The Milkweed Mercantile is a pillar of Dancing Rabbit. Since opening in 2010, the Mercantile has served our community in innumerable ways. It’s a cherished community gathering space, a beautiful and comfortable inn, and above all, a bridge for guests to come and see that living a radically sustainable lifestyle is not only achievable, but fun and deeply rewarding.

Over the years, the Mercantile has shifted from being privately owned and operated, to operated by a worker co-op, to, most recently, being operated by the Center for Sustainable and Cooperative Culture (CSCC), DR’s nonprofit. This month, DR’s land trust purchased the building; ensuring the Mercantile will serve Dancing Rabbit and our guests for generations to come. 

However, the building needs some major upgrades to realize its full potential. Due to an inadequate heating system, the whole upstairs can not be properly heated. This severely limits the functionality of the building in winter, and thus our ability to host guests, welcome newcomers into our community, grow, and achieve our mission. However, with your help, we can remedy this! 

And TRIPLE your impact! Thanks to some incredible supporters* everything up to $9,250 will be matched, twice! This is a truly rare chance to make the most with your dollars, and this opportunity ends January 1.

Additionally, half of the total money raised, including matches, will be used to make crucial improvements to the Milkweed Mercantile’s heating system.

*The Hothem family, Nathan Brown, Sue Ann Kortkamp, Rebecca Prosser, and Ed and Wendy Pultz. Thank you!

Now, let’s take a look at the past, present, and future of the Milkweed Mercantile.

Past and Present 

Kurt with Virgil, and Alline

Thanks to the incredible efforts of the original Mercantile owner/builders Kurt Kessner and Alline Anderson, and with the help of many Rabbits and volunteers, the Milkweed Mercantile opened its doors in 2010. This beautiful and unique building has many ecologically conscious design features, including straw bale walls with lime plaster, waterless composting toilets, a lagoon for managing grey water, solar panels, and massive rainwater collection and storage. Over the years it has served us in so many ways. These include:

• Eco inn. When people come to DR, there is a LOT to get used to. The inn is a bridge; it’s clean and comfortable, with hot showers, no-fuss composting toilets, air conditioning, and a cozy and charming atmosphere. This allows countless visitors to feel safe and at home in a new and unfamiliar place.
• Commercial kitchen space. The kitchen at the Mercantile is fully equipped and is used for cooking meals for programs and big events. The Dairy Co-op uses it regularly for filtering milk and cheesemaking. The newly formed canning co-op also used it this year to preserve the harvest from our gardens. Ben, of Fox Holler Farmstead, uses the space to process pastured meat and make charcuterie.  
• Coffee mornings. Every morning coffee is served by a rotating cast of Rabbit volunteers. Community members, visitors, inn and program guests gather to share stories, talk DR politics, and slow down and connect with each other before going about their day. 

A couple things which have been discontinued, at least for now:

• Weekly pizza nights. In addition to serving delicious pizza with local and organic ingredients, pizza nights were lively events which helped to build bridges between Rabbits and locals.
• The town pub. For a while, the Mercantile was a fully operational bar with all manner of libations available for purchase. This was before my time, but I hear it made for a vibrant atmosphere and a regular connection point with the local community. Its legacy lives on with regular BYOB happy hours.

At this point, the identity and character of Dancing Rabbit is deeply interwoven with the Milkweed Mercantile. Not only is it a crucial link to our neighbors and guests from afar, it is a special gathering space for daily rituals and seasonal celebrations.

Some annual traditions for which the Mercantile has become the de-facto home for include: 

• Holiday Faire, where we share and sell our crafts, treats, and trinkets with each other in preparation for the winter gift-giving holidays.
• Night of the Poet, inspired by Robert Burns Night, when we come together for a feast of haggis, neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes) and recite our favorite poems and songs.
• Dinner with the Board of Directors. Every year we host our Board of Directors for an extended weekend retreat. As part of this weekend we have a big community dinner and everyone shares happenings of  the year.

Left to right: Writer’s Retreat, Open House, and the Canning Coop in action. 

What Does the Future Hold?

As beautiful and useful as this building has been, there are some repairs and updates that are needed for it to realize its full potential, including adding a heating system upstairs to properly heat the building in winter, and hot water storage. So far, these limitations have restricted the inn’s operating season to April through October. Now that our land trust owns this building, we can tap into our collective resources and fundraising ability, to make some key investments which will have a BIG impact on the future of this building and our community. 

We currently have a general roadmap of the improvements we need to make with some rough cost estimates.

Phase 1: Install radiators in the upstairs rooms to make better use of the heat that is already being generated by the wood boiler. This alone would make the building habitable in winter, though not particularly efficient. Estimated cost: $3-6k.

Phase 2: Install a large (300-500 gallon) insulated water tank to store heated water, with an insulated room around the boiler and water tank. This will drastically cut down on the amount of wood needed to heat the building and the water. Estimated cost: $6-8k.

With these two improvements, the building will be comfortable and efficient all year. There are further upgrades we could pursue further down the road, chiefly a solar hot water system and a more efficient boiler. Both of these would be significantly more expensive than phase 1 and 2, and more deliberation is needed.

It’s hard to underestimate the impact this increased functionality would have on the village. The greatest advantage is that we could rent rooms at the Mercantile all year. Not only would this expand our ability to host overnight guests, work exchangers, and hold programs throughout the year; it would expand our ability to house Rabbits through the winter months. Many newer residents often camp or stay in various three season dwellings during the warmer months. The Mercantile could be the perfect winter boarding house for these new folks, since we will be renting fewer of the rooms to overnight guests during these months.

I’m also excited by the opportunities created by having space to host short-term guests in the winter. In spite of the cold, and actually thanks to it, there’s a lot of work to do, and many wonderful experiences to have: gathering firewood, prescribed burns on the prairie, ice skating, cross country skiing and sweating in the sauna (with intermittent cold plunges in the pond) to name a few. It would also allow us to more comfortably host our family members for the winter holidays. I’ve always found winter to be a magical time at Dancing Rabbit. Being able to share that with more people would be a gift. Maybe you could be one of them?

With gratitude,

Eric Mease 

Villager // Land Steward // Development Lead

Center for Sustainable and Cooperative Culture at