ENID, Okla. — If one of your New Year’s goals is to eat healthy or get back to the basics, then Rowdy Stickhorse (Wild Acres) Market and Apothecary may be the place you want to visit.
Born from family farms in the Covington area, this farm fresh market is located at 626 S. Hoover. A walk through the shop is an adventure into healthy products from goat milk soaps and creams, to herbal teas, holistic medicines and natural foods.
Paulette Rink and her husband Gary started Rowdy Stickhorse with the goat milk soaps and creams before expanding into holistic medicine, then into the Farmhouse Fresh Coffee Shop and Deli.
Breakfast and lunch offers different selections of homemade pastries, soups, quiches and homemade pasta and casseroles.
“All of our food comes from farmers and local producers like ourselves who raise their products naturally,” Rink said. “It was an easy transition for us to open this business because we make products and raise everything naturally and always have.”
She said their chickens are free-range and roam the entire farm. Their Nigerian dwarf and Saanen goats are for milking and their Kiko goats are for meat.
Other farm animals include Gloucestershire old spot pigs, Dexter and Spanish longhorn cattle and Southdown/Friesian sheep. All of their animals are free range.
The Rinks do not use any pesticides or chemicals, nor do they use any hormones or antibiotics.
“We do not use anything we would not give ourselves,” Rink said. “We are a start-to-finish farm.”
She said that means they raise all their animals from incubation to slaughter. They use a rotational grazing system and chicken manure to fertilize the pastures.
The Rinks have been at their current location in Enid for 10 years and were across the street for five years, mainly selling food. During the growing season, they have a farmers’ market on the weekend.
Clayton Stevicks came into the market Friday, Jan. 17, 2025, for honey.
“They carry my favorite honey I use to sweeten things, especially the teas I drink,” he said. “I drink golden turmeric tea for my joints.”
His wife Hannah selected cinnamon drops for nausea and castor seed oil for stretch marks.
The shelves of Rowdy Stickhorse’s large refrigerators are stocked with a variety of soups, meats and casseroles along with vacuum packed vegetables and fruits from the late summer harvest.
“Our customers are those who want to know where their food comes from and trust us,” Rink said. “They also depend on me to give them information about our apothecary items and how they can be used for better health.”
The mantra of the Rink family is raising a self-reliant family with happy, healthy animals in their surrounding. When their only daughter, Bailey, was in high school, she place third nationally in an FFA project for making a laundry powder product that was natural.
“She grinded up goat soap, sodium carbonate, washing soda and an herb for scent,” Rink said.
Their soaps have fun names like Coconut Cowgirl, Country Hippie and a more masculine variety called Black Bear, a sandalwood and vanilla powder soap named after the local Black Bear Creek, which runs across their land.
It’s obvious the Rinks love their business and way of life.
“It’s fun to visit with our customers and try to help them,” Rink said.
More than 20 years ago, Rink and several other natural farmers were responsible for getting legislation passed allowing the meat produced on their farms to be sold by the piece. They have always believed in what they do.
“We were the first in the country to have a farmer’s market on wheels, and we took our produce around the state in an old bus,” Rink said. “We had lots of customers until Whole Foods and some of those markets started.”
Now, they are busy serving their customers from one location with a commitment to provide the highest-quality products.
Rowdy Stickhorse Market and Apothecary is open 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
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