Patagonia Bird and Pet, at the corner of McKeown and 3rd Avenues, opened early this summer and provides locals with most of the same services and products available at its larger sister store, Sonoita Feed. The Patagonia store stocks a variety of pet food and bird seed, along with books, feeders, sunglasses, pet toys, buckets, and other items. You won’t find saddle blankets or hay bales, but if you ask owner Steve Schmitt, he’ll bring what you need from the other store or can get it. “I’m just waiting for people to tell me what they want,” says the easygoing shopkeeper. Oh, yes, and you can also buy a copy of Richard Collins’s book Riding Behind the Padre (reviewed this month on page 18). Steve takes cash for this sale and gives it directly to Richard.
Most days, when you go into the store Steve’s retro turquoise radio will be tuned to KPUP. This is the only station he can get, but, luckily, it’s his favorite. He says when the store gets a little ahead financially he wants to become a KPUP underwriter. Prices at the small corner store are competitive, and service couldn’t be friendlier. Steve, who spends the quiet times in the store listening to KPUP and reading books about history and spirituality, is always happy to have a customer.
Steve and his wife, Carol, love Patagonia and hope to make it their permanent home one day. Right now they live in Sonoita, where they own and raise Boer goats, fruits, and vegetables on their five-acre farm, in addition to running Sonoita Feed. If you chat with Steve for a few minutes, you might learn that Boer goats were bred in South Africa to have tasty and healthful meat and that you can actually order goat meat from Schmitt’s Walk in Beauty Farms and have it delivered to Patagonia the next day (not Sunday or Monday). It will also become clear that the Schmitts believe and practice sustainability, growing much of what they eat and contributing to the local economy.
If you feed the birds, if you have a pet, if you need a pair of sunglasses or a copy of Riding Behind the Padre, or if you would like to try some goat meat, stop by and tell Steve Schmitt what you are looking for. He’s likely to have it or know where and how to get it for you.