Rabbit Island Reverse Garage Sale: Starts Today!
Rabbit Island is in need of a few supplies. In the spirit of our project we are hoping to source some of these items second-hand before falling back on retail outlets. (Similar to this idea, perhaps.)
It works like this: If you have any of these supplies in your garage/attic/basement and are willing to part with them for a fair price please get in touch and we will happily purchase them. All items will be used to keep island artists safe and outfitted with basic, functional tools and help encourage an ethic of rational conservation.
Our first resident artist of 2012, Jeremy Quentin, landed on the island this week and is in the midst of several days of solitude (and a character building thunderstorm) while finishing up a new album. Andrew Ranville will be arriving on July 5th from London in preparation for his Rabbit Island show at the DeVos Art Museum in September. Sara Maynard arrives from San Francisco on July 20th.
contact: rob@rabbit-island.org
note: list will be updated to reflect remaining needs
+ one sturdy wheelbarrow, metal
+ one set wooden oars
+ pulleys - various sizes (sailing blocks, generic pulleys, etc.)
+ two thick wool blankets
+ old sailboat sails for shelter projects
+ kayaking-style life jackets
+ two small dry-bags for emergency boat kits
+ candles - various
+ ropes and lines - of various caliber (for dockage, mooring, general, etc.)
+ stainless mixing bowls - small, medium, large
+ binoculars
+ carpentry nails and screws
+ medium expedition duffle bags
+ sturdy canvas bags for transport of veggies/grains/pasta
+ standard garden tools
+ brass, iron or aluminum bell, 7" - 10" diameter
+ tired climbing gear: ropes, carabiners, cams (to be used for dockage, not climbing)
+ two regular garden spades
+ reliable ladder
+ two handheld compasses
+ two 8 - 15lb anchors
+ 300 feet of anchor line
+ swimming fins, masks
+ 3/2 or 2/1 wetsuits, full or shorty styles
+ used kayak: 14-16’ with 21-23" beam, touring type, molded
+ used laser sailboat
Besides the sale price we’ll take care of shipping. Supplies can be sent to the address below or we can arrange local pick-up in the Upper Peninsula (or NYC):
Rabbit Island
138 S. Iroquois Street,
Laurium, MI 49913
Left: A jar of thimbleberry jam made by our neighbor Scott Hannula across the lake in Rabbit Bay. The berries were picked by Scott’s nephew, Craig, in the woods behind his camp somewhere between Rabbit Bay and Dreamland. (We think–he wouldn’t tell!). The jam itself was prepared in about twenty minutes using a pot of boiling water to sterilize the jar and a slurry of berries and sugar which was heated, poured, and then capped. The results are simple and tasty.
Right: A jar of concord grape jam made by chef Kelly Geary of Sweet Deliverance in Brooklyn. Similar direction. Also simple and tasty. But this jar, notably, is award winning.
And not from her grandmother.
In 2012 Kelly’s jam received a Good Food Award from a panel of judges including Alice Waters and Ruth Reichl on the merits of it being “tasty”, “authentic” and “responsible”. The awards program attempted to be "realistic and inclusive of food and drink producers who have demonstrated a commitment to be part of building a tasty, authentic and responsible food system, going far above and beyond the status quo […] rooted in a belief that by being inclusive, our American food system will more closely embody the principles of tasty, authentic and responsible more quickly.“
We mention this because it is, well, pretty cool, but also because of the growing trend of thoughtful awards being handed out across various artisanal disciplines which add to our culture while exhibiting restraint and/or simplicity. Recognizing classical solutions for life’s basic needs and attempting to place them within the context of the present will always be an important part of addressing larger social and environmental problems. Especially amidst the risk of cultural amnesia, superfluous mechanization, inefficient energy use, ecosystem subdivision, etc. Maintaining a traditional relationship to natural resources that is tactile, visual and olfactory yields products of lasting value, or minimal externality.
The lesson of the two jars of jam is then, perhaps, that simplicity is difficult to improve upon and restraint is worthy of reward, especially in the context of the distraction offered by the modern marketplace. Such an idea is not lamentably hip, as some critics have implied (regarding similarly themed subjects), but rather is an idea with roots in the acknowledgement that more is not always better and that systems should indeed change to facilitate such principles. In the woods and in the city jam is the same. And Scott’s thimbleberry jam is certainly "tasty”, “authentic” and “responsible”. But in the urban context jam-making is different and may well be considered an effort to conscientiously hold back, or evidence of a moral decision, or restraint, which is indeed something to celebrate. The art is in the refusal. Morality catches up with science. Subsistence is put in a new cultural context. (It can be such in the woods as well, of course, and anywhere in between).
This larger idea fits well with the ethic of the island: live as well as one can with as little impact on the sustainable function of the system. From this perspective jam is valid and representative.
One of these days, perhaps, we’ll find the time to make our own Rabbit Island Awards to honor ideas and individuals we find notable from the island perspective. You know, like Nobel Prizes. They might just show up in the mail unannounced. (Sans the million dollars.) Who knows.
Yesterday we sat down with Kelly for a cup of coffee in Brooklyn and discussed a number of island and food-related ideas. She hooked us up with the jar of jam above and a few others. Recently she came across our call for help with island food and got in touch. Plenty was bounced around and we’re happy to say that she’ll be collaborating with us this summer–helping curate our kitchen, experimenting with methods of cooking on the island (fire, coleman stove, fish smoker, stone oven), working on some of her own projects, and helping organize a special “Wild Foods Dinner” in late July or early August (more on this to come!). The whole undertaking will be a bit on-the-fly but we’re super excited to see what evolves.
Kelly will also be enlisting the help of friends at the Underground Food Collective in Madison, Wisconsin, who are in the process of opening a new restaurant, Forequarter. Some potential collaborations already being tossed around include an interactive map of the island as well as a few videos similar in nature to the ones posted on their website. They’re very well done, have a look.
Lastly, in an interesting twist of the jam community, our good buddy Noah’s family business, American Spoon Foods, of Petoskey, Michigan, also recieved a Good Food Award in 2012. And get this… for thimbleberry jam from the Upper Peninsula! It makes sense, of course, that Noah shares a connection with us from Michigan and also that Kelly discovered us online and touched base in New York, but the fact that both had winning jams in the same category of the same competition in the same year is a bit unbelievable. They never met, though curiously they had tried each other’s jam! Not being superstitious we’re unsure what to make of this but we won’t be underestimating the the importance of luck (and internet) anytime soon.
We’re excited to host Kelly et al. on the island this summer and receive advice from Noah from a few hours downstate (where he’ll be getting to know a newborn baby boy), and are excited to push the Rabbit Island food culture forward. Culture, after all, is what it is all about.
Related food posts:
+ Michael Pollan’s Invitation to Rabbit Island (still hoping…)
+ Call for Recipes for the Rabbit Island Cookbook (still accepting)
Art + Athletics + Wilderness = Awesome. Artist Sarah Maynard of Oakland, CA, is raising money on Kickstarter for her residency on Rabbit Island this summer titled Building the Ocean. She will be making art and training for a 10k open water swim in Vermont later in the summer. Give her a hand if you can. 18 days to go and she is halfway there. Kickstarter.
Meet the new Rabbit Island ferry: a Boston Whaler 17 Montauk. “The Unsinkable Legend”. May she stay off the rocks.
Field Notes from the 1987 DNR survey of the heron rookery. The effect of time on the island’s wildlife is interesting. It appears the herons have been moving steadily northeast over the last several decades.
+ “Former heron rookery, now cormorants 1987”
+ “Many blown down GBH [Great Blue Heron] nests”
+ “1987 Approx bound. of Grt. Bl. Hrn colony, more nests toward the NE”
Last fall when we drafted the Rabbit Island Architecture Competition we didn’t know what to expect. We only knew that one of the fundamental premises of the project (perhaps the most fundamental premise) was that anything made by man on the 0.3% of island land that would not remain wilderness forever should be approached with foresight, sensitivity to the surrounding ecosystem, and, above all, restraint. Excess, after all, does not imply greater value. This idea of efficient value creation, in the context of architecture, led us to several reference points rooted in the following basic contrast: the vast creative force of man vs. the value of undisturbed nature itself. We believe that the success of the organization of these two subjects relative to one another is paramount, and feel creations that achieve the rare combination of simplicity, utility, and beauty are the most timeless.
With this in mind we approached the competition entries. There were seven solutions submitted in total spanning a wide variety of conceptual references, technical complexity and philosophical tones. It goes without saying that we are beyond thankful and very impressed by each entry. They are listed here as submitted for review.
one + two + three + four + five + six + seven
After deliberations by the jury composed of architects, artists and practicing designers, three groups have been selected to further collaborate on the island this summer. Congratulations to the winners. (Details for the winning designers to follow):
+ Jono Sturt and Thomas Affeldt
+ Mark Moskovitz and William Ransom
The Sturt and Affeldt submission was chosen because of its simplicity and feasibility as well as its conceptual relevance. There is a quiet beauty underlying the team’s designs which openly accept the natural surroundings as integral elements. It is also obvious that the team understands well the limitations imposed by a location as remote as Rabbit Island. Particularly popular with the jury was the platform concept composing the beautifully presented forest studio. And in general we like that the Sturt and Affeldt plan promotes the creation of daily cadence and custom from a broad spatial perspective, involving sunrise and sunset specifically as well as various points along the northwest and northeast ends of the island. This is conceived with a very light, minimalist, touch. We also liked the simple rendering of the bathing and toilet facilities: functional, moveable when necessary, sufficient. We were further impressed by Sturt and Affeldt’s discussion of the island project and metaphorical comparison of it to an “umbilical cord”, transporting “only what is most valuable, nutritious, vital.” This is a concise idea and one that we appreciated. More thorough discussion of this can be found on their submission page. Lastly, the physical manifestation of the presentation itself–two 11’ x 17’ slabs of hardwood fastened together with a cloth binding, containing four folding printed sections inside–also deserves merit and was certainly the most thoughtful submission from that perspective.
Will Holman’s submission was perceived as a relevant and poetic solution that was philosophically grounded. His rock and wood structure relies almost exclusively on island material, is exceptionally simple, and incorporates its ultimate obsolescence into original design. It has built-in history and in the long run requires little if any remediation. This was very well received and novel in conception. The jury did have a few technical suggestions they would have liked to see applied to the design–roof pitch, overhang construction, etc–and some minor qualms with the form, but felt overall that the fundamental idea as submitted was very strong. The stairs were appreciated by several members of the jury as an interesting multi-purpose common area and one member had this to say about the submission in general: “I love the poetics of the idea, and the drawing of the ruins at the end about killed me. His is a pretty brave design proposal–‘here is my idea… here it is after it falls apart’. Balsy.” More than that, it is inspiring. Overall Will’s solution is not only feasible but also successful philosophically and anthropologically. These ideas, more than the aesthetics of the solution themselves, pushed the jury to see great future potential in collaboration. More discussion of the ideas underpinning Will’s design can be found on his blog here.
The Moskovitz Ransom Designs submission was chosen because of its abstract conceptual merits: shelter becomes art. Or shelter as art. Their design was certainly the most provocative of those submitted. Though this proposal did leave some jurors longing for further technical detail and others wishing for variations of the suggested stone forms, the force of its concept was exceptional and relevant. All felt this design was flexible, local, and inspired the mind to wander as much as sculpture as functional shelter. We especially liked the particlelized composition of the general site plan which we felt insinuated the feel of a small village. We also appreciated the water features discussed by the designers intended to complement swimming and dockage. These could be re-imagined with each passage of winter’s brutal ice load across the sandstone shoreline. Overall we felt this duo to be the truest image makers of the group and envisioned the presence of their abstractions, in moderation, changing the context of the site from one of wilderness to one with an inflection of wonder or curiosity, while not detracting from the wilderness itself.
Part Two of the results to follow including discussion of the other submissions and details of the winning designers’ involvement in the project.