Holiday Gift Ideas (and a Sale!) from Goldthread

Dear Friends,
As we head towards the holidays, Goldthread Apothecary in Florence is filling up with exciting new products, and we hope that by the time you've finished reading this newsletter you've decided on the perfect gift for everyone on your list!

First, we've expanded our bulk tea section where, in addition to artisan teas from around the world, you will now find traditional matcha and maté accessories, gorgeous flowering tea sets from Numi Tea (that's one blooming, above), lidded tea cups, super-convenient (and BPA-free) on-the-go french press mugs in 6 glossy colors, and more.

We also have lots of stocking stuffers to choose from, like Juniper Ridge incense made with 100% wild-harvested leaves, wood and resins from the mountains of the West. There are also new charcoals and Japanese incense bowls for burning the Floracopeia resins we carry — like Black Copal, gathered from wild "elephant trees" of the Sonoran Desert of northern Mexico.

Speaking of Floracopeia, we recently restocked our essential oil display with some of our customer's favorites like tea tree, Frankincense, and peppermint — and have Aroma-Globe nebulizers in which to diffuse them. Compact, quiet and attractive, Aroma Globes are the most technologically advanced nebulizing diffuser systems on the market today. In fact, if you need to restore some focus during the hectic holiday season (and who doesn't?) an excellent mental clarity blend of essential oils for diffusing is 4 drops of lime, 2 drops tulsi and 2 drops of peppermint.

If you haven't yet experienced our super-comfy "Farm to Pharmacy" organic bamboo and cotton tee shirts, you can find them in a new display at the front of the store, with more colors and sizes due to arrive this week.

As always, we have a wide variety of Goldthread-grown culinary spice mixes, teas, hydrosols, herb-infused honeys, tinctures and elixirs, many of which are currently on sale for 20% off! Organic, local, hand-harvested and produced in small batches, these special items are rich with the colors, scents, and tastes of our Conway summer gardens and make wonderful, unique holiday and hostess gifts, especially when gathered together in a basket. Click here to see our sale flier for details.

Community Supported Medicine Shares for next summer's herbal bounty also make excellent gifts, and we have customizable gift certificates available for those, as well as a special price! From now until December 31, 2011 both small and large shares are $25 off — small shares are now $125 and large shares $225. During our summer distributions, shares can be picked up at the farm in Conway or at the Apothecary in Florence, or shipped if you'd like to share the herbal goodness with someone who is not local.

Come to the Apothecary to shop locally, take a class, browse our new books and items, or to just say hello, relax and savor the scent of the resins we'll be burning and the sight of last summer's harvest dried and tucked into glass jars in our bulk herbs section.

We wish you a happy and healthy holiday season.

Best Wishes,

Goldthread

A Snowy Open House and CSM Distribution at Goldthread Farm

I must admit that when the date for Goldthread's final Open House and Community Supported Medicine share distribution of the season was set about a month ago, I was not envisioning the gardens being covered in snow. Despite looking more like early January than early November, yesterday's temperature was actually quite comfortable and a handful of adventurous herb lovers ventured to the farm to pick up shares and take a snowy sunset tour.

The third and final share of the season included bulk herbs and teas: Lemon Lunacy, Flu Relief, Goldthread Basil Blend and Immuni-Tea; immunity-boosting tinctures of Echinacea and Ashwagandha; compounds: Elderberry Elixir, Throat Spray; Infused oils of Mullein Garlic and Lavender; Dominican Sage, Yarrow, and Balsam Fir hydrosols; Holy Basil and Lavender Sage honeys; and bulbs of this season's garlic.

The Lavender Sage Honey seemed to be a popular choice at last night's distribution. Since I was on the farm this summer as a Farm to Pharmacy intern I remember the day in July when we harvested lavender flowers and started infusing that sun and flower-filled honey...

...which is truly a taste of summer in the winter months.

I also remember the Ashwagandha root harvest...

Being on the farm from April to October gives one the opportunity to see the complete growing cycle and personally I feel far more connected to both the plants and the medicine as a result.

Speaking of connected, I baked these ginger cookies for the Open House using the locally-grown fresh ginger from Old Friends Farm in Amherst MA that I blogged about here. These were accompanied by hot Lemon Lunacy tea.

We even had a surprise guest, though he was a bit shy.

The bad news is, this was the final CSM distribution of the 2011 season. The good news is, full shares of medicine will be available until January and can be picked up at Goldthread Apothecary in Florence, MA or shipped (we will post a list of what these shares include in the near future). The best news is that we are already planning for the 2012 season of Community Supported Medicine and for continued opportunities to visit and tour the farm during next summer's distributions.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support!

An August Harvest...

The late summer weather in New England has been gorgeous lately, and this afternoon Farm to Pharmacy interns worked on harvesting a variety of crops, like these hops, above.

It was also time to harvest some of our culinary herbs — sweet basil, Thai basil, Greek basil, thyme, winter savory, marjoram...these are picked at the peak of the season and immediately brought to our drying room to ensure potent  flavor. 

Marjoram

We're excited to be offering our line of local, organic culinary spices to cafés and restaurants this year and hoping local chefs will incorporate them into imaginative offerings.

We also began to harvest a bit of Echinacea root for tincture.

As well as tiny Elderberries, the basis of an effective (and delicious) immune-building syrup we create and offer at the apothecary.

Elderberries slowly cooking over a low flame.

As summer turns into fall the harvested rows will be cleaned up and put to bed beneath a layer of fresh hay — but not before a lot more medicine gets made!

There is still time to register for our last Farm to Pharmacy Intensive Week of the season, happening September 19-23. We'll be taking herb walks, harvesting, medicine-making, distilling essential oil, and learning from herbalists David Crow and William Siff. September is a beautiful time to enjoy the rolling hills and crisp air of Western Massachusetts, and an amazing season of harvest at Goldthread. We hope you'll join us!

Meeting the Medicine

On Tuesday we distributed our first community supported medicine shares of the 2011 season — bags of nettles, chocolate mint and tulsi; tinctures of skullcap, lemon balm and California poppy; calendula and lavender oils; lavender, spruce and clary sage hydrosols; lemon balm and tulsi honeys, and fresh garlic and herbs from the fields.

To celebrate the abundance we also held an open house, and felt truly supported by the enthusiastic group of members and non-members alike who came to Goldthread to meet the plants, sample some chocolate mint tea tea, ask questions, and watch essential oil of clary sage being distilled over a wood fire. It was an amazing afternoon!

We were once again joined by local reporter Karen Brown of WFCR, who interviewed several of our members about their experiences with herbal medicine and their farm shares, and tomorrow morning the story will air at 6:30 and 8:45am eastern time on our local public radio station, 88.5 (or listen online here).

The open house was such a success we'll be holding another at the end of August when we distribute our second share. Anyone interested in seeing the farm and learning more about herbal medicine is welcome to join us!

Even if you missed the first official distribution, shares are still available for the season and can be ordered here (and we do ship). Thanks again to everyone who came out on Tuesday!

Tuesdays at Goldthread

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to participate in Goldthread's Farm to Pharmacy program, planting, harvesting, and learning how to properly process and use medicinal herbs, I hope to give you a weekly glimpse at the banquet of color and texture we experience at Goldthread's Conway, Massachusetts farm on Tuesdays. Enjoy!

Harvest baskets full of Angelica and calendula, ready for the drying room.

Chocolate mint after being harvested, dried, and garbled, the process of 

hand-picking the leaves from the stems of the plants.

Dried calendula and mugwort.

Farm to Pharmacy interns harvesting the intoxicatingly sweet scented flowers of Clary sage . . .

. . . which were immediately brought to the wood-fired steam distiller and transformed into both an essential oil and its less concentrated co-product, hydrosol.

A floral water such as this one is perfect for applications where an essential oil would be too strong. They can be spritzed directly on the skin, added to creams, or used to freshen up a room.  

Echinacea.

The learning garden.

The towering Greek mullein were also ready for harvest on Tuesday. 

Combined with fresh garlic and infused in olive oil, mullein is a traditional remedy for ear aches and ear infections and is a best-seller at our apothecary in Florence, MA.

Grassroots medicine — a feast for the senses! 

— Melanie, Goldthread Marketing (and Farm to Pharmacy intern)