the night skye fall market
On September 9, 2023, Skye Apothecary of Clanton, AL hosted the Night Skye Fall Market at the Thorsby Park in Thorsby, AL. Dozens of small businesses, organizations, and vendors from the Central Alabama area attended and showcased their work.
Skye Apothecary is a first-of-its-kind business in Chilton County. In small, southern areas like these, it’s common to see the same themes, beliefs, and people copied and pasted throughout the county. According to genealogytrails.com, there are more than 100 documented Christian churches in Chilton County and the surrounding areas. For a county with 45,000+ residents, that’s a lot of churches. Around 70% of Clanton (a city in Chilton) alone identifies as some denomination of Christian, according to bestplaces.net. Though that’s not surprising for a small, southern city, it begs the question, “What about the other 30-ish%?”
I grew up in Clanton, AL. I was part of the class of 2019 at Verbena High School. My graduating class had around 50 students, which was one of the largest the school had seen up to that point.
When I moved away for college, I was finally able to find confirmation for what I had felt deep within myself my entire life: there was a whole world out there that Clanton didn’t represent in the slightest. Learning more about people from other walks of life and finding myself led me to believe that I’d never find myself happy living in Clanton again. So I never planned on returning for anything more than a visit.
In October of 2022, I had just finished working on a Universal Pictures project that filmed in North Carolina. While I was waiting for my next project to begin, I decided to return to Clanton to visit my mom. Little did I know that it was the start of me finding a home in Clanton, again.
Change is CONTAGIOUS and not always bad
My stay in Clanton was extended when the project I was intending to work on kept pushing its start date. With most of my things in storage hours away, I needed to re-up my inventory of herbs, oils, and spiritual supplies. In a desperate attempt to find the nearest shop that could meet my needs, I googled something to the tune of “witchy stores near me”. To my surprise, the result for Skye Apothecary appeared right here in Clanton, AL. I immediately got in my car and took the ten-ish minute drive to the shop where I was absolutely blown away.
If you’ve listened to Enhance Podcast, you know that I was raised Pentecostal, a strict and sort of extremist denomination of Christianity. My time at a Jesuit, Catholic college where I learned the logistics of how the Bible and Christianity as a whole were even created allowed me to see things in a lot clearer image of the place religion would hold in my life. Over the course of my Bachelor’s Degree, my spiritual identity shifted from Christian to Omnist to Pagan; which in itself is a Christian-made-up word.
Finding not only the resources that I needed but also the chance for community in a place I had only known as Christian-conservative my whole life was life-giving. Skye Apothecary had shelves of crystals, oils, herbs, divination tools, and the list goes on and on. I couldn’t help but ask “Do you guys get consistent business here?” The worker responded with a “yes” and let me know that they had been in that location for two years. Two whole years. People had found similar truths for themselves as I had and set up shop in my hometown two years prior and managed to thrive. This was huge and one of the reasons I eventually decided to move back to Clanton, AL. As I spent more time here, I found that Skye Apothecary is one of many newer businesses that popped up in Chilton County, proving that it’s not a place destined to be left in the past.
shifting focus
Throughout the spring and summer of 2023, the rumors of a strike from the WGA and eventually SAG became a reality in the film industry. My work in film was my source of income. My livelihood. It was how I was affording to take care of myself and my mom whom I am now the primary caretaker of. Hundreds of thousands of people in the industry were and still are struggling, myself included.
To combat the lack of work, I started an Etsy Shop, MageFarms, where I sell homegrown and homemade herb bundles, live plants, farm-fresh eggs, tarot readings, and more. It started off bringing in some side money which helped, but wasn’t enough.
@sammedifyoudo I’ve been so excited to post about these little babies!!! They were so fun to make and I am SO happy with how they turned out. My Etsy Shop is MageFarms and you can find it on my linktr.ee! #cottagecore #satisfying #herbbundles #smudgingherbs #homegrownherbs #organicallygrown #witchtok #etsyshopowner #smudging ♬ A Day in My Life – Soft boy
A Chance to Participate
Shortly after opening MageFarms, I saw Skye Apothecary’s Facebook Event for the Night Skye Fall Market where small businesses in Chilton County and the surrounding areas were invited to represent their products and services.
After some internal debate and contemplation, I decided to submit a request for a booth for both Enhance Productions and MageFarms. I was, of course, nervous. Though I had already established Enhance’s involvement in the community by networking and joining the local Chamber of Commerce, I had yet to introduce MageFarms to the locals of my area. After some backlash on social media against the event for its more spiritually free roots, I didn’t see myself or MageFarms being locally accepted or successful. But, I decided to take Skye Apothecary’s lead and took a chance.
At the event, I was lucky enough to see some old familiar faces as well as meet new friendly ones. There was food, live music, locals mingling, creatives networking, children playing, and everything you’d imagine. The community really showed up and showed support.
Most beautiful of all, people from all backgrounds were there: people young, old, black, white, Latinx, pagan, spiritual, and even Christian. Residents of the area from all walks of life were able to attend and benefit from this event.
Because of this event, I made enough money to buy my mom and myself groceries and pay our remaining utility bills for the month. I don’t like being vulnerable about my finances, but events like this are so important to the small businesses and creators in our communities. If sharing how positive of an impact this event had on me can help someone else see the beauty in connecting with those who are different from them, then the vulnerability is worth it.
@sammedifyoudo MageFarms AND @Enhance Productions are out here at the Night Skye Fall Market. Thanks @Skye Apothecary for putting on an awesome event! #apothecary #witchtok #spirittok #witchystore #witchyart #witchyfarm #magicstore ♬ Betty (Get Money) – Yung Gravy
Time to collab
After the market, I received a message from the Skye Apothecary Facebook account letting me know that there was another vendor from the market wanting to contact me. I gave them the go-ahead to share my information. Shortly after, I received a message from the owner of Sister Sasquatch, a gift shop that sells handmade and unique gifts and self-care goods. Everything in their shop is made with love while keeping Mother Earth in mind. They let me know that they had a subscription box they were planning to launch and wanted to know if I could make mini-dried herb bundles for the boxes! We’ve been chatting about even more potential collaboration in the near future. I’m super excited to see where this new journey takes MageFarms. I’m happy to be working with another shop that values clean and sustainable item production!
Be sure to give Sister Sasquatch a like and follow! And keep an eye out for our collaboration announcements!
Enhance Productions 
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