An Update on Ross McKnight and Backwater Duck Farm

You'll remember he was targeted for expressing his Catholic faith

Ross McKnight is the head of his family of seven and his small farm, Backwater, providing foie gras, duck, chicken, etc to local restaurants.

He tells his own story within this update which I received from him today (and the original story is posted below):

How did it all begin?

We had posted the following - multi-faceted - cri de coeur on Friday, June 2nd, but things seemed to continue as normal until after the weekend, when, on Tuesday, June 6th, I received the first communication canceling a standing order of chickens. It was followed closely by a second communication from another of our accounts, from which I learned we’d be holding onto some ducks.

The Instagram feed post caption from June 2nd:

Americanization = homogenization = subjugation.

The push to have every mainstream value and holiday represented in some way in our Louisiana ought to make no sense at all to any Louisianais or Louisianaise, unless recognized as a forward offensive by an ever-encroaching enemy that has sought for generations to destroy our unique culture which is so intimately tied to our Catholic identity.

The attempted coup of the month of June is part of that offensive, but I can suggest some antidotes to a false pride:

1. As is our tradition, enthrone the Sacred Heart in your home this month, and place your family under the protection of the furnace of Christ's most merciful love.

2. Wear the Sacred Heart as a badge wherever you go! If you know your history, you'll know that it was meant to be the livery of France (and was that of the Vendéens)!

3. Pray the Rosary for the conversion of souls. Pray it in French.

4. Check out my most recent journal entry on our website.

For God and the King! For God the King! Pour Dieu et Le Roi ! Pour Dieu Le Roi !

After learning that our summer income was in great jeopardy, we experienced, of course, a variety of emotions stemming from the great uncertainty of how to care for our family of seven. I would be lying if I said I did not experience fear, anger, frustration, hopelessness. I reminded myself, with my rational faculty, that God would provide, but that didn’t assuage the tremendous feelings of distress - did I really believe that He would?

I remember some moments of incredulous levity. There is a certain humor to the world crashing down around you in punishment for saying something so salutary, true, positive, encouraging.

We were behind schedule. Chicks were arriving in the morning, and we had the unpleasant and intimidating task of cleaning out one of our buildings that we use as a brooder-house in preparation for baby birds … many of which now had no final destination as packaged products.

It was a mad situation, an absurdity. I was struggling not to explode, and I didn’t really succeed.

I remember sending out an appeal to our PMA members and to our Church community, and many responded, scheduling times to pick up product from the farm or at the Covington Farmers’ Market, but a few families - even several families - cannot consume the volume that is required to keep small-scale farmers in business.

[This seems like a good time for me to encourage you to buy from those who are your neighbors at your local farmers’ market. The greater number of families who decide to simply allow small-scale, local farmers to feed them, the greater resiliency these farmers will have to economic impacts of the sort we are currently experiencing.]

However, a message from a customer and acquaintance - now a good friend - who said he’d be in the area and wanted to stop by to purchase some meat set off a chain of events that can only be explained in reference to Divine Providence.

When Harrison arrived, I began chatting with him as if he had come to support us given the recent difficult news, but he actually had had no idea that any misfortune had befallen us. Once I explained the situation to him, he became very indignant, and it was his Twitter post following this exchange that caught the attention of Evita Duffy-Alfonso at The Federalist (article here). Evita and I had a very good discussion - being Catholic, I knew that she would understand my sentiments in a way that perhaps another journalist could not, particularly the idea that beauty and goodness can result from suffering of this sort, and that God always provides (“Deus Providebit”).

The situation then developed into a sort of conspiracy between Divine Providence and Catholics who were waiting in the wings to follow His promptings. Rachel Campos-Duffy (another fellow Catholic) invited me to be on Fox and Friends for an interview to occur on Saturday, June 10th. Following this interview and the accompanying Fox News headline, our lives changed rapidly and dramatically.

A fellow Franciscan tertiary showed up at the farm to deliver the Denarius.

Harrison had set up a donation site, and the generosity we witnessed was overwhelming.

Catholic media picked up the story, and I spoke with a variety of news organizations, including LifeSite, EWTN, The Remnant, CNA, OSV, and others.

There’s so much more I could tell about the activity of Divine Providence (such as the completely crazy story about our car troubles and how we ended up leaving on a previously-planned trip in an old, beat-up 2004 Odyssey and returning in something far better, and far safer), but I must leave some things to your imaginations.

I am not certain we are capable of properly expressing our gratitude to Mr. Juan - who helped us with the car - and to all those who donated to help our family in our time of need, but I also know, from the words of one, that these good people want “nothing” from us, that they gave to God in giving to us, that these truly were “alms” which we must humbly accept. And yet I have been so inspired and revivified by the goodness of my fellow man that I need to say “thank you”, because I saw so little hope for a Restoration before all of this.

But there is hope.

There is hope, most assuredly, in the Reign of Christ the King, but there may also be hope that the culture wars in our country are not lost.

Case in point: I was persecuted for promoting the Sacred Heart of Jesus and for condemning this “false pride” that celebrates crimes against human sexuality as God created it. How did God respond? He promoted His Sacred Heart all the more, and he cared for my family with unimaginable generosity.

So what next?

I have just finished an interview with Stew Peters today, Tuesday.

And I am not finished. We are not finished. In the face of a Great Reset, it is our duty to fight for a Great Restoration of Christian society under Christ the King, the Creator of human society and thus its proper Head.

Will you fight alongside me?

Our causes:

To support the promotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Social Reign of Christ the King: Click Here.

To purchase a chicken from Backwater Farmstead to be donated to the local Food Bank: Click Here.

Ross McKnight

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Here is the GiveSendGo to offer direct help to the McKnight Family.

We at The BEC contributed and we know several of you did, also. Thank you!

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The original story:

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Sadly, the “Culture War” is very real and we must fight daily to keep our freedom of speech and religion.

It’s gratifying to hear Mr McKnight’s continuing story.

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