BY ALDONA BIRD
Growing herbs and selling tea blends came naturally to Caroline, of Hill and Holler Herbs. In childhood, she had learned a lot about caring for growing things.
“When I was a kid, I was outside all the time,” Caroline said, explaining that she was her grandpa’s shadow when school was out. “Every summer, every morning, we would work in the garden together.”
From her grandfather, Caroline learned how to start seeds — his method was to trigger germination by placing seeds in a damp paper towel and then into a plastic bag. Once sprouted they planted the seedlings into upcycled containers.
“I learned a lot about sustainability without the label,” Caroline said. Instead of buying new pots they just used whatever they had on hand, such as food containers. Caroline said these were habits formed from poverty.
Her sustainability lessons extended beyond using food containers for seedling pots. Caroline described how, while taking walks in the woods, she and her grandpa picked up trash, and he would tell her, “now if you take care of these hills and hollers they’ll take care of you.”
On woodland walks and working in the garden, Caroline learned a lot about plants.
As a way to combat burnout while in college, she returned to her roots and started growing things again.
She jumped on the houseplant bandwagon before moving on to herbs, flowers and vegetables. Caring for growing things reminded her of her childhood.
Then an ad for an herbal tea piqued her interest. The tea was made in Australia. Looking at the ingredient list, she realized she knew how to grow all the herbs in the blend.
“Honestly mint is probably one of my favorite herbs. It grows so quickly and voraciously,” she said, noting that she has an ever expanding collection of mint varieties.
She loves growing her own herbs for the freshness. Caroline noted chamomile as an example: “You can taste the difference between chamomile that you’ve bought from somewhere and chamomile that you’ve grown yourself,” she said. “Chamomile when fresh smells and tastes like apples.”
“I love the act of growing things,” she said. “Best feeling in the world.”
To supplement herbs she grows and forages, Caroline buys teas from a small Pittsburgh company. “I want to keep it as local as I can,” she said. She also buys a few herbs from places such as Mountain Rose Herbs and Frontier Co-op.
Once she decided to sell her own tea blends, Caroline spent about six months researching the health impacts of herbs she planned to use, including their possible benefits, possible medication interactions and what health conditions they could be good or bad for.
After growing the herbs and creating blends, Caroline had to package them which led to more research.
“Because I’ve always been a strong sustainability advocate I wanted to get sustainable packaging,” she said. “Through a lot of research I found a company I’m happy with.”
She packs samples of her products in 100% aluminum tins and larger quantities in bio-plastic home- compostable bags. She uses labels made from sugarcane processing byproducts — also compostable.
Caroline mentioned something about packaging that impressed me. She said, “I don’t price them at a sustainability premium.” She doesn’t mark up the prices of her products because they are in eco-friendly packaging.
Making sustainability accessible at a regular price point is something I’ve been thinking about since we talked last week. It’s something to mull over while enjoying a local tea blend.
ALDONA BIRD is a journalist, previously writing for The Dominion Post. She uses experience gained working on organic farms in Europe to help her explore possibilities of local productivity and sustainable living in Preston County. Email columns@dominionpost.com.
