ordering them on the internet or are you buying them somewhere?

Cathy Nesbitt (35:27)
I buy them by

the ton so I have a hill of beans but I never spill the beans so your secrets are safe.

Less House More Moola Podcast (35:37)
Yeah, so you buy big bags of them somewhere.

Cathy Nesbitt (35:39)
yes, yes I do.

Less House More Moola Podcast (35:41)
Gotcha. And how many do you sprout at a time?

Cathy Nesbitt (35:44)
Only one. So in the system that I have, three tablespoons of beans will do will yield two cups of food, right? Because the beans grow in size and yeah, it's it's just an incredible incredible thing to add to your diet because it's fiber, protein, minerals.

everything that our body needs. So I started selling the sprouter in 2012 and I would have in my exhibit only only mung beans because that's all I had done and a woman came and she said what else can you sprout and I said I don't know and she said don't you get sick of mung beans?

And said, it's my health plan. Would you get sick of having tons of energy and feeling great? Maybe, right? People love their story. I'm so tired. Okay, good. Well, then I started to, said, well, as an entrepreneur, what do I care if people don't want mung beans?

So I started to experiment with chickpeas, lentils, fenugreek, radish. You can sprout anything, anything that grows into a plant, started as a seed, so will grow into a sprout. For the most part, you can eat all of those raw. The exception that I know of right now is kidney beans. You can sprout them, but then you need to cook them. You don't eat them raw.

Less House More Moola Podcast (37:01)
Well, very exciting ideas for those folks that are living in smaller spaces. as we're all trying to figure out what are, great ways to add some new elements to our health.

So I'm middle-aged, so it's always great to be thinking about what are ways to overcome my three o'clock crash.

Cathy Nesbitt (37:24)
Yeah, you know, I had a friend who had Crohn's and when I introduced her to the Sprouter, she was so grateful because she was looking for something to have at the office. So she actually took the Sprouter to the office, grew them right at the office and was able to have that healthy snack that filled the gap, that gave her energy, was fiber, was everything she needed. Yeah.

Less House More Moola Podcast (37:52)
And what do you add to your mung beans when you eat them?

Cathy Nesbitt (37:55)
just eat them as they are. I don't add anything. The mung beans in particular are very neutral in flavor so they they take on the flavor of whatever you're eating them with. I will add them into my ice cream so it's like now my ice cream is fortified and with nutrient rich sprouts and I can feel less so it doesn't add flavor it adds texture.

Less House More Moola Podcast (38:22)
Well, that has been such an interesting journey through three different areas that you are ecopreneuring. And what are you finding that people are the most receptive to right now?

Cathy Nesbitt (38:39)
The laughter, the laughter, Laura, since 2020, the world has gone cuckoo and people are really stressed. And I say we're kind of all on the spectrum of some people were never cared. They were just out and about, fancy free. And then there's the other side, people still trapped in their houses because they're so afraid. Five years in.

So the laughter is what people, and because we can do it online. And you know, isolation is worse than smoking, alcohol and obesity combined for our health.

Less House More Moola Podcast (39:14)
Yeah, the loneliness epidemic seems to be something that's been more talked about in recent years. And so it's great to have a way to get together with people where it seems like it's pretty low pressure, right? Just getting together to go through a few exercises to breathe deeply, to release some of the stress in life. So yeah, it's good to see that people are picking up the idea of laughter and

and that biochemical reaction that will help them in their life. So let's talk a little bit about, your philosophy. You mentioned to me in our pre-call that a great life is doing what you love. And I couldn't agree more. I think that's one of the great tricks of tiny living is that you get to have more choice about how you spend your time and you can.

Cathy Nesbitt (39:47)
Hmm.

Less House More Moola Podcast (40:09)
Redivote your work towards something that you're passionate about. It sounds like you made a pretty big transition back in 2002. So talk a little bit about how you view a great life and your great life.

Cathy Nesbitt (40:25)
Yeah, it really is just...

For me, I wake up every morning. My day is framed with self-care. First thing in the morning, me first. And I go outside weather permitting, spring to fall, I would say. And I earth. So I'm barefoot, catching the earth's energy. First sun, so I'm an early riser. As soon as the sun comes up, I'm out there, which resets your melatonin.

and I have good thoughts and I do a little exercise energy routine outside it only takes 10 or 15 minutes and that sets my day up for whatever's next. I really make sure that I put me first then I do all the things that I need to do during the day and then at night same I have a little wind down routine that I do before heading heading into bed and so for me a great life is every day

asking what more can I do? How else can I serve? Because I feel when we're serving others it just helps us feel better because we're helping somebody that maybe needs us more than we need us. If that makes sense like if we're if we're always looking at how can I help somebody else? Even you know I know when people are feeling really sad or depressed

It's like, gosh, it's so dark down here. If you go and help somebody else, it seems counterintuitive, but if you go and help somebody else, it will lift your depression.

Less House More Moola Podcast (42:04)
Yeah, there's a beautiful expression that I love. was once on a magnet in my office and now it's stuck in my head forever. that is action will take you out of doubt and doubt will take you out of action. And sometimes that, going out and having some action in the world around you will just lift you up and make that, darkness, a little less dark. And so I love that idea about, serving others and

focusing on how you're loving others, because when we're focused on loving others, we forget to calculate how unloved or loved we feel ourselves. And so I think that's a really good way of, of framing a life right now and taking care of yourself, taking care of others and doing work that you're super passionate about. That's making a difference in the world. I mean, what else could you want out of your?

4,000 weeks that we get to live on this one wild and precious journey.

Cathy Nesbitt (43:05)
Right, exactly. That's it. Yeah.

Less House More Moola Podcast (43:09)
Well, Cathy, please share with us where listeners can find out more about you and your work.

Cathy Nesbitt (43:17)
I love for people to check out my laughter page. It's Cathys club.com. It's Cathy with a C. And the information for my laughter club is right at the top. You just register there and come and check it out. I have a video series too, Fun Fab Friday, if Tuesdays don't work. And they're little shorts for fun. Again, it's about three and a half years, 196 episodes, which is a lot of Fridays.

Less House More Moola Podcast (43:45)
Yeah,

a lot of commitment to this one topic. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom with us about small worm vermicomposting, about bringing laughter into our life as a more mindful practice, and also about sprouting in small spaces. Super helpful, Cathy. Thank you for your sharing today.

Cathy Nesbitt (43:47)
Mm-hmm.

Thank