We had the good fortune of connecting with Richard & Melissa Stewart and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Richard & Melissa, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Melissa has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Her childhood games consisted of playing ‘office’ and creating invoices and quoting jobs for ‘people’. “As I grew up, I just always knew I would work for myself. Granted I had to work at regular jobs, but I always had at least one side gig going at any given time. I spent over 25 years honing my skills and learning new ones, all of which have come in handy with this endeavor.”  When she met Rich, and they moved to his hometown of Groveland in 2019, it was at the beginning of the Covid situation, and they saw it as an opportunity to launch their first business SpiceStash. It was an instant hit and soon they started adding other small businesses to the lineup. Goatdog Graphics was next, then Melissa resurrected her original love, Reinventing Vintage. After that came Black Hat Apothecary and then they opened their shop, MotherLode Made (a collective of over 70 local artists, makers and craftspeople), in 2022 and shortly thereafter, added MotherHex WaxWorks.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As we said, we are a collective of artists, makers and craftspeople. We ourselves are makers and Melissa is an artist / craftsperson. What makes what we do special, is that we promote and advocate all forms of art. We don’t ask for those involved to give us any commission, work, or pay for supplies, etc. We work for free, full-time and and ask only for our makers to keep their commitment to us: communicate, keep their products stocked, and help promote our shop. We are very excited and proud of what we accomplished in our first year. We expanded exponentially, and brought awareness to our community. Our only goal is to support our community, and bring people together. Our hearts are 100% about giving and we believe that by giving, we in turn are the ones receiving.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We have adult kids and grandkids, so this is easy! If they were here for a full week, we would eat & drink at a number of kid friendly spots. We are lucky enough to have three choices for fresh coffee: Mountain Sage, Top of the Trail & The Grove, and each brings something special to the table. The best breakfast in the area is a tie: Tangled Hearts Bakery just up country a ways and The Copperpot Cafe in Greeley Hill.  For lunch and a lighter fare, we would grab sandwiches at Kevin n Randi’s Old Fashioned Meat Market & Deli and head over to The Grove for a scoop of craft ice cream. For dinner one night we would definitely hit Cocina Michoacana, a staple in Groveland, serving up some of the tastiest Mexican food you’ll ever taste. We’d also dine at The Grill at Pine Mountain Lake, and at both Two Guys Pizza & Pizza Factory.

We’d also take them on some nice drives up country, and take them to play in the water near Carlon Falls. There is a ton of old west gold country history here and we would show them some of the historical sites such as the Iron Door Saloon, The Charlotte & the Groveland Hotels.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We wouldn’t be where we are without the support of our local community at large. Our main shop is a local Maker’s Market and it is comprised of almost 80 local artists, makers & craftspeople. We live in a tourist town just outside of Yosemite National Park, so most local business relies on our tourism, but collectively we are mainly supported by our local community, which is so very awesome. So our shoutout goes to the locals!

Website: https://motherlodemade.com

Instagram: @motherlodemade

Facebook: @motherlodemade.enterprises

Other: Nextdoor: MotherLode Made Tiktok: MotherLode Made

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.