Fair Trade Blog

If you haven’t seen us featured in the latest Discover Wisconsin episode, check us out here. You can see the Hotel Fortney, where we are located, and the inside of the store during the 30 minute show. I’m in there too. If you leave a comment, please be kind!

We were pleased to see our store so well represented in the clips from downtown as well as the large number of local businesses that were mentioned.  We are located in a fun little corner of the state, so I hope that the program will inspire you to come and visit!

Last fall I was lamenting to a friend and customer about the state of the economy. He said he didn’t think it had anything to do with the amount of money available, but everything to do with the velocity of money.

I understood what he meant right away. There is still money out there. Lots of it, in fact.  The country is awash in stimulus money from residential energy grants, to new infrastructure projects, to cash for clunkers, and that’s just the tip of the pile. 

Main Street needs it’s share of that new money.  As an accelerator of dollars, there is none better than your local downtown businesses. For every $100 spent, about $63 gets recycled through local hands like yours and mine.  

That’s the beauty of the program known as the 3/50 project.  It’s brilliantly simple.  Think of three independently-owned businesses that you would miss if they closed.   Stop at each one and say hello while you pick up something that will make someone smile. 

If you spend a total of just $50 at three independently-owned businesses each month you can help keep them open.  If just half of all the employed in the U.S. spent that much each month it means local businesses would benefit from $42.6 billion in revenue. 

We’re all getting back to basics and there’s nothing more basic than local brick and mortar.  Don’t forget to visit the one’s near you.

Keep shopping your good values!

It’s hard to mistake with it’s huge slightly fuzzy looking leaves and sturdy, sour stems. Because Rhubarb is unique, we decided to name our new store after it.

Last week we threw open the doors on our newest retail space that features food, gifts, and artisan works from the Driftless Region. Our new place is right next to Driftless Fair Traders in the Hotel Fortney. It wasn’t easy to round up all the great products we currently have, but there are more, and we’re working to offer all the best of our region.  

Since Driftless Fair Traders has a global focus, we started thinking about what we could do to promote the local economy.  Our area is rich in agricultural and artistic heritage, so we decided to bring it all together in a celebration of our area.  

Kickapoo Coffee is just one of our great products.  They were awarded a high rating in Consumer Reports last year among Fair Trade coffees.  Their roastery is just down the road from our store.  We have cans of their robust and fragrant whole beans. 

Sweet Prairie Farm honey products is another local line we are completely excited about.  They’re located in the little town of Coon Valley just a half and hour from here.   Their honey cremes and body care products have us all buzzing. 

Leslie from SpinDrift Weavers just brought in a basket of her handspun yarn from her sheep herd.  We chatted about a customer that bought one of her handmade scarves this last weekend.  There are so many wonderful stories behind all of our local finds. 

If you stop by, you can also pick up LuSa Organics soaps and body care items, Papa Pat’s Farmhouse Recipe jams, soups, and pancack mixes, Martha’s Hot Mustard, and Potter’s Crackers. 

Rhubarb merchandize isn’t available online yet, but one day soon, you’ll be able to order a little taste of the Driftless Region no matter where you are!

I’ll bet a lot of you wonder what our name is all about. Fair Trade you understand, but “Driftless?” After living here for over five years, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the region in which I live is quite unique.

We have a stunning new poster that shares our distinctive area with photos and graphics by Rick LaMartina.  Most of each sale goes to the Crawford Stewardship Project,  a group focuses on preserving the natural integrity of the Driftless Region.

Some 10,000 years ago, retreating glaciers left behind silt, clay, gravel, and boulders which filled in the features they had covered. This fill is called “drift” and turned much of the Midwest into flat land and rolling hills. 

Our region of the Midwest proved to be an obstacle for the advancing ice, and the glaciers slid around this region.  Untouched by grinding layers of ice, our home was left with deep river valleys, majestic bluffs, rock outcroppings, springs, and caves. The Kickapoo River, which runs past our front yard, is thought to be one of the oldest rivers in the world. 

Not only is the craggy, distinguished face of the Driftless Region special, but the underlying rock turns out to be unique as well. Karst is a type of limestone bedrock that has been made permeable by the action of acidic rainwater.  Over thousands of years, the slow erosion of rain water has produced a complex network of channels, caves, tunnels, shafts, and other features.  Underground water circulates quickly in the Driftless rock — up to 300 feet per day compared to a few feet in other types of rock layers.

The porous nature of the region makes it fragile.  Pollutants and bacteria can migrate quickly into wells and springs, collecting in areas used for drinking water. 

That’s why more and more people are taking up the cause of preserving our unique environment.

Keep shopping your good values!

We’ve decided to move, but not far!

If I look to the left from our desk and register, I can see the great new space we are moving into in early January.  Retail stores don’t usually take such short hop when they move, but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity.  When the lobby space of the historic Hotel Fortney opened up, we jumped at the chance to move into the grand old rooms facing Main Street.

In the meantime, we’ve relocated some of our beautifully distinctive Tropical Salvage furniture and we’re dressing the place up with local arts and crafts until our official change of address in a few weeks.  We have jewelry, painted ornaments, paintings, woodcarving, and more clever work to offer through Christmas Eve.

Spreading into the new space before moving out of the old has been a challenge, but thanks to some volunteer efforts, we are displaying in the old and new just in time for our annual Friends and Family Sale Saturday, Dec. 6.  

Check out the photo of one of our new windows painted by local artist Sandra Berger.  You can see all her window paintings through the holidays. 

Peace Dove art in window of Hotel Fortney.

Our location is changing, but our mission is not.  We will continue to offer fairly traded goods that you can feel good about purchasing for yourself, or giving to others. Come and visit us while we make the transition.  

Keep shopping your good values!

The world celebrates fair trade today, May 10th.  More than ever, the world needs the solutions that Fair Trade offers.  Achieving and sustaining a clean environment is one of the benefits of Fair Trade. 

Ecology is this year’s theme.  It’s a natural focus that fits perfectly with the goals of all of us involved in Fair Trade.  From the web home of the World Fair Trade Day:

Fair Trade is a force for protecting the environment while promoting sustainable development. Fair Trade favours the sustainable use of natural resources and production methods that are not capital and oil intensive, favouring hand production and organic agriculture - to reduce the carbon footprint.

Events are happening all over the world, including right here in Viroqua, the town we call home.  Our friends at Kickapoo Coffee are participating in the World Fair Trade Day Coffee Break.  They hope this will be the largest coffee break the world has ever seen as millions sip a cup of Fair Trade brew to honor the accomplishments of the Fair Trade Coffee Industry.  

Fairly traded coffee is still the largest component of Fair Trade business around the world.   We sell our fair share of coffee here at Driftless Fair Traders, along with our teas and other gourmet items.

If you would like to know more about this special day, follow this link to World Fair Trade Day. 

Keep shopping your good values! 

In it’s hey day, the Hotel Fortney was a way stop for tobacco buyers, traveling salesman, bussiness men and any tired soul with the price of a room.  Today, the building houses the working poor, the disabled, the retired, and our store, Driftless Fair Traders.  You can see an historical painting of the old girl here.  

Craig Anderson, Kathi Irwin, and Beatrice Small bought the Viroqua, Wis., building in late 2005, and have been cleaning and renovating the building ever since.  Their mission for the resident space is to provide accomodations for low income people.  

We are pleased that Saint Mary Parish Social Concerns Committee plans to help meet the food needs of the residents. 

One Sunday a month, the committee hopes to arrange for a meal at the Fortney.   In addition, the committee hopes to work with other parish groups to bring excess food to the Fortney, such as from funerals or other parish gatherings.  It’s already happening.  Just this morning four women dropped off food from a parish breakfast.  

There are children and less capable individuals living in the hotel, so I will feel better knowing they are getting wholesome food on a regular basis.   

Keep shopping your good values.

Kile