Chapter 3: Training — The Learning Never Stops
“My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant’s point of view.”
— H. Fred Ale
There is no special degree or course needed to open and successfully run an herb business. The main requirements are a love of plants and growing things and a desire to share that with others. It is always important to build your knowledge base and seek advice from those who probably know more on any topic, especially from people in your business field. There is always something new to learn or someone new to learn from. Training is two-sided — for you and for your customers. Offering information to customers, as noted in Chapter 1, is a way to distinguish your business from other stores that sell herbs as a sideline.
Training
For general assistance in dealing with the soil, garden pests, and weather conditions in your part of the country, local master gardener groups, the local master gardener program, and your state’s extension service should be able to provide important advice. See the Resource Appendix in the back of this book for information on how to locate these offices.
Of course, planting and growing your own personal herb garden provide you with the hands on experience you need before starting an herbal plant business. It is probably what attracted you to this business in the first place. Track down and attend local herb seminars, workshops, and lectures to gain additional knowledge and to stay abreast on the latest growing trends. When you travel on vacation, find out if any herb workshops, lectures, or seminars are happening while you are there. You can also learn about herbs by visiting other herb shops and farms and by talking to your fellow herb growers. Become a member of an herb study group in your area. Learning from your fellow enthusiasts can be an amazing and highly educational experience. A multitude of herb periodicals and journals offer subscriptions with volumes of information and educational material on growing and using herbs. Subscribe to and read these periodicals regularly. The Business of Herbs, Gift and Decorative Accessories, and The Herbal Connection are wholesale sources.
Although courses from local gardeners will help you learn how to handle soil conditions and association courses focused on herbs will be of great help in dealing with specific types of herbs, experience will be your best teacher. Mistakes may happen, but do not let them get you down. Learn from them by keeping good records of each garden experiment you undertake.
Books, the Internet, training courses, and talking to other herb gardeners are great methods for learning, but do not overlook seed catalogues as a way to learn about herbs. Many long-time herb wholesale houses and even some retailers offer information in their catalogues, used as textbooks in courses on herbs. For example, the listings for basil could cover two pages with an explanation of the herb and its uses followed by a detailed blurb on each of the more than 40 different varieties. These specifics include height, flavor notes, uses, how the plant is propagated, when to harvest, difficulty of germination from seed, and whether or not it likes full or partial sun or shade. In addition, as noted earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture maintains a list of resources on herbs and herb plants for planting and use. This list is available for downloading from www.nal.usda.gov/ref/herbs.html.
You can also check with herb growers in your area for further study. Margaret Shelton of Shelton Herb Farm said when she considered turning some of her family’s 400-acre farm over to an herb business, she traveled from her home in Leland, North Carolina, to Arlington, Virginia, to speak with Thomas DeBaggio, the founder of DeBaggio’s Herb Farm, now in Chantilly, Virginia. “We sat down and had tea, and he told me what I would need to know to devote my time to an herb business,” she said.
Case Study: Continuing Your Herb Education
Dorene Petersen, president, principal, and CEO
American College of Healthcare Sciences
The American College of Healthcare Sciences (ACHS) and its Apothecary Shoppe College Store are a source of information and accredited education for those interested in learning about the healing side of herbs. The ACHS and Apothecary Shoppe’s mission is to provide leadership in holistic health education through comprehensive professional online and on-campus education and high-quality natural products with a commitment to sustainable practices and principles.
The Apothecary Shoppe has been in business for about 30 years and was originally founded as a resource for ACHS students and to help preserve and share knowledge in natural medicine. The Apothecary Shoppe offers a distinguished selection of natural health products, including more than 200 herbs for use in herbal teas, tinctures, and blends, in addition to organic seeds, organic essential oils, flower essences, homeobotanical remedies (a specific form of remedies found on the Apothecary Shoppe website), and reference materials.
“We continue to source new products based on our students’ needs, interests, and requests, as well as those of the community at large,” Dorene Petersen, college president and founder, said. “I personally visit the farms from which we source our products to ensure we are sourcing the highest-quality products available and the herbal farmers and distillers are adhering to sustainable practices.”
In addition to being a retail store, the Apothecary Shoppe is a good place to learn about herbs and organic growing methods. The Shoppe offers periodic community wellness events in-house on growing and using herbs and maintains several interactive social media resources widely available to the greater community, including the Apothecary Shoppe Store on
Facebook, ACHSApothecary on Twitter, and the ACHS College YouTube channel, ACHStv.
Apothecary Shoppe customers are also welcome to access and download for free the ACHS monthly holistic health newsletter, the ACHS Reporter, and recordings from ACHS teleconferences on topics such as essential oil blending, marketing herbal and holistic health businesses, and herb-drug interactions.
“We are committed to high-quality education,” Petersen said. “I also lecture in the community on topics such as medical herbals and aromatherapy. Plus, as part of our commitment to green practices, we have a Botanical Teaching Garden at the ACHS campus in Portland. I have gardened all my life. As a child I gathered herbs with my grandmother and gardened with my grandfather, mother, and father. The Botanical Teaching Garden provides hands-on education for students and the community and preserves local plants and animal life. Only organic methods of plant and pest control are used.”
Although it does not sell directly to chefs, the school does have an arrangement with local restaurants and neighbors to harvest thyme, chives, and other culinary herbs from the Botanical Teaching Garden.
The Apothecary Shoppe carries a base product line and adds new products on request from students and customers. The Apothecary Shoppe sells both retail and wholesale, and as a sustainable green business chooses not to offer a printed mail-order catalog; instead, all available products are available through their website (www.apothecary-shoppe.com).
Apothecary Shoppe customers who want to learn more about herbal plants can explore formal education with ACHS, one of the first accredited, fully online colleges to offer degrees, certificates, and diplomas in Complementary Alternative Medicine. In addition to their Master and Associate of Complementary Alternative Medicine degree programs, ACHS also offers classes in herbal medicine and a Diploma in Herbal Studies, Certificate in Herbal Retail Management, Certificate in Natural Products Manufacturing, Graduate Certificate in Herbal Medicine, and Graduate Certificate in Botanical Safety.
Petersen recommends the following books as essential:
- ABC Clinical Guide to Herbs
- Creative Herbal Home
- Growing & Using Herbs Successfully
- Growing Your Herb Business
- Herbal Medicines: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals (3rd Edition)
- Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants
- Medicinal Plants of the World
- Grow Your Own Pharmacy
- Medicinal Herbs in the Garden, Field, and Marketplace
Herbs in the Kitchen
When giving information on herbs to grow for culinary use, be sure to add the proviso that herbs in cooking are always a matter of taste. One of the most common uses of herbs today is culinary use, so do not overlook taking a cooking course to increase your knowledge of herbs and their uses in the kitchen. Organizations such as The Herb Society of America (www.herbsociety.org) and many cookbooks and culinary schools offer courses related to using herbs. Use these outlets to expand your own knowledge of herbs in the kitchen and then share that knowledge with customers. It is also possible, if you have taken courses and are knowledgeable, to teach classes on growing common culinary herbs, planting a kitchen garden, or a class on which types of herbs to have on hand for certain types of cooking, such as Italian, French, Thai, or Chinese. You could teach a class about expanding creativity in the kitchen. Your students and potential customers would learn about herbs they might have never used previously. These could be taught at your own site or at local high schools, garden clubs, and even local community colleges and extended learning programs. Whenever you have one of these speaking arrangements, always be sure to have some of your herbs for sale.
Kitchen garden designs and multiple-herb kitchen gardens are two more big sellers.
For example, grow parsley, basil, and oregano together to create an Italian collection, or create a basic culinary collection with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. These herbs complement one another because they are the most common herbs called for in recipes. These herbs grow well together because they thrive in average soil conditions, all take full sun to grow, and require moderate watering. You can also group marjoram, thyme, and savory for French cooking. Recipes made with these ethnic herb trios will help sell the multiple plant packages. It is not necessary to put this information on separate cards. Instead, simply type a short recipe on a piece of paper and copy it as many times as you can on that sheet. Cut the sheet into individual recipes and give those to customers. For example, when someone purchases basil and is looking at parsley, up-sell the customer the pesto recipe included in this section, which uses both parsley and basil. Stock these recipe cards and culinary tips in a file box behind the counter for quick reference and to hand out to customers. Providing culinary information can also increase individual sales. For example, a customer purchasing a basil plant might be unaware of the differences in flavor between flat and curly parsley. A recipe calling for flat-leafed parsley or simply chatting about the uses of flat-leafed parsley might result in an additional sale to that customer.
When offering three or more herbs together, either in a pot or as a group of three separate plants, consider offering the grouping at a slight discount over the prices of purchasing each one separately. This gives the customer a bargain and builds a positive image for your store as a place to find good bargains on herbs. Be sure to still price these herb packages at a rate still profitable for you but provides a discount to the buyer.
Enlarging your own breadth of knowledge about herbs for the kitchen may lead you to explore preserving herbs through drying or freezing them and selling herbal products, art, and even cookbooks. Selling cut herbs and dried herbs for the kitchen can increase your profit margin from plants you maintain as a permanent part of your inventory.
As pointed out earlier, one of the things that makes a focused herb business a better place to purchase herbs than a big box store is the level of information available. Providing information sheets on the care and use of herbs, perhaps several to a sheet or simply a personalized care tag and distributing them with the plants sold, is a service that will likely bring customers back to your door. Think about the learning process you have gone through to build up the knowledge to make herbs thrive in your business and share this with your customers.
Offer basic information on how to raise herbs from seed and what to do when customers will need to replant their herbs. Take the information on the seed packet and type it onto sheets. Add to that information on re-potting the plant taken from your knowledge and give it out with the plants you sell. For example, when selling a basil plant, note it will grow larger if planted in a location that offers plenty of sun and well-draining soil than it will if it stays in a pot, even if the pot is much larger than the plant.
When you have gained the level of expertise you desire with each herb you carry, consider providing recipe cards or a recipe book of your own creation that features the major herbs and some of the less-common herbs. A cookbook of your own making, even a simple, 20-page booklet, will help sell the lesser-known herbs. Just be sure you are offering all of your own recipes and have not violated copyright of any other cookbook. Flip to Chapter 8 more marketing ideas for your herb business.
Restaurants may be a good outlet for cut herbs, but before offering to sell herbs to a restaurant, find out how much would be needed each week and if you can meet the demand. If a local restaurant has sunny windows, you might want to showcase some herbs there like art on the walls as an advertisement for your business.
Drying herbs
When herb-harvest time comes, you may have a number of plants not sold. This unsold inventory can turn lucrative by harvesting, drying, and freezing the herbs for future sales. There are a number of resources that can help you learn how to dry and freeze herbs.
To start drying your herbs, prepare a room where air will circulate well. The natural moisture in the leaves might cause herbs bunched too closely together to mold instead of drying out. Make sure you will be able to hang bunches of herbs from a place high enough and the herbs far enough apart so air will circulate and the herbs will dry. Harvest the leaves from the herbs, seeds, or flowers depending on the herb in mid-morning after the dew has dried on a dry sunny day. When you are picking the herb, take the entire stem, not just the leaves or flowers. Shake the stems to make sure you are not bringing insects into the storage area. Tie the stems in bundles, using rubber bands if possible. Then, hang the stems from a wire or string across a place where they will get plenty of air. Put a sheet under the herbs to catch anything that falls. Check the herb bunches daily and transfer to airtight containers when the leaves are completely dry. Try not to crush the leaves when transferring the herbs, as crushing releases the aroma and flavor. Because dried herbs need to be kept in airtight containers in order to keep them from rotting or molding, place dried herbs in airtight glass jars, tins, or baggies tied off and with the air pushed out. Use a label maker or a written label to label the dried herb. The dried herbs can be sold in packets or by weight.
It is possible to use a small space for drying herbs. Ceiling rafters used to be the traditional place to dry herbs, but now most homes are not built with rafters. Tie a string between two poles in a basement if the basement is dry or even use the back corner of a spare room where the herb bundles will not be disturbed for a week or so. If no poles are available, tie the line between two hooks on opposite walls or even on two chairs placed at opposite ends of a room. It will take at least five to seven days for the herbs to dry, maybe longer. Check on the herbs daily to ensure there is no insect activity or mold growth. Checking your herbs regularly is especially important when drying herbs with high natural water content, such as basil, chives lemon balm, mint, and tarragon, or in humid climates, which can cause the dried herbs to rot or mold. Once the herbs mold or rot, they are no longer any good and have to be discarded.
When giving out recipes, be sure to remind customers that when using dried herbs, the flavor will be more concentrated. If a recipe calls for a certain amount of a fresh herb, then less of the dried herb should be substituted if the fresh is not available.
Freezing herbs
It is trickier to sell frozen herbs because it requires equipment such as a freezer on site and people tend to want to buy fresh herbs from an herb business. Rather than freezing fresh herbs to sell, you can provide a short lesson or explain the freezing process during a conversation with customers how they can freeze their own herbs they purchase from your shop.
Herbs with high water content do better when frozen, such as tarragon, basil, mint, and lemon balm. The leaves look limp and often darken when frozen, but the flavor remains fresh. Type out and print the directions below to help your customers learn to freeze herbs. Follow these easy steps to freeze individual herb leaves:
1. Pick the healthiest leaves — ones that look lush, green, and without signs of disease or bugs.
2. Wash and pat dry.
3. Spread leaves on a cookie sheet and let dry.
4. Put the entire cookie tray in the freezer.
5. Let the leaves freeze completely; this may take a few hours or can be done overnight.
6. Remove the frozen leaves from the freezer and work quickly to remove the leaves from the cookie tray.
7. Put the frozen leaves in an airtight container and put the containers in the freezer immediately.
Be careful to work quickly when transferring the frozen leaves into the airtight containers because the longer the leaves are left out the more chance they have to defrost. Because they are small, they will defrost quickly.
When frozen individually, leaves will not clump unless they defrost as they are placed in their containers, and frozen herbs retain the flavor of fresh herbs. This means a recipe that calls for fresh herbs will use the same amount of that herb if it is frozen. It is not necessary to defrost herbs for use in recipes. Frozen herbs are not generally useful for inclusion in salads or as garnish because they are limp and dark in color.
Herb Crafts
Herb crafts are a way to attract customers to your store because they can show your customer base just how much can be done with herbs. When researching craft ideas, do not overlook local sources for ideas and even instructions on assembling herb crafts. Some ideas are included in this book as examples, as well. You can also create wreaths with the herbs. Pressed flowers or herbs make great accents for stationery or wedding invitations and mixing scented herbs together creates homemade potpourri. Not all herb businesses offer craft instruction, but if crafts interest you, then you may want to offer classes in herbal crafts. If you do not feel experienced enough to teach a class, hire a local crafter to teach a lesson or simply stock your store with already-made crafts. You could promote a local artist and, in turn, they would promote your store and products. Contact artists in the area to see if any of them use herbs in crafts. Do not overlook networking with other herb business owners to find ways to use your dried herbs to create crafts that will sell for a good profit in your business and/or be possibilities for classes to draw in customers.
Lavender is an herb often used in dried form in crafts as artfully arranged stems or as a sachet. Far safer than candles, herbal sachets and containers of dried lavender have been making homes fragrant for hundreds of years.
How to make a lavender sachet
Lavender is an herb of many uses. In the United States, lavender is primarily known for its lovely scent. Elsewhere in the world, this herb is also valued for its culinary and medicinal properties. Lavender grows well in many climates and is a good border plant, affording green and purple color to encircle the garden during the growing season and an abundance of material for an easily produced herb-related product — the lavender sachet, a small cloth pillow stuffed with dried lavender flowers and some leaves — that can be sold in the business. Most herbs are harvested before flowering for drying. Lavender is the exception to that rule because the flowers and buds are the part you want to capture. Harvest when the buds are just beginning to open and show color.
Making a lavender sachet is simple and inexpensive. These directions provide the steps for making a sachet from fresh lavender. There are two types of sachets, tied or sewn. A sewn sachet looks like a small pillow. A tied sachet can be accented with a colorful ribbon and does not require any sewing ability. Sachets have many uses in the home. They can be used to make clothing, linen closets, bathrooms, bedrooms, and living areas smell fresh. You can also sell them as gifts. Sachets made of quality fabrics, like organza, are a great bridal-shower favor.
Materials:
- Fresh lavender
- Rubber bands
- Cord
- Gardening shears
- Scissors
- Sheet or cloth
- Airtight container
- Thread and a sewing needle for a sewn sachet or ribbon for a tied sachet
- A fabric for your sachet. Lightweight cotton or linen is best for sewn sachet pillows, and organza is good for tied sachets. Cotton and organza are breathable fabrics that allow the scent of the lavender to escape.
- Tablespoon
Instructions
1. As with other herbs, cut lavender after the morning dew has dried but before the heat of the afternoon sun’s harsh rays cause the stems and blooms to wither.
2. With gardening shears, cut the stems just above the leaves. The flower should not be fully bloomed, but the flower should be slightly open and fragrant.
3. Shake out the cuttings to be sure no insects are hiding among the flowers.
4. Bind the several stems together and secure with a rubber band. Using a rubber band instead of string is important because as the stems dry, they become thinner and if secured by a string, they will fall out. A rubber band will constrict around the thinner stems, continuing to hold the bundle tight until you are ready to cut them down.
5. Hang each bunch of lavender from a cord stretched across a space where no one will walk in a warm, dry room. The bundles need not be at rafter level but should be high enough for plenty of air circulation both above and below.
6. Place a sheet or other white cloth below the herbs to catch any plant matter that falls down.
7. Allow about ten days for the buds and stems to dry completely.
8. Gently remove the buds by rolling the stems with bud between fingers. Reserve the stems.
9. Store the buds in an airtight container until ready to use. Do not crush the buds because that releases the odor and oils. Crush only when ready to use.
10. Cut out the desired size of material you would like. An advisable size for a sewn sachet is a 6- by 8-inch rectangle. If you are making a tied sachet, a circle that is 6 inches in diameter should be sufficient.
11. Sewn sachets only: You will need to sew your sachet before filling it. The method is the same as the method for sewing a pillow. Take two rectangles of fabric, position the pieces so the patterned side is facing inward, and sew three sides of the rectangle together. Flip the pouch, so the seams are facing the inside and the fabric’s pattern is on the outside. There should be three sown sides and one side that remains open.
12. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of lavender blossoms to the sewn sachet. For a tied sachet bundle, simply place 1 tablespoon of lavender flowers and leaves in the middle of the circle.
13. To finish your sachet, sew the open side of the sachet shut. If you are making a tied sachet, pull up the sides, and tie them with a decorative ribbon — be sure that about an inch of material is above the tie. Circle twice with ribbon before tying to ensure the bundle will stay closed. Again, be careful not to crush the buds. Tip: Close the fabric with a rubber band and then add the decorative ribbon over it to further ensure the bundle will stay closed.
You will likely want to sell your craft in your store. Add personality to your craft by tying a card or piece of paper to your sachet. The card should include a small sheet of instructions, a short history of lavender, the name of your business, and the contact information for your business. Be sure your instructions remind the buyer to crush the buds/flowers in the bundle when placed in a drawer to release the fragrance. Also, give an estimate of when to replace. Refresh the scent by re-crushing the lavender every 90 days.
Culinary craft
Another easy idea to adapt for a store demonstration, to make and to sell, is the bouquet garni. The little cloth packets of herbs are “dipped” into soups and stews like tea bags, adding the herb flavors to the dish, and are then pulled out before serving. This way, a person can enjoy the soup or stew without encountering woody herb matter on his or her spoon. This craft covers two potential customer bases: cooks and lovers of crafts. Again, this craft can be presented as a class, or you can make bouquets garni and sell them in the store.
How to make a bouquet garni
There are at least two schools of thought on the recipes for the bouquet garni. One harks back to the traditional and calls for two stems of dried thyme, one or two bay leaves, and several stalks of dried parsley. The other school advocates using the leaves of the herbs and calls for 4 tablespoons of dried parsley, 2 tablespoons of dried thyme leaves, and 2 tablespoons of bay leaf. Celery top leaves and/or rosemary leaves are optional additions to the classic three-herb formula.
Use the following directions to make a bouquet garni:
1. Take a small square of cheesecloth, about 3 to 6 inches per side.
2. Place the desired amount of herbs into the center.
3. Pull up the ends and tie tightly with a fine string.
4. Add the herbs into the soup or stew according to the recipe directions.
5. Withdraw the bag of herbs before serving.
If you use a long string and let it hang slightly over the edge of the pot, it would be easier to find and remove the herbs before serving.
The other two common herb bouquets are Herbs de Provence, oregano, savory, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary, and English herbs, such as basil, bay, chives, and rosemary commonly found in English cottage gardens. In addition to the more common, traditional bouquet, other herb blends can be similarly bundled and hung in soups and stews for flavor without leaving the dried flakes or their stems in the finished version to disturb a diner’s enjoyment of the final product.
Medicinal Herbs
Margaret Shelton of Shelton Herb Farms said it best when it comes to medicinal herbs: “I sell herbs that are considered medicinal herbs, but I never give [medical] advice,” she said. Your business is selling herbs, not practicing herbal medicine. The rules and regulations are different for herbal practitioners, so stock books on the topic if you get a lot of requests for information on herbal medicine.
Due to potential liability issues many herb centers present, books are the safest things to offer to customers asking for medicinal advice. This allows the customer to decide how to use the herb based on his or her physician’s recommendation and what the books say. In the Resource Appendix, there are several books listed that deal with herbal medicine and herb-based topical application beauty products. Even herbal teas can stimulate allergic reactions in sensitive individuals, so be circumspect in speaking with customers about such uses for herbs.
Herbs can and do have negative effects when interacting with other drugs, when used in the wrong dosage, and when given to a person who has an allergy to another plant in the same family as the herb in question. In addition to potential liability issues with customers, handling medicinal herbal products or recommending herbal products as medicines or cosmetics could require additional local state, city, or county licenses and inspections and might make your business subject to federal rules and regulations governing such things. The Food and Drug Administration has rules about what claims can be made for products, but in any case, you do not want to be responsible for anyone becoming sick from a product sold in your business. Check with the lawyer who helps set up the business concerning the liability laws for the state where your herb business operates.
The simplest course of action is to sell plants and restrict conversations — your own and those of any employee — to the care and growing of the plant or its culinary uses. If you are asked directly about an herb, even a plant as generally used as aloe vera, tell the customer to consult with his or her physician before using the plant as anything but an ornamental herb.
Climate, soil, sun, and water are all of the basic ingredients you need to master for each plant you intend to grow. Although the majority of herbs are easy to cultivate, adaptable to different environments, and rarely contract plant disease, learning this information can save you time and money when starting and operating your herb business. Although you can gather herb knowledge before opening your herb business, learning is an ongoing process.
In Chapter 4, you will discover some of the aspects of running an herb business you need to consider before opening your doors, such as the answers to the five Ws: who, what, when, where, and why.