The Magic of 2024

Sometimes, there are years that change your life indefinitely--like for all of time. 2024 was that year for us. What had started as a passion to grow vegetables for the fun and nourishment of self became all encompassing and engrossing; we felt compelled to grow for our community, the state, the country and maybe the world one day. So, we applied to be on Home Town, an HGTV show that is produced by RTR Media. The people who work on the shows are home-towners themselves or transplants who have found Laurel to be a welcoming respite from the hustle and bustle of big city life.

Ben and Erin went to Ole Miss just as I did. For years, they were intrepid entrepreneurs and community members here in Laurel, Erin an artist and Ben the youth minister in the local church where Michael and I married shortly before moving to California. 

In 2011, my dad purchased a watercolor painting created by Erin of Rowan Oak, the home of William Faulkner, in Oxford, MS. A true fan of Southern Studies in college, Faulkner was one of my favorite authors and Rowan Oak holds a special place in my heart as I would often take my studies to the serene grounds. There I found solace-- a place that connected past and present. Apparently, I was not alone in that practice.

It was in 2021, after an Alabama, Ole Miss football game that I attended with my dad, the fabulous Ed Diket, that I met my hubby to be. So when that painting arrived with some furniture to fill out our home in Citrus Heights, CA, I was floored. It felt like a giant MS hug (not unlike the amazing hugs given by Ben). To Erin, I will treasure this painting as I lay dying.

Then come full circle, the Napier's are now participants in the dreams we have to produce whole food products that are beautiful, flavorful and meaningful. Laurel is a place of dreaming and realizing dreams. So many small towns are.