2020 wildflower update

Bee photo by © Brandon Scott / Woodland Herbal, LLC.

Our family wants to take a moment to thank you all for your support and patronage. Since opening up our products and herbal remedies to the public in 2018, we've had a tremendous response which has taken us all by surprise. We never thought we'd be in the position we are today, but alas, here we are...

In 2019, we sold over 5,000 products since setting up at our local farmers market on a whim and an idea that others might appreciate our plant medicines as much as our family and community. As you know, we promised to plant tree seeds for every item sold that year and we had some work ahead of us, but with the addition of a new greenhouse on our farm, we were able to nurture hundreds of sprouting seedlings which will eventually make up a huge part of our reforesting efforts. With your patronage, we raised enough from our sales that year to plant 5,451 tree seeds. Not all trees will sprout, and not all will live on to become a vibrant member of an Ohio forest, but we will always do our best to help curb the negative effects deforestation has had on our planet.

For 2020, our family decided to switch gears for the year to also shine a light on the disastrous impact our culture has had on the bee population. Bees are perhaps the most important creatures in our living world because they are the pollinators. Without them, our food supply takes a major hit, which in turn would affect human population in terrifying and catastrophic ways.

Don’t believe us? Read what GreenPeace.org had to say:
"Believe it or not, you have a bee to thank for every one in three bites of food you eat.
Honey bees — wild and domestic — perform about 80 percent of all pollination worldwide. A single bee colony can pollinate 300 million flowers each day. Grains are primarily pollinated by the wind, but fruits, nuts and vegetables are pollinated by bees. Seventy out of the top 100 human food crops — which supply about 90 percent of the world’s nutrition — are pollinated by bees.
Worldwide bee colony collapse is not as big a mystery as the chemical industry claims.
The systemic nature of the problem makes it complex, but not impenetrable. Scientists know that bees are dying from a variety of factors—pesticides, drought, habitat destruction, nutrition deficit, air pollution, global warming and more. Many of these causes are interrelated. The bottom line is that we know humans are largely responsible for the two most prominent causes: pesticides and habitat loss."

What inspired this venture is our family had been talking, and we decided it was best to make the biggest impact we can with what resources we have available. While we love trees, we may love herbs and flowers more. Trees are notoriously difficult to grow and success rates can be low, so while we nurse our beloved seedlings from the past three years, we had turned toward a new year with a new goal in mind.

We set aside an acre of previously deforested land for which we vowed to plant 100 wildflower seeds for every item sold for the year of 2020. We will garden for the pollinators, focusing on plants that bloom from early spring to late fall. Our seed selection will be a mix of organic North American native wildflowers.

A year ago, we made this promise, and now here we are… With your support, we can grow a better tomorrow! Once winter turns to spring, so will we be getting to work. Are you ready for this? With your patronage, we were able to fund the planting of 1,106,400 WILDFLOWER SEEDS! To properly redevelop previously deforested land to become a thriving ecosystem, we knew we needed to plant closer to a million seeds, and we were able to hit that tremendous goal! Over the upcoming years, be sure to follow our Instagram and Facebook pages as we’ll be posting photos of the progress. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!