What Comes Next

Over a month ago, we presented on the project to 50 Gustavus community members. During the Q&A we got many iterations of the What are you doing next? question. We chuckled and gave awkward non answers and moved on. On the car ride home this question circulated. And just like the birth of this project, our next idea was born from spontaneous conversation. 

Sharing this project is core to our mission. After nine months we’ve learned this year cannot be shared in just words. Our experience can only be truly felt through the dirt under your fingernails, soot on your face, deer fat in your hair, deer fat on your clothes, deer fat between your toes. In the last month we’ve worked hard and now are officially announcing our next stage of Locovorism. Running the Icy Strait Deer Lard tours. 

The idea is simple. Anyone - friends, neighbors, or any loco-curious individual - is invited to join us for the true lived locavore life. We understand it is not feasible for most people to uproot their lives for all twelve months of the year. So we’ve worked to highlight the best elements of all the seasons into a few short weeks. 

Guests will sleep in our 800 sq. foot cabin– six to a bed (200 sq. feet will be refilled with canning jars and totes in various states of decay.) The running water and all soap based products will be removed from the house and replaced with natural alternatives (mostly based in fish oil fermented in black trash bags). Days begin at 6 am to the sound of one of the hosts rolling out of their creaky plywood bed, farting and running to the outhouse. 

More than simply living, this project is about doing. Visitors will experience a diverse array of day time activities highlighting the year round experience. Guests can spend their days picking slugs into rotting overflowing vinegar containers, climbing scraggly spruce trees in the rain, or cutting root maggots out of turnips. If they’re looking for something more relaxed, they can pick fish bones out of stock in the kitchen while someone in caffeine withdrawal washes almost all the dishes. 

Food will, of course, remain a central element. Guests can choose from a menu of:

Breakfast

• Undercooked potatoes with slightly rotten salmon pancakes

• Sweet option: mashed potato pancakes with a berry sauce (berries heavily spiced with hemlock needles)

Lunch

• Leftover breakfast

• Leftover breakfast from yesterday

• Leftover breakfast from last week

Dinner

• Under or overcooked salmon 

• Fish soup with your choice of salmon eggs or milt (but you must choose one, we need to use them)

• Side of leftover lunch

Drinks

• Unlimited borrage tea (it’s been rumored that if you drink enough possible psychedelic effects may ensue)

• Lukewarm cranberry juice with almost equal parts cinnamon

• Hot cranberry juice with melted deer fat

Perhaps our most unexpected discovery of the year are the mental and physical benefits from living with a constant protective layer of ungulate fat. Providing visitors with maximum fat bathing benefits in their short stay is our highest priority. With thrice daily fat smoke immersion opportunities and the ability to live in our house that is thoroughly saturated already you won’t be disappointed. 

Bookings open April 31st! We cannot wait to share the locovore life far and wide.