TO BECOME A PICKIN’ TOTE…
You've been through it.
Sewn nearly a century ago. Miles traveled. Hauled on trucks. Gashed at grain elevators. Stenciled with the names of farmers long gone. Patched from the inside with worn-out overalls that couldn't be mended. Covered in mud, dirt, and grain. Left out in the elements or tucked away in a quiet old barn.
Then, one day, someone finds you—and eventually, I find them.
You're back on a truck, then a plane, through a warehouse, onto a conveyor belt, and onto another truck. The first sunlight you see is my face as I tear open the box, wondering where you've been and all you've witnessed along the way.
We waste no time giving you a bath with soap, suds, and fresh, crisp water. Then you're gently wrung out until we can carry you to the clothesline, where your dust and whispers drift away on the mountain wind.
After you dry, you're folded in thirds and stacked neatly on shelves, waiting for the day you'll be useful again.
When that day comes, you're carefully cut open. Hidden patches are revealed. Tiny remnants of seeds and grain, tucked away in the corners for decades, are finally shaken free. Then you become something even greater than your first purpose.
"A walking scrapbook," my friend Stef once said.
Each piece is an ode to my creative spirit, my mom's sewing skills, the story of the sack, and the thoughtfully curated textiles collected over the years by generations of makers who loved needle and thread, warp and weft, and plenty of ironing the old-fashioned way.
A Pickin' Tote is much more than another tote bag. It carries countless old stories while becoming part of your own. You give it another chapter, and one day, hopefully, it will be passed down so even more stories can continue.
Let's continue the journey of these old textiles by giving them a new story while still honoring theirs.
That's us.
That's LS Mercantile Co.