A real place
Every project begins in a specific, identifiable landscape—not a generic idea of wilderness.
The Lodestar Project
A field project about place, memory, and experience
Lodestar asks how a wild place can remain active in our lives after we leave it—and what a responsible, useful translation of that place might look like.
Why it exists
The experience is always larger than the record.
Photographs can show where we stood. Maps can trace the route. But none of these fully convey the sensory and emotional reality of being somewhere wild.
Lodestar was created to explore that gap.
Working principles
What makes something a Lodestar project
A documented process
The route from fieldwork to release should be understandable, including what was collected, recorded, tested, or changed.
A useful form
The output should offer a genuine experience: something to bake with, listen to, learn from, follow, or keep.
Honest limits
Lodestar does not claim to bottle a landscape. It makes the relationship to place clear without overstating what any product can contain.
The process
Enter. Study. Translate. Release.
Enter the landscape
Spend time on the ground: hike, observe, listen, collect, record, and document a specific place.
Study what came back
Culture it, identify it, analyze it, edit it, test it, and keep a clear record of origin, method, and evidence.
Find the form
Let the fieldwork determine the medium: a living culture, soundscape, photograph, field note, route, recipe, or another useful experience.
Make the relationship visible
Share the result with the place, process, evidence, and limits intact so the story never outruns the facts.
The expanding project
More than one medium
The first Lodestar release is the Ishpatina Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter, developed using wild yeasts collected in the boreal forest near Ishpatina Ridge.
The unifying idea is a way of working: begin in the field, remain accountable to the place, and create something worth bringing home.
Interested in carrying a Lodestar release, collaborating on a place-based project, or exploring wild-yeast licensing? Explore Wholesale & Collaborations →