Our webmaster and activist extraordinaire Jessica Valis joined Nestor at Pizza John’s in Essex on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour to discuss the history of Baltimore ice cream and its roots in her community just over the line in Southern Pennsylvania, where she’s leading an effort to build an ice cream playground for the kids in her hometown of tremendous delicious tradition from the farms to locals’ bellies. I scream, you scream…
Nestor Aparicio and Jessica Vallis discuss the history of Baltimore ice cream, tracing its roots to Pennsylvania, particularly Seven Valleys, where Jacob Fussell established a commercial ice cream factory in 1852. Jessica, who manages the Baltimore Positive website, shares her involvement in a community project to build an ice cream-themed playground in Seven Valleys, aimed at bridging socio-economic gaps. They also touch on the responsible use of AI, Jessica’s work with the Loyola School in Baltimore, and her passion for gardening and community engagement. The segment concludes with Nestor’s love for ice cream and his plans to visit local ice cream shops.
- [ ] Create a new 28th anniversary logo for Baltimore Positive; make it purple and orange.
History of Baltimore Ice Cream and Its Roots to Pennsylvania
- Nestor Aparicio introduces the segment, mentioning his location at Pizza John’s and the Maryland Lottery promotion.
- Nestor discusses the history of Baltimore ice cream, its roots in Pennsylvania, and the involvement of Jacob Fussell.
- Jessica Valis shares her background, including her move to York County, Pennsylvania, and the town’s claim to being the birthplace of commercial ice cream.
- Nestor and Jessica discuss the historical significance of Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania, in the ice cream industry.
Jessica’s Role in Baltimore Positive and Personal Background
- Nestor highlights Jessica’s role in managing the Baltimore Positive website and her involvement in various causes.
- Jessica shares her personal background, including her family’s connections to Baltimore and her husband’s work with Cal Ripken.
- Nestor and Jessica discuss the challenges faced by their websites, including a crash in 2021-2022.
- Jessica talks about her multifaceted role, including running for public office, gardening, and teaching her children various skills.
Ice Cream Playground Project in Seven Valleys
- Jessica explains the Ice Cream Playground project in Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania, and its significance for the community.
- The playground aims to bridge socio-economic gaps and engage young families in the area.
- Jessica describes the unique ice cream-themed structure of the playground and its accessibility features.
- The project involves collaboration with the YMCA of the Roses in York, Pennsylvania, to fundraise and engage the community.
Nestor’s Love for Ice Cream and Local Ice Cream Shops
- Nestor shares his love for ice cream and the various flavors he has in his freezer.
- He discusses his experience with local ice cream shops, including Pizza John’s and the Dairy Queen in Arnold.
- Nestor and Jessica talk about their favorite ice cream flavors and the creative flavors available at local creameries.
- Jessica shares her experiences with local ice cream shops in Pennsylvania, including Perrydale and Turkey Hill.
AI and Responsible Usage
- Jessica and Nestor discuss the debate around responsible AI usage and its impact on communities.
- Jessica expresses her concerns about the environmental footprint of data centers and the need for neutral AI solutions.
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of making AI plants sustainable and not causing harm to communities.
- They discuss the potential benefits and drawbacks of AI, including its use in creating images and content.
Jessica’s Work with Loyola School in Baltimore
- Jessica talks about her work with the Loyola School in Baltimore, a nonprofit school for at-risk students.
- She shares the school’s mission and the importance of year-round education to prevent the summer slump.
- Jessica highlights the need for donations to support the school and its programs.
- She provides information on how to donate to the Loyola School and the impact of their work on the community.
Jessica’s Involvement in Local Community Projects
- Jessica discusses her involvement in various community projects, including the Seven Valleys Ice Cream Playground.
- She shares her passion for engaging the community and addressing socio-economic needs through playgrounds and other initiatives.
- Jessica talks about the importance of local support and collaboration in achieving community goals.
- She provides information on how to get involved and support the Seven Valleys Ice Cream Playground project.
Nestor’s Personal Stories and Connections to Baltimore
- Nestor shares personal stories about his experiences with Baltimore and its community.
- He discusses his love for local businesses, including Pizza John’s and other restaurants in the area.
- Nestor talks about his involvement in various community projects and his commitment to supporting local initiatives.
- He emphasizes the importance of community engagement and the role of local businesses in fostering a sense of belonging.
Jessica’s Role in Managing Baltimore Positive and Future Plans
- Jessica discusses her role in managing the Baltimore Positive website and her plans for the future.
- She shares her vision for the website and its impact on the community.
- Jessica talks about her involvement in various projects and her commitment to making a positive difference.
- She provides information on how to get in touch with her and get involved in the Baltimore Positive community.
Nestor’s Relationship with Steve Elliott and Chiropractic Care
- Nestor shares his long-standing relationship with Steve Elliott, his chiropractor, and the impact of chiropractic care on his life.
- He discusses the importance of chiropractic care in maintaining his health and well-being.
- Nestor talks about his experiences with chiropractic adjustments and the benefits he has received over the years.
- He emphasizes the role of chiropractic care in supporting his active lifestyle and overall health.
Nestor Aparicio 0:00
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 towns in Baltimore. Baltimore positive. I have to clear my throat because the I’m gonna get on that pizza over there. Mushroom, green pepper, black olive, and pepperoni. We’re at Pizza John’s, the pizza box back here. This is so creative. I keep doing the show the wrong way here, and there’s a sign that says the dining room’s closed because I’m in this special. This is the kids’ play area over here. It is the it’s the sun area. I feel sort of like when superstar Graham would come to the ring with the Grand Wizard back in the mid 1970s in wrestling, and and he would be blinded by the light of the the ring, and and the superstar would have to have his sunglasses taken off by the Wiz. I feel like I’m there. I’m in Essex. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland Lottery. My this is the first one I’ve touched. It’s kind of metallic, isn’t it? Kind of pretty metallic purple. If I get it right, this is the Ravens’ new scratch off times two. You enter for second chance prizes. Top prize $20,000, and prize check number 001 is going to Jessica Vallis, who does the WNST baltimorepositive.com website. We really sort of don’t use the WNST designation anymore because it’s a radio thing. It is BaltimorePositive.com. I’m on year eight. We’re about to celebrate our 28th anniversary. I haven’t gotten rid of our right here 26th logo with our oyster that we did two years ago. So I’m going to come up with a 28 at some point for all of this. But she does our website. She’s Hartford Designs. I’m going to let her. You’re like such a cause person. You’re you’re a Pennsylvania mommy married to a Harford County daddy whose father was connected with me. I think did I go to China with your father-in-law? Did he go to China on that Ripken trip? I think he did.
Jessica Valis 1:52
Don’t know. He was with Cal for a lot of things. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 1:54
your father-in-law worked with Cal for a bunch of years. My website took a crash. I don’t know, man. Maybe it was when Chad Steele threw me out. So at some point, our website crashed and burned.
Jessica Valis 2:06
I think it was probably 2021, 22.
Nestor Aparicio 2:09
Yeah, right around then.
Jessica Valis 2:11
You can mark a lot of events by COVID. I
Nestor Aparicio 2:14
tell you what, man. I found you in the middle of the night, and my website was bleeding. And within like a minute and a half, we had everything back up and running. So you’re our webmaster, but you do a lot of things. And I guess in this particular segment, other than you and I fighting about AI, which I’ll stay till the end, you do causes and like you ran for public office. You’re this mommy machine who has like a garden and takes her kids hiking and tries to teach them various languages, as well as Oriole baseball. And I don’t know. You had like a cause. You hit me like two weeks ago. Like, hey, Ness, I need to figure. I was not like that. You, of course, I’ll do anything for you. And you’re like, well, it’s for a playground and kids and ice cream. And I’m like, all right, come to Pizza John’s, where I got my first ever milkshake right there about two weeks ago, where they have ice cream, and this is like, this is a cool story, and I’m honored to have you involved to tell this story. So let’s go.
Jessica Valis 3:11
Well, thank you. So, I used to be a Maryland resident. We moved up to York County, Pennsylvania, home of Luke
Nestor Aparicio 3:21
Jones, by the way. Yes,
Jessica Valis 3:23
and we moved to this small town called Seven Valleys. You blink and you’re through it. It’s only about 450 residents.
Nestor Aparicio 3:30
I’m 83. I’m going up. I cross the line. Yep, you go ahead. I go to the Shrewsbury Beer and Lottery tickets, which is now like a Walmart Emporium, right? And the Shrewsbury antique store that I love so much. So where am I in relation to that? North there.
Jessica Valis 3:45
Yep, you go up one more exit and get off at the Glen Rock exit, exit eight.
Nestor Aparicio 3:49
All right.
Jessica Valis 3:49
And we’re just a couple miles off of that.
Nestor Aparicio 3:53
Luke went to Susquehannock. Does that make any?
Jessica Valis 3:55
It does. It’s the school south of us. I just like. I believe
Nestor Aparicio 3:58
it’s a fun word to say, isn’t
Jessica Valis 4:00
it? I guess more fun than saying seven valleys.
Nestor Aparicio 4:02
I like seven valleys. American Indian like words of Susquehannock. They’re great names. You know,
Jessica Valis 4:08
we were going to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia a couple weeks ago, and we were going over the Schuylkill River, right, and we’re driving along it. And I was like, Christopher, my husband had trouble saying it. Yeah, Skookul River. Skookul. Yeah, so I looked up the origin of the word and it’s Dutch. And I have a friend that is Dutch and lives in the Netherlands. And so I said, “How do you say this? And he was like, “Schkougel, and I was like, “Nobody says that.
Nestor Aparicio 4:37
You can feed that into any Google thing and get the best stuff now. Like I’d never leave the house, you know. I was a guy with like the thesaurus next to my bed because I like looking up words in English. I’m ready to learn. I would have thought Skoko’s like a Native American tribe of some, you know. Like it sounded like that kind of word to me.
Jessica Valis 4:55
Yeah. So, anyways, Seven Valleys. Like I said, you blinking. You’re through it, but one of the things that got the town kind of on the map, and it’s kind of got this rivalry with Baltimore, is that we claim to be the the birthplace of commercial ice cream. So back in 1853,
Nestor Aparicio 5:19
so that would mean like a machine was there, like a mechanism.
Jessica Valis 5:23
Yeah, so to
Nestor Aparicio 5:24
create more than a vat of ice cream or two.
Jessica Valis 5:27
Yeah, so let me tell you the history of it. So this Baltimore resident, Fussell, what is his first name? We
Nestor Aparicio 5:36
created ice cream.
Jessica Valis 5:37
Jacob Fussell. He had he was making commercial ice cream down in Baltimore, or he was making ice cream down in Baltimore, and he moved his manufacturing up to Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania, where he built a ice cream factory right along the Northern Central Railroad. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 5:56
cows. No,
Jessica Valis 5:57
he didn’t. So he found that all these farms around us, because we’re kind of in the middle of nowhere. Had all this excess cream. We were along a railroad. I mean, when you look at the old pictures of the factory, you would just literally walk out the door to the railroad, and so he would get all this excess cream. He was able to get the ice and ship the product straight down on the train, straight down to Baltimore, and so
Nestor Aparicio 6:25
then 1818
Jessica Valis 6:26
no 1852 or before Civil
Nestor Aparicio 6:30
War. Wow. Okay. Yeah. All right. And
Jessica Valis 6:31
we we had our small town had Confederate soldiers walk through. We’ve got old time pictures of that. So there was a there was a lot going on in the area at the time, but then he moved the factory maybe two three years later back down to Baltimore at 180 North Exeter Street in Baltimore.
Nestor Aparicio 6:50
All right.
Jessica Valis 6:51
So this is how I’m kind of joining my Pennsylvania cause with Baltimore. Is my small town has a lot to do with Baltimore, and if you Google the birthplace of commercial ice cream, it’ll go back and forth between was it Baltimore, was it Seven Valleys, so
Nestor Aparicio 7:08
and now you wonder why I want you on a show because I just want to hear the story, right? Yeah, I
Jessica Valis 7:11
if you know me, I research everything. If you tell me, give me
Nestor Aparicio 7:15
your little flyer so I can read it out loud. There you go. This is all you wanted me to do. She wanted me to share this on social media. I’m like, nah, man. It’s like a whole story. Together, we can ensure this sweet legacy continues to bring joy, connection, and community for generations to come. It’s got all like there’s kids here serving ice cream every time someone enjoys a cone scooper Sundae. They’re part of a story that stretches back to these rolling hills and farms in Southern PA. Look, man, there’s never a time I don’t get off those roads up there and say, so when I drive to Hampstead, you know what I mean. Like anywhere northern Baltimore, we live in a beautiful part of the world. I think. Yeah, we do absolutely. We got good ice cream too. Now the town that once played a key role in creating a beloved treat, my favorite treat, by the way. You know I love ice cream, right? Like I love ice cream.
Jessica Valis 8:01
I could eat an entire quart of it in one sitting if I was able. If you were
Nestor Aparicio 8:06
to ask me right now, ask me right now. Well, how many ice cream flavors I have in my current freezer like this minute?
Jessica Valis 8:16
How many flavors do you have, Nestor? I’m
Nestor Aparicio 8:17
glad to tell you. All brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery, GBMC, and our friends at Farnham. We’re at Pizza John’s, where they have, I don’t know how many flavors they have, but I’m guessing. Okay, and I’m going to walk in the middle of the segment. You’re going to continue to talk about this, and I’m going to come back and count. Behind me, how far is the ice cream counter? 20 feet.
Jessica Valis 8:36
Yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 8:37
10 paces? 12 paces. Okay. How
Jessica Valis 8:39
how big are your paces?
Nestor Aparicio 8:40
Okay. I a I never knew it was there. Okay, so Brett’s gonna come on later and yell at me, and the ladies are gonna laugh at me. I’ve never ordered ice cream here ever, and I pimped it about a year and a half, like crab cake. I’m getting a crab cake here today because it’s crab cake tour. People don’t think there’s a crab cake here. There’s a crab cake here at Pizza Chops. You get beer, you get wine, get Chiante, cab. You can do it all. Get a salad. You got a salad. Delicious salads here. Never got ice cream here. And I’ve waited. I’ve seen the cookies. I see the tiramisu. I’ve had the little brown bottom. Brown. What are those things called? Brown bottoms. What are those little chocolates with the? They’re like little chocolate cheesecake brown brownie brown whatever they’re called. It’s just something
Jessica Valis 9:25
that ends up in my cart.
Nestor Aparicio 9:26
Okay, they got them, and they got carrot cake, cheesecake, several kinds of cheesecake, chocolate cake. They got cake, and they but they have ice cream here, and I’ve never ordered it. This is the kids’ area. You can see down here. They have like a little claw machine, kids games. This is where like if you’re plug your kids right now with kids’ names and ages, give them to me.
Jessica Valis 9:48
George is eight years old and Finn is six.
Nestor Aparicio 9:51
So George or Finn would love to have a birthday party. No,
Jessica Valis 9:54
no, they might, but mom wouldn’t because I wouldn’t be able to get them away from the games. Right. There’s things going
Nestor Aparicio 10:01
on here. There’s TVs for sports, iconic subs, great cheese steaks here, and so I pimp the crinkle cut French fries with gravy. Love it. The ham that they import from Dundalk, I love that. I got my straight from Dundalk shirt because Johnny Allen and I are going to East Point. I’ve never ordered. There was a a Dairy Queen around the corner from here called Thunderbird. It was literally the Arnold’s drive-through. Literally, you drove up. It had the speaker, brought the milkshake, and it’s where we would go on a date and get split a milkshake or you know get a burger and fry. It was that kind of place in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. So down here, you would always go there to get a banana split. You right? They have milkshakes here in ice cream, and I’ve never in my life ordered one until three weeks ago, Father’s Day night. So when it’s four weeks ago, Father’s Day, I came in here on a bender on a Saturday night. I needed a milkshake, and I was just I was home, and I’m like, you know what? My wife was out of town and it was sad. It was hot. It was just when it’s getting hot, and I’m like, I’m gonna go get a milkshake and I’m gonna get a pizza or sub. I came over, I got a sub and I got a milkshake. I got a strawberry milkshake here, and it was like one scoop, two scoop, three scoop, four, five scoops, more. So so I had this giant milkshake and I went out, and and Brett was like, “You want whipped cream on it? Like, you get the same amount of milkshake. You do the whipped cream’s on the top, you know. You know. And I’m like, “Sure, man, put some whipped cream on there. I bet there are 12 different kinds of ice cream there. Maybe 16, but 12. There are definitely 12 different kinds of ice cream in my freezer right now. There are. I promise you, there is a wise vanilla bean. Got to have it. You know,
Jessica Valis 11:50
vanilla bean. If you only have one flavor in your entire life,
Nestor Aparicio 11:54
preach, girl.
Jessica Valis 11:54
It’s vanilla bean.
Nestor Aparicio 11:55
Preach.
Jessica Valis 11:55
Probably followed by mint chocolate chip.
Nestor Aparicio 11:58
Don’t have any of that, but my wife doesn’t love that. But preach. Keep going.
Jessica Valis 12:01
My husband loves a good coconut ice cream.
Nestor Aparicio 12:04
Coconut. Where were you? So we have
Jessica Valis 12:06
a lot of dairy farms in my area, and we’ve got a lot of small creameries. So we’ve. We
Nestor Aparicio 12:12
started talking ice cream, and the sun went away. It’s like perfect.
Jessica Valis 12:15
So we go to this one called Perry Dell in Pennsylvania, and they have custom ice cream flavors based on like themes going on. If it’s summertime, they’re going to do a marshmallow one. My kids always. Do they
Nestor Aparicio 12:26
call it Batman and Smurf and stuff to confuse me, or no?
Jessica Valis 12:30
No. Okay.
Nestor Aparicio 12:30
All right.
Jessica Valis 12:31
But the kids always go for either like the most colorful rainbow one or cotton candy. They’re pretty. They’re pretty solid. And
Nestor Aparicio 12:37
cotton candy ice cream. They might have a cotton candy here. So here, see in my fridge, right? Get a pen out. Let’s write them down. I’m promising you, and I’m gonna have Jen send a picture over. So I have vanilla bean. I have eggnog.
Speaker 1 12:51
Ew.
Nestor Aparicio 12:52
It’s left from Christmas, and I haven’t opened it, and I keep thinking it’s not getting gummy. I’m sure. I want eggnog in July. Leave me alone. That’s two. All right. So I have. She’s got the the the the the what’s what’s the Ben and Jerry she likes? The fish food. Fish food’s in there. We have a. My favorite is Jenny’s brown butter. That is number one for me. Jenny’s brown almond butter number one. That’s in there. She’s got some watermelon taffy. That’s a Jenny’s. That’s in there. I don’t eat that. She’s got a brambleberry crisp Jenny’s, delicious. I haven’t touched it. It’s in there. I know it’s in there. I have a moose pie Ben and Jerry’s that’s in there. I have a special limited edition Ben and Jerry’s honey latte. It’s the graham crack. It’s honey.
Jessica Valis 13:49
Oh, okay. Graham
Nestor Aparicio 13:50
cracker latte. All right, graham cracker latte. That’s what it is. And then I also have one little mouthful of this left, and I fell back in love with it. I haven’t had it in 35 years. It’s essentially Heath Coffee Bars. It’s coffee bar, coffee, coffee. But we’re crying. I think there’s one more in there. I don’t know which. I’ll have to think about it for a minute.
Jessica Valis 14:12
Okay. So you have. Oh,
Nestor Aparicio 14:13
there, there, there, there, there, there. Hold on. There is a. This was a cheapo depot, and it’s from your part of the world, from Pennsylvania. What’s the name of the the famous farm that you would take your kids this Turkey Hill? Yeah, it’s a Turkey Hill late night. I just polished off the butter pecan. I can’t claim it. So, but it was in there night before last. Okay. Okay. But so you can add that in as if two days ago is one extra one. It’s gone now. But right now there is a final scoop of the cherry chunk. Oh my God! How many in your freezer? So how many is that? It’s got
Jessica Valis 14:44
1-234-567-8910, 11 ice creams in your freezer. And it would have been
Nestor Aparicio 14:48
12 had I. All right, so I said over here, I think there are 12. Okay, I’m gonna take a picture of it and come back, and we’re gonna go through what we have, and you’re gonna tell everybody. Jessica Vallis is my guest. We’re Pizza Johns. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. I have the new Raven scratch off. She’s got ticket number one. I’ve got ticket number two. Through the rest, we’re going to be Acosta’s and Timonium next Thursday. It’s all brought to you by GBMC, and they’re rolling out like a new logo, new stuff. I just learned about this, and as well, we’re going to be celebrating them at Costas next Thursday. Alan McCallum, who lost his mom, is going to be with next Thursday. Steve Elliott, my fantastic chiropractor, who’s going to be so happy that I’m sitting. Oh, I just cracked my back. He’ll be here in a little while to eat some pizza with me, and then John Allen’s coming by, and we’re closing down East Point. So, Jessica is doing the Seven Valleys Ice Cream Playground and is raising dough. So you pimp, I’m gonna go over. Sure. If I order a milkshake with that,
Jessica Valis 15:45
I will have one vanilla. I am not gonna vanilla
Nestor Aparicio 15:47
today. You want a vanilla? Yeah, vanilla. I’ll get you vanilla, and I’m gonna get me
Jessica Valis 15:51
one. Oh, if they have cookies and cream, that’s a that’s another good one.
Nestor Aparicio 15:54
Make it be mine, girl. I thought you wanted chocolate chip.
Jessica Valis 15:57
No, let’s go cookies and cream. I have certain. I don’t want any of
Nestor Aparicio 16:00
these. I don’t want any vanilla, eggnog, fish food. Okay, but I never eat her fish food. Brown, I love that. Watermelon, I love, but I don’t eat it. I had a strawberry milkshake here because my wife doesn’t love strawberry ice cream, so like I don’t buy it. So I don’t want to do strawberry this time. I do something else. Vanilla for you, done. All right, Jessica Ballas is here. Take over. I’m going to turn my mic down.
Jessica Valis 16:22
All right. This is
Nestor Aparicio 16:23
like the tryouts when I hired Luke. This is great.
Jessica Valis 16:26
So, anyways, so we’ve got this awesome history in Seven Valleys as it relates to commercial ice cream, and we’re a small town, but we’re also a growing town, and we have a lot of young families coming into our area, and as an old old town, not a lot has changed. And with these young families, we needed to bring something to the community to help engage. So about a year, two years ago, we decided we were going to build a playground right along the NCR Trail. Well, up in Pennsylvania, it is called the Heritage Rail Trail, and so you could actually ride from Maryland, a lot, a lot of miles up into Pennsylvania, get off at the trail, and the playground would be right there. It’s about half a mile from my house. I trust my kids to ride their bikes there, and so we’re going to build a playground there, and it’s going to address a gap in socio-economic needs. The population, compared to other neighborhoods, we’ve got 29% of our population is aged 0 to 18, and our medium income compared to other neighborhoods is the lowest. So we’re going to bridge that socio-economic gap with something that’s really fun and engaging for the community. So as we were coming up with ideas for the playground, we decided to really lean in to the ice cream history because you can just go to any ice, you know, any playground in the area, and a lot of them are just going to be the same. But we’ve picked out a crazy unique structure that’s about like three stories tall, and it’s got multiple slides. And they’ve got something similar in the area. And my kids just play hide and seek and tag, and even the bigger kids can play on it, little kids. And
Nestor Aparicio 18:15
you’ve had enough. Can you? You could do this all day, though, right? You had a podcast, right?
Jessica Valis 18:19
Yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 18:19
Just go on. Yeah.
Jessica Valis 18:20
Hold on. Let me let me finish up here. So,
Nestor Aparicio 18:23
ah, drink some water. Okay, I love this. This is great. So, anyways, we started fundraising
Jessica Valis 18:27
for this playground, and we’re just reaching out to the community to see, especially people who maybe sell ice cream or manufacture it themselves, to remember the history. I do
Nestor Aparicio 18:39
Hershey here. Oh, Pennia, right? There’s Pennsylvania, right? I
Jessica Valis 18:42
think so, but it’s not to be confused with Hershey’s chocolate.
Nestor Aparicio 18:46
Really,
Jessica Valis 18:47
completely different.
Nestor Aparicio 18:48
See this-the things you learn.
Jessica Valis 18:50
I do my research before I do anything,
Nestor Aparicio 18:53
and I took under consideration exactly what you said. So the ice cream part of this, from a flavor standpoint, do they like? Where do your kids get ice cream when you’re up there? Give me the story about this. Yeah,
Jessica Valis 19:06
so after Fussell moved back down to Baltimore, other ice cream shops, like at least three, came up in seven valleys and just kind of took over what he left behind. And now when we want ice cream. We’ve got so many local ice cream shops.
Nestor Aparicio 19:25
I’m gonna come up. How many? I’m gonna hit them all. I mean, they’re all gonna be right out on the farm, right? Oh
Jessica Valis 19:30
yeah, the one that we go to, Perrydale. You get your ice cream, and then you walk, you know, 20 yards, and there’s the cows. And yeah, you can go watch them get milked.
Nestor Aparicio 19:43
See, and when I I get creative with the flavors at these places, right? So to me, it’s fun to say all the Ben and Jerry’s names and like whatever. But I love when there’s a fresh peach ice cream. You know what I mean? It doesn’t need to be fancy. It doesn’t need to have any. I mean, that’s some
Jessica Valis 20:01
of my childhood memories: is going to farms, picking the peaches, and then they would have the fresh peach ice cream in the back. And you know, after eating about 20 peaches while you were picking, you would then go cool down with peach ice cream as if you didn’t have enough peaches.
Nestor Aparicio 20:15
It’s funny that Claude is the name of AI. I had an uncle Claude. My uncle Claude lived in South Carolina, and I went to the peach farms in Western South Carolina when I was a boy, with my mom in Abbeville, South Carolina, and we picked peaches. And I would go back to my uncle Claude’s house, and we would make peach ice cream in the churn with the salt. My mom did that next to your kids, and you’d have to, and it always came out soft with a little bit of salt around it because the salt on the edge would be there, and I’d sell my soul for that right now, you know. So, like when I think about like if I were to come up to any of these, I’m looking more for that than like a chocolate chip or even a vanilla bean, yeah, or which I’ve gone through. And by the way, so give the full thing. So I want to go back to Pizza Johnson because I ordered a couple milkshakes and I want to get down with this. White
Jessica Valis 21:10
is gonna make I mentioned it’s a ice cream themed playground, and it just means a lot of the decorations around the playground are going to be ice cream themed. But there’s also going to be a pretend ice cream stand where the kids can pretend to sell their own ice cream, and I’m just imagining a lot of mulch flavored ice cream coming out of there, a lot of oak tree flavored ice cream, a lot of grass, a lot of rock flavored ice cream as well. So I think it’s going to be a great time for the kids. So like I said, it really this playground is going to serve a lot. It also has a seesaw and a couple other things that are there for accessibility. So it’s really going to be a playground for everybody. We’re working with the YMCA of the Roses in York, Pennsylvania. They’re helping us to fundraise, and yeah, we’re just excited to really kick this project off. And now, who are you? Well,
Nestor Aparicio 22:07
my wife about ice cream. So, how do we do it? Give everybody the details. So,
Jessica Valis 22:11
if you would like to make a donation, you can. This is
Nestor Aparicio 22:13
Jessica, by the way. Hi.
Speaker 2 22:14
She
Nestor Aparicio 22:15
runs my website.
Jessica Valis 22:16
So, if you would like to donate to this amazing cause, you can visit sevenvalleysboro.com/play. Borough is spelled B-O-R-O-U-G-H, kind of a mouthful. So sevenvalleysboro.com/play.
Nestor Aparicio 22:35
Jessica Vallis runs the Baltimore Positive website. We’re down here, Pete’s Johns. We’re talking about pizza and but really ice cream today, and I’m doing a crab cake tour. I’ll get a crab cake in the last segment because I’m bringing John on. We’re going to East Point Mall. I’m wearing my straight out of Dundalk shirt, and I went up and we’ve gone through. I had 11 ice creams, and my wife’s taking a picture for me. I hope anyway. So let’s see here, they have nine flavors here. Okay. At Pete’s Johns, you ready? Vanilla bean,
Jessica Valis 23:04
classic.
Nestor Aparicio 23:04
Chocolat,
Jessica Valis 23:06
classic.
Nestor Aparicio 23:06
Strawberry,
Jessica Valis 23:08
standard.
Nestor Aparicio 23:08
Cookies and cream, you gotta have it. Orioles, Grand Slam. What’s that one? I think it’s a Grand Gram Gram Money Gram.
Jessica Valis 23:16
Okay, I was thinking maybe like an orange creamsicle,
Nestor Aparicio 23:19
chocolate chip cookie dough, mint chocolate chip, butter pecan, and moose tracks. So those are the nine. I ordered two milkshakes, one for me, one for you. I did not order strawberry for me. I did not order vanilla bean for you. Okay. So and now, so my wife just sent me the picture of what’s currently in our freezer, and in the freezer right now.
Jessica Valis 23:43
That’s too much ice cream. Fish food,
Nestor Aparicio 23:45
watermelon taffy, coffee, toffee crunch, gram honey graham latte, moose pie, vanilla bean. There’s the late night cherry chocolate chunk. There’s the brambleberry brist, and there’s the brown almond. And if you look back there, there is the lost eggnog that is underneath. It is all true. There you have it. I have more ice cream in my freezer than they have at Pizza John’s. How about that?
Jessica Valis 24:10
And again, we’re bringing. And I’m doing an
Nestor Aparicio 24:12
ice cream story here.
Jessica Valis 24:13
I know. So we’re bringing all this up because you’ve got this commercialized ice cream that you can store instead of just going up to an ice cream shop and having it right then and there because it’s going to melt all over the place, and that is the history of part of the history of Seven Valleys that is also shared with Baltimore.
Nestor Aparicio 24:32
Brilliance at work. Now you do a whole bunch of other stuff, and you like promoting cool things that you do here. You’ve been a part of a bunch of different work opportunities in the web, and you’re an artist at heart, and very exploratory. I think in the web and what you do. You and I have had like an AI, like because you’re going to build a plant in your neighborhood, right? And this is a very good necessarily, but nobody wants it. Oh, Terry will never. On the show, this is Terry. I hate her at the front counter. I love her. She’s been to East Point Mall just like me. You’re excused. If you want to sit down, you know you’re invited. You know I love you.
Jessica Valis 25:11
You got me mint chocolate. I just told
Nestor Aparicio 25:12
the whole world I love you. No, I got me to mint chocolate chip, and I got you to cookies and cream because you said you’re cookies and cream. So I haven’t had a good mint chocolate chip in a long time. I admitted this to you a minute ago. Yeah, it’s not something that I keep in in the fridge. So have a little bit of this, not too much, because we got to talk. And here’s a here’s a cardinal sin, and I’m about to break the rule. And my wife knows it’s true. Anything that’s dairy creates phlegm. Anything that creates phlegm creates problems for Nestor. I start sounding like that in the next segment, and John Allen will talk about this because you can’t drink like a quart of milk before you go do sing on stage, right? So milk was a bad. It’s not often that I do this, but it is an ice cream segment that we’re doing here, right? Jessica’s here on behalf of the. Give me the name of the group again. It
Jessica Valis 26:00
is part of the Seven Valleys Borough Ice Cream Playground. I love that they gave you a big straw.
Nestor Aparicio 26:08
Oh yeah.
Jessica Valis 26:10
So you’re never gonna get any chunks.
Nestor Aparicio 26:11
It’s minty. It’s she grind. Tara, thank you. Terry grind it all up for me, and it’s smooth.
Jessica Valis 26:18
It is
Nestor Aparicio 26:18
smooth. You know what I saw popping up? I’m going to be in New York next week for Rush, right two doors down from my favorite pizza shop in New York, which 27 to Broadway. Delicious, very different than Pete John’s margarita. I just get a plain. It’s very, very, just little cheese, little sauce, little basil. Very plain, unlike my bougie, you know, my my pizza’s this high when I come to Peach Johnsky. I got the olives on there and the green peppers and all that. About three doors up from my pizza joint in New York, they have a boozy milkshake joint. You you go in, you get you get stiff milkshakes. So it’s that that team of the ball. I don’t know, man. Like all I know is when I go by there, I sort of think like I just had pizza. If I want a boozy milkshake, I’ll go in there and get some sort of. I don’t even know what they put in it, but there’s a. It’s a boozy ice cream bar, like literally.
Jessica Valis 27:16
I love that. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 27:17
I mean it’s New York. You get anything you want there. Jessica Vallis is here. She gives us our website. So give me your AI thing. I started on the AI thing when the milkshakes came. Yeah.
Jessica Valis 27:25
So I would say I want to
Nestor Aparicio 27:26
drink my milkshakes. Oh my god, it’s delicious. I want to shut up. Okay.
Jessica Valis 27:29
This is going to be gone by the end of the segment. Just so you know.
Nestor Aparicio 27:33
I want you to be mad at me for using AI the way you really are. Okay.
Jessica Valis 27:36
So there is a huge debate with AI right now about what is responsible AI usage, and if the trade-off with communities and neighbors is worth it, because we know that data centers are a really big drain on the energy system. They take up a lot of water. There’s the noise. What if they could be
Nestor Aparicio 27:59
neutral, though? What if we could make them neutral?
Jessica Valis 28:01
If they were neutral, I don’t. I wouldn’t have a problem.
Nestor Aparicio 28:03
Let’s. Well, we effed up with cars and didn’t make those neutral. When now that you can make them neutral, we we’re too dependent upon like drilling and and yeah, we are. Well, that’s why you also
Jessica Valis 28:14
ride a drive an electric vehicle or a hybrid.
Nestor Aparicio 28:17
But what I’m saying is these things don’t turn on a dime with AI, we’re at the dawn of it. We can get it right from the beginning. I sound like a friggin’ like I’m running for office. Like we can get this right from the beginning, where we could build AI plants, places where the water could be used the right way, the energy could be resourced from solar or wind. There’s a billion ways to be self-sustaining without wrecking the planet, but not saying la la la la la. There is no AI because I don’t. We can’t do that. Yeah, you know
Jessica Valis 28:44
if you look at you know the history of the planet, and you know humans have been on this planet for like all of a minute, and within that minute, we have done more damage to the planet and the ozone. Oh, we’re
Nestor Aparicio 28:56
totally effing it off. Oh
Jessica Valis 28:57
yeah, so you know we think about you know the coal industry and how that damaged everything and smog, but so this is just kind of another peg in that. So I was probably one of the first people to get on board with AI and ChatGPT, and I was getting on you about using it and not using it because at the time I wasn’t aware of the repercussions, and I’m going to be honest, I still use it, so I’m a little bit of a hypocrite there. But I’m just mindful because in the area I live, that’s why I
Nestor Aparicio 29:26
want to be an advocate to not say let’s not use it, or let’s use less of it, or this or that, and let the Chinese or the Russians beat us up. Let’s find. Let’s be the ones that figure out a way to make it neutral. Yeah, neutral is just a word I’m using as not effing up your community.
Jessica Valis 29:44
Yeah, so our water source comes from the Susquehanna, and the Susquehanna has a data center along it, and I think last I heard they want to put six more along that. So how is that eventually going to impact my water supply? How is that going to impact my electricity, which is already high, because the AI plants are buying up the generators, and then you know whatever extra they have, they sell back to the grid at a higher rate. So it’s a consumer that we’re
Nestor Aparicio 30:16
getting to who owns the information as well. Yeah, I mean we haven’t gotten to the ethical part of that with the military and eating up the world and you know like I’ll I’m in on all of those conversations, but I’m also in on the conversation of being a solopreneur who owned an AM radio station who has managed to survive all this long enough to be a podcaster here in Essex today, as well as a digital creator or whatever all that means. But it is about information and trusted information. Yeah, and I think the AI part that you know, you’ve known me long enough. It and I’ve known you long enough as an artist. It blows my effing mind. Yeah, it just like John Allen, who’s coming later, my rock star buddy, great artist. I mean, I’ve known him all of our-he’s always been an artist, like not a musician. He’s a musician, but artist, artist. And I took that AI image of the poop plant that we’re celebrating. That the oh, don’t say that from 1985. It’s a poop plant. It’s okay. It’s East. Eastside. She ain’t from Randy. She’s that’s me. Originally from Albernaz. So I, but I, I took the image and AI’d it, and it creates images that make us laugh out loud that we wouldn’t be able to do on our own or do a lousy Photoshop job or whatever. And it’s little things like that that people are using it for all day long. All the AI ChatGPT flyers, my flyers. Put people like you out of business. I mean, I get it, but I don’t think it’s going away. It’s not. So fighting it is silly. Let’s get on the right side of fighting for making it neutral, which is just a word for let’s not f up communities.
Jessica Valis 31:54
Yeah, essentially. I mean, that being said, I do use it. Like the flyers I made for the playground, I put in most of the information, and you know I took journalism classes in college. You know I should know how to write an article, but it still does it better. And
Nestor Aparicio 32:10
my clone’s funnier than me. I’m telling you, it is.
Jessica Valis 32:12
And then you know I was able to get a lot of historic pictures, black and whites, of the original ice cream factories, and I put it into ChatGPT, and I said, colorize this, and there were a couple times, you know, it spit back this one image, and the building was green because it was
Nestor Aparicio 32:28
milkshake,
Jessica Valis 32:29
a little bit darker. Okay, but I, you know, you have to double check what AI gives you because then I googled, you know, you know, what would have this bit, what would this siding had been because it’s like a stucco kind of thing over top of brick. So then I do my own research. Turns out it was like a tar-like substance used to protect the exterior, and it would have turned brown or blackish. So then I just put that information in, and it gave me the correct coloring of the building. So I’ve been using that. There’s another one of another ice cream shop, and there’s like three little boys and two older gentlemen, and the older gentleman’s face is really blurred. And AI just loves to just not give him a face, and then you tell it, you know, put a face in that guy, and they’re, you know, they’re changing the height of the kids, and so you want it to be as authentic as possible, but you know, it’s not without some manipulation.
Nestor Aparicio 33:23
I’ve put pictures in, like even John and I. When I put the picture in of the the poop plant, the old one, it manipulated our faces that we didn’t look like ourselves. And I’m like, ah, that doesn’t look good enough. So I mean, you have to you have to double check it. It’s not going to be perfect, but people aren’t perfect either.
Jessica Valis 33:41
No,
Nestor Aparicio 33:41
and there’s my baseball argument. So your kids are enjoying the Oriole season. Yes. Oh my
Jessica Valis 33:45
gosh, my son came home, George.
Nestor Aparicio 33:47
T-ball. What are we doing? No,
Jessica Valis 33:48
no. So he’s in regular ball. He, my husband’s Baltimore City police officer, and you know every career day at school, he wanted to be a police officer. Wanted to be a police officer. And the last day of school, leaving second grade, he wanted to be a professional baseball player out of the blue. Which
Nestor Aparicio 34:04
one do we have? Does he have a player?
Jessica Valis 34:05
No, he just he wants to be
Nestor Aparicio 34:08
one. See how he’s like stupid. Does he want to be like Cal Ripken? Okay. Well, we do have Gunner Anderson or Adley Rutschman or whatever. We do have the
Jessica Valis 34:15
boys do have personalized balls from Cal Ripken sitting in their bedroom.
Nestor Aparicio 34:19
But they don’t.
Jessica Valis 34:20
But that being said, they did not. Now he’s not
Nestor Aparicio 34:22
playing tonight.
Jessica Valis 34:23
No, he’s not.
Nestor Aparicio 34:25
They don’t have a player.
Jessica Valis 34:25
They don’t have a player. So we signed up George for baseball camp because if you’re going to play be a professional, you got to play baseball. Sign him up for baseball camp Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Surprised him a couple Fridays ago with an O’s game versus the Royals. Fantastic game. The kids got so into it. They won. They won. It was a short game too. Like the innings didn’t stretch out for long.
Nestor Aparicio 34:48
That night,
Jessica Valis 34:48
yeah, great game. And it was probably the most genuine fun I’ve had with my family in a long time.
Nestor Aparicio 34:55
See, I love hearing that.
Jessica Valis 34:56
Like the kids were hyped. We were, and you didn’t have to
Nestor Aparicio 34:59
sit in the truest. Or anything like that. You didn’t do anything. No, we were just in like section
Jessica Valis 35:02
- All right. A great view of the field, and you know, good
Nestor Aparicio 35:07
weather.
Jessica Valis 35:07
Yeah, my kids had their foreheads pressed on the bar because we were in the front row, and just little
Nestor Aparicio 35:12
pictures of them in like. Oh yeah,
Jessica Valis 35:13
my my youngest Finn, who’s six. Um, there we just have pictures of him sitting in the stands, legs crossed, just tearing through a bag of peanuts.
Nestor Aparicio 35:21
Well, I want to send them home with some cheesesteaks here, Pizza Johns, some delicious East Side pizza. Shane from around here, she was up in Pennsylvania. Oh, I lived down here for a while. Yeah, you haven’t been to Pizza John. We’re in Essex. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland Lottery. I have the brand new Ravens scratch offs. You have number one. Good luck to you. Jessica does websites and all sorts of fun things for a living. Tell me about your LinkedIn and how to find you and all that stuff. I have turned a few of my friends on to her to build a website, do things. I don’t primarily. You’re doing a lot of different things right now, including charity work. You ran for local office. You’re mommying. You’re summering. You’re putting out fires when the Russians try to hack my website, shame on you, Boris, for trying that. Sometimes that happens in the middle. Oh yeah,
Jessica Valis 36:06
I get emails every time somebody tries to hack your website. I mean, good luck. Do you want me to pull it up? Like, no, go
Nestor Aparicio 36:13
hack it right there. No, I’m not
Jessica Valis 36:14
hacking. I’m telling you how many people try to, but we’ve got two-factor authentication on there. Don’t ask me live on air.
Nestor Aparicio 36:21
You’ll scare me because it’s going to be a lot.
Jessica Valis 36:23
But
Nestor Aparicio 36:24
be more than one.
Jessica Valis 36:24
Yeah. So when I came in today to you know go on air with you, I pulled up the computer. I was working on some client work, and I was telling you ignoring
Nestor Aparicio 36:32
me
Jessica Valis 36:33
while you were setting. She’s good at that. But I was working with one of my long-term clients, the Loyola School in Baltimore, and they are a nonprofit school in Baltimore, right off of St. Paul Street, and they’re here for at-risk students age two up until fourth grade. And I’ve been working with them since 2017. So my very first client, they started off with pre-K two, pre-K three, pre-K four, and at the time there was only 18 students, and this year they had their first fourth grade graduating class with over 150 students. I
Nestor Aparicio 37:08
love the feet on the ground with the kids. Yeah, that’s the best. Yeah.
Jessica Valis 37:11
So these students,
Nestor Aparicio 37:14
Loyola School of Baltimore,
Jessica Valis 37:15
LoyolaSchoolBaltimore.org. Right now they have summer school. It’s a year-round school program because you get to summer and there is the summer slump or the summer drop where everything you learned over the past year is just gone. So they prevent that by keeping these kids in school year-round.
Nestor Aparicio 37:33
Can’t do that for me. Come give me a summer dump.
Jessica Valis 37:36
I would.
Nestor Aparicio 37:36
So I can recap. I just use my Facebook page, but some things you try to forget, you know the Orioles start.
Jessica Valis 37:42
You know math for me. I had to restart math every year, and I don’t
Nestor Aparicio 37:47
know how you people do it with these kids and stuff these days. You know kids running around, they got devices.
Jessica Valis 37:52
I try to limit it. Like during the school year, let me tell you, there’s nothing more difficult. Can you come
Nestor Aparicio 37:57
limit mine?
Jessica Valis 37:58
There is nothing more difficult than trying to teach a first grader how to read, and you’re trying to teach them might, and it’s not midget, and you’re like, honey, you haven’t gotten to that lesson yet, but you still have to read for 15 minutes. So one of the trade-offs is you read for 15 minutes, you get to play your tablet for 15 minutes, and now I’ve got a son who’s addicted to reading, and we’re going on vacation in two weeks. The book series he’s reading, Dragon Masters, it’s 32 books, and book I think is 32. Book 32 comes out August 3rd. We’re going to be at the beach. We’re going to wake up, go to the bookstore first, and then go to the beach. See,
Nestor Aparicio 38:36
my kid and his wife, they run around and do bookstores in Pennsylvania and antiquing. She’s very bookish. They don’t have any kids. If they were to come to me tomorrow, I say this to all of you who are parents. Wendy Bronfen has been on me many times. Had pizza here, Pizza Johns. I don’t. Every time I have guests on a Pizza Johns, they’re guests with kids. Sarah David, who just won Baltimore, she’s got little kids. You got little kids. I send them in with pizza and cheese steaks and all that, I’m really good with kids. You know, when I came in here, the Coppin State Eagle was here, Jackson was here meeting young children. I’m trying to make sure the mascot or me don’t scare these kids at the door here at Pizza Johns and Essex. So I like I like little kids and stuff. And like Luke just came back with his five-year-old and two-year-old nieces,
Jessica Valis 39:23
if you follow, I
Nestor Aparicio 39:24
don’t. How long can I last with your kids? Like, if I pick them up at the door and you’re like, “This is Nestor. He’s cool. He’s gonna hang with you and take you to the ice cream factory at Turkey. He’ll take you over to Hershey Park for an hour. Take you to one of these ice cream stands in your your neighborhood? They’re gonna
Jessica Valis 39:42
run off without you. They’re hyper crazy boys. I raise them to be independent.
Nestor Aparicio 39:51
Are they gonna listen to me?
Jessica Valis 39:52
Ah, maybe. But I do give people. Steve
Nestor Aparicio 39:55
says no way. He’s looking at their management style.
Jessica Valis 39:59
Back to Loyola School, real quick. You can follow them on Facebook, Loyola School Baltimore. Yesterday, they posted a picture of their youngest students. They went on a summer field trip, and everybody’s just passed out on the bus. Everybody’s just passed out on the school bus, and it just, you know, like, oh yeah, that was a good time. Those kids had a great time. That’s
Nestor Aparicio 40:18
the way I felt at 715 this morning after my wife dragged my ass back from Planet Fitness. Now I’m drinking a milkshake.
Jessica Valis 40:24
But you know, being able to help these students, you know, they a lot of them get donors who follow them pre k2 all the way up to fourth grade, and but you know, we also need to help in between. They’ve got summer summer scholarships, and if you would like to donate to the Loyola School, you can do that at loyolaschobaltimor.com/donate. All
Nestor Aparicio 40:48
right, you had a why a why thing because I I’m why connected. Hi Elizabeth, hi John, and I’ve done some stuff with the why. It’s summertime, a lot of volunteering. I’ve known a lot of people that have been why. Steve, did you ever work at the Y when you were a kid? You seem like type of dude. It’s like I had a lot of friends that like there was a summer gig was working with kids at the Y. I went to summer camp at the Y. Right. I mean, the Y touches everything and everybody. And I know you’ve been like big in doing this on the Pennsylvania side of things, right?
Jessica Valis 41:19
Yeah. Well, so when I lived in Baltimore, I lived in Edner Gardens, which is right just north of Old Memorial Stadium, which is right there next to the YMCA. So my husband
Nestor Aparicio 41:32
Field,
Jessica Valis 41:33
yeah, we, my husband and I, we walked to the YMCA. We were members there. We did exercise classes, and now we’re members of the YMCA up in York, Pennsylvania. I took my kids there for swim lessons for two weeks. I go there twice a week for exercise classes, and I get the kids in the Child Watch program so I can exercise and not have to worry about what they’re doing, not leave them at home. They’ve got the basketball court, which my kids all of a sudden are into sports, which I love. Basketball was my sport, and then they’ve got the pool, and they could spend hours there. Dude,
Nestor Aparicio 42:06
your kids are going the grandparents next week camp, Myrtle Beach. Why? It’s it’s summer, man. This is great.
Jessica Valis 42:15
It’s so easy. It’s so easy to just hand over a tablet or turn on the TV because they can do that all day, but my
Nestor Aparicio 42:22
uncle Norman, right about two miles right down here, Wilson Point. Get your ass out, out of the house, out, out. I’m like, but it’s air conditioning here, and Gilligan’s Island reruns are on, and the break, out, out, out.
Jessica Valis 42:37
Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 42:37
and they made us go out and play.
Jessica Valis 42:38
Yeah, that’s what I do. I’m huge into gardening. My kids garden with me. I don’t
Nestor Aparicio 42:42
know how I would be a grandparent. I really don’t. Like I’m, I’m working on this on behalf of like your kid. I’m gonna practice on somebody’s kids. Take them out and do something. You know they want to do
Jessica Valis 42:51
what you’re doing. So like I’m big into gardening. My kids have always gardened with me. They have their own designated spots in the backyard that are for their wildflower patches. They know what flowers I like and ones I don’t like. They over the summer they cut their own flowers. They sell them to neighbors. I
Nestor Aparicio 43:11
know my role in gardening, eating it.
Jessica Valis 43:14
Oh well, yeah. We do the vegetables. We have so many
Nestor Aparicio 43:16
slicing it.
Jessica Valis 43:18
Yep.
Nestor Aparicio 43:18
Seasoning it, eating it. That’s my role. We
Jessica Valis 43:21
have so many tomatoes. We doorbell ditch tomatoes on all of our neighbors’ houses. I got a
Nestor Aparicio 43:26
vat back at home about this big, and I would fill up with the tomatoes, and I would go in there like I’m an old Italiana, like my grandfather could squish those things down, little rag and a little little sugar, little spice, little salt, little garlic, bubble it all up.
Jessica Valis 43:42
I tried to make pasta sauce last year. It did not taste good, so I’ll I’ll give my tomatoes to you. You can make them for me.
Nestor Aparicio 43:50
Knocked it out of the park about six years ago, and like literally, it was the best sauce ever. And we let it cool down, and Jen put it back on. And you know that setting where like the caramelization turns to like the color of this cord,
Jessica Valis 44:07
yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 44:07
Where my mom would come in from here in Essex without her teeth, and she’d look at it, she’d say, “Hey, burnt, it’s just crispy. And I’m like, “That’s that’s burnt, you know, burnt. So we we wound up doing the vat, and it wound up at the bottom getting a little, like the sauce went from like number one to number two, one to 10, and you’re like it’s just a little bit hotter. You know, it just went a little over. So we’ve been trying to get it right since then. So with these excess tomatoes,
Jessica Valis 44:39
so
Nestor Aparicio 44:39
bring it over, man! I’ll turn that into a primavera. Hit that. All that ring and Tony, I’ll have that happen. You
Jessica Valis 44:45
know, I give my tomatoes away for free. The kids actually, they cut a lot of tomatoes, every kind. Really, we have a compost.
Nestor Aparicio 44:52
Mélange.
Jessica Valis 44:53
We have a compost, and we just get volunteer tomatoes everywhere in the middle of the walkway, in the. Out of the garden. She’s
Nestor Aparicio 45:01
learning with the with the the amount of creatures we have that we grow little tomatoes. Because oh, I grow. Because when you get these heirlooms going and you get greedy, the raccoons get greedy.
Jessica Valis 45:11
Oh, we’ve got the
Nestor Aparicio 45:11
deer get greedy.
Jessica Valis 45:12
We don’t have any deer. We don’t have any raccoons. We do have a pesky chipmunk though, and it ate through the plastic of my birdhouse that like takes pictures of the birds while they come to the birdhouse.
Nestor Aparicio 45:22
Probably the same guy my wife’s feeding the big three nutter peanuts to. Yeah, because she thinks it’s cute. No, it’s not. When the when the when the little chipmunk has the peanut that looks like the size of a cigar, like a side cigar, you know.
Jessica Valis 45:35
They are weapons of mass destruction. Those really? Oh yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 45:39
Next thing you’re gonna start picking on my on my my groundhogs.
Jessica Valis 45:43
I I don’t have groundhogs. She really pick them
Nestor Aparicio 45:45
up, but they they smell.
Jessica Valis 45:46
Okay, so then you know groundhogs belong in the middle. Two things
Nestor Aparicio 45:50
smell: groundhogs and the Philly fanatic who’s coming to town next week. All mascots don’t smell so good. Jessica Vallis is here. I am the mascot at Baltimore Positive, she is the gatekeeper, running all things Baltimore Positive and managing our website through Harvard Designs. You can find her through our website, through me, through our friends up at Seven Valleys and our ice cream project, Seven Valleys Ice Cream Playground. All that information will be attached to this here blog thing, post, podcast, social media, influencer thing. Did I do okay? Did we get it all in? Yeah.
Jessica Valis 46:25
And if you would like to contact me, you can find me on LinkedIn. V
Nestor Aparicio 46:29
a l i s. Yep.
Jessica Valis 46:30
So all you need to do LinkedIn type in Jessica Vallis, and that’s it. I’ve got like that’s my my handle, my extension slash Jessica Vallis. You got to keep it simple. If I can, I avoid numbers at all times.
Nestor Aparicio 46:44
That’s my whipped cream at the end that Brett told me would really pay off in it. I’m
Jessica Valis 46:47
surprised this isn’t already gone.
Nestor Aparicio 46:48
Dr. Steve Elliot is up next. He is my chiropractor, keeping my back together. He adjusted me earlier. He’s going to adjust my attitude in a minute. He might adjust some of that pizza I got over there. Pepperoni, olive, green pepper, and mushroom today, cause I’m feeling special. They’re shutting down East Point Mall later on. John Allen is going to be here. We’re going to tell some East Point Mall stories. Steve, did you ever see the Penguins at East Point Mall when you were a kid? Nah, you’re so uptown. Lock Raven kids. They never came over to the mall. They didn’t know. They we were like the armpit of the East Side. Nobody ever came. Nobody ever left. They came to the point. They left. That was it. Dundalk forever. I’m wearing my straight at a Dundalk shirt, even though I’m in Essex right now. We’re Pizza Johnson. Brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. I have the freshly minted, very metallic, and they feel lucky of Ravens scratch offs here. We’re Pete’s Johns and Essex. We’re going to be at Costas and Timonium next Thursday. It is all brought to you by GBMC and our partners at Farnham and Dermer. They are the comfort guys, and I’m really comfortable right now because I have this padded seat that makes me feel taller than Jessica. I’ll feel taller than Steve. Steve and I are going to talk about Rugby, Columbia, the country, not Maryland. Chiropractic care, as always, in my back, because that’s important. Oh,
Jessica Valis 48:08
I go like every other week.
Nestor Aparicio 48:10
His mom’s appetite and what she wants on her cheesesteak when I send it home today. I’m gonna send her a crab cake home too. She’s gonna be gonna be better than she thinks she’s gonna be. Pizza John’s, and what do you want to talk about? Your shirt, floral shirts, something like that. Steve Elliot is here. He’s been my friend for 28 years. The week that this radio station opened, so August 3rd is our 28th anniversary. Got to check.
Jessica Valis 48:35
Oh,
Nestor Aparicio 48:36
make a note for our web developer.
Jessica Valis 48:38
Oh, oh, me. Okay.
Nestor Aparicio 48:39
That we need to get. That’s a new 28th logo. I don’t have something 28 on it. That’s just the way I work with Jessica. I’m like this.
Jessica Valis 48:46
I also design. Make
Nestor Aparicio 48:47
it purple, not just website. Make it orange. So anyway, so it’s our 28th anniversary. The week that I went into business, I get a call at the radio station from 410-882-7670. Right?
Jessica Valis 49:02
Are you supposed to be giving his number? I’m not
Nestor Aparicio 49:04
googling that. Right? This is this is the whole Mary Lou Henry me. Is that number
Jessica Valis 49:07
supposed to be public?
Nestor Aparicio 49:09
That’s his. That’s his. Let’s that’s his landline. That’s your landline. 882 76k. That’s your line, right? You want Pizza John’s? 410-687-7733 says so right on the box. It’s right there. So, what other numbers you want? My home landline? No, I’m not giving my social security number out on the air. But so anyway, Steve called me, and I checked the number. I’m like Elliot Family Chiropractic Life. I’m like, this sounds like a church, and I looked at it, and I looked, and I went down, and he, of course, is right underneath the freeway, right across from Bob Davidson Ford, right at the confluence of where 695 crosses the imaginary Joppa Road on the map. Looks like it just goes over top because it does. Dr. Chief Elliott’s there. He’s. My chiropractor for 28 years as of next week because he called me and he’s like, “Hey, dude, I hear you talking about chiropractic and Ed Block and this and that and you’re in the neighborhood and hey come by man. So that’s where the story will pick up. And Steve and I, 28 years later, he’s adjusted my wife on her deathbed at Hopkins. He’s adjusted me over the bar at the barn 25 years ago. If I can get adjusted on this pregnant, this table’s solid. He could do yeah, right. So I’m good right now. You you’re a chiropractic believer. Oh
Jessica Valis 50:31
yeah, I went when I was pregnant. I went three times a week.
Nestor Aparicio 50:33
See, Steve likes people like you because this is where like I’ve heard people don’t tell him. People call chiropractors witch doctors sometimes. Oh, and I
Jessica Valis 50:43
there is a great
Nestor Aparicio 50:43
fight back against that sort of talk about
Jessica Valis 50:46
if you obviously if you like podcasts, you should listen to Science Versus, and there’s a Science Versus chiropractor.
Nestor Aparicio 50:53
His wife’s listening right now. It’s all she does. Yeah,
Jessica Valis 50:55
and it gives the history of you know being a chiropractor and everything like that. It’s a great podcast. They go through like everything. I
Nestor Aparicio 51:05
took a yoga class this week on yoga assist with a friend of mine who’s going through teacher training, and it was it was a chiropractor who gave the lecture on it. And don’t tell him. Chiropractors are some of my favorite people. Don’t tell me great afterwards. Don’t tell any of my chiropractic buddies.
Jessica Valis 51:21
Listen, if you can give me a 45 minute massage, and it’s covered by my insurance, I will take it.
Nestor Aparicio 51:27
Steve Elliot is available over at Joppa Road Elliott Family Chiropractic. Like he’s gonna be our next guest. We’re gonna eat pizza. We’re gonna drink beer. Maybe I’m drinking milkshakes. I just had a delicious mint chocolate chip milk. Second ever milkshake I have here. I get a. It looks like a thumbs up, doesn’t it? Here at Pizza Johns, we’re back for more. John’s going to be here. We’re closing down East Point Mall. We’re going to Costas. We are at Pizza Johns in Essex. Back for more on Baltimore Positive. And if the website’s down, it’s her fault. Stay with us.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
