From Jardin to Bottle

The Cultivation of Biodynamic Medicinal Herbs

Good ingredients are incredibly important to good skincare products. A good analogy is with food: the better the ingredients are, the better the meal is. This is particularly true if you are making supportive natural skincare. When you’re dealing with botanical ingredients, the quality of the plant material becomes a crucial factor (whether its for a carrier oil, an essential oil, an infusion, a maceration, or a CO2 extract). Not all calendula is created equal, just like not all coffee is created equal.

The entrance to the farm is just beyond the gate, seen here in late summer.

The relationship a formulator has with her suppliers is also extremely important.  What ingredients do they offer? Is what they write on their website accurate? What kind of product files do they provide? Do they store their materials correctly? Do they add any preservatives or additives to them (spoiler - in some cases they should add a natural preservative that complies with the organic cosmetic regulations)? How many farms do they collect their ingredients from and do they mix them together? Through my research I came to the conclusion that there isn’t a single supplier that could deliver every ingredient I needed, at the Biodynamic® quality we require, which meant I would therefore have to rely on a network of suppliers.

The "rosier" (rosebush) on the property

But then, what if I could control this supply chain and grow ingredients myself? This would be ideal, but I can’t grow, dry, and process all of the elements I need from my apartment in New York. All of nature’s raw materials (and their compounds) are the results of their unique environment and this can’t be reproduced just anywhere, let alone the fact that many botanical ingredients need to be processed differently.  

Last summer, I was with my partner on his family’s property in Burgundy going for a stroll through the forest, talking about the history of where we were.  His family has owned these lands for a long time and because it’s Burgundy, they have always been involved in agriculture. Yet, over time the property has primarily become more of a vacation spot for the family. He had always wanted to do something with the land.

That’s when it hit us: WE should use the land to grow the ingredients! We could not only grow the plants and herbs I need, but also run the farm according to the best practices of biodynamic agriculture and make a contribution to the local economy, both of which are important to both of us.

And so we started planning! What herbs would we grow? How? When? How much of each? What kind of investment would it require? We had so many questions but thankfully the expertise and knowledge of the family having farmed on the land for generations gave us a good head start. And later we used the book by Jeff and Melanie Carpenter, The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer as a guide towards setting up the initial plan. They themselves run a medicinal herb farm in Vermont and have been doing so for almost two decades.

This summer will be our first year growing and we chose plants that have amazing qualities for skincare formulation. We will be testing a number of different herbs and plants to see how they grow, how they handle the soil, their quality at harvest and when dried, and begin to build the appropriate infrastructure for drying, processing, and storage. We will be updating you on what happens!

xo,
Carolina