You are invited to our Medieval Feast and Wassailing of the Apple Trees…

When you hear about wassailing, likely you think of caroling.  Well, another type of wassailing exists, orchard-visiting wassailing.  An ancient custom that originated in the cider-producing region of western England, orchard-wassailing awakens the apple trees and chases away the evil spirits.  This is accomplished by making a great deal of noise by singing, shouting, and banging on pots, pans, and drums. 

Today, this custom of blessing the crops and singing to good health is being practiced once again in western England, parts of North America, and here at Maiden Rock Cidery and Winery.  We invite you to join us for our Medieval Feast and Wassailing of the Apple Trees Saturday, December 7, from 5 - 9 p.m.  We will have an authentic medieval five-course feast and special Wassail beverages prepared and served by staff in medieval attire.  Our menu gives you the choice of roasted wild boar or giant smoked turkey legs and several kinds of Wassail drinks.

We are excited to welcome the Minneapolis-based group, The Laughing Hearts, to lead us in our celebration  With twenty plus years experience in revelry and interactive theater with the Renaissance Festival circuit, these ladies are multi-talented Celtic/Medieval/Renaissance musicians featuring didgeridoo, doumbaek, hand percussion, mandolin, bodhran, bagpipes, whistles, flute, guitar, harmonica, and vocal performances.  They bring a jolly good season to any Wassailer looking to bring forth a joyful noise!

Toast the apple trees with us.  Since seating is limited, we recommend you make your reservations early.  Today is good.  Tickets for adults are $50, and children under 12 are $25.  Groups of six or more are $40 for adults and $15 for children 12 and under.  Click here to register online or call (715) 448-3502.  Find more information on our Medieval Feast and Wassailing of the Apple Trees here.

We’d love to have you Wassail with us!
Herdie, Carol, and Staff
Maiden Rock Winery & Cidery    

Enjoy the lights of John’s inspiration this season…

When my husband John and I moved back to the Midwest from Pasadena, California, in 2012, we were attracted to the natural beauty and historical significance of Stockholm.  We bought TansyHus, built in 1904 by John Lindgren, the village blacksmith.  We employed our experience and talents to turn the house that sits proudly on a hill well away from busy Highway 35 into a relaxing vacation rental. 

John had a concern about the village, though.  As an architect and international lighting designer, John had an affinity for light.  To his dismay, he found Stockholm chilly and dark.  After dark during winter, he marveled at the village’s beauty.  The snowlight reflected off the shop windows and created a picturesque scene. This prompted him to think of a way to replicate the light and enhance it all through the village.  On his nightly walks through the village with Bernadette, our golden doodle, and Charlie, our terrier mix, he began to imagine a Festival of Lights.  He envisioned all the stores embellished with similar white icicle lights.  He would give each building individual attention and situate the lights to complement its architectural details.  Dubbing the production TheFestival of Lights, John presented his inspiration to the merchants, and they embraced it enthusiastically with money and encouragement.

When you visit Stockholm this winter season, you will see the results of John’s inspiration, nearly 1,000’ of energy efficient LED lights operating from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily.  Notice the pine trees and other common area features that will also be illuminated, accentuating spaces and individual shop keepers‘seasonal decorations.   Take the opportunity on Saturday, December 7, to talk with John, iesna, aia, from 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. about lighting.  He will be in The Flat above Ingebretsens .   You can enjoy Swedish treats and wassail at the same time. 

We will culminate our first annual Festival of Lights on December 21, the winter solstice.  The program is being designed in collaboration with Mykelbust+Sears, the designers of Stockholm’s Fire & Art 2007-2009.  We’ll give you more details on the event later. 

Light is “that quality or tool by which we have gained almost all the knowledge we have about our universe.”  Jean Houston, author of Mystical Dogs in animals as guides to our inner life.  Enjoy the lights of Stockholm this season.

We’d love to see you again,

John and Sandra Mykelbust

owners and managers,

TansyHus, a Vacation Rental in Stockholm   

Visit a restored house from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s grandparents homestead site…

In the spring of 2012, my husband Stanton and I, who are sculptors, had the opportunity to save an early pioneer house by moving it from a neighbor’s land to ours. The house, built on a site homesteaded by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s grandparents in the nineteenth century, had been vacant for years and was in a state of disrepair.  “There were holes in the roof,” recounts my husband Stanton.  “The building was still sound enough to be salvaged, but I felt this was its last chance.” 

We moved the house.  You can see a picture of the move here.  The small house was framed on a sill of hand-hewn logs.  We placed the house on a new foundation, stabilized it structurally, and gave it a new roof.

We incorporated both traditional and contemporary elements in the building’s restoration.  We added root cellar space into the new foundation to store harvest from the small farm which is part of our Myklebust+Sears studio. We warmed a walk-out lower level of the building with in-floor heat and in 2012 installed a solar array to power the area.  We keep an antique Scandinavian frame loom there.

In addition to our sculptures, Stanton and I raise sheep at Black Cat Farmstead.  From their wool, we handspin Myklebust’s yarns, using several looms and a variety of spinning wheels and fiber tools, both antique and contemporary.  We are using the house as a store to sell these yarns.  See them here.  We have also created a workspace and teaching venue in the house for traditional fiber arts.  Though most of my career has been involved in the production of large-scale sculptures for public spaces, I’ve had a long-standing interest in fiber and textile work.  Moving our studio here to rural Pepin County presented an opportunity to more deeply explore this aspect of my artistic production.  I have also set aside part of the little house as a gallery to feature work by local artists and am changing these exhibits regularly.

By last summer, we had the house ready to welcome visitors as the Black Cat Farmstead Fiber Studio and Farm Store.  We invite you to stop by.  We open the studio to the public May through Country Christmas weekend, December 7 - 8, and all year by appointment.  When you visit the studio, expect to find a wide range of activities taking place, including fiber preparation, handspinning, weaving, and spinning wheel repair.  You will likely encounter at least one of the studio’s namesake felines.  Black is the favorite color for cats here at our farm and at the neighbor’s place.  Before we moved the little house, feral black cats used the old cellar as a shelter.  I like to imagine that they may be the descendants of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s cat, Black Susan. 

Stanton and I wanted to restore and re-use of the little house and incorporate it into the working landscape of our studio to connect both the past and the future  We were happy to have the opportunity to save a piece of local history.  The house is a living example of how people who arrived here a hundred and fifty years ago lived and worked.  It’s a great place to create.  Our site is like a big laboratory, where we can experiment with new ideas related to sculpture, plantings, and landscapes.

We hope you visit soon.

We'd love to meet you,
Andrea Myklebust and Stanton Sears
Black Cat Farmstead Fiber Studio & Farm Store
 

Join the fun this weekend.

Join the fun of our annual Women’s Weekend this Saturday and Sunday, November 2 and 3.  Look at all the events we have planned for you.
·    Sandy’s Pick what you want from the spring Neon Buddha line, and Neon Buddha will make it just for you. Relax with a $1 per minute chair massage.   
·    Abode Gallery Meet the ladies from Mirasol Farms and sample their handmade, organic body products.  Talk to stone artist Richard Erickson, jewelry artist Lucy Elliot, and painter Maria Kowalski. 
·    Stockholm General   Taste wines and specialty foods.  Saturday taste award-winning wines from local winery Villa Bellezza. 
·    Stockholm Pie Company Meet Janet Garretson, the pie lady, and try six different pies from 2 - 3 p.m.  $10 per person.  Reservations required. 715-442-5505.
·    Ingebretsen's  Learn the pattern and brush strokes to create your own Swedish sandwich board from 10 - 4.  $95 class fee covers all materials and a light snack.  Call 612-729-9333 to register.
·    Stone Fern Gallery  Stop by for a professional makeup session.  Sue Rowe, Hilarious Bear Lady, will host the event, and a Henna artist will join us, apply henna, and explain the tradition behind the art form.
·    Huggs Bubba   Watch spinning artist Joy Gerad’s spinning demonstration from 11 - 2 Saturday.
·    Black Cat Farmstead  Find out how to create your own yarn and meet the sheep who produce the wool at the Yarn Farm. 
·    Running Dog Ranch Folk Craft and Learning Center  Learn to make unique gifts for the holidays in our Scandinavian fiber arts classes.  Call 651-206-6719 to sign up.  Check us out, take a tour, and meet our friendly critters.
·    The Palate  Enjoy delicious foods that Mary of Eat Drink will stir up in our kitchen.  Get the recipes, too.
·    Widespot Performing Arts Center  Top off your Saturday at Awkward:  An Evening of Mostly True Storytelling with Music by Minneapolis actor/writer Amy Salloway and music by Patrick DuPaul starting at 7 p.m.  Tickets are $10.  Go to www.widespotperformingarts.org

Browse the shops for gifts and holiday ideas.  Relax at one of our eateries. 

We’d love to see you again,
Stockholm Merchants