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Field Apothecary and Herb Farm is a homegrown herb farm and CSA situated on 3 acres in the village of Germantown, NY located in the Hudson Valley. Creators and owners Michael and Dana Eudy, pundits in herbalism and homeopathy, use herbs in daily practice to create value-added products with goals to enhance overall health and well-being. Their longterm goals include working with other farmers to create an extensive menu of farm-to-table dishes that accentuate the medicinal properties of herbs and food.
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History
Field Apothecary and Herb Farm was founded in 2011. Both natives of Texas, by way of Brooklyn, Dana and Michael, originally a commercial photography representative, and professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology respectively, studied an eight-month apprenticeship under William Stiff of the Goldthread Herbal Apothecary in Florence, Massachusetts. They sell very few of their herbs fresh, but turn most into value-added products in the form of teas, tinctures, and medicated oils, among others. Part of their business includes passing on knowledge by offering private classes in ayurvedic medicine and growing and using medicinal plants at home. Their farm features 65-85 different herb species at any given time, both native plants and exotic.
All of their herbs are grown organically, with no sprayed pesticides or growing aids. Most species begin in their onsite greenhouse, and are then transplanted to the beds. Germantown has mostly clay soil, which retains water and nutrients well. They use this to their advantage with herbs that strive in a wet environment, and create microclimates by tilling road sand and topsoil together for the herbs that do not. Unlike many farms, Field Apothecary and Herb Farm allows field grasses to grow between flower beds to increase their ratio of healthy, undisturbed soil. They use soil solarization with black tarps to weaken roots of the field grasses before planting new beds with the goal of disturbing the soil as little as possible, and they plant bearing in mind which herbs best complement each other’s nutrient uptake, and grow most successfully together. Similarly, when creating their tinctures and teas, they use processes that are most sustainable, namely, those that create the most potent product with the least amount of plant. All value-added products are created on site - herbs for teas are dried in a drying room, and everything else in the Eudy home.
Field Apothecary and Herb Farm is a Community-Supported Agriculture business, and offers seasonal packages to their members. They have an herb truck that is a travelling apothecary to sell their products locally and at the farmers market in Kingston, NY. They also sell to online healing practitioners, including Kingston Acupuncture Center, and have an online store for the wandering buyer.
Products
Field Apothecary and Herb Farm offers a wide variety of products, including but not limited to, tinctures and extracts (both single (one herb) and compound (multiple herbs) formulas), bitters, tonics and syrups (including digestive aids, cough syrups, and mouthwashes), infused oils and salves, culinary salts, teas, dried herbs and powders, and herbal soda kits (a combination package of a tincture, and soda water, combined to create an herbal beverage, leaving potency up to the user’s discretion). Among their single tinctures are Echinacea, Elderberry, Gotu Kola, and Valerian, each in a 1 oz bottle. Their compound tinctures include their Clear Thinking Tincture, Deep Sleep Tincture, and Immune Support Tincture, among many others.
Each of these products is offered on their online webpage, on their traveling Field Wagon, and in their seasonal CSA package.