Laying it down...

Hey there! If you've been an email subscriber for awhile, you know I've been MIA for a few months. Our last correspondence was right before The Homesteading Festival we attended back in June. I had planned to take 2 weeks off to rest and reconnect with my family. Those 2 weeks turned into an entire season of deeper connection with my husband and children. It felt so natural to pull away from my small business and turn to what filled my soul the most; family, our land and God.

In this time, I felt God calling me in a dramatically different direction...

1. To prioritize our family, to cultivate a more balanced home (physically, emotionally and spiritually), and to prepare for future times.

2. To begin a women's homesteading ministry called Rooted Women's Ministry where women in local communities connect through food, fellowship and forgotten skills.

3. I'm also feeling moved to create more...

For the past 3 years, I've been self-studying and strictly practicing herbal medicine in our home. I'd like be better equipped to help those in our close community that have deep-rooted health issues and provide wellness education. I plan to soon take world-renown Christian herbalist, Darryl Patton's year long course to become a certified family and community herbalist. I am presently working like a mad scientist formulating and perfecting herbal remedies that include a herbal mouth cleanse, medicinal teas, tinctures and elixirs, balms and soaps, skin and hair products, and house cleaning goods. I currently have our Laundry Soap Powder, Toilette Drops, Dish Soap Block, and Remineralizing Tooth Powder available for purchase. I'm thrilled to soon share the products we use in our home with others.

With all that said, these major callings have made me realize, I can't add to my present load, but instead that I must lay some things down in order to move forward with this new chapter God is directing me towards.

Our future plans for The Rooted Market will include expanding our merch shop, and continuing to sell our wonderful vendor goods in person at homesteading events, local events, and select goods will [prayerfully] be sold at our good friend and neighbor's farm-store in the near future.

So, where does that leave our online shop? Like that tugging feeling to leave social media a year ago, I've been feeling that same tugging to leave online selling. Just like social media, for some reason, it feels hard to let go of something that seems to help our business about as much as a shoestring holding an elephant from a tightrope. It's a tricky illusion designed by The Enemy, as well. The reality is that an online storefront is expensive for a small business. Between the subscriptions, fees, taxes, shipping and packaging costs, damaged and stolen orders, (and did I mention all those fees?), it's simply not worth it these days.

So the plan is to close our online shop up by December 31 of this year. Our website will remain, but we will be switching to a free site, featuring more articles about homemaking, homesteading, and running a small business fueled on FAITH! We'll also have an area for our ministry that will include our scripture study discussions each month, up-coming events for our local area and future plans for our ministry to grow across the country. We'll also continue to announce in-person events for The Rooted Market through our website and email newsletter. If you would like to order anything from us after our shop closes, please reach out to me at therootedmarketgooods@gmail.com.

If you're bummed about us closing our online storefront, you won't be for long. Something I am realizing is that God is sparking that vision he laid on my heart 3 years ago for many others across our country, just like I knew He would! At The Homesteading Festival, I met many folks from all over the country that were further inspired by what we have cultivated here at The Rooted Market and have already started breaking ground and opening up physical stores in their communities. In the near future, I believe we'll all be seeing the comeback of the local mercantile, farm-stores, and CSA's (community supported agriculture programs). Talking to many farmers, this could be the solution to help small farms actually thrive; while also providing folks with local, quality food and goods, and bring communities back together once again.

Whether it's the future of our own small business, our family's well-being or the future of our country, I find myself having to trust The Lord to provide with whatever comes our way. I pray each day The Lord helps me focus on the day at hand. I can only juggle so much. And tomorrow can worry about itself (or the million things we have planned for the next few months). Prayerfully, we do well at the Homesteaders of America Conference in October and are also able to sell goods in our community. With the hopes of opening our own physical storefront somewhere in the southeast in the next few years. With all things said, I try my best to not hang so much of my hope on to the future, nor do I look back at what I was called to lay down. Each day and for now, I will focus on ministering His truth to other Christian women, support our local community in any way I can, and most importantly, keep my eyes fixed on Heaven.

Many blessings, friends!

~Casey G.

Ps. Reach out with your thoughts by commenting below or emailing me at therootedmarketgoods@gmail.com. For those that correspond with us via physical mail, I so love your letters, but we will be closing our P.O. Box at the end of the year as well to save on the $100 yearly fee.