the story behind Fox and the Forest....

Some of you may know that one of my side gigs is a little website called Fox & the Forest...When you hear me speak of making potions, it is for the online store there. The money generated from the online shop helps pay for the food and vetting for all the farm's critters.

The Fox and the Forest name has a few different origins depending on who you ask... Me or Christian....for years we had a little fox den on the front side of our property and really enjoyed watching the family come and go on the cameras that are up on the property. Mr. & Mrs. Fox never ever bothered the chickens, and several times, Pancha (our one-eyed rescue chicken) wandered over by their den and they never took advantage of her. It was such a sweet thing - to see this type of co-existing right in front of our eyes, on the farm, a known predator and its prey.... later I carved out a little trail through the pine forest on the farm which was situated behind the fox den and I decided "Fox and the Forest" was cute... and appropriate. This is where my affinity for the name came from....

Christian also had his own ideas on the name later, and I totally dig his and like it almost better than my own! He refers to me as a 'fox', and his middle name is Deforest, so there you have Fox (me) and the Forest (him).

Fox and the Forest started out as a little online platform for me to promote other woman-owned businesses, connect creative women to each other, to sell my own skincare creations, and have a way to support local rescues - you see a portion of all sales benefits local rescues as well!

I have plans one day to expand the website to an actual place beyond just my workshop where the potions are made, and the vintage clothing is altered, repaired, and stored.... A place for other like-minded women to gather, meet, decompress, and share stories around a firepit one day. A place to share 'how-to' methods regarding gardening, sewing, animal husbandry, carpentry, baking, canning, and homemaking. Ideally a way for other women to be able to learn how to do all the things they want while living in a rural setting. I am not ashamed to admit that I only recently learned from a fellow female farmer, how to grow larger scale gardens. It takes a lot of work, and a tractor (unless you have all day every day to tend to it)- something I do not have regular access to regularly, but it was a neat learning experience for one whole growing season! For now, I am sticking to smaller and more manageable gardens that don't need a tractor or tiller.... Times are changing and people are moving into the sticks without having grown up in them. It would be nice to be able to help others while also having a creative space to work! I grew up in the sticks, carving out trails through the woods, but we never had farm animals, so that was something I had to learn when I decided I wanted to rescue Eli and Ellie....

annnywaaaaaay, I have always thought my actual origin of the name, and Christian's thoughts on it were cool although very different from mine, so figured I would share. I am curious to see what this evolves into the next five years.... the plans changed a bit last year when I adopted Reece... but we shall see what lies ahead in 2020 for this space..

I am off to walk Reece, feed the farm crew, and get ready for work - the job that pays for the farm ...... also guess what? TOMORROW IS FRIDAAAAAY!