By D.A. Loeser Small

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

A Lake City woman is leading the charge in the area's eco-friendly retailing.

Susan Draves, owner of Hope's Harvest Natural Foods and Deli in Lake City, moved in June to a nearby space more than three times the size of her original location -- and added the deli part.

A Rochester native, Draves has been fine-tuning her crisply designed, colorful shop at 130 South Washington St. during its "soft opening" phase this summer.

"Local" is the mantra.

"In our bioregion, in this day and age, we have to be conscientious and wake up to the fact that we are running out of resources," Draves says. "If we support our local producers, we are going to have a kinder, gentler carbon footprint on our planet."

Much of Hope's Harvest's foodstuffs -- including meats, cheeses, eggs, honey, baked goods and fresh produce -- are from within 30 miles of the store.

Other products of note include soaps and non-toxic cleansers made in Minnesota, and the deli's to-go containers made from Greenware, a corn-based, American-made compostable material that looks and feels like plastic.

In the deli, Draves creates sandwiches, salads and fresh fruit smoothies (her fave is blueberry, cantaloupe and banana) and will offer cold gazpacho soup "as soon as the local tomatoes come." The deli also carries a strong, rich organic coffee (by Peace Coffee of Minneapolis) that will please many coffee connoisseurs, and helped keep this writer up into the wee hours in order to get this story in on deadline.

Draves has leased part of her shop space to Mark Connolly, a 30-year veteran potter and Lake City resident, who throws pots on site several days a week. She also offers services of a local masseuse for chair massages on Fridays, and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) classes. Beginning in fall, the store will be a site for poetry readings, health and wellness education classes and a Scrabble club.

Draves lives close to work and bicycles to her storefront.

She believes that educating customers is an important part of what they do, and is undaunted at the prospect of opening businesses in challenging economic times.

Draves, a mother of four, says: "I'm raising my children here. I want to feed them organic food. I want to feel the fear and do it anyway."

Greenspace is a weekly column on Tuesday.

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