Saturday, August 3, 2013

Life at Turtle Mountain






I want to welcome you to our little herb farm on the mountain, Turtle Mountain Herbs. Grab some iced herb tea and sit a spell while I tell you a story! ;)   In the Fall of 1995, my husband and I began to search for a place in the country. After living in town for merely a year, we had had enough.  All the "bottom land" was out of our price range.  That is when we found our beloved little mountain.  She had been bulldozed and piles of garbage mired her beauty, but the price was right for 2 youngins starting out.  We have put in many long days, months, and now even years in restoring our little mountain. She has rewarded us handsomely over the years. To some, she appears to be scruffy and small,but we saw her potential beauty from the beginning!


 
Our initial dream was to start a medicinal herb farm.  We made a feeble attempt those first years, but folks weren't ready to embrace it quite yet. Then the babies started coming! From near and far they showed up on our doorstep! :)  We became too busy taking care of the babies to do much with our herb farm. Over the years, we added fur and feathered babies as well: chickens, goats, llamas, sheep, and ducks. Life has been blessed on our little mountain!

As some mamas do, I was approaching mid-life feeling like "all I had done was raised babies". How silly I know!  My oldest began to explore my herb books and asking questions.  Our little mountain had many variety of herbs growing from our previous attempt. I had the herbs, the knowledge, and family support, so why not? This last Spring Turtle Mountain was born or shall I say our little mountain, finally got her name.

Her name, you ask: "How did we come up with that?" Well, my Dad who instilled in me the love of nature and particularly plants, always wore a jade turtle.  It was a connection for him to his Cherokee past. His death three years ago, pushed me to rethink my life and was the catalyst to walk the path to herbs again. Our little mountain is also gives shelter to the endangered Box Turtle. After naming her, Turtle Mountain, my daughter found a book of Cherokee stories at the library. One was about the Box Turtle.  Guess what the turtle's job was?  The herb healer! :)


My plan for the blog is to share how to make your own medicine, identify herbs, and provide in depth knowledge of individual herbs.  I will have the finished medicine for sale from our wee apothecary.  I will also have "packages" of herbs available to make the medicine yourself.  Our shelves will be stocked with as many local herbs as we can grow and wildcraft. For those we can't grow, we will provide them in bulk for your purchase from larger organic sources!


Come walk this journey with us! Enjoy some pictures of our farm!
our wee greenhouse
 

herbs, herbs and more herbs!
 

 
                                                        sweet Fuzzybutt!
 
                                           
 
 
                                         precious Daffodil!

 
                                         Kefa, the mighty protector!
 
                                       


 

 




3 comments:

  1. I love the box turtle story! Just a couple weeks ago one was frantically trying to cross the road in Johnson City, of course I stopped traffic and gave it a lift. It wasn't a bit afraid and looked a little like superman with his 4 legs and head poked way out as I put him down. I look forward to more stories and info on herbs. I had no idea the "weed" I keep pulling up is the band aid plant!

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  2. Aww-Patsy, a fellow box turtle rescuer! ;)

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