Supplying Your Small Town Firearm, Fishing, and Grocery Needs
Stanton, Iowa (pop. 678) is our featured rural community this week! We'll be sharing success stories throughout the week from local leaders and business owners who are making an impact here.
Today's guest blog post is from Alex and Lindsay Sain of A&L Supply, offering firearms and ammunition, fishing supplies, and organic grocery items.
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We are A&L Supply, Alex and Lindsay are our names. We sell firearms and ammunition, fishing supplies, and organic grocery items. We have seven children, and you will likely find them running around the store as we are a family owned and operated business.
Alex has been interested in firearms since he was a child and has grown in knowledge of them greatly since he was a teenager. He personally reloads over 70 calibers in anything from black powder cartridges to modern smokeless powder cartridges. He plans to offer reloading and shooting classes.
In Luke 22:36, Jesus says, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.” We believe it is important to be armed and prepared for whatever happens in this life.
In addition to firearms and ammo, we sell reloading supplies and various holsters, gun cleaning supplies, and body armor. He has hunted and butchered our own meat for many years. Alex has harvested duck, goose, pheasant, turkey, deer, antelope, elk, and buffalo. He has also taken mountain lion, rattlesnakes, and prairie dogs. He has knowledge in muzzleloaders, black powder, modern precision rifles, machine guns, shotguns, pistols of all kinds, and suppressors. We offer gunsmithing to repair antique and modern firearms. We clean and even sight in customers' firearms. We also sell fishing rods and reels, lures and tackle boxes. He also has experience in rod and reel repair.
Alex is a NRA instructor, offering private shooting and classroom lessons, and is also certified to teach CPR/FirstAid classes. He has over 17 years experience in fire and EMS in remote areas of Wyoming, which allows him to bring more knowledge to the classroom.
Lindsay has been a from scratch chef-at-home since getting married to Alex in 2007. After Alex had health issues and we began having kids, she has learned a lot about foods and how they are our medicine and how to prepare them to be most beneficial to our bodies. As it says in the Bible in Genesis 1:29, “Behold,I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.” And the end of Ezekiel 47:12 says about food, “Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” We began changing how we eat and prepare food and our health improved. Lindsay dehydrates, cans(water bath and pressure can), freezes, and ferments food for her family. She has canned anything from wild game to beans to tomatoes. Lindsay ferments grains (that she grinds into flour) for sourdough and vegetables like sauerkraut and also makes kombucha regularly. Fermented foods enhance how the body takes in the vitamins and nutrients from the foods. Fermented foods are also easier for the body to digest and increase the good bacteria (probiotics) in your gut. It is a simple and cheap way to preserve food. She plans to offer fermentation classes.
We sell your regular organic baking goods, beans, and grains, as well as some canned food and frozen fruits and vegetables. Our most popular food item is granola. We have eight different flavors and they are all very good! We also accept special orders if you want to order something we do not have. We can get small amounts, from 1lb items up to 50lb bags/boxes of things.
On the rare occasion that she has extra time, Lindsay enjoys sewing various things, from clothes to quilts, as well as organizing and decluttering messy spaces.
We started our business in rural Wyoming and sold firearms and ammo part time up until we moved to Iowa in the spring of 2023. We moved here to be close to friends and be part of a small community. We purchased a building in April and began remodeling and were able to open our doors at the beginning of June. We have expanded our inventory to accommodate having grocery items and fishing gear. We love being able to equip people with the ability and knowledge to hunt/gather food, whether it be through hunting, fishing, or buying groceries!
Find out more about the rural revival happening in Stanton, Iowa here:
EPISODE 147 // JENNA RAMSEY OF STANTON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND KEVIN CABBAGE OF FMTC
AN UNEXPECTED PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO TURNED EVENT SPACE
GROWING A SMALL TOWN AG REAL ESTATE COMPANY
We’re challenging small towns to create opportunities and shift the mindset of our kids so they choose to stay in our rural communities instead of leave.