Rustique Essentials

11/03/2025

Good Monday morning y’all! We’ll be set up st the sangonightmarket tonight from 4-7. We only have this market tonight and one more next Monday and we’re done for the year! Where has the year gone? Thursday is our very last Old Glory market. Wow, it’s officially the end of farmers market season and we’re so thankful to have been able to stick with it until the end ❤️ We can’t wait to see y’all later on!

10/31/2025

The leaves have finally started falling! The farm store is OPEN today, Friday October 31st from 1:00-5:00 and Saturday from 10:00-3:00. We’ll have candy in the farm store for any trick or treaters 🎃 Have a great weekend y’all! (Oh and this is an old pic. I never did get the fall decorations up at the road this year 🥴)

10/30/2025

I’m going to tell y’all a little story. Have you ever heard the one about the spilled coffee? It goes something like this…

On a busy morning on the way to work a lady stops in and gets herself a cup of coffee. Someone turns around too fast and bumps into her. Before she knows it coffee spills out all over the place. Now for the kicker- why did coffee spill out?? Some will say “that idiot who wasn’t watching what they were doing bumped into her is the cause”. Some would say “she must have not been holding the cup tight enough”. Maybe your answer was “the barista obviously failed to do her job and the lid wasn’t properly secured”. Maybe it was “if the shop owners would get enough staffing the lines wouldn’t back up and there would be room to turn around in there”. Who did you go with to carry the blame?

The answer is, coffee spilled out because coffee was in the cup. If water would have been in the cup water would have come out. If tea would have been in the cup tea would have come out. Life constantly hands out bumps, and whatever is inside comes out.

So if someone gets bumped, whatever they are holding in their heart comes out first. It may be hate, anger, blame, regret, frustration OR it can be love, light, understanding, or forgiveness. Lately, a lot of people are responding to being bumped with ugliness. Pray for them. They haven’t realized God always has a plan and sometimes it takes drastic measures to move us onto our chosen path. Without darkness there can not be light. People don’t realize that. I’m praying for the ones who are so focused on what they can’t have they don’t see what they do have. I’m praying for the ones who choose to suffer worrying about what they can’t control instead of surrendering the suffering to God and trusting that everything will be ok. I can’t imagine going back and living like that again. And I was that. I was the person saying “if God is real he wouldn’t put us through this”. But I didn’t know Him yet. I didn’t trust Him yet. And if you don’t know how to surrender or pray I can help you. You just close your eyes, hold up your hands, and say “Lord I’m not strong enough. I can not carry this anymore. I have nothing left in me to give. Please help me carry this. I’m handing this burden over to you. Please, please help guide me through this bc I’m drowning in darkness and I can not see the light anymore” then you just sit, and cry or scream or laugh uncontrollably bc there isn’t anything else to do except trust something good is coming out if this. You choose to give it to Him and look for the opportunities he’ll send your way. Keep your eyes open. Maybe it looks like a neighbor needing a hand. Maybe it looks like a chicken scrap bucket full of busted unsellable tomatoes able to be turned into pasta sauce. Maybe the blessings are in the help you won’t get but the strength and skill you will gain from going through this. It WILL be ok, I promise.

“Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for the rest of his days.” Growth never feels good. Actually it downright sucks. God gave me learning opportunities. I was given job opportunities and food bank opportunities (which also suck bc you have to give your name, address, and show your ID which makes you dread they will bill you for what you take later but they don’t. It’s just to log how many citizens they feed so they can prove they fed them and get the same number of boxes the next load to be sure they have enough for everyone or at least that is how it was at the church I went to several years ago). I am proud of you for hanging in there through this. We’re all going to be ok. The kids will be ok. They don’t need TV streaming or games or phones. It wasn’t that long ago none of us had any of that. They do need food but it doesn’t have to be takeout or even convenience foods. Broth over rice with a bit of shredded chicken will fill them up. Sprinkle some Tony’s seasoning on it to make it better if you have it. Biscuits made with a $2 bag or flour and a gravy made from leftover grease will fill them up. Ramen is nutritionally empty and will not fill them up so don’t lean on that. Noodles, rice, and potatoes are filling. You just have to cook it. I’m serious, message me with what you have available and I’ll message back with what I’d do with it if it were me to make it last. I’ve heard chat ai or whatever it’s called can give great meal tips when random ingredients are plugged in. It’s ok y’all. Everyone is going to get through this, even the follower who left not very nice comments on another post of ours that prompted this whole post. It didn’t bother me. My skin is thick and my heart chooses to see the best in people once I opened my eyes and saw how good God truly was ❤️

Ive since learned the art of being thankful. Y’all, I drive a 2007 vehicle pushing 300k miles but it still runs and we don’t have a car payment- I’m thankful for it. Our house is old but warm and I’m thankful for it. My clothes come from Goodwill but they wear the same as new and I’m thankful for it. My cellphone is pushing seven years old but it still works (although you have to charge the battery ten times a day 😅) but I’m thankful for it. My food comes from the farm God helps us fight to keep and although it’s not fancy I’m thankful for it. I’m thankful for it all, the good and bad. Sometimes a shift in perspective is all it takes.

10/29/2025

I don’t know about y’all but this past weekend I yearned for Christmas. I miss the warmth of the Christmas lights & the smell of cinnamon. Then it hit me like a brick- I hadn’t been able to stockpile gifts like usual. Normally I get stuff on sale throughout the year (a lot comes from the after Christmas sales in January then it lives in the closet until the following Christmas). This year my closet only has two things in it. I panicked for a moment. Why do I feel so inadequate as a mother if under the tree isn’t full of gifts? My husband & I have had one heck of a year & in a world where so many have separated we are still hanging onto one another. Is there a better gift in all the world to still be able to hold the one you love? What could I ever put under the tree for him that would compare to that feeling? Things are made so cheaply now anything I buy will be just broken by next year. Even the kitchen appliances seem to be on a three year loop. I wasn’t kidding when I said the next appliance to break will be replaced with something from the 70s 😂

In the middle of the battle in my head I realized that good food, good health, & time together are all that really matter. So will our kids be getting bikes or laptops or new phones this year? Nope! Instead I’ll get each of them one thing & hide it. The only way they will be able to find it is to follow the numbered clues in their stockings & boxes under the tree in a Christmas scavenger hunt. Maybe their gift will be going to the movies in an actual theater or stargazing by a fire wrapped in blankets sipping cocoa. Why are we teaching them all that matters are material things?

Why are we teaching that the more items you have equal the better off you are? When did material things become more important than being together? So if you are my family or friends, you’re getting usable gifts- a bar of soap or a jar of jelly. Maybe you’ll get sourdough starter & a bread bag. Maybe it’ll be a handwritten recipe book of all your favorite things I make. My favorite gift I’ve ever gotten was a handmade ornament and it goes up on our tree every single year. 2011 and 2012 were the hardest years of our lives to date and I can’t remember what else I got that year but I do remember her apologizing bc the ornament wasn’t much and I remember it meaning so much that she took the time to thrift the ornaments, decorate the front with a custom W for our very own personalized Whitehead ornament back when customization was mostly something people with money did, then wrapped it in the most beautiful tissue paper, and drove all the way to my house to drop it off. I freaking love that ornament. Why does a dollar amount spent now equal level of love? I’m going to change that this year so the burden of unrealistic expectations don’t get past down ❤️

10/27/2025

Good Monday morning y’all! We’ll be set up at the sangonightmarket today from 4:00-7:00. It’s getting dark earlier and y’all, it’s the most relaxing shopping experience browsing products under the string lights. Y’all come on out and take advantage of these last couple of farmers markets left of the year. See y’all later on!

10/25/2025

It’s event day! So much fun! 🤩 Event ends today at 3:00. See y’all later on!

10/25/2025

10/24/2025

Good Friday morning y’all! The farm store is OPEN today, Friday October 24th from 1:00-5:00. We are doing a beef liver sale today! 50% off nutrient dense beef liver today only. We’ve got the vending machines up and working- whoo-hoo! We’re full to the brim on soaps and bath bombs. Oh! And the baby chicks are due to hatch tomorrow at the Fall Festival! What an exciting weekend!

10/23/2025

Good morning y’all! We’ll be set up at Old Glory tonight from 5:00-8:00. Y’all have a good day!

10/22/2025

We are just DAYS away! 🤩 What is your favorite part of our events? The critters? Vendors? What about the games or coffee? Or is it the pumpkin smash?! The pumpkin smash and pig feeding is most of the kids favorite 🤣 We can’t wait to see everyone this Saturday!