OPEN HOUSE POSTPONED!

Goldthread Open House Postponed

We apologize to our friends and community members who are eager to hear about our plans for Goldthread Apothecary at our new location in Shelburne Falls.  We have postponed the Open House which was to be held on Wednesday February 13, but we look forward to sharing our visions and hearing your input later in the year.  Please stay tuned on our website (goldthreadapothecary.com) and on Facebook, where we are always happy to hear from you.

An Open House at Goldthread's New Home

Goldthread has been serving the healthcare needs of the Pioneer Valley and Hilltowns for over a decade. Beginning with a small apothecary and private acupuncture practice in downtown Northampton, William Siff found a loyal community of patients and customers committed to improving their health and intrigued by the herbal remedies he was serving up. From the beginning, William was determined to make grassroots medicine a part of the robust culture of sustainability already alive and well in the region. Inspired by the thriving co-ops and the diverse agricultural scene, William decided that true sustainability in healthcare must include locally produced medicines. In 2004, William and his family moved to a small farm in Conway to begin cultivating over 100 varieties of medicinal and culinary herbs. The farm enabled William to launch the one of a kind herbalism training called Farm to Pharmacy. The seven month course spans the growing season and gives students a comprehensive foundation of both plant cultivation and traditional medicine. Goldthread then launched the one of a kind CSM, based on the CSA model, to make botanical medicine even more accessible to our community.

Goldthread’s model of grassroots healthcare seeks to address the root imbalances in our culture from which so many of our physical health issues arise. To actualize our new vision of the Apothecary as a hub of social reconnection and wellness, we realized it was time to grow. With two primary priorities, enough space to house all of the diverse activities that make up the Goldthread organization and a location more proximal to the farm itself, we began the search for our new home. The Mill in Shelburne Falls provided those things and a great deal more.

With 10,000 square feet to fill, we will be able to offer our community healthcare in a brand new form. We hope to introduce an approach to wellness that is welcoming, inclusive, accessible, affordable and empowering. 

The Mill will be home to a diverse range of offerings including the full service retail apothecary and dispensary, an inviting tea lounge and elixir bar, an extensive library warmed by a grand masonry stove, a learning center to house our own classes as well as host others, a clinical practice to serve everything from preventative health maintenance to acute illness management and everything in between, a “living room” featuring beautiful indoor botanical gardens, and a wet spa set into the magnificent stone pothole inside the building.

Goldthread believes that medicine should be seen as more than a pill in a bottle. Health is made of all the activities of our lives and our relationships. We hope the Mill will serve as a home for a whole new way of engaging medicine and community.

Join us on February 13 from 6-8:30pm for tea, light snacks and a discussion about some of our plans for the former Mole Hollow Building in Shelburne Falls, as well as a town hall style Q&A session from 7-8:00pm. Bring your ideas and questions!

10 Deerfield Avenue, Shelburne Falls, MA.

Come Play a Hands-On Role in the Grassroots Healthcare Revolution!

Farm to Pharmacy is an innovative internship program that takes place at Goldthread Herb Farm and Apothecary in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains in western Massachusetts. Goldthread offers interns the rare opportunity to learn fundamentals of both traditional medicine and plant cultivation side by side. Synthesizing Chinese, Ayurvedic and Western herbal traditions, our educational offerings are a comprehensive compliment to the abundance of time spent outdoors. We welcome herbal medicine students from all walks of life and are happy to facilitate college credit where possible. 

During this experiential seven-month program, students divide their day at Goldthread’s organic herb farm between classes in herbal theories and supervised work with the plants in over 3 acres of fields. Educational herb walks in the learning garden to practice identification and discuss botanical characteristics will compliment lectures and coursework. Subjects range from the major classifications and their specific healing properties to the medicinal applications for a wide variety of medical conditions.

Over the course of the growing season interns will participate in all aspects of plant cultivation from preparing beds and planting seeds through to harvest and beyond. Interns will learn to process and prepare herbal medicines transforming freshly harvested flowers, leaves and roots into tinctures, syrups, teas, salves, elixirs and oils for our apothecary.

Educational and life changing, the internship offers participants the chance to play a pivotal role in the Grassroots Healthcare Revolution. Find unparalleled communion with the medicinal plants themselves as well as a community that emphasizes sustainable, non-toxic and cost effective healthcare grounded in organic agriculture and empowered self-care for all. 

Upon completion of the program, interns come away with an extensive understanding of the theories of herbal healing, the agricultural training to cultivate the major medicinal herbs in their own space, and the practical skills to apply their new knowledge and begin healing themselves and others.
Dates: Wednesdays 9-4, April 17th -October 9.
Tuition for this experiential 7 month program is $1950. Save 10%  by paying early (by February 15th), paying in full, or signing up with a friend — you can both take 10% off! Sorry, these offers can not be combined.

Work study is available and will begin on March 15.

Payment plans are also available!

Full details at: www.goldthreadapothecary.com

Valerian: A Real Herbal Ally Chooses Me

Several weeks ago our Farm to Pharmacy class sat down in the garden bed designated for Valerian (Valeriana officinalis). We passed around two tincture bottles of the herb while we talked about its properties, and what we observed in ourselves after taking it. Valerian is considered a “hypnotic,” and Bill asked us what we thought this might mean. I noticed a lot of space opening around my thoughts and feelings, as though I could hold them more without being so identified with them. Bill spoke about Valerian's ability to help our attention move “sideways,” rather than to be single-pointedly focused. 

Perhaps we are considering the solution to a problem. Valerian can help us open to input, or suggestion (hence, hypnotic) other than what we habitually, compulsively, and/or rigidly focused on to “fix” whatever is wrong. This suggestion could come in the form of guidance from a teacher or mentor, or it could come in the form of simple awareness of our surroundings. As we sat in the garden bed considering and feeling this, a bird landed in the apple tree next to us and began making a crackling sound that most of us had never heard before in our entire lives. Was it our openness to input that brought the bird's song to us?

While we spoke and tasted, I noted that the particular quality of spaciousness I felt with Valerian might be useful to me when I was highly emotionally upset – which I tend to get sometimes – or else, when I was trying to contact spiritual guidance and hear its input. I have a practice that involves communicating with my inner self, as well as guidance, but I often find it difficult just to sit down and listen to what the voices within me are telling me, let alone distinguish between the voices of my wounded parts and those of my guidance. I thought that Valerian, based on my visceral experience of it right there in the garden bed (not on reading about it in a book and saying, “yeah, that's what I need”), might be extremely helpful to me in my practice. I also felt very connected to the plant itself, and was even inspired to give it a creative offering before we got up. 

A few weeks went by, and I definitely thought about Valerian now and then. I used it with great effect in a tea blend to help me sleep, but didn't take the time to use it with any intentions of opening to guidance. Then, at my boyfriend's house, after I'd been processing some trauma in therapy, I was hit with a surge of rage and confusion so strong I had to keep my mouth shut for fear that anything I communicated would be abusive. In fact, the little that I did communicate was abusive, and all I was able to say by way of kindness (though I badly wanted to be kind - and sane, for that matter) was that I couldn't speak because I was unable to not be abusive.

My boyfriend left me alone to tremble and work it out for myself. I must have asked for help of some sort from the universe. I looked beside me and there was a note pad on the desk. Usually, when I am emotionally disturbed and think of writing, I assume that it needs to be long and coherent, but I realized that I could just write single words – anything to get my feelings onto paper and out of their destructive path through my body.

Several words came. 

“Trapped,”

 “Can't say what I need to...” 

Finally, I wrote, “I want someone or something to hold space for me while I struggle through this.” 

Immediately, I thought of Valerian. Thankfully, I had a tincture of it in my bag. It was pretty lucky. I got down onto the floor with my bag and took the tincture out of it. I didn't take it right away. I felt desperate, but hadn't decided yet whether to trust that it would help me. Then I decided it would, and I took it. And took more. And more. Until I felt some relief. Which only took a few seconds. I started drawing with colored pencils. I drew the way my body was feeling; a crying eye, multiple layers of a heart being pierced by a dagger. I continued to take the Valerian every few minutes. Drawing was a huge relief in itself. But then, as I continued to draw and take the Valerian, something more happened. I chose the color green, rather than the reds, yellows and blues I'd been using. I began to take some deep breaths. I imagined a protective, energetic forest surrounding me, and the quality of it came out in my drawing. You can see below that I began to draw a flood of rainbow starriness around the painful parts of the picture. I started with green, on the right side of the page, and moved clockwise. The drawing eventually culminated in mountain-tops, and then a sunrise...

By the time my boyfriend came back into the room, I was able to communicate my needs. I wasn't perfect, but it was so much better. I still need to develop certain skills around communication and self-care that no herb can accomplish for me. That evening, though, I eventually came back around to myself, and I credit my new herbal ally, Valerian, for helping me to do it as gracefully as possible.

— Photos and post by Rebecca Mokey, Farm to Pharmacy intern

Carminatives: a Doorway into the World of Plant Medicine

Hi everyone.  My name is Rebecca, and this is my first post for the Goldthread blog. I'm part of this year's Farm to Pharmacy program at Goldthread's farm. As part of a scholarship program called Pay It Forward, I have the opportunity to write Goldthread blog posts every month in exchange for a reduction in my tuition. I'm thrilled and honored for it.

Each week, we learn and do many things on the farm which are worthy of writing about, but this particular topic is the first that came to me - and it's an excellent one as long as I'm writing about introductions.

One part of the Farm to Pharmacy curriculum that has really inspired me is the emphasis on personally experience of the effects of various herbs in and around our own, personal bodies.  Bill has referred to it as the practice of noticing the effect an herb has on us when its prana, or life force, energetically joins with our own, the moment it hits our tongues or binds with our olfactory receptors. As we learn about herbs and their properties, we taste tinctures (maca, rosemary and cayenne being among the most memorable for me), smell dried herbs and essential oils, drink teas, and then describe the herbs' effects on us using the paradigm of the twenty gunas, or dualistic universal qualities according to Ayurvedic medicine. An herb may feel to us, for example, more hot or cold, heavy or light, stable or mobile, and so on. 
The ability to discern how these qualities interact with and affect our own bodies and energies is one of the main disciplines we work to cultivate through the practice of tasting.

The practice is particularly invigorating under the guidance of a teacher like Bill and within the supportive environment of the class's enthusiasm. Luckily, though, classrooms aren't the only places to become acquainted with the healing properties of herbs — a point that is relevant to another aspect of the Farm to Pharmacy mission; to promote grassroots knowledge of herbal medicine and facilitate the rebirth of a culture in which the folk are able to treat themselves and each other with herbal remedies. That purpose deeply matters to and stimulates me as well. So when, while going over some herbal actions, — descriptions of the effects of different classes of herbs, according to the physiomedicalist tradition — we discussed the role of carminatives, I thought it would be an excellent thing to share with you readers. For those of you who, like me, are just starting out on your journeys and explorations of herbal medicine, carminatives are a great doorway into the world of plant medicine and its daily use.

In a nut(meg)shell, carminatives are the types of herbs one might find on a home spice rack. Things like pepper, basil, turmeric and cumin. They tend to contain health-benefitting volatile oils and other elements which encourage circulation in the digestive system, relieve gas, reduce spasms and tension, and increase digestive secretions. Of course, each specific carminative possesses its own unique properties, which I'm not yet prepared to write about in any depth. But even without knowing their specific benefits, these spices are easily accessible, already relatively familiar to those of us who cook (or like to eat!), and are tastily incorporated into our daily lives without hassle. Bill pointed out in class that the use of these spices requires a shift in consciousness for some, towards an emphasis on cooking at home.  I don't think there's much that's bad about that. I think home-cooked meals are usually more delicious and enjoyable, not to mention cheaper, than food prepared elsewhere. Cooking at home also encourages our general investment in our homes and those with whom we may share them. The qualities of sharing and investment in our communities are, in themselves, also a vital part of grassroots action. And since many of us already use, or at least have, these spices in our homes, all it takes is our consciousness of them as potential allies to bring us more in touch with the herbal path or lifestyle.

Carminatives can easily become a daily part of the creation and maintenance of health and healing.  or all these reasons and more, they are a wonderful category of herbs for the amateur, aspiring herbalist to explore and enjoy, and their use can be a meaningful step towards the grassroots health care system our culture seems so desperately to need.  Cooking with spices, using them, smelling and tasting them with our loved ones, are a great opportunity to sense our bodies and their connection to the natural world.

Community Supported Medicine: A Conversation with William Siff, Goldthread Herbal Apothecary

This afternoon an interview with Goldthread's founder William Siff was featured on the Numen News & Blog. Haven't heard of Numen?

Numen, defined as the animating force in nature, is a 95-minute documentary film focusing on the healing power of plants and the natural world. 

Featuring stunning footage of medicinal plants and thought-provoking interviews with Drs. Tiearona Lowdog and Larry Dossey, the late Bill Mitchell, ND, author Kenny Ausubel, herbalists Rosemary Gladstar, Phyllis Light and many others, the film calls for a re-awakening of traditional knowledge about plants and their uses. You can watch the trailer on YouTube.

Here's an excerpt from the interview, which you can read in its entirety here. And finally, here is a link to more information about our Community Supported Medicine shares!

Community Supported Medicine: A Conversation with William Siff, Goldthread Herbal Apothecary

Posted February 9th, 2012 by Ann Armbrecht

Goldthread Herbal Apothecary is a fantastic example of grassroots, community based medicine. Like many herb schools, they offer classes, apprentice programs, and herbal medicines for sale. But to me their community supported medicine program (CSM) is the most exciting – and revolutionary – work they are doing. I was thrilled to be able to speak with William Siff about his vision behind this model. Lots more information is available on their website!

Ann: I love the model of herbal CSAs on so many different levels and wondered if you could talk some about how you came to create an herbal CSA. What is your vision is with your CSA? And why do you think it is important?

William: We modeled our CSM after the now popular CSA model thriving in certain parts of the country like here in Western Mass. In my opinion the CSA model of reviving community-based agriculture is one of the most positive social trends happening in our culture today. Herbs are just a natural part of this revival and yet the knowledge and understanding of where and how they fit into daily life to enhance and improve health has largely been lost. The CSM is an attempt to reinvigorate this knowledge and connect people directly to the source of their medicine and associate it with the emerging organic vegetable renaissance.

Farm to Pharmacy: Come Play a Hands-On Role in the Grassroots Healthcare Revolution!

Our signature program — newly expanded for 2012!

Farm to Pharmacy is an innovative internship program that takes place at Goldthread Herb Farm and Apothecary in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains in western Massachusetts. Educational and life changing, the internship offers participants the chance to play a pivotal role in the Grassroots Healthcare Revolution. Find unparalleled communion with the medicinal plants themselves as well as a community that emphasizes sustainable, non-toxic and cost effective healthcare grounded in organic agriculture and empowered self-care for all.

Goldthread offers interns the rare opportunity to learn fundamentals of both traditional medicine and plant cultivation side by side. Synthesizing Chinese, Ayurvedic and Western herbal traditions, our educational offerings are a comprehensive compliment to the abundance of time spent outdoors. We welcome herbal medicine students from all walks of life and are happy to facilitate college credit where possible.

During this experiential seven-month program, students divide their day at Goldthread’s organic herb farm between classes in herbal theories and supervised work with the plants in over 3 acres of fields. Educational herb walks in the learning garden to practice identification and discuss botanical characteristics will compliment lectures and coursework. Subjects range from the major classifications and their specific healing properties to the medicinal applications for a wide variety of medical conditions.

Over the course of the growing season interns will participate in all aspects of plant cultivation from preparing beds and planting seeds through to harvest and beyond. Interns will learn to process and prepare herbal medicines transforming freshly harvested flowers, leaves and roots into tinctures, syrups, teas, salves, elixirs and oils for our apothecary.

Included in the internship program are many additional learning opportunities taking place off the farm at our apothecary in Florence and in the wider community. Goldthread offers lectures and demonstrations in many specific areas and aspects of healing with monthly themes and outreach programs. Join us as we supply local low-income community gardens with seedlings or sit in on an elaborate discussion of the benefits of an herbal spring cleaning program. The wider community of the Pioneer Valley itself is brimming with opportunities to further your immersion into a culture of true sustainability in action.

Upon completion of the program, interns come away with an extensive understanding of the theories of herbal healing, the agricultural training to cultivate the major medicinal herbs in their own space, and the practical skills to apply their new knowledge and begin healing themselves and their families.

Come play a hands-on role in the grassroots healthcare revolution!

Dates: Wednesdays 9-4 , April 11th -October 10. Work study is available and will begin on March 15.

Tuition: $2450. Pay in full before March 15th and save 10%.

A non-refundable 25% deposit is required to hold space.

See our website for more details: www.goldthreadapothecary.com

Join us at Goldthread Farm for a Magical Winter Distillation and Essential Oils Workshop!

   

February 25, 2012 • 10am-4pm  

$60 Advance Registration Required

In this special day long workshop at Goldthread Farm & Distillery participants will have a rare hands-on opportunity to learn about the  fundamentals of essential oil distillation. We’ll begin with an invigorating winter hike into the forest to gather the evergreen branches from which we’ll extract fresh essential oil the traditional way — in Goldthread’s 85-gallon wood-fired distiller. 

As the fire beneath the distiller crackles and the scent of crisp evergreen fills the air, we’ll gather for class by the woodstove and sample a wide variety of  essential oils, discussing their therapuetic properties and invaluable role in grassroots healthcare. How can we use these oils to effectively prevent colds and flus, ease muscle and joint aches, heal wounds, aid in relaxation and sleep?

Participants will come away with a fundamental understanding of essential oil: the alchemy of distillation, its many therapeautic uses, methods of administration, dosage and safety information — as well as a bottle of the freshly distilled evergreen hydrosol from our day together, and instructions for its use.

call to reserve your place! 

413-587-0620

No special tools are needed. Dress warm, bring a lunch, and Goldthread will provide hot herbal tea.

Gigantic Online Holiday Sale!

Here is the link to our online store!

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

Goldthread's November Newsletter

For those of you who aren't yet subscribed to our email list (which can be done here), we wanted to share our November newsletter...

Dear Friends of Goldthread,

It's hard to believe we're already in the midst of the busy holiday season and standing at the threshold of winter, isn't it? At the farm in Conway we handed out the last CSM share of the 2011 season, have nestled bulbs of garlic into the cold soil for next summer's crop, and are about to build a new, second greenhouse for this spring's seedlings. Both our Community and Clinical Herbalist classes are headed into their second months, and applications are already coming in for the 2012 Farm to Pharmacy internship, which begins in April.

Spice Month Ends... 

Spice Month at the Apothecary ended on November 9th with a Spice of Life Workshop. In a review on the Northampton/Amherst Herbal Meetup site one attendee wrote of the two hour class, "Bill was very generous with his ideas, suggestions, explanations of illness and how herbs and rest can help ward problems off. He sent around interesting samples of items that were available in his store and we sampled them...I felt very well taken care of in his place of business. I bought a couple of items that resonated with me, and would go back to hear more and learn more and purchase items that could do me some good that I do not have at home already." 

Spice Month is over but our organic culinary spices, grown at the farm and processed by hand, are still available and make great stocking stuffers for the locavore cook on your list! Hand processing means that none of the valuable essential oils responsible for an herb's medicinal qualities, taste, and smell are burned off and lost to the heat generated by commercial, mechanized processing — this makes a huge difference in the quality of our herbs and spices compared to larger producers, as fans of our products know. 

Immunity Month Begins! 

If you've been by the Apothecary recently you've seen our new window display and know that Immunity Month is in full swing! Inside the shop the front table is stocked with our own line of immunity-boosting elixirs, tinctures, honeys, and teas as well as a big basket of organic garlic from the farm, some Ayurvedic neti pots and nasya oil and (just in case your immunity wasn't quite ready for the season), cough syrups and teas for either wet or dry coughs. 

This month William Siff will be teaching two Wednesday night classes about immunity, on December 7th and 21st.

The first, Building Deep Immunity will focus on the best strategies for building the deep immune reserves that we need to stay healthy throughout the winter months. We will review and discuss aspects of immune function and dysfunction from the point of view of traditional Chinese, Ayurvedic, and Western herbal theory and will discuss a variety of the most important remedies for optimal immune health, including how to prepare, when to take, and at what dosage.

In the second class, Grassroots Herbal Remedies for a New England Winter, we'll discuss some common disorders that can make living in New England during the winter quite a challenge — coughs, colds, flus, sore throats and fevers — and learn some of the grassroots remedies and strategies that can be used to help you and your family prevent and treat these unwanted winter guests. We'll discuss the most effective use of essential oils, Echinacea, garlic, Tulsi, Osha, Slippery elm, Neti pots and more. You'll walk away able to confidently use these remedies immediately to treat a range of common conditions and regain the skill and knowledge that every grandmother once knew.

Tuition for each of these 2 hour classes is $25 at the door, or pay in advance and save $5! Pre-registration is required so we can reach you if the class doesn't run. RSVP by calling 413-587-0620 or emailing info@goldthreadapothecary.com.

Stay tuned for next email newsletter — we'll be tempting you with a list of some of the new products arriving daily at the Apothecary just in time for holiday shopping season and getting you thinking about next summer with a special offer on our Community Supported Medicine Shares. We hope to see you soon in a class or at the shop, and appreciate your continued support.

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!

Locally Grown Ginger? Yes!

Here at Goldthread Apothecary we have the perfect antidote to the early arrival of winter in New England — deliciously spicy locally grown ginger!

A few years ago the folks at Old Friends Farm decided to bring a bit of Hawaii to nearby Amherst, MA and pioneered the growing of ginger as a Northeast crop. Harvested at a young stage, this local ginger is more tender than the older roots typically found at stores and has less inner fibers and no tough skin. Since the harvest season runs only from late August until mid-November, NOW is definitely the time to stock up on this delicious root (without all those transportation miles) — especially with the holiday baking and cooking season right around the corner. Ginger-glazed turkey, anyone? Fresh Ginger Gingerbread? And let's not forget what fresh ginger adds to a cup of homemade Masala Chai.

According to the Old Friends Farm website, young ginger root can be stored in the refrigerator for 10 days in a waxed paper bag or sealed container. Any part of the root that will not be used within 10 days should be frozen in a zipper bag, and can be used from the freezer for many months.

PREPARING FOR FREEZING: Clean the ginger by running it under water and gently rubbing off any soil, then refrigerate or freeze it.

USING FROZEN GINGER: When using the frozen ginger, take it out and grate it frozen, do not allow to thaw and put any unused portions back into the freezer. Grating the ginger just before it is needed in your cooking, enables you to brush the frozen gratings off your cutting board and none is wasted!

Besides being delicious (if you need more inspiration Old Friends Farm shares a number of recipes on their site) the many uses of ginger as a botanical healer are well known. In Ayurvedic medicine ginger is considered the best and most sattvic of the spices, supporting a serene, harmonious, balanced mind or attitude. A warming carminative, ginger has traditionally been used to soothe occasional intestinal gas, bloating, and cramping and to relieve the symptoms of nausea. 

You can find Old Friends Farm locally grown ginger in the refrigerator to the left of the counter at Goldthread Apothecary — while supplies last!

Farm to Pharmacy, Tuesday September 13

 

As the Farm to Pharmacy internship heads into its final weeks we're taking advantage of the gorgeous weather to take long herb walks in the gardens,

  

stopping to admire the flowering chamomile and dill, sampling the bark of Slippery Elm (whose leaves are decidedly un-slippery),

harvesting the Bacopa, known as Brahmi in Ayurvedic medicine,

building fresh new willow fences along the driveway garden,

and enjoying the beauty of the farm.

Goldthread in The Boston Globe

From today's Boston Globe....

Locally grown herbs finding their niche

By Karen Brown Globe Correspondent / September 5, 2011

CONWAY - Almost everything Joanna Miles consumes comes from a local source. The 34-year-old stay-at-home mother gets her vegetables from one nearby farm, her meat and grains from another, her milk from a local dairy. And this summer, she learned that the locavore movement has come to medicinal herbs.

That’s how she ended up at Goldthread Herb Farm, a picturesque three acres in the foothills of the Berkshires, choosing from an assortment of herbal tea, hydrosols, oils, and tinctures that originated in its lush fields.

Miles, who lives in Easthampton, filled her bag with clary sage to calm her premenstrual moods, California poppy to help her sleep, and dried nettles for calcium - all of which she could have bought at a retail store.

“I really wanted to see the ground, see where they grew,’’ she said, “to talk to the people who make it, see the care and the love they put into it. And to support the growing efforts.’’

Miles is just the sort of consumer William Siff had in mind when he bought this certified organic farm six years ago and started what he calls a Community Supported Medicine program - a variation on the better-known term Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA.

Siff’s goal is to get his medicinal herbs into the consumer’s medicine cabinet the same way that vegetable CSAs get local produce onto the kitchen table.

Fifty to 75 people invest in a share of his harvest every year, he said, each paying $150 to $225 for three pick-ups a season - about 20 percent less than the retail price. Instead of kale and lettuce, they get calendula and skullcap - usually packaged for internal or topical use.

“They treat all manner of what you would typically see at the individual or family level in the course of living your life in New England for a year,’’ Siff said. “Colds, flus, allergies, coughs, sleep and stress, minor skin things.’’

While Goldthread was among the first farms to launch this CSA model, the American Botanical Council reports a growing number of herbal farmshares across the Northeast and, to a lesser extent, beyond. Some sell their medicinal herbs at farmers markets or by mail order, and others, like Goldthread, invite consumers to pick up directly from the farm and learn there how to use them.

Siff, a tall, fit 39-year-old, is an acupuncturist and practitioner of herbal medicine who also runs a retail herb apothecary in Northampton. For years, he bought his remedies from producers as far away as California and China.

“It didn’t make much sense, considering the fact there’s a lot of fossil fuel usage getting them here,’’ Siff said. “You can’t ascertain quality and freshness at the level you can when you do it yourself, when it’s locally sourced.’

He decided to start his own herb farm - not just for his own clinical use, but to reach a growing market of people frustrated with Western health care.

Joanna Miles says the appeal of herbs, for her, is that they are designed to keep people healthy, not just treat them when sick.

Taking herbs “is self-empowering, because people can do it at home by themselves,’’ said Siff, who said he has not been to a Western doctor in 17 years. “They don’t have to run to the doctor every time they get a sore throat or a cold or cough. It’s basically the revival of what we call folk medicine.’’

Not that he expects his customers to forgo all pharmaceuticals. “But they’re looking for alternatives. Herbal medicine tends to be, if used right, something that not only deals with symptoms but strengthens underlying tissues of the body.’’

On a recent pick-up day, Siff - in a T-shirt, shorts, and sandals - led customers through his fields to see the plant versions of what they got in their shares. He passed wild jagged stalks of stinging nettles - good for arthritis and joint pain, he explained - and moved onto tulsi, a member of the basil family.

“Feel free to scratch or smell it,’’ he told them. “If you drink it every day, for a period of time, weeks to months, it will help to essentially enhance your energy, help you to sleep deeper, and resist the negative effects of stress.’’

Next was California poppy, an antispasmodic for the nervous system, Siff said. Take a dropper full of the tincture, he told them, “and then wait until you feel relaxation. Anywhere from every 30 to 45 minutes to an hour, do it again, until the pain is at a level where it’s tolerable. The thing with herbs is you have to monitor how it’s affecting you, moment to moment, hour to hour.’’

But even with this educational piece, some herbal experts question whether medicine - natural or otherwise - should be marketed the same way as eggplants and broccoli.

“Are you just supposed to take whatever medicinal herbs are being grown? Because that seems like an odd way to use medicine,’’ says Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, a Georgetown University plant pharmacologist affiliated with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. “You wouldn’t go into a drugstore and ask for the drug of the week.’’

Siff points out that many people keep standard Western pharmaceuticals on hand, such as decongestants or aspirin, so why not do the same for herbal medicine?

Fugh-Berman, however, worries that untrained consumers may not know how to use the herbs properly, especially since the FDA does not regulate herbs for safety or effectiveness. And while she says many common herbs - such as chamomile or lemon balm - are benign, others can be problematic if taken in high doses, or with prescription drugs.

“If it’s strong enough to be pharmacologically active,’’ Fugh-Berman says, “it’s also strong enough to have some side effects.’’

On the other end of the debate, some question how well herbs work at all - and whether taking them could delay more effective Western treatment.

Dr. David Kroll, a pharmacologist at North Carolina Central University who studies medicinal herbs, thinks consumers should be aware that the quality and potency of plants can vary greatly from farm to farm. He also points out that major clinical trials have shown little to no benefit for some popular herbs, including echinacea for shortening the duration of colds and ginkgo for memory enhancement.

“There’s this beautiful emotional connection to the land, particularly if you’re buying from a farmer who’s local,’’ Kroll says. “But I think that it is just as much of a crapshoot as far as whether the herbs will have a desired effect when purchased from a farm, relative to a retail outlet.’’

Many of Goldthread’s shareholders say the herbs make a difference for them, but the appeal goes beyond efficacy.

It’s about seeing the farmworkers, many of them herbalism students, poring over each individual yarrow stem or pulling petals off each chamomile flower.

“I have a lot of respect for people who do this kind of work,’’ said Meredith Marcoux of Greenfield, who uses medicinal herbs for herself and her dogs. “I’d like to see this flourish.’’

Karen Brown can be reached at kbrown@admin.umass.edu.

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

What's in Store at Goldthread

Those of you who are local and who have visited Goldthread Apothecary recently have probably noticed that we are manifesting a number of changes in the store this summer. For one thing, our shelves are in the process of being reorganized with categories clearly marked by new signage...

You'll also start to see more photos from our farm in Conway MA (where Goldthread's herbs are organically grown) dotting the shelves, as well as some images of our Farm to Pharmacy interns planting, harvesting, and making medicine. Of course we welcome you to visit the farm in person during our next open house on Tuesday, September 6 from 4-6pm (please RSVP to 413-587-0620 if you're coming) or get hands-on experience growing and making herbal medicine by participating in our 7-month long Farm to Pharmacy program which starts up again next April.

But I digress. Let's get back to the Apothecary!

We're adding more space for book and magazine offerings, and have removed some of the furniture in the front of the store to make space for this beautiful  new display table, custom made by Goldthread's Farm Manager, Thomas Schieffer...

You'll also be seeing some new signage in the store windows, displayed in two of these double-sided 2'x3' reclaimed wood frames built by local craftsman Jason Drew...

Goldthread is gearing up for an exciting year ahead. Come to Florence and say hello, or join us at one of our upcoming special events and classes!