🏘️ The Inn at the Ecovillage 🌳 One day left to Double your Impact!

Dear friends of Dancing Rabbit,

In a moment I’ll hand it over to Daniel for a look back at what 2023 was like for the Milkweed Mercantile, our community's beloved inn, gathering space, and commercial kitchen. First, I want to let you know that we only have one day left to reach our $12,000 matching goal! Huge thanks to the Mycelium Foundation and John Simpson for believing so deeply in our mission to offer their support in this way. So far, we’ve raised $3301. We’re going to need your help to reach our goal!

 

Donate! Double your impact, and help us build a resilient future.

In community,

Eric

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A new beginning for DR’s Milkweed Mercantile

By Daniel Pugh, general manager of the Mercantile

2023 was the second program season, and first full year, in which DR’s nonprofit began operating the Milkweed Mercantile. Josephine joined us in the spring as the innkeeper and she quickly created an AirBnB listing for the Mercantile so that we could welcome more guests outside of programs. This was hugely successful for us as we hosted non-program guests more than 70 nights this year! The Milkweed Mercantile also gained superhost status on AirBnB, which will help us attract even more guests next year.

As always, the Milkweed Mercantile served as one of the main housing options during programs and we hosted about 150 guest nights for program participants. As a way to keep prospective Rabbits close, CSCC awarded some people who had participated in our events with some additional nights at the Mercantile, so that they could come back a second time to continue to get to know the DR community.

We were also proud to cooperate with programs by serving meals in the kitchen and dining room, including all meals for the first three nights of visitor programs this year. And our facilities were used for other programs, such as the natural dyes workshop and an artisanal butchering workshop. The Mercantile continues to play an important role as a social center for activities within Dancing Rabbit. Events like coffee mornings, poker night and Happy Hour are regular parts of our week, and the Dairy Coop is now in their second year of using the Mercantile to filter and process milk. We are also a meeting place for special events that draw Rabbits together like the Holiday Crafts Fair, Makers Morning, and Night of the Poet.

We have not returned to public food service like pizza night and we no longer maintain a liquor license. However, we have been happy to see Rabbits finding ways to use the space for internal commerce. We now have a small space in the dining room set aside as an art market, where craftspeople from DR and surrounding intentional communities can offer their works for sale. Individuals have also used the kitchen to make bread and other food products for sale. The Dairy Coop has used the kitchen to expand offerings, including amazing ice cream. And the kegerators have been repurposed to sell locally produced natural sodas.

Looking ahead to the coming year, we expect to continue on much the same trajectory. Our priority will be growing the inn business outside of programs and we hope to at least double the number of overnight guests. Part of this will focus on developing experiences for visitors that allow them to get a taste of ecovillage life without committing to a full program. Josephine has left her position as the innkeeper, so we hope to start working with someone new in the coming months. And of course we hope to remain an important gathering place for Rabbits and our neighbors.

Next time you are in the area, stop by for a visit!