A visit to Sister Sage Farm on Vashon Island

Last Saturday I headed out to Vashon Island with a good friend and talented herbalist, Crystal Stelzer of Green Blessings to take a visit to Sister Sage Farms a medicinal herb farm and home remedies company.
Upon our arrival we where greeted by a smiling Jayne Simmons, owner and grower extraordinaire at Sister Sage Farm.

Jayne  is a farmer and supplier of organic medicinal herbs to practicing herbalists, restaurants, chefs and generally anyone who has an interest in the healing plants she tends.

Through community supported agriculture, Jayne offers full and half shares of 8-10 bouquets of herbs, flowers and roots per month throughout the growing season, June through October.
Contact Jayne to inquire about the herbs she grows and how to join the CSA for the 2010 growing season.

The purpose of our trip was for Crystal who is an adjunct faculty member for the Botanical Medicine Department at Bastyr University, and Jayne to finally meet face to face and see if a collaboration could ensue.  I am happy to report that Sister Sage Farm will likely be on the Bastyr University roster for student internship possibilities.

Jayne also offers Good Food Garden , an urban gardening service to both residential and commercial clients.  She and her business partner Jenn Coe will create and maintain a beautiful vegetable garden in your yard, tend and harvest once a week, and leave you to nibble the rest of the time.  

 Jayne has a very passionate and grounding presence about her.  She is full of ideas and open to new ones.  When she is not tending to her gardens, Jayne teaches children about herbs  through Powerful Schools to K-5th graders in an after school program at Orca School.  She additionally teaches classes on basic home remedies and gardening at South Seattle Community College in West Seattle.

After a three hour tour and visit, we ended by sitting on the deck of the tea shack, a rustic out building used for both drying and protecting herbs.  The three of us continued our conversation about different plants and their uses and the practice of sustainable farming, writing grants and how to teach people to grow food.  I felt inspired by all of the potential:  The potential of self-sustainability, the connection and appreciation one gets from growing food.  The potential of the seed, the soil, the light and the water.  So simple and yet every element has to be in place for it all to work correctly.