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.

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

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!

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!