Today we’d like to introduce you to Joanna Mann.
Hi Joanna, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi! My story into herbal medicine is like many others have experienced- the wounded healer archetype. In 2006, I was in law school, and my mental and physical were suffering. I walked away from law school searching for a purpose. Yoga was what brought me light in this dark feeling time, so I pursued teaching yoga and then massage school. In my last weeks of massage training, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. The medicines I tried over the course of the next year made me feel worse than the arthritis. I made the decision to take myself off of them and research how I could heal myself in a more holistic way. I was successful in this, and it began a love of natural medicine and herbs. In 2015, I was a full-time massage therapist. I met my partner and he began market gardening vegetables and micro greens. In 2016, we had our first child, and he was struggling to keep up with the fast pace of market gardening along with parenting. The next spring I found a Reishi mushroom that I felt was asking me to tincture the whole mushroom, although I knew we would never use that much. I listened.
When the tincture was finished, we offered it to our market gardening clients, and it far outsold all the vegetables and micro greens. We took this as a cue from the universe, shifted focus, combined our passions, and Walden Farmacy was created. We are awed by the fact that the growing practices that best heal the land we farm are also the ones that make the strongest medicine, which is why our farm utilizes permaculture practices. The no pesticides and herbicides is a no-brainer, but building up the soil through cover cropping, rotational grazing, and composting also leads to more nutrient rich herbs. Herbs grown in whole ecosystems (like our permaculture food forests) produce stronger medicine due to the competition between species. At Walden Farmacy, we use growing practices that heal the land we farm while making the highest quality herbal medicines. What we can’t grow on the farm we judiciously select from other organic farms and ethical wild-foragers.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We stay busy between the farm, the herbal medicine business, teaching, kids, and more. So life can seem overwhelming at times, but being able to pursue a career we are passionate about makes it all worth it. And honestly, it seems like we always have exactly what we need. As we listen to our guidance and follow our intuition, doors just seem to open before us. We named our farm after the quote from Walden, actually, that says, “ I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.” This has proven true for us.
As you know, we’re big fans of Walden Farmacy. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
At Walden Farmacy, we take herbal medicine a step above just healing people and allow the way we farm to heal the earth. We believe we exist as one organism and the regenerative aspect of our farming adds a further element of healing to our medicine. We are trained in Southern Folk Medicine and hold our medicines to a high standard. Our ingredients are hand-picked to be the best and crafted with care on our family farm.
What matters most to you? Why?
In my twenties, I read the Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz and it is important for me to hold myself to those agreements. They are:
1. Always do your best
2. Be impeccable with your word
3. Don’t take anything personally
4. Don’t make assumptions
The other thing that is most important to me is community. Growing up, I was taught to take care of those around me. When we started farming, it became painstakingly evident how crucial community really is. We couldn’t even take a family vacation anymore. Community became a goal for us, and now that we have achieved that goal we have realized we ALL need that in our life. For physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual support. And when a community of people comes together living by the four agreements, it can be quite a beautiful thing.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.waldenfarmacy.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/waldenfarmacy?igshid=NzAzN2Q1NTE=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaldenFARMacy/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@waldenfarmacy
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@herbsaremedicine/video/7197939006745742638
