Soapery to bring handmade personal care products, herbs to downtown

Feb. 2, 2021

A new retail store aims to bring locally sourced, handmade soaps to downtown Sioux Falls while also creating a space for vendors to sell products significant to indigenous culture.

Sweetgrass Soapery and All Walks Trading Co. are working to get their location near Sixth Street and Main Avenue ready for a early to mid-March opening.

Owner Miranda Koltze has been making soaps for more than a decade.

It all started when she and her husband planted their first garden about 13 years ago, she said. They later moved to an acreage and began selling vegetables at a farmers market.

When they started adding livestock to the mix, Koltze was looking for ways to make use of everything on the farm, including the animal fats, and she turned to soap.

She began selling soap at the farmers market as well, and it took off.

“People were buying our soaps a lot faster than our veggies,” Koltze said. “We shifted our focus.”

Bringing those soaps and other natural personal care products such as bath bombs, salves, balms and deodorants into a brick-and-mortar location has been Koltze’s dream for years.

Additionally, she’s creating a hub for other local makers and for shoppers looking to connect with Native American culture. Other items will include star quilts, hand-beaded jewelry and bulk herbs such as sweetgrass and sage.

“A lot of people have kind of lost their connections to more of the roots of how the beaded jewelry came along, what is the star quilt. … There’s a lot of stories to be told behind all of these items I’m bringing in,” Koltze said.

Reconnecting with indigenous roots is a core part of her own life. Koltze was taken from her biological Native American parents at age 9 and adopted into a white family at 13. As she has gotten older, it has become more important to her to trace back the lines to her heritage. The All Walks Trading Co. name is a nod to her birth name, Walks, just one more way the store is connecting her to her roots.

“This whole shop is going to kind of be my physical expression of who I am,” Koltze said.

Shoppers can follow updates on the business’ Facebook page.

 

Want to stay in the know?

Get our free business news delivered to your inbox.



Soapery to bring handmade personal care products, herbs to downtown

A new retail store aims to bring locally sourced, handmade soaps to downtown Sioux Falls while also creating a space for vendors to sell products significant to indigenous culture.

News Tip

Have a business news item to share with us?

Scroll to top