The Cox family: Daniel, Sarah, Crosley, Alden, Nolia, and Lonnie
We would like to introduce you to Daniel and Sarah Cox, husband and wife team and founders of Rustic Grains and the Mustard Seed Market: Make plans to join them for an autumn inspired Fall at the Mustard Seed Market September 20 – 22. For all information including times, locations, and special passes, head HERE.
đ± How did you come to start Rustic Grains?
With the faith of a mustard seed and the beautiful grains of wood, we began Rustic Grains in 2017. We began this journey with humble hearts, big dreams and a whole lot of faith in hopes that our passion for Christ and creating would meet you where you need it. Together, we own Rustic Grains, Rustic Grains Wood Company, The Tea Trailer, & Mustard Seed Market. Â Rustic Grains hosts multiple events around the Greater Cincinnati area. Â What started as a hobby with building furniture, has turned into this beautiful life we live.
đ± What in your background prepared you for this new venture?Â
We both come from working full time jobs for years in Corporate America, Daniel being a surveyor and Sarahâs background being in banking & event management.
đ± Can you tell us a bit about your family and what role, if any, your children play in your business?
Daniel and I have been married for 16 years, where has the time gone! We have 4 little ones, Crosley, Alden, Nolia, and Lonnie who are our pride and joy, our sunshine and hope, and our love and strength.
To say we have a normal day around our house is an understatement. These four are soo full of energy and life. We have been a homeschool family for 5 years now and truly cherish the extra time spent together. Our kiddos are what inspired the âLittle Saplingsâ Market that we host within Mustard Seed Market, and we couldnât be more proud of them. Â They are a part of our business and help with so much. Â There is times you can find us at the kitchen table talking business with them and getting their ideas and input. Â
Come market week, these kids work their tails off and are willing and wanting to jump in and help everyone do everything! From frogs to mud, to dancing around the house, if they can find a way to make something fun, they will! We have learned to love sticky floors, a messy kitchen, and piles of laundry- itâs what makes our house a home! â€ïž
đ±Â What is the mission of Rustic Grains? What do you hope to achieve through your markets?Â
Our hope is for people to come expectant to create an experience like no other and leave feeling refreshed and excited! It’s our hearts desire that you leave feeling loved- with full cars, full tummies and most of all, full hearts!
đ± What are the core values of Rustic Grains?Â
We prayed for guidance and clarity as we began to think through our name, products, and mission when God then placed the verse Matthew 17:20 on our hearts. âHe replied, âBecause you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, âMove from here to there,â and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.â  This verse rings loud and clear to us each and every day in everything that we do.
From our company name, Rustic Grains, to working with grains of wood, we see the correlation as our faith as a grain of a mustard seedâŠand at the time we had no idea how important this verse would continue to be for our family.  Our business and family have had many trials since we started in 2017âŠups and downs.  We lost our home, shop, trailer, and inventory to a fire in 2019 and it caused our perspective to shift and focus on what truly mattersâŠloving people and the ones your around while shine the light and bringing them to Jesus!
đ± How did you come up with the idea for the mustard seed market?
We have been vendors at markets for years and had a desire to create something unique and differentâŠsomething set apart!  Something that was about more than just shopping, truly creating a family style experience that becomes a tradition each season.
đ± Why did you decide to make your markets seasonal?Â
Retail businesses are a tricky thing and come and go in waves based off the seasons. Â We want to give our vendors the best opportunity to sell their goods based off when customers are excited and ready to shop. Â The change of seasons leading into Spring, Fall, and of course Christmas do just that. Â There are so many fun aspects to each season that we try our best to capture in various ways from our vendors to our displays you can see around the grounds. Â Rustic Grains creates around 15 unique displays each market that coincide with the season we are in. On top of displays, we also create experiences that flow with the seasons from hay rides, pumpkin patches, Christmas tree lightings, milk & cookies with Santa, Spring pictures, etc.
đ± What criteria do you use to select vendors for your markets?
Our markets are juried and handpicked each season. Â Itâs very important for us to truly take out time to research each vendor before selecting them. Â We want to make sure that each vendor is unique and will be seen and stand out at MSM. Â We only allow so many vendors per âcategoryâ so that they have an amazing experience and room for so much success. Â Whether youâve been a small business for 20 years or for 2, we want you at MSM. Â
Rustic Grains was given a chance back in 2017 when we started at shows and we want to give all local businesses a chance to continue to grow and an environment to grow in. Â We dedicate a lot of time leading up to market as well as market week helping, guiding, and supporting our vendors to make sure their experience is the best it can be. Â At times, you can even find Daniel or I in a vendors booth helping them set up or figure out the best way to display their goods or set up their booth.
đ± Why is it important to you to have local and handmade items at your markets?
Handmade and local is the core of Rustic Grains.  Having vendors that are local and make their own goods not only means a lot to us, but also our customers.  So many of the items that you find at MSM are unique and one of a kindâŠthey canât be found at a big box store. Small shops like those at MSM, truly rely on markets to make a living for their family, just like Rustic Grains does.  They dedicate so much to their businesses and take such pride in the products they provide. Â
By customers coming and shopping with them and supporting them, it keeps their businesses thriving which in return helps support their families.  It also instills so much in their children and their future.  MSM also supports young entrepreneurs businesses.  We give kids a chance to sell their crafts or goods at our Little Saplings MarketâŠyou should see the smiles on these kids faces and joy they have when customers buy from them!
đ± What kind of food options are available at your markets?Â
So much foodâŠwe bring a variety of local top notch food trucks that offer everything from home style meals to brisket fries, charcuterie boards to hand tossed pizzas.  We also have vendors that offer hand churned ice cream to apple cider slushies, chocolate dipped pretzels to bbq sauce. Not only things you can eat while at the market, but also take home to enjoy.
đ± What is unique about Market 1720 compared to your other markets?Â
Market 1720 is a shop small market that is hosted for 1 day only. Â We wanted to create an event for vendors to be able to sell their good to the public outside of the BIG Mustard Seed Market events. Â We pop up all over town and invite the public to come shop for the day with over 20 local shop small businesses.
đ± Do you have plans to expand Rustic Grains or your markets in the future?Â
We do have plans to expand and are currently praying about what that could look like. Â At the end of the day, our goal for MSM to create a unique environment that leaves people feeling different than when they came in the doors. Â So whatever or however God calls us to do that next, our hands are willing and ready!
đ± How do you see Rustic Grains contributing to the local community? We saw that you are doing a baby wipe drive this fall. Can you give other examples of how you – and your vendors – give back? Â
We strive to create a unique way for customers along with MSM to give back at each of our markets.  Our biggest donation to date was last Christmas where as a community we were able to donate over 500 boxes of cereal to a local organization.  This fall we are hosting a baby wipe drive for A Caring Place, one of our community partners and we have big hopes to collect a lot of baby wipes from our customers, vendors, and MSM together!
đ± What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you face going forward?Â
Mustard Seed Market is continuing to grow as more and more vendors and customers hear and come experience the market. Â One of our biggest challenges to making sure we can continue to provide the experience our hearts desire to both our vendors and customers. Â We make it our goal to go above and beyond to make sure that everyone entering the gates of MSM feels loved and seen! Â
Regardless of where Mustard Seed Market lands, our mission remains the sameâŠ.to continue to shine the light!!!
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