When it comes to making eco-conscious decisions about producing products, there are many benefits to finding ingredients straight from the soil. Natural ingredients from the garden can be beneficial for your health, but also for the environment. Finding ingredients from your own garden instead of purchasing ingredients that will need to be packaged and transported helps minimize carbon emissions. In general, gardening helps clean the air, soil, and water. When you support a Maker who is using natural ingredients from their garden, you are helping promote biodiversity, conservation of resources, and reducing pollution.
Here are some PA Wilds gardeners who are making special products for you:
Sue Morris of Sue’s Salves
Sue is passionate about her business crafting plant-based herbal skin care and aromatherapy products. She crafts skin care products with plants grown in her medicine garden. Sue's passions are herbalism, aromatherapy, astrology, planting by the moon, gardening and perfumery. She makes personalized botanical perfumes and enjoys educating people through public speaking events as well as offering herbal retreats in her home on topics related to herbal medicine for 20 years. Herbalism is renewable medicine!
The Process
You will find Sue in her magical medicine garden growing and tending to her plants all summer long.
The Products
Tara Heckler of Blackberry & Sage Market
Creating a sustainable, eco-friendly, conscious lifestyle takes a lifelong commitment, one that Tara has dedicated her lifestyle to for the past 20 years. Her love for gardening was embraced when she moved to Punxsutawney, PA in 2000 and started a family. Tara's goal was to live a healthier lifestyle, reduce her family's impact on our beautiful environment , be as self-sufficient as possible, learn about homesteading, and to be careful about the products she used as a family and what ingredients were in them.
The Process
Tara's products are made from ingredients you can feel good about using. She carefully chooses every ingredient down to the coloring. Instead of using artificial coloring, she use spices, clays and root powders. Every step of the process is done in small batches by Tara. From growing the herbs and flowers to harvesting, processing, bottling, labeling and shipping, she does it all with pride and love. All plants and herbs on the farm are grown in a sustainable way, harvested with respect and specific intention.
The Products
Martha Bloom of Martha's Gourds
Martha Bloom is the owner of Martha's Gourds in Clearfield, PA. She got started growing and crafting gourds over 20 years ago.
She learned the ins and outs of gourd craft by reading numerous books and articles, joining the American Gourd Society and the Pennsylvania Gourd Society, and learning from friends found on the online gourd lists, ClubGourd and GourdPatch. Years of experience have led to the gourds you see today.
The Process
Gourds need a long growing season, so in our colder climate that means starting them indoors. During harvest gourds are heavy because they are 90% water so they need to be dried. Next you will need to clean the gourd to make it ready to paint. Different shapes will lend themselves to different projects so find a gourd that will be the best for the project you will be working on.
The Products
