Spooky Sparks from SPARKfest

In this week’s episode of the Spark File podcast, we head back to the beautiful Saunders Farm in Ottawa, Canada, where we were fortunate to host our almost annual SPARKFest. This week, on the eve of Halloween, we’re embracing the spooky season. Listen on to hear directly from Spark File community members. In this week’s episode you’ll hear sparks that explore

• Why (most) human beings love being scared, and how our fear sparks fear in others (spoiler: fear contagion is real!)
• The history behind haunted houses and fear-filled attractions
• How our brains trick us into filling in the gaps of what we can’t see
• The difference between a labyrinth and a maze

Plus, you’ll hear from Spark Scribe Jill Dryer about the impact and power of dreams. But that’s not all! Saunders Farm’s own Angela Grant Saunders walks you through some of the spooky and sweet magic that makes Saunders Farm so special. (Hint: Apple cider donuts. Hundreds of them)

So, if you’re feeling spooky, or you just want to cuddle up with some autumnal coziness, dig into the latest episode of…THE SPOOK FILE.… just kidding.

BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. 

Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff

January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET

This one day virtual retreat will help identify and clarify your creative vision, and chart a course for completion.

LEARN MORE 

Chapters

• 0:00 The Spark File Podcast
• 12:47 Exploring the Psychology of Fear
• 23:17 The Psychology of Perception and Creativity
• 35:28 Food, Love, and Creative Sparks

Transcript

Susan Blackwell:
Welcome to The Spark File, where we believe that everyone is creative, but smart creative people don't go it alone.

Laura Camien:
I'm Laura Camien

Susan Blackwell:
And I'm Susan Blackwell, and we are creativity coaches who help people clarify and accomplish their creative goals.

Laura Camien
Know that just by listening to this podcast, you are joining a warm and wonderful clan of creatives.

Susan Blackwell
But, but, but, but, but. You might be asking yourself what exactly is a spark file?

Laura Camien
Well, a spark file is a place where you consistently collect all of your inspirations and fascinations. Every episode, we're going to reach into our spark files and exchange some sparks, and from time to time, we're going to talk to some folks who spark us too.

Susan Blackwell
And your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to take some of those sparks of inspiration and make something of your own. So, without further ado, let's open up the Spark File. Hi Laura Camien.

Susan Blackwell:
Hello Susie B. How are you doing?

Susan Blackwell:
I am doing great because it is the most beautiful crisp fall day day we are in prime leaf season. It is stunning. How about you?

Laura Camien:
Extraordinary. I happen to be in the beautiful state of Tennessee at this moment, and also surrounded by exquisite trees of all different colors, and it is extraordinary. It makes my heart happy.

Susan Blackwell:
It's like living in a painting. It's crazy.

Laura Camien:
It's crazy, and aren't we lucky?

Susan Blackwell:
We are lucky for so many reasons, including today's podcast episode, which is like a cornucopia of sparks and gems and gifts, and stories.

Laura Camien:
It sure is. We're going to fill up our spark files with all these little gems and also just remember, like this was all recorded into a similar setting up in Canada, in the fall at Saunders farm, and once again surrounded by glorious trees and beautiful nature and fresh, crisp air and apple cider and a fire crackling.

Susan Blackwell:
Delicious food, oh yeah, the best. So, as with our prior Sparkfest episode, you're going to hear that we're on location. We're sitting beside a huge hearth, a crackling fire, and you'll hear that in the recording. We're not in a studio, we're definitely on location. Sometimes our laughter can overwhelm the little baby microphone who is doing its best. I think it adds to the charm.

Laura Camien:
It adds to the charm, and we do thank that microphone. We really did work it.

Susan Blackwell:
We worked it hard that day.

Laura Camien:
We took it to the limit and you know it's really fun, given what day it is today. I believe it's the day before Halloween and in this episode many, many of our folks went and found spooky sparks. They had gone to “Fright Night” at Saunders Farm the night before and were all a little bit adrenal, like, jacked up from the Fright Night. And they were brave enough to do some spooky sparks so that we might present them the day before Halloween.

Susan Blackwell:
We've got some spooky sparks. We've got some autumnal sparks, Laura, I also. I haven't told you yet, but in our house we've been challenging ourselves and watching movies that are a little on the scarier side in the evening.

Laura Camien:
How interesting. I'm so curious to know the rationale. Did you feel like—I must acquire better skills at watching scary stuff?

Laura Camien:
No, I think it was more like, we are watching classic movies. We're watching just great movies, and sometimes great movies are a little on the scarier side of Sears. So last night we watched Poltergeist.

Laura Camien:
Oh whoa, eighties, I thought you were talking even more classic. Poltergeist. I think what's even scarier about that movie is reading about the stuff that happened to people who worked on that movie the worst. It's the worst. It's all very scary.

Susan Blackwell:
Yeah, it is scary.

Laura Camien:
Wow.

Susan Blackwell:
Oh, we watched the night before that, oh, we watched The Others with Nicole Kidman, which I think is one of her greatest films. Her performance in The Others is phenomenal. But you know, there's nothing like a really, really excellent scary movie. And I just want to qualify all of this by saying some of you are listening, you're like, girl, Poltergeist, and the others are not scary. To me, they are scary.

Laura Camien:
Yeah oh yeah, yeah, I think scary is on a… on a scale.

Susan Blackwell:
It's a sliding scale of scary.

Laura Camien:
It’s a sliding scale, and both of us are way down here.

Susan Blackwell:
Way, way. But anyway put that in your spark file and smoke it um. Just it's a great time of year for some spookiness which is a great segue into this episode. Absolutely enjoy, enjoy some of these autumnal and spooky sparks. And first up we're going to hear from Spark Scribe Jill Dryer, our beloved artist in residence. Jill, take it away.

Music Interlude

Susan Blackwell:
We got Jill motherfucking Dryer who some of you may know as our Spark Scribe.

Laura Camien:
That is correct.

Susan Blackwell:
If you enjoy any of the illustrations that you see on our social media, on our website. That's all Jill Motherfucking Dryer.

Laura Camien:
I was just enjoying that we can say Jill. Motherfucking. Dryer, because it's our podcast.

Susan Blackwell:
We're grown-ass adults, we can do that. But enough of us, Jill, what you got for us.

Jill Dryer:
Well, I'm Jill, as you heard, Motherfucking Dreyer. Um, she/her and I'm super happy to be here. When I went walking on the farm today, I started looking at all the doorways and I ended up on a pirate ship where there were portals. And I was really fascinated by all the different vantage points on the pirate ship because there's not only portals that you typically only see from the inside out and not the other way. There's not only portals that you typically only see from the inside out and not the other way. There's the crow's nest, there's walking the plank, which maybe is like looking at risks and things like that. But I felt like I got stuck on portals because typically those windows are only a one way thing and I feel like it's really important in life to go outside the expected window or doorway or portal. And it led me to a dream that I was going to share with you because it was relevant to this whole portal conversation and my encouraging you guys to look beyond. I had a dream many years ago that three hummingbirds came outside the window where I was sitting and I knew that they wanted me to come outside the window, and I had always had windows in my dreams, but I had never gone outside. And this dream I decided I'm going. So I go outside the window and just as I get beyond the glass, I see some fog up ahead and there's a person in the distance and I hear this man say “Jill, is that you?”

And there's this man that I haven't seen for 10 plus years. And I'm like, oh my gosh. And so we're standing there in the dream like, wow, this is so crazy. And he's wearing this white expedition suit and he's going to climb this mountain and his crew is waiting for him. And I'm like, “well, it was so great to see you. You look amazing.” And so Dan walks off and meets up with the crew and they're about halfway up the mountain and I'm just watching and just marveling at how healthy he looks. And then he comes back down and he hands me a glove and he said “Would you mind giving this to Angie?” His wife And I said, “Well, of course, Dan.” And then Dan went back up the mountain, climbed all the way to the top of the summit. There's the flag up there. And he waves at me as they plant the flag. And then he turns into this gorgeous rainbow bird and flies off. And in that moment I knew I turned to the hummingbirds and I was like he's crossed over right and they nod. And then I woke up and it was a life-changing dream for me because the fact that I also went outside the window, when I never would have otherwise thought that you could, I wanted to share because I thought it was so interesting, the vantage point and the extraordinary payoff of going beyond the window was unreal. The gorgeousness and I know it was full of beauty and sadness this moment that I saw.

He really did pass and I didn't know that he was ill. That later turned into a really beautiful connection with his wife. I just encourage everyone to think about those just portals that they may come across, where they're looking out and wondering if you should go beyond. And I feel like you have to because as artists and all of us here at the Spark File we're all creative people and you can't be visionary if you stay inside. You have to go out, and sometimes it's rocky waters and it's crazy. But you gotta do it, because there's beauty everywhere and it's extraordinary.

Laura Camien:
Jill. Thank you.

Susan Blackwell:
Beautiful.Thanks

Music Interlude

Laura Camien:
Kevin Winebold!

Susan Blackwell:
Hey, welcome to the hot seat. We’ve got Kevin Winebold, who this year is serving as the Spark File team captain, and it's an honor just to be nominated. First of all, how do you identify creatively?

Kevin Winebold:
I identify as a pianist, musical director and entertainer.
Susan Blackwell
Great. How do you, how did you rate my teaching of the Spark File sting?

Kevin Winebold:
Flawless.

Susan Blackwell:
Thank you. And I was fishing.  You have a spark for us?

Kevin Winebold:
I do great. So for those of you listening and not with us at spark fest tomorrow evening, we have the opportunity to experience what is known as Fright Fest here at saunders farm, and some people would call it a privilege, some people call it terrifying. I have never done a haunted house, never wanted to do a haunted house, and so when I found out that we had this mission to explore the farm, I decided I'm going to walk through a haunted house during the daylight to make it less scary. Angela Grant Saunders said, she told me the most terrifying one, last night, not knowing this plan. So I was like I'm going to walk through the most terrifying one so I know which way to turn and I won't be scared. And it was like a cheat. I was like I'll know. I memorized in the hall of mirrors. Mirrors, which way to go. You know, I had this plan. So that wasn't part of my spark. However, that was just an intro, but then, while I was there, it became my spark because, as I was walking through, and even in the daylight, I was getting scared and I had the thought. I was like why do people like this? And that was my spark. And so I, like, sat next to the scary clown and started Googling. Why people?

Susan Blackwell:
You were like scary clown, I've got a question for you.

Kevin Winebold:
Yes! So I asked why people enjoy being afraid.

Susan Blackwell:
Yes.

Kevin Winebold:
And it led me to an article about, obviously, the dopamine release. And it's not typically the scare, but it's the release from the scare that gives us that and then it led me to a second article where they put participants in a haunted house in different numbers of groups of their friends and had all sorts of monitors to measure brain waves and physiology. All of that, and they found that the more friends you were with, the more arousal you experienced. And the way they worded it was, this reflects fear contagion. If your friends are around, your body picks up on their signals and has a higher level of arousal, even in the absence of specific scares. So you're actually feeling more fear when you're with your friends.

Susan Blackwell:
You would think that the reverse would be true, because you're like safety in numbers

Kevin Winebold:
Yeah, but then it's like, if I'm with you and you're scared, I'm scared for you. As someone, I care about.

Laura Camien:
This is a group of empaths who's going to pick up on every feeling so imagine the amplification.

Kevin Winebold:
And then combining the articles, I was like, oh, that's interesting. People enjoy fear because of the release of it. And we experience more fear in groups, especially with friends, which then led me to think of the Spark File, where we're always talking about facing our fear. And I'm the kind of person who, typically, when I need to face a fear, I do it in private, as, I'm admitting, I was going to walk through this haunted house alone. I was like people don't need to see me react. I will silently navigate this. But when you face your fears with a group of people that you care about, you also experience more release and more dopamine. So facing your fears in a group is scientifically proven to give you a bigger release.

Susan Blackwell:
This is the best commercial for the Spark File. Kevin, that is a spectacular spark so great. I have so many follow-up questions.

Susan Blackwell:
We've got so much to talk about.

Laura Camien:
About the haunted house of it all.

Susan Blackwell:
Yes, I'm just really taken by the idea of sort of the metaphor of facing fears during the daytime, like that there's something about that that is delicious and still somehow scary to me.

Laura Camien:
I just sent you something on Instagram last night. It's when I should have been sleeping, but just sent you something on instagram last night, so that's when I should have been sleeping, but I sent you something. It's an interview with the screenwriter Jordan Peele yeah, and he's talking about how and again it goes back to the dopamine. But how? For him, laughter and horror, those two genres which most people like.... No, it's either a comedy or it's a horror, it can't be both. And he's like, oh, no, no, no, these are the same, because it is that release. And so, anyway, we have a lot. We're gonna, we'll be circling back on this good.

Susan Blackwell:
Kevin Winebold! So good!

Music Interlude

Susan Blackwell:
Sarah Lappano, welcome to the hot seat. Will you tell the people how you identify creatively?

Sarah Lappano:
I think I identify as a storyteller and a documentary photographer.

Susan Blackwell:
Love that, love that. You got a spark for us?
Sarah Lappano:
I do, and Kevin Winebold and I were on the very same wavelength.

Laura Camien:
All right.

Sarah Lappano:
But I'm going to take you with my first spark of a question of why, where did they start and when did they start?

Susan Blackwell:
Haunted houses?

Sarah Lappano:
Haunted houses.

Susan Blackwell:
Shut the fuck up. That's awesome, oh my god.

Sarah Lappano:
So let me take you to the 19th century in London.

Susan Blackwell:
Oh my god, god damn it. This is such…this is great.

Laura Camien:
This is one way we could handle haunted houses, the history of them.

Susan Blackwell:
Yes, do you know, I think you may. I may have said this in your presence before, but I can't watch scary movies. But I read the wikipedia synopsis of a scary movie. I'll look at the title on you know, like on the streaming service, and I'll be like, oh, that looks interesting and I'll wikipedia the plot synopsis and be like I'm good. I'm all good. All that I needed was that yeah or I'll have Tom Schulteis relay the talk to you.

Laura Camien:
 Which I'm always amazed by. Because I don't like them at all and I'm like I also don't want to know. I don't want to know what crazy idea someone has come up with to terrify me. Sarah, sorry to interrupt.

Susan Blackwell:
I, so I recently was curious what all the hubbub was about. So I read the Wikipedia entry for Midsommar. Fuck that shit, Fuck it. I still am thinking about the Wikipedia entry In the room. Raise your hand if you've seen Midsommar, Fuck you. It was not that shit. No, I can't even tell you what I'm still thinking about from the Wikipedia entry.

Laura Camien:
Okay, listen, one more sidebar and then we're going to totally like…What I'm crazed about is that it used to be like when you went to the movies, like the trailers were mild.

Susan Blackwell:
Oh, no.

Laura Camien:
They’re shoving this stuff into my eyeballs and I'm like I didn't come for that I came for Indiana Jones. And you just gave me some smiling psychopath…

Susan Blackwell:
When I see that red screen, the red trailer screen, I'm like fuck you fuck that and I just yeah, I just like no, no, because I know what's coming. Sarah, you were saying.

Laura Camien:
So tell us all about it.

Sarah Lappano:
19th century England, in London specifically, a series of illusions and attractions introduced to the public, new forms of gruesome entertainment.

Susan Blackwell:
the 19th century is….?

Laura Camien:
You’ve got this, Suze.

Susan Blackwell:
I don't know if it's, is it the 1800s?

Laura Camien:
It is, yes. It is.

Susan Blackwell:
Time is a construct.

Sarah Lappano:
You nailed it Susan, and the first. Well, I don't know if it's the first, but it's the first name that I came across in my very short readings. 1802, Marie Tussaud.

Laura Camien:
A lady is behind all this?

Sarah Lappano:
Madame Tussaud. Correct.

Susan Blackwell:
Like the wax museum?
 
Sarah Lappano:
Correct. She scandalized British audiences with an exhibition of sculptures of decapitated French figures.

Laura Camien:
Wow.

Susan Blackwell:
Fuck that.

Sarah Lappano:
So that included King Louis X 16th and Marie Antoinette. In fact, her job was to create the death masks of the French revolution's guillotine victims.

Susan Blackwell:
So the head goes in the basket and she's like I'll take that, I'll take a mask and that's

Sarah Lappano:
Well, because I think I should ask my 14-year-old historian, but I think there's a reason. They have death masks.

Susan Blackwell:
Sarah's referring to her son, not that she keeps a 14-year-old historian. You were saying I'm sorry, we're very chatty, sorry

Sarah Lappano:
And so from that exhibition, she called it the Chamber of Horrors, which is still the name of the museum that we see today. So that's how this started. But then that grew. At the turn of the century, things became more macabre in their theme. So in Paris. Then we moved to Paris and there's this theater called the Grand Guignol, I think, and that theater was always notorious for its onstage depictions of graphic dismemberment, and the director Max boasted often that he judged each performance he did by the number of people who passed out in the audience.

Susan Blackwell:
Fuck Max.

Laura Camien:
That's a hard pass.

Sarah Lappano:
And then in 1915 there was an English fairground that debuted one of the very first ghost houses, an early commercial horror attraction.

Susan Blackwell:
Now we're getting into it.

Sarah Lappano:
And public appetite began to pick up for horror.

Laura Camien:
Like, somebody figured out people will pay good money to scare the shit out of themselves.

Sarah Lappano:
That's right. Then that led me into the question that Kevin had as into why the fuck do we want to do that to ourselves. I mean, Kevin did a beautiful depiction and we get to that dopamine. Dopamine, it ignites receptors in our brains, our audio or visual. And then that led me to why do I only want to listen to scary podcasts? And that, often, they say, draws on our human instinct of wanting to know how we can keep ourselves safe. Yes, who, what?

Susan Blackwell:
Oh, the true crime of it all?

Sarah Lappano:
Yes, yes. And so that's why you know we're still the same as we were in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Susan Blackwell:.
Sarah Lappano, wow, that is such a great spark.

Laura Camien:
So, scaring ourselves to death makes us feel more alive, I think. Isn't that weird?

Susan Blackwell:
Thank you for that walk down history lane.

Sarah Lappano:
You're welcome.

Susan Blackwell:
You know, I love that. If you ever need to be on a podcast, you can come on our podcast anytime anytime to learn things.

Sarah Lappano:
Awesome, that was awesome friends.

Music Interlude

Susan Blackwell:
Friends, it's the aforementioned Chris Pappas. Chris, tell the people how you identify creatively.

Chris Pappas:
Chris Pappas. I identify as a podcaster, storyteller, travel director, cat herder, so it's like…that's some skills we workshopped that jerk earlier today.

Susan Blackwell:
Spark it up.

Laura Camien:
We are so ready for your spark.

Chris Pappas:
I think my spark is like the goth cousin of Melissa's. I also ended up in the kind of backstage area of some of these haunts.

Laura Camien:
The haunts okay.

Chris Pappas:
My spark is entitled A Perfectly Reasonable Explanation. When I think back to the room that I grew up in, I can picture the closet, and at night I can picture the man in a black hat that stood next to my closet.

Susan Blackwell:
Are you shitting me?

Chris Pappas:
And the man in the black hat has also appeared to me in a tent in Montana and in a hotel room in Paris.

Susan Blackwell:
In Ottawa?

Chris Pappas:
Paris. The man in a black hat has been several things: A tree branch, a coat, and a curtain rod, because our brain does not like empty spaces, so it fills in the gaps for us. So, when we are seeing shadows, when we're seeing things, when we're walking around a haunted house, what is going on inside of our brains?

Laura Camien:
Oh my God.

Chris Pappas:
So a couple of things. I didn't cite my sources, Austin… So, y'all can just Google the things that I'm about to talk about. The big one being perpetual filling in. So this is like when you're perpetually filling in. So you know, you see this experiment where it's like there's two lines but your brain fills in the triangle. Or it's a dotted circle, but your brain sees the full circle.

Laura Camien:
Or missing letters in a word, and you're like I still know what that word is.

Chris Pappas:
Inattentional blindness. So this is something that you might see in a magic show. It's something when your brain is not expecting something to happen, so you just don't see it. I saw this great show on Broadway a couple years ago where this magician told us at the beginning of the show a gorilla is going to run across the stage, grab this banana and then run back across and you're not going to see it. And so they did this entire sequence.

Susan Blackwell:
Which is based on a big research experiment.

Chris Pappas:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so they did the sequence and he looked. You look over, the banana's gone, he goes. You all missed the gorilla. So they did the sequence again. Sure enough, a gorilla walks across. Your guy in a gorilla suit walks across the stage, thinks of the banana, walks off and if you are not looking for it you do not see it. So if something suddenly disappears, sometimes we don't blame the person who literally walked across the room. You just say that just disappeared.

Laura Camien:
Wait, Chris, can you say the two things again, the perpetual filling in? And the second one was…?

Chris Pappas:
Inattentional blindness.

Susan Blackwell:
Is that like when you know our nose is in our line of vision all the time? Yeah, All the time. And if you put your fingertip on your nose, you realize. Everyone's putting their finger tip on their nose. You realize like, shut an eye, shut an eye. We erase it from our vision. And what is it called again?

Chris Pappas:
Inattentional blindness, inattentional blindness.

Laura Camien:
Okay, but you want to tell us more and we're just stuck on those two, perceptual filling in and inattentional blindness.

Chris Pappas:
The last one I have here is pareidolia, which is the brain filtering out information that it deems unimportant. So the example they kind of give in these articles is when we're looking at clouds and we start to see shapes. So we're filtering out the kind of pareidolia.

Susan Blackwell:
Is this the one where you, like, you look at an electrical outlet and you see a face? Yes, yes.

Chris Pappas:
Yes, clouds, the Rorschach test. So I think it's just important to remember around the spooky season that, you know, those shadows you see in the corner, those bumps that you hear.

Susan Blackwell:
Are indeed a man in a black hat

Chris Pappas:
Most most, most likely, have most most likely most likely have a reasonable explanation.

Laura and Susan:
Chris Pappas!

Music Interlude

Susan Blackwell:
All right In the hot seat we've got Lisa Marie Newton. Lisa Marie Newton is, I would say, an OG sparkler as have several people who have come before.

Laura Camien:
That's right.

Susan Blackwell:
But how do you identify creatively?

Lisa Marie Newton:
I am an actor, singer, voiceover artist and screenwriter.

Susan Blackwell:
Yeah, baby you are. You have a spark for us today?

Lisa Marie Newton:
I do. As soon as Laura brought up that we had this homework assignment, I knew immediately what I wanted to do.

Susan Blackwell:
You're really selling Sparkfest by the way, it is a homework assignment. Come to Canada, get homework.

Lisa Marie Newton:
And the name of my spark is I Love a Labyrinth and I have for years and years, decades, loved labyrinths and I have for years and your decades, loved labyrinths. And here at Saunders Farm they have a series of mazes that are called mazes and they are actually mazes. So I want to talk a little bit about the difference between a maze and a labyrinth.

Susan Blackwell:
What.

Laura Camien:
It's like an episode of Jerry Springer. Is everyone aware there was a difference.

Susan Blackwell:
Angela Grant Saunders’ hand shot to the air.

Lisa Marie Newton:
What's it do for us? So a maze is usually what we think of and usually what we call it, and it is a place where you go in and you have to make choices, and there are obstacles, obstacles, usually being dead ends, so you might go the wrong way to try to get to your destination. That's a maze, that is a maze. Yes, so it's you know, if you think about when you're a little kid and you would draw mazes and you would try to find your way through to the end, but you would sometimes get stuck and have to.

Susan Blackwell:
Like on the placemat, exactly.

Lisa Marie Newton:
A Labyrinth, on the other hand, has..

Susan Blackwell:
David Bowie.

Lisa Marie Newton:
No, actually a labyrinth, you cannot get lost. A labyrinth is something that, these were also on the placemats, but you just keep following the path.

Laura Camien:
There's no wrong turn.

Lisa Marie Newton:
There's no wrong turn, and the reason I love a labyrinth is because the metaphor for me is that you just keep following the path in front of you One foot in front of the other. Sometimes you think you're really close to your destination and if you keep following the path you might end up all the way back out at the end. But if you keep following the path you will end up exactly in the middle of your destination. If you keep following one foot in front of the other and don't look and try to figure it out, you just keep following the path in front of you and I think for me as an artist, like that has been now when I look back. It's easier to see when you look back. But that's what we do is we follow what is in front of us and eventually we get to a destination.

Susan Blackwell:
That is beautiful. I feel like my brain grew.

Music Interlude

Susan Blackwell:
So you're Angela Grant Saunders.

Angela Grant Saunders:
I am.

Susan Blackwell:
Would you tell us how you identify creatively?

Angela Grant Saunders:
I will say that comfortably now I state that I am a creative farmer.

Laura Camien:
Oh.

Angela Grant Saunders:
And just that. Creative farmer. I grow things, and they're not always plants.
S
usan Balckwell:
Yes, Sometimes when we describe the people who make up The Spark File, we say we have farmers, yes.

Laura Camien:
But now creative farmers.

Susan Blackwell:
Creative farmers yeah, that's a great description. Get a spark for us?

Angela Grant Saudners:
I sure do.

Susan Blackwell:
Give it to us.

Angela Grant Saunders:
It's fall on the farm. And for us and for many farms around North America and the UK and Europe, that means fall festival time, so it's not just harvest time, it's also an opportunity to have people come onto your farm. Hopefully they'll buy your vegetables that you've worked hard growing, but also you can treat them, and so I'm going to talk about fall foods. Fall foods on the farm.

Laura Camien:
Yes, please.

Angela Grant Saunders:
So you might see these at state fairs. You know a lot of beautiful fall treats that you get at different state fairs, or in Canada we call them provincial fairs. We don't use that term from our point of view here at the farm. When we started welcoming people onto Saunders farm, we knew we had to have fun treats for people to eat and this was a giant learning curve for us because we didn't have an expert in concession treats on our team. But we said, well, doggone it. If other people can learn it, we can learn it too. Here are some of the products that we've had at our farm that we've learned how to make over the years: A shiny red candy apple with a crunchy coating, which led to caramel apples, which you have to be really careful about because sometimes if you don't make the caramel exactly right, to the correct temperature and consistency, it might fall off the apple or it might get so hard that you leave a tooth behind.

Laura Camien:
And we don't like that. That's the fear.

Angela Grant Saunders:
Yes. Then we got into fresh cut fries and because we're in Canada, that led to poutine. What's poutine? You say Because you've never read a food magazine or been to a great restaurant or come to a Canadian bar.

Susan Blackwell:
Don't shame people. Don't shame people. Don't shame people.

Angela Grant Saunders:
I'm not shaming. I'm here to edumacate.. Poutine is fresh cut fries with fresh squeaky cheese curds and hot, hot gravy. Pour it over so that the cheese melts. Yeah, it's a beautiful fall treat. It's good it's actually available year round. Then we can talk about kettle corn A little bit spicy Not spicy Salty A little bit sweet.

Susan Blackwell:
We'll clean that up in post.

Angela Grant Saunders:
And then, when we brought in fudge, I thought my brain would explode. You're like this is the peak, it's the peak, it's the peak. We have 20 varieties of fudge and it's all–

Susan Blackwell:
20?

Angela Grant Saunders:
Yeah, it's a beautiful 20. Wow.

Susan Blackwell:
Top seller? Is it hard to make?

Angela Grant Saunders:
Is it hard to make? No. Top seller is…I think that it used to be chewy praline, but I'm pretty sure it's like chocolate peanut butter, you know, it's like a Reese's peanut butter cup, just yeah wonderful, but I'm going to tell you now about our new venture.

Susan Blackwell:
There's more?

Angela Grant Saunders:
There's more. So you did not eat and you mentioned it in your intro. Can we talk about apple cider donuts?

Susan and Laura:
Yes!

Angela Grant Saunders:
Yes, so right now we are perfecting our apple cider donuts. Last week we plugged in our Belshaw Mark VI donut robot that can make a hundred—

Susan Blackwell:
I see a sponsor.

Angela Grant Saunders:
I shit you not. It can make a hundred and twenty dozen donuts in an hour.

Susan Blackwell:
What, oh my god.

Laura Camien:
Their faces.

Angela Grant Saunders:
Yeah, it's exciting. Here's the other thing you need to know: you need to wait for your shortening to melt and reach a temperature of 375 degrees. If it's too cold, your donut will be really greasy. We don't like that. We want a beautiful, cakey donut. The liquid in our donut is 100% Ontario apple cider Fresh, delicious, so that apple flavor comes right through the vanilla cake donut. And then you get the crispy exterior and then, when it's just cool enough to touch but still really hot, you roll that in cinnamon sugar one part cinnamon to seven parts sugar, extra fine sugar. And that, my friends, is how you make an apple cider donut.

Laura Camien:
When will we be having some apple cider donuts?

Angela Grant Saunders:
I think we're going to have some tomorrow night, Laura.

Susan Blackwell:
Don't you wish you were here?

Laura Camien:
I want to put you on the spot just for one moment.

Angela Grant Saunders:
Please do–

Laura Camien:
Because I understand through what you just told us, like, sort of the history of how you evolved to have food on the farm. But I'm pretty sure, I know I'm putting you on the spot, but I'm pretty sure you have a philosophy besides just like we need to have food here, I'm sure you have a philosophy about food and its connection to humans. And I won't say any more because I don't want to lead the witness. What are your thoughts on that?

Angela Grant Saunders:
Well, the bottom line to me is food is love, and I've learned that from my mother and I mark my husband from his mother, my mother-in-law and I believe that food is love, and so food that comes from the earth and from farms and from farmers that we know is the best, and it's okay to have a treat every once in a while, and that's what this time of year is for.

Susan Blackwell:
Beautiful.

Music Interlude

Laura Camien:
Suze, those were some spooky sparks and some really like, celebration of autumn sparks, charming autumn sparks.

Susan Blackwell:
Thank you so much to all of our wonderful community members who contributed such awesomeness to that episode.

Laura Camien:
Really appreciate it because it fills our spark files but also it fills my heart with, like these, great memories of this community and being together and how we can inspire each other with, you know, the way our own brains work and the ideas that come to us, so it's all very warm. I feel very warm and happy.

Susan Blackwell:
I know you are a warm cup of apple cider.

Laura Camien:
Oh, thanks Suze.

Susan Blackwell:
And, like I said, it's a gourd-darn cornucopia. So that's it. This episode of the Spark File was made on the lands of the Satsuyaha, the Mohican, the Anishinaabe and the Algonquin people and, as always, we hope this puts another bunch of sparks in your file. Listen, if there's a spark you'd like us to explore, or if you'd like to learn more about how to coach with us to accomplish your creative goals, you can email us at getcreative @ thesparkfile . com or reach us through our website, thesparkfile . com.

Laura Camien:
We will even happily take your feedback, but you know the price of admission. First you got to share a creative risk that you've taken recently.

Susan Blackwell:
You can follow us on social @thespark file and be sure to subscribe, rate and five-star review this podcast. It really helps other listeners to find us. Also, if you liked this podcast, we hope that you'll share it with people that you love, and if you didn't like it, you can go haunt yourself.

Laura Camien:
If something lights you up and gets your creative sparks flying, we're writing you a forever permission slip to make that thing that's been knocking at your door.  It is your turn to take that spark and fan it into a flame.

Susan Blackwell:
You know you gotta take it.

Laura Camien:
And make it.

Susan Blackwell:
Maybe it's knocking at your door like a spooky spooky spark…OoOoOoOoh…

Exit Music