Vermont has embraced the idea of "farm-to-table" but what about "farm-to-apothecary?" Julia Clancy is a food writer for Seven Days and she recently visited the VPR Cafe to talk about farmers in Vermont who grow medicinal herbs for use in health and wellness practices.
Free Verse Farm in Chelsea is one of those places. The young owners, Taylor Katz and Misha Johnson, grow medicinal herbs and plants on their 40-acre farm. After harvest, they dry the herbs to make teas and herbal remedies and sell them at local farmers markets and online.
Before the two began their business, they looked to mentors like Vermont-based Rosemary Gladstar, owner of Sage Mountain School in East Barre for guidance on which plants and medicinals to grow and how to find, harvest and use them.
You can read more in Clancy's article, Herbalists Explore Plants and Wellness.
