Letter: Mountain Feed worth a mention

I just read your holiday gift guide in the Dec. 10 issue. Our family has made a practice of trying to do as much of our shopping as we can from small, local businesses, because we love having them in our community and we want them to thrive. We regularly find gifts at Virgo Rising, Outback Trading, New Leaf, CaliZen and the Nature Store at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park (not a small business, but also worth supporting), and many of these were mentioned in your article. But one of our favorite spots for finding gifts, Mountain Feed and Farm in Ben Lomond, didn’t make it into your piece, and I think it should have, particularly with the new addition of an amazing kitchen store on their property.
We’ve been getting organic gardening and pet-related stuff at Mountain Feed since they opened, and we’ve patronized their little gift shop, Ember, where they sell a lot of locally made items, including jewelry, but when we stopped by the other night for a Christmas tree and were directed into the new kitchen store for hot cider, we were amazed by what they had to offer. In addition to the normal gadgets one would expect in a kitchen store, they had books and equipment for things like canning, cheese making, fruit drying, ice cream and yogurt making, sausage making, bread baking and poultry raising — all part of their commitment to self-sufficient living. The owners, Jorah and Andie, are so sweet and friendly, it adds an extra glow to the giving — like we get to wrap their good vibe in with each present.
So, while the holidays are about so much more than material items, I hope those people who are out buying presents anyway will consider enjoying the nonmaterial gift of supporting our local businesses.
Joni Martin, Felton