crowd funding

Successful Entrepreneurship Takes a Village

What do FedEx, AirBnB, and Evernote have in common? We can all agree they are hugely successful companies. They’re also companies from which most of us benefit on a regular basis. Interestingly, all three also were once startups on the verge of collapse when they were saved by investors who cared enough to lend a hand. So when I heard one of my favorite specialty cheesemakers, Landmark Creamery, needed a hand, I immediately donated to Go Fund Me and I then went shopping for three of its cheeses.

Landmark Creamery is a labor of love for Anna Landmark and Anna Thomas Bates. Since 2014, “the Anna’s,” as they’re known, have been churning, and rubbing, and aging small batches of cheese made from local, small, family-owned dairy farms. You can find their products online, and at Madison area specialty stores, co-ops and restaurants. Two years ago they opened their own retail shop in the quaint village of Paoli, where they sell not only their own cheeses but also those of other Wisconsin cheesemakers. Coincidentally, in the next few weeks you can find them featured on PBS’s Wisconsin Foodie.

So, it seems Landmark Creamery has recently found itself in a bit of a bind. According to the Go Fund Me page, the ladies lost over 1,000 pounds of cheese after their cold storage company threw it out. The Anna’s had fallen behind on payments and owed the company $1,000. According to the page, they told the company owner they would pay as soon as possible, but the owner declared the space abandoned and threw away the cheese. The cheese, valued at $20,000, is a hand-crafted product needing six months to age, so it’s not easily replaced.

Seeing Both Sides of the Cheese Wheel

As a small business owner, I understand the importance of being paid. The storage facility provided a necessary service to Landmark Creamery and it was right to expect the agreed-upon compensation. You bet I’m all about responsibilities and holding up one’s end of the bargain.

But I also remember those startup days, struggling to succeed and stretching money to pay the bills. I appreciate all the help I received back then (my husband’s support was and still is a necessary component to me staying in business). I firmly believe when we uphold one another, we all stand stronger; that supportive action today generates positive reactions tomorrow. Kudos to the Culinary Ladies Collective for setting up the Go Fund Me for Landmark Creamery. This network of female chefs, food and beverage producers, growers and artisans is an example of how we go far when we go together.

I’m also a believer in communication. In Adunate’s 14-year running, I’ve only had a few clients fail to pay me on a timely basis. Those who respected me enough to talk to me about it are still my clients today. Those who ghosted me, well, you can bet I now refuse to work with them. According to the Go Fund Me page, Landmark Creamery had just made a payment on the balance and had communicated with the storage facility they would pay the rest as soon as possible. If this was the case, I just can’t see how destroying $20,000 of product for a $1,000 bill was beneficial to anyone, including the owner of the storage facility.

Be Part of the Village

Folks, if you’re a fan of small businesses and local foods, if you love Wisconsin specialty cheese, if you have a minute and a few extra dollars, please consider supporting Landmark Creamery. You may very well be benefiting more people than you know, not to mention keeping some fantastic cheese in production!


Wednesday Webs: A Great Rural Art Project to Support

Indiegogo project by Fermentation Fest and Shimon & Lindemann

I’ve been enamored by Shimon & Lindemann since I saw them years ago in their Unmasked & Anonymous exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Once, I even suckered my husband into helping me emulate them for a photography class assignment, which involved him sitting in a rocking chair outdoors in the middle of winter. So when Donna, of Wormfarm Institute, asked me to help promote the project they’re doing together, I was happy to jump on the wagon. The bandshell wagon, that is.

Harvestore Bandshell

According to their Indiegogo page, “Artists John Shimon and Julie Lindemann designed the Harvestore Bandshell as both an homage to Wisconsin’s agricultural history and as a unique and mobile performance venue.” This half-a-historic-Harvestore-silo stage will showcase poets, musicians and drama performances at the 2104 Fermentation Fest, a 9-day festival of art, agriculture and fermented food in Sauk County, Wisconsin.

In case you’re wondering, Indiegogo is one of those super, people-minded crowd funding organizations that enable even the little guys to pursue their greater purposes. Perhaps you might consider contributing to this very cool project?

Anyway, I know I’ve been orating endlessly on the Fermentation Fest (when I take on a project I give it my all, including in-your-face, excessive promotion of my client!). I’ve talked about the food, but have I mentioned there’s art? One of the highlights of Fermentation Fest is the 50-mile, self-guided tour—DTour, as it’s been branded—through the rolling farmlands of Sauk County. But it’s not just farmlands. There’s art. Like 3-D art installations in the middle of hayfields. And performances—Pasture Performances—in, yes, animal pastures. And artisan food stands in the middle of nowhere.

This week my list of Wednesday Webs is a sampling of art in Sauk County, either during Fermenation Fest or any other time. You’ve got to come and see!

Pasture Performances at Fermentation Fest:

Sauk County Art Attractions

How You Can Preserve the Good Food Movement

Garlic cloves hanging in old barnI just can’t tell you how good our Fachwerk barn smells right now! Last week we harvested garlic and now one of the hand-hewn beams of our barn is fully lined with this earthy delight. If former lives were such a thing, I’m sure I was an Italian maiden and this brick barn of mine presided over an old-world villa.

Don’tcha think?

Like everything else from our garden, this garlic is so-o-o-o much more flavorful than anything you buy in the grocery store. If there’s a disadvantage to raising your own food, it’s that you become acutely aware of just how tasteless and removed from its natural state our retail food has become. Call me a snob (or an empty-nester who can now afford to spend more), but more times than not I’ll go out of my way to shop at Willy Street Cooperative in Madison, and other such stores, simply because its food is organic and/or locally-grown. Think fresh, flavorful and healthy. (Unfortunately, I know I’m using more time and fuel — it’s not easy being green.)

Have you ever read Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé? I first ran into this book while working for the Youth Conservation Corp in the late 1970s. Such ecological food practices were revolutionary back then and even though some of her theories have since been refuted, Lappé is still credited to introducing the active food movement we know today. What I find interesting is that 40 years later, her forewarnings of an unsustainable food system are now here to haunt us. And she was right. Today we have declining health, depleted soils, and a problem of affordably producing quality food, simply because the good food movement is not as much of American life as it should be.

In his article Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Farmers, Bren Smith, a farmer himself, offers suggestions for preserving the good food movement. He writes of political agendas, like supporting affordable health care and shifting subsidies from factory farms to family farms. But guess what, there are things we can do at the grassroots level that are equally important for supporting good food—simple things that not only benefit ourselves but society as a whole.

Here are some ideas:

  • Be willing to spend more for better food, and ultimately better health.
  • Support small farms instead of factory farms—research the farm you support, maybe even take a drive to the country to see it.
  • Buy a CSA share from a farm near you.
  • Support food cooperatives, become an owner for greater discounts.
  • If you don’t have access to grocery stores that carry local and organic food, ask your grocer to do so. Do the same with the restaurants you patronize.
  • Become a farmer yourself, grow a garden.
  • Speak up! Write about it. Talk about it on social media. Make people aware of what you and others are doing with good food.

Wednesday Webs: Empowering the People

City of Toronto Archives, public domain

In the old days entrepreneurs were at the mercy of banks or venture capitalists for financing their innovative ideas. Nowadays crowdfunding provides resources at the grassroots level. It’s a “teamwork makes the dream work” approach that offers even the little guy an opportunity for success.

Maybe you too have a dream?

  • Likened to an old-fashioned barn raising, crowdfunding is successful when recipients work hard and give back in return. This restaurant owner offered free meals.
  • A creative print and design business became reality with the help of Kickstarter, the largest of crowdfunding communities.
  • Crowdfunding is also for non-profits. StartSomeGood, who actually prefers the term peerfunding, connects social entrepreneurs with people who want to help.
  • Kiva helps under-served and poor people around the world. Just a $25 loan empowers people to create a better life for themselves.
  • A top ten list of crowdfunding websites.