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!

A Special Event at Goldthread: Activating the Healers

Join us for an evening with 

Claudia Abbott-Barish and Meghan Murphy

•

Tuesday August 30th at 6pm

•

Goldthread Herbal Apothecary

1 North Main Street, Florence, MA

Using popular education and anti-oppressive techniques, this workshop will cover a brief history of corporate power and how regulatory agencies have prevented (and continue to prevent) us from actions of self-sufficiency. Claudia and Meghan will focus on why cultivating, wild-crafting and teaching about herbs is a true act of resistance and creates new possibilities for us to create more healthy, reciprocal systems (social, economic, and political) in the rest of our lives. This analysis will include examples, past and present, of how people have used herbs and herbal medicine to resist dominant oppressive paradigms. The workshop will end with a dialogue around who and how to engage around these issues with members of our communities; what methods are inclusive and equitable, and how to reach the most people.

All workshop participants will receive a medicinal salve wildcrafted locally from plants that grow in your area.

Sliding Scale Donation for this event is $0-$10. Please 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

Goldthread is amazingly bountiful at this time of year and we're ready to share some of the harvest! Our first community-supported medicine share of the season will be ready for distribution on Tuesday, August 2nd, and some of the potential offerings will include bulk herbs like nettles, chocolate mint, and tulsi; tinctures of skullcap, lemon balm, and California poppy; oils of calendula and lavender; hydrosols of lavender, clary sage and spruce; honey infused with lemon balm or tulsi, and perhaps some fresh garlic cloves and basil, in bloom above.

Speaking of calendula, the flowers are back again — this is the third or fourth time interns have harvested these rows of orange and gold, a pleasantly sticky task.

The garlic (whose abundant spring scapes it seems we were just enjoying) was also ready for harvest. Much of it will be used in our potent Fire Cider, a mix of local apple cider vinegar, garlic, cayenne, fresh cilantro, and fennel, cumin, and coriander seeds. Using it to warm one's body on a cold winter's night can help fend off colds and transports a little of summer's heat and sunlight to the colder, darker days of winter.


But let's not get ahead of ourselves — there's still 9 weeks left in the Farm to Pharmacy program!

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

Tuesdays at Goldthread

Today was another gorgeous, sunny Farm to Pharmacy day at Goldthread, where the harvesting and medicine-making continue. . . 

Lavender flowers.

Lavender sage honey. We also made a lavender oil today, especially beneficial in the treatment of burns.

We found the Greek mullein flowering even more profusely 
than it was last week . . .

and abuzz with bees.

We harvested about two-thirds of the blooms for medicine, 

and left the rest for them.

California poppy plants, harvested, cleaned, and ready to be tinctured.

The fragrant leaves and flowers of Coastal yarrow, 
ready for garbling and distillation.

A young praying mantis hunting in the Gotu kola bed.

We were also joined by a special guest today — a reporter from WFCR 
New England Public Radio interviewed many of the interns this morning about their experiences in the Farm to Pharmacy program. 
We'll post a link to the story here when it airs!

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

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)