Doe Hill Mercantile

03/14/2026

Warning sad post:

Sometimes the hardest things to lose are the things you tried the hardest to save.

I just wanted to clarify what is happening with the store, because folks are messaging to see if I am open the next two weekends.

When I bought the 1893 Doe Hill Mercantile, the goal was simple. Preserve a small piece of local history that had managed to survive mostly unchanged while so much else disappeared. My hope was to eventually open it as a community art cooperative. A place where local artists, makers, and neighbors could sell their work without paying for expensive shop space or festival tents. Just a small percentage to cover insurance and help keep the old building standing.

It was never meant to make money. It was meant to keep something alive. Both as a building, but also as a way to support the local talents of folks that could always use the extra money, but never realized how gifted they are and that they could make money from those skills.

Unfortunately life had other plans.
What finally ended that dream was not the building, the work, or the cost. It was realizing that trying to preserve something is not possible when I couldn’t even live there in peace. This was not a community wide issue, so many were so excited to see it being repaired.

For the near future the mercantile will remain closed while I decide how best to market and sell it. That is not something I ever wanted to consider.

Sometimes the saddest part of losing something isn’t that it disappeared. It’s knowing it didn’t have to. 😕

11/23/2025

Woot! We are so fortunate 😊💕

2025 National Christmas Tree chosen from Highland County!
In a press release given to The News-Gazette: "The George Washington and Jefferson National Forest delivered a 32-foot red spruce tree to the nation’s capital for the holiday season. In collaboration with the National Park Service, on November 15, the James River and Warm Springs Ranger District selected the tree from the high-elevation mountains of Highland County, Virginia for transport to the White House.

This marks the third year the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and National Park Service have partnered to provide the National Christmas Tree and the second year for the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. The Monongahela National Forest from nearby West Virginia provided the 2023 National Christmas Tree. "

05/20/2025

I love that we are “beyond cell phones” here in Doe Hill. It’s what has kept it so wild and beautiful! Highland County VA

03/07/2025

So we won’t be open this year for maple 🍁 festival, we have repairs and renovations happening right now. (Unplanned thanks to ruptured pipes!) So please bear with us 💕

07/21/2024

Story 153

Joe: babe! Babe! Quick wake up there is a herd of goats 🐐 or sheep 🐑 or something in the yard (breathe folks he can now tell the difference 😆😘)

Me: first thought: well there goes all my wedding flowers! 🙄 💐

Whelp also say goodbye to homegrown fresh strawberries 🍓 and raspberries in the wedding cake 🎂. A marauding herd of goats decided that the plants were SUPER tasty. 😂

If you can’t laugh at life 😆 then it’s going to be a miserable ride!

Please note: this was not a complaint- it’s just part and parcel of living where I do! I love it- goats and all

07/15/2024

Check this coolness out! These are antique trade tokens from The Doe Hill Mercantile. I have some other ones I found metal detecting, or were gifted them from neighbors and friends. You can roughly date them by the owners of the store. I have a Shoulders & Jones $1 token, which is very rare, as they were in business only for a few years. I would love to collect one of each! Time to bust out the metal detector 😬

https://tokencatalog.com/display_records.php?view=All%2BListings&ta_country=U.S.A.&td_state=Virginia&td_city=&collection=-1&SearchString=&SubmitFilter=Search&AlsoSeeOption=&DisplayIndexingOption=&SearchStringEveryWord=Doe+hill&SearchStringAnyWord=&ImagedOnlyOption=&action=DisplayRecords

07/12/2024

Would anyone be up for helping spread around some mulch and help plant sunflowers? I am hoping to put in some beautiful rows in the field to the right of the mercantile. Flowers to me bring with them a sense of joy! If you are able to come over Sunday Morning around 9ish, the day is supposed to be clear, and high 80s.

Bonus! If you help, you can contact me when they are blooming and I will cut you a stunning bouquet.

Photo: Jonathan Elcock

06/23/2024

Drying straw flowers for a surprise!

06/19/2024

Other than a VERY “distracting” cat photobombing me, do you see what I did here?! 🤦‍♀️ Like seriously, it’s the equivalent of sewing the sleeves on backwards, you only notice after you finish one side 😂

06/07/2024

A “Doe Hill Potato” casserole!!! These are all bred from SEED! I have been selecting for the past three years, and have now bred a potato that you can leave in the ground up in Highland. Just cover with 6-12” of stray or hay. You can dig potatoes all winter and the ground keeps them great! Also this essentially ends up being a “perennial” potato, in that it will come back year after year

05/20/2024

I always know I am “home” when I wake up to this misty, almost timeless view across the Moyer’s field looking towards Harrisonburg.

I was born and bred listening to John Denver and I think he was right “ALMOST heaven, West Virginia”- why? Because Heaven to me is Highland County Virginia

05/20/2024

I am so fortunate that this is my morning view