Ladies' Night Out & Holiday Makers Market
Hello, readers of Bleak Blog!
As you've no doubt come to expect, we found ourselves at a couple of really neat events over this past weekend.
Friday night we meandered over to the award-winning Rushford Meadery and Winery in Omro, Wisconsin for their annual craft market. As locations for a meadery/winery go, this one is definitely unique! Headquartered in a former elementary school, the entire building has been modified to suite the needs of the meadery. The old classrooms, staff rooms, gymnasium and such are now the tasting room, bottling/fermentation areas, and general event spaces. The open fields surrounding the school building contain a vineyard and rows of young cherry trees and apple trees, the latter producing an impressive 18 varieties of apple! Upon entering, we were greeted by one of the winery dogs, Tannin -- because what else would you name a winery dog? We were immediately made to feel at home by one of the owners, Shane Coombs. It was an enjoyably smooth evening of vending, with us being located near the main entrance to the school and other vendors snaking throughout the classrooms, and it was just a wonderful event that barely felt like work. Of course, we couldn't leave without acquiring a few bottles of mead and cider to take home, including one variety of hard cider that contains both cherries and ghost peppers: Ghost Blood! We can't wait to return and continue supporting such a rad local space.
On Saturday, we woke up bright and early for the annual Holiday Makers Market at the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Another incredibly unique space, the Thelma Center building originally started as a Masonic Temple in 1906 and has since been upgraded and tastefully modernized while still maintaining much of the character of the original building. Our booth was in the gorgeous Fountain City room, home to a stunning bar, eight large chandeliers, and many tasteful accents, everything decorated in a terrific Art Deco style. As the Thelma Center was one of the main stops on the FDL Downtown Wine Walk and we were near the bar, we found ourselves quite busy throughout the day! It seems nearly everyone in town was out shopping for the holidays or participating in the Wine Walk, and that ensured we barely had time to sit down once the day got underway.
As with every market weekend, it was great to see quite a few familiar faces, and meet a lot of really fantastic new folks. You are all why we keep doing this, and we wouldn't be where we are right now without you! So, from the bottom of our cold, black hearts (currently feeling a little warmer from all the mead), thank you all!
Until next time!
Sean