Creative Sustenance

Taking some time today to reformat the blogsite. As you can see by the new banner, we are changing course a bit, moving from a purely Stumpjack Coffee Company-focused agenda to one that heralds the values and lifestyle we've supported and lived as both individuals and concerned members of the larger community (local, national, global). Stumpjack has always been about community, creativity, mutual support, and positive growth. Concepts such as sustainability; artisan farming, food and craft production; fair trade practices; independent music and art; concern for the environment along with a high regard for capitalism...this is the stuff we've embraced.

To that we'll be adding, with this blogsite, much more content on things like gardening and foraging; preparing, cooking and preserving foods; making more and/or better use of the resources and items we have available to us; living a little more self-reliant lifestyle (perhaps a little further off the grid) and saving money in the process; and an appreciation for the so-called "simpler things" in life. This site is something of a work in progress, and we hope you'll join in it with us by not only reading the posts, but also by participating and sharing your own experiences and adventures in pursuing a simpler, fuller and more satisfying life. Grow some of your own food, bake some bread, go hunting or fishing, engage in some creative recycling, make some art, buy some local artisan cheese, frequent the farmers market, ride your bike, check out some live music (and drop some dollars into that artist's tip jar), get involved in some community club or organization...and so on and so on... Hopefully, we'll be able to share some useful and entertaining information here at stumpjack.com, and we hope you'll feel encouraged to share some of your own ideas and tips through the comments section.

morels for breakfast

The title: "Creative Sustenance" comes from one of my facebook photo albums. That album, "Vittles as Creative Sustenance," is just a visual record of some of the food I've prepared at home, hopefully in somewhat creative and visually appealing ways. But I think "creative sustenance" applies to more than just food. In the context of its use here I think it encompasses a lot of the things we "need" to sustain us, physically, mentally and spiritually. Hiking the woods, for example, and finding a handful of morel mushrooms is certainly good physically (you get some exercise and some tasty nutrients) but I think it also stimulates one's mind (just how are you going to prepare those delicious little mushrooms, and what else did you see while you were looking for them?); and certainly a hike through nature is good for the spirit and ought to deepen our appreciation for what the earth has to offer.

Finally, while Stumpjack Coffee Company in Two Rivers is now a joyful memory there are still a few things I'll be sharing from that experience. For example, I recently re-discovered a small cache of photographs of the old Stumpjack space before it became the cool Stumpjack space you knew it as. I'll share those images in the next couple weeks. And as we move gradually toward re-opening another incarnation of Stumpjack we'll share that news with you as well.