Iowa Life Episode 206

[Nebbe]

Coming up on this episode of Iowa Life, we'll celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Maintenance Shop in Ames.

Knowing that there have been legends in this room, I do get goosebumps thinking about it.

We'll learn about making cider from fresh Iowa apples.

I guess there's something special about drinking something that you've made yourself.

And, we'll ride along with Escaramuza Quetzalli and learn about the rich history of Mexican rodeo.

We can do anything the man can do. But we do it sidesaddle with one leg.

[Nebbe] It's all coming up next on Iowa Life.

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Funding for Iowa Life is provided by --

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The Pella Rolscreen Foundation is a proud supporter of Iowa PBS. Pella Windows and Doors strives to better our communities and build a better tomorrow.

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And by, the Lainie Grimm Fund for inclusive programming at the Iowa PBS Foundation.

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[Nebbe] Hi, I'm Charity Nebbe and this is Iowa Life. There is so much to love about fall in Iowa. The vibrant colors and ideal weather are just begging us to get outside and take it all in. Those warm sunny days and cool, crips nights also create the perfect conditions for apples to ripen. Here at Excellent Adventure Orchard, George and Patti Naylor are going to show us how they make apple cider. But first, we're going to travel to Ames where an unlikely, but iconic venue has been hosting musical legends since 1974.

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[Ary Bermeo] The Maintenance Shop, also known as the M-Shop, is located on Iowa State's campus in the Memorial Union in the basement area. It's a small concert venue. It's pretty great.

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[Ary Bermeo] Knowing that there's been legends in this room, I do get goosebumps thinking about it.

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[Ary Bermeo] But yeah, just the environment in here whenever there's a show is completely electric.

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[Allison Talyat] This year we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the M Shop. It's kind of crazy to think about as a 21-year-old.

[Jim Brockpahler] The programming comes from Student Union Board, or SUB as we call them. They're the ones that are booking the entertainment, working with those entertainers, doing the promotion and the marketing. I'm the one staff member involved, otherwise it really is a student-run space.

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[Allison Talyat] The M Shop is significant to me since it was one of the main draws that brought me to Iowa State. Now that I've been working in the M Shop, I've met some people who have got me connected and helped support me with exploring concert photography. So, I take photos at most of our shows when I'm able to. I'm hoping to continue in concert photography once I graduate.

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[Ary Bermeo] Having Robin and Linda Williams back here in the M Shop is huge, especially for this year. They have been performing at the M Shop since the year it opened. So, it's great to even meet them. I'm 21 years old, M Shop was born before I was. It's pretty cool to see the genuine history in person.

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[Robin and Linda Williams] We're here at this point in our lives where we can take the gigs we want. We don't go out on the road and beat ourselves to death like we used to. We get to come to places like the Maintenance Shop because we want to.

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[Robin and Linda Williams] The Maintenance Shop has been a real big part of our lives.

[Robin and Linda Williams] It's always like coming back home in a way. It's just always a great place.

[Alex Brown] Back at the beginning of the year we had a rededication of the space and during that I was working the bar. And so, I like to say that I was the last bartender of the first 50 years and the first bartender of the next 50. And I like to bring that up a lot because I think it's fun.

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[Alex Brown] Whenever I'm working here it's a leadership opportunity. It's working with people and getting better communication skills while still having fun.

[Alex Brown] So, the performing arts director and the Student Union Board helps to organize Grandma Mojo's improv comedy, open mic nights. Those are opposite weeks from each other. And then three times a semester we bring in a professional comedian. Grandma Mojo's is made up entirely of students that audition to get in. They hold auditions every year. And so, it's always kind of a revolving door of funny people. And it's one of the funniest things you can see on campus.

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[Jim Brockpahler] 50 years ago in 1974 this was the mechanical department or our maintenance shop at the time. The students championed to turn this into a live music performing venue. And history was born.

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[Allison Talyat] So, the stained glass is really significant. The students were looking for something to bring to the venue and there was an auction at a local church. And originally it was in one piece, but they tried putting it on stage and obviously it was too tall to fit. So, they split the arched part of it and the rectangle part of it and that way both are still present in the venue.

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[Jim Brockpahler] Going into the 80s when IPTV, when Iowa PBS was here doing the blues series and the jazz series and these amazing artists that have all played in front of that same stained glass and it was broadcast to the nation thanks to IPTV, Iowa PBS for putting the M Shop on the map, so to say.

(applause)

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[Dan Rice] I was the actual first full-time manager of the Maintenance Shop in 1980. When I started it was already very famous worldwide because of the public television show, the Jazz at the Maintenance Shop. So, we didn't have to go out and get a lot of people. They all wanted to play here. They wanted to see it. They wanted to be a part of what we had here because they could see it on TV.

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[Dan Rice] When Iowa Public Television, now Iowa PBS, when they came and did the blues show it put us on the map in terms of Iowa, nationally, internationally.

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[Dan Rice] John Lee Hooker, Hooker was probably my favorite show in the whole time I was here. It was done on a hot June night.

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[Dan Rice] Albert King was interesting. If you watch that show he had a broken finger, big old white bandage. It was kind of wild.

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[Jim Brockpahler] That history of the M Shop, the history Iowa State has and kind of what it means to all the students involved from 1974 to now is amazing.

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[Alex Brown] It's a huge source of pride. You get to help carry on something that you know is so iconic. And to say there's all these eras of people doing this before me. And it's nice to know that I've earned my place here in the M Shop, that I've made a difference. It's fun to get to keep it alive.

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[Ary Bermeo] I hope that what we're doing now is good work so that we can continue it on in the future. And maybe, who knows, 75, 100 years later we've still got the M Shop. I think that it's something that can be kept alive if protected.

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Thank you!

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[George Naylor] My son graduated from college in 2013 and he and his friends came up to visit the farm and they were having all kinds of fun. And there were apples on the trees and my son said, well we ought to make hard cider. And he built a little press and a grinder and sure enough we made hard cider. Then he said well we ought to plant some more trees. I wasn't going to get in the way of him coming back to the farm. So, we planted a bunch of trees with the idea of making hard cider from these special apple varieties.

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[George Naylor] It's been an adventure and that's why we've called our orchard Excellent Adventure Orchard.

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[Patti Naylor] That was the beginning of it. Why not do something more? We've got this land. The orchard that is right over here right now that was planted in 2014, in 2013 that was soybeans. Adding something more down to Earth, something perennial, an orchard, is really something that was like yeah, we need to do this.

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(tractor engine starts)

[George Naylor] Having the cider orchard has been an adventure, partly because most businesses you start out with a business plan and you make a big investment. Well, our business plan is that we have done this by the seat of our pants on a shoestring. And so, we haven't mortgaged the farm in order to set this up.

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[George Naylor] People will be appalled when they see that.

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[George Naylor] One thing people need to realize is this was all prairie out here. We're out in the middle of flat prairie in what is called the Des Moines Lobe of Iowa where the ground is flat. And so not very many people would plant an orchard out on this kind of land. The wind is incredible. And our trees tend to lean to the north. Planting an orchard out on the prairie wouldn't make sense to very many people. So, we're bucking the tide there too.

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[Patti Naylor] We are certified organic, which means that we follow the National Organic program. We have to show what we're doing, we really are doing it, what we say that we're doing we're doing. And so, all of that has to be documented. And it's something of a burden, but I think it's really good for us to do that. And if you have your system set up well it goes very smoothly. It's just that you have to remember to write a lot of things down.

[George Naylor] Here, do you want this one instead?

[Patti Naylor] No. This is one set for me. Oh, you're right, that is mine.

(laughter)

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[George Naylor] We have to pick the apples and because there's so many different varieties they mature at a different time of the season, starting at the end of August and then all the way through November. And so, we have to be aware of what's getting ripe and pick the apples. When I planted a lot of these trees nobody knew for sure if these kinds of apple trees would grow in Iowa because they come from England and France. But we have a lot of varieties of cider apples and they are categorized as bitter sweet, bitter sharp, sharp and sweet. And so, the bitterness is something in these special kinds of apples that add a dimension to the taste and mouth feel of the cider. They generally have French names. Some of those are called Amere de Berthcourt, Reine des Pommes, then there's Ellis Bitter that comes from England, Kerr Crab and Dolgo Crab. These all add a special dimension to the cider. So, that is part of the art of it is to figure out what's the good blend.

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[George Naylor] And I want to emphasize I have support from all of my neighbors.

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[George Naylor] And when we know we have enough apples of the kind we want, we will put them through a grinder and then put them through a press that squeezes out the juice.

(apples going through grinder)

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[George Naylor] So, then we have five-gallon buckets of juice that we experiment with. We have done this incrementally to make cider in small batches and kind of experiment with the different kinds of apples and different kinds of yeast. I made cider in five-gallon buckets and maybe I'll end up with 20 gallons or 25 gallons in a season. We have friends come over and try it out. That's about as far as we go. But that's an adventure to try to learn how to make a good cider.

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[George Naylor] I guess there's something special about drinking something that you've made yourself and it reflects the kind of artistry that went into making it, I guess.

[Patti Naylor] This is what a farm can be and should be. It's really an example I think of some possibilities, real possibilities of what we can do on the Iowa landscape. It doesn't all have to be corn and soybeans. We can have a lot of stuff out here.

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[Patti Naylor] George and I work together on this. It's something we can go out and work together, sometimes we work separately, but depending on the jobs that need to be done. But it really is something that we can do together and that is really an important aspect of it, something we can do together in the years to come too.

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[George Naylor] I guess I can say yeah, this is good cider, if I do say myself.

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[Patti Naylor] Good job, George. Should we try it?

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[Nebbe] Apples have been part of the human diet since the beginning of time. The very first apples grew wild in the mountains of Central Asia. From there, they traveled on the silk road to Europe and eventually made their way to North America. The first apples grown here were sour and pungent. so, when a sweet and delicious apple was discovered accidentally in Iowa it was a big hit and quickly became the most famous American apple of all.

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[Jared McDonald] You don't think of Iowa being an apple state. But, the story of the Red Delicious apple starts down in Peru and starts with Jesse Hiatt.

[Nebbe] Jesse Hiatt was a quaker farmer who was working in his orchard when he noticed a strange looking seeding growing out of the root of a dead bell flower apple tree.

[Jared McDonald] So, he actually chopped that sprout down once, cleaned up that area, and then the following spring another sprout came up from that same area of that bell flower tree. So, he decided to leave it be and see what would come of it.

[Nebbe] The sprout became a tree and Hiatt found its apples were unlike anything he had ever seen.

[Jared McDonald] The description of the new apple was a bleached reddish strawberry colored skin and it had five lobes on the bottom, which had never been in an apple before. So, he tried it, he thought it was the best apple he had ever tried and he actually named it the Hawkeye apple after the Hawkeye state of Iowa.

[Nebbe] Several years later, when a wealthy nursery man named Clarence Stark began a search for a new apple cultivar, Hiatt entered his Hawkeye apples into the contest.

[Jared McDonald] Mr. Stark walked around and actually carried a little booklet in his breast pocket of names for future fruits and vegetables when he came across them and he had had one for many, many years waiting to be used, which was delicious.

[Nebbe] Upon biting into Hiatt's apple, Stark allegedly exclaimed, delicious!

[Jared McDonald] And he was so excited to figure out where these apples came from. And in the process of shipping and unpacking at the show, Jesse Hiatt's information got lost.

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[Nebbe] Thankfully, Stark persisted in his search for the perfect apple and he hosted another competition the following year. And Hiatt, unaware that he had won the previous year, entered again. This time, the entry form was not lost and Hiatt was rightfully proclaimed the winner.

[Jared McDonald] Mr. Stark was able to get in contact with Jesse Hiatt and the Stark Nursery came and purchased the grafting rights, the plant rights and the seed rights to the then Hawkeye apple, now delicious apple. The name would later be changed to Red Delicious as more and more apple varieties were discovered. And though the Red Delicious no longer enjoys the market dominance of its heyday, its story remains a lesson in perseverance and holds a special place in our state's agricultural legacy.

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[Jared McDonald] There is an apple tree still there to this day. There is a marker in the field as well. In our community, it is something we are very proud of.

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[Nebbe] The sport of Charrería, or Mexican rodeo, is as tough as it is beautiful. It's a display of showmanship and refined technical skill. The women of Escaramuza Quetzalli are on a mission to share their passion, dedication and culture with fellow Iowans.

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Escaramuza is the female counterpart of the Mexican cowboy. We can do anything the man can do. But we do _it sidesaddle__ with one leg.

Escaramuza gives a really, really nice touch of a fiesta.

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I think it's one of the hardest things you can do while still claiming to have a good time, that's for sure.

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You can have expensive hobbies and you can have dangerous hobbies, but if you're going to have an expensive and dangerous hobby, you've got to be in it for the love of the game. This is as expensive and as dangerous as it gets. And for a lot of these girls this is a way of life.

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[Nebbe] The sport of Escaramuza dates back to the 1950s and is the only event for women with in the Charrería, or Mexican rodeo. Charrería is Mexico's national sport and is deeply rooted in tradition. Juan Piña, who is from the state of Zacatecas was born into the sport and brought it with him to Iowa in 2007.

[Juan Piña] This is a 100% family sport. So, I grew up with it. I inherit it to Alejandra in this case. We started back then when I moved in 2007, it was only two or three teams max. Now we have eight teams of Charros and four teams of Escaramuzas.

[Nebbe] Escaramuza consists of a team of women who perform choreographed maneuvers around a lienzo, or circular arena, while riding side saddle. A routine can last anywhere from three to seven minutes and consists of a series of coordinated tricks such as turns and crosses. Teams are judged on synchronization, execution, timing, symmetry and presentation.

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[Anna Garcia] The routines themselves, they are designed to impress. You're going fast and you're in these tight, tight, tight crosses where the only thing that is keeping you from being bulled over by your teammate is a hope and a prayer and a couple of practices.

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[Anna Garcia] It's an incredibly difficult and nerve-wracking. I'm just watching my girls do these tight cruzas where they're crossing right in front of each other. My breath catches.

Get closer, get closer, get closer!

[Anna Garcia] As far as the things you have to do, I think the judges to expect to see an abanico. That is a staple. It's one of the most beautiful maneuvers and it really is one of those that consolidates all of the work and all the timing and the beauty. When they're all in that line and you're galloping around in that beautiful, big, smooth motion it looks fantastic.

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Uno, dos, tres!

[Alejandra Piña] I would describe it as a gentle ballet with horses, but at the same time you're synchronizing it with your team. We bring the elegance, the simplicity, the beauty of the sport into the arena. The women, we are as fierce as the Charros are, but our outfits are very sophisticated. There's so many rules to our outfits to our sport that they don't even know.

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[Alejandra Piña] So, these are all my dresses that I've used this term as Queen of Iowa and delegada, so the female coordinator for the state of Iowa. This is my most recent dress that I just got here in May.

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[Nebbe] The dresses that Charras wear for competitions are inspired by the Adelitas who were women who fought in the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s. Most of the outfits are made by talented dressmakers in Mexico.

[Alejandra Piña] Everything is handmade, so all this fabric is handmade, very detailed, made back in Chiapas.

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Today we're making history for the first time ever, the Charros and the Escaramuzas will be showing here at the State Fair.

Once you have your dresses on, come over here for a team huddle, please.

We're going to do the exact same thing we always do to the exact same level is that perfection. We've worked on it. We've strived for it. We've achieved it. Carry it over. Do not let the nerves get you. Okay?

[Anna Garcia] Culture should be appreciated no matter who you are, what culture you're from. It's the same as you don't have to be Mexican to enjoy Mexican food. You just have to have taste buds. It's for everybody. You'll find something that will appeal to you, you'll find something that will touch your heart in this. It could be the horsemanship, it could be the beauty, it could be the fashion. There is something for everybody and you don't have to be Latina or Latino just to participate. We accept everybody with open arms, the same that we want to be accepted. That's why we're doing all these things is to bring our culture to the forefront, it's to bring this beautiful community into the public eye.

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Thank you everyone for being here. We're going to get started right away!

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[Juan Piña] This is our passion. We really love it so much. And we wanted to share it with Iowa, seeing where we came from, our culture, our roots.

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[Alejandra Piña] I love the passion. I love the adrenaline. It has put me in very uncomfortable positions that I would not have ever put myself in. And at the end of the day, I grow and I learned a lot of things. Escaramuza is about fierce women, fierce individuals that if they set their mind to it, they can do it.

[Juan Piña] Having her doing this, I just feel really, really proud of her because she got this passion for this sport and I just can't tell you enough how proud I feel.

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[Anna Garcia] It demands perfection and I think it pushes the girls to strive for that perfection. And in doing so they truly do become better versions of themselves, able to have applicable skills that serve them well in life and as horse women and in any career, they want to do, I joke with them about it, whatever you're doing tomorrow is not as hard as you're doing right now. So, I think it really is fantastic for just teaching wonderful, wonderful life skills.

[Alejandra Piña] Just not about Charraria, it's about yourself pushing yourself to the limit and trying new things and knowing that you can do it and have that confidence in you.

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[Nebbe] That's it for this week. Thank you for joining me as we learn more about Iowa's people from the past and the present. I'm Charity Nebbe. See you next time for more Iowa Life.

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Funding for Iowa Life is provided by --

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The Pella Rolscreen Foundation is a proud supporter of Iowa PBS. Pella Windows and Doors strives to better our communities and build a better tomorrow.

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And by, the Lainie Grimm Fund for inclusive programming at the Iowa PBS Foundation.