The ‘A Nod to Nature’ brand celebrates my feral side…the side of me that wants to run free, pick wildflowers, and walk barefoot through the creek. It also celebrates the liberty of a free mind, a free spirit, and a healed heart. These things are deeply important to me and I feel proud of the strides I’ve taken in my personal life to allow the birth of A Nod to Nature and the creation of every design that excites growth in others.

But, there is another side of me, a domestic side…a side that likes to grow things from scratch, to watch bread rise, to see rows of colorful canning jars on the shelf, and to cook with yellow carrots, purple tomatoes, and fresh herbs from the garden. This side was activated in our years on the homestead and celebrated in our ‘Rehoboth Farm’ brand. Our boutique booth, our farmer’s market table, and our Etsy shop where we sold handmade goods, homegrown plants, and farm photos for over a decade all carried our slogan “from our home to yours”. It was a creative extension of our farm…our lives…and ourselves. We were Rehoboth Farm and it was us.

Leaving the farm meant facing that identity entanglement and coming to some hard decisions. I wasn’t sure how to carry that brand in to our new life…so I abandoned it, and, as it turns out, a bit of myself along with it.

We were homesteaders for 11 years.
We were animal tenders, nurserymen, gardeners, barn builders, fencing experts, and dairy farmers….
And then,
quite suddenly,
we were here…
not being any of those things.
We were just people who used to own goats.
Weird.

It felt like the right thing at the time to move on from “our old life” and focus on building our new one. But, I soon came to realize just how much of that homestead was still in my soul. I felt a tug to honor our time there in a new way…not just the “farm life” experience, but a way to celebrate those who carry the torch of domesticity, who aren’t afraid to start from scratch, and who know a bit about “the old ways” – no matter where they live.

So, I turned back to what I had set down in haste and breathed new life in to it.

Our Etsy shop – now “A Nod to Nature” has a whole new vibe. It’s no longer a farm shop for farmers from farmers.
It is now a place to celebrate domestic life -in all it’s forms!
It’s a place for the homemakers, homebakers, beekeepers, and sourdough queens…For the houseplant mamas, the herb growers, the dairy farmers, and the domestic darlings.

My new designs are created with a heart for those who are hauling, milking, tending, sowing, growing, and stowing….for those who are planting, weeding, harvesting, and preserving…and for those who are mixing, kneading, folding, and baking…what you do matters. So. Much.

Some products in our new shop even feature elements from original photos taken on our farm – tributes to the part of us that grew there. Rehoboth Farm is no longer our home, but it resides in us now like all our life experiences do. So, we can still say proudly that every design is “from our home to yours”.

It’s my way of honoring the unsung heroes:

Those who learn botanical names of wild herbs and turn them into tinctures and treasures.

Those who plant pollinator gardens for the spring and insulate beehives for the winter.

Those who share fresh baked bread and fresh cut flowers with neighbors and friends.

Those who have acres to tend, but take the time to help a duckling hatch.

Those who don’t have acres to tend, but grow veggies in the petunia bed and keep a worm bin on the patio.

Those who sprout mushrooms in their basement and grow parsley in their kitchen window.

And for those who don’t do any of those things, but support those who do by finding a famer’s market, herdshare, or local nursery.

A Nod to Nature – ETSY is for all who have come to see the beauty of homemade and homegrown.

If you’re curious, take a peek here: A Nod to Nature on Etsy