Celebrating 25 years
25 years or quarter of a century is quite a milestone and one I am incredibly proud of.
Creating The Herb Farm from bare paddocks has been an amazing journey.
My passion for herbs began with my desire to know natural ways to keep my family and myself well and to be able to treat us when we needed help for our health and wellbeing.
Studying for a herbal diploma was a journey of learning, punctuated with the excitement of making and trying out lotions and potions under the guidance of the Australasian College of Herbal Studies.
My family, friends and our animals were my guinea pigs and I would delight at the opportunity of making syrups for coughs, teas of all kinds and creams for bumps, bruises, aches and pains or rashes, cuts and more.
During my study period I gave all my creations freely and then when word spread of how well they worked and when requests for more came in I started making a few products for sale.
I cleared out our linen cupboard in our hallway and put my potions on the shelves. My first customers would come to the house and buy what they needed from our home on Grove Road, Ashhurst in the Manawatu.
So really the “birth” of The Herb Farm was a cupboard in the hallway of our house in the country.
Around this time, we bought some land behind our house and I had a vision of creating a place where people could come and I could share my passion for herbs, from that vision The Herb Farm was born.
It seemed like our third child had been created. The Herb Farm has been nurtured through the infant stage to the challenges of the teenage years to now the young adult phase!
I was a one-woman-band for a few years and then there have been some wonderful people who have been on this journey with me, most importantly my supportive family who to this day have been travelling with me.
It is a family run business now with everyone in the family contributing on a daily basis.
My heartfelt thanks go to my daughter Sarah who has been my business partner now for over a decade and has taken The Herb Farm into a global marketplace and has a team of twenty-five people helping her make The Herb Farm the wonderful brand and place it has become.
Our commitment to 100% natural and to growing herbs which we know are efficacious in our products has never wavered and I am really proud of that.
My passion and amazement at what herbs can do has never changed and I am blessed to be able to share that with our third generation as I get to spend a lot of time with my gorgeous grandchildren, Taj and Sia. It is such fun to introduce them to these incredible plants in our gardens.
I am looking forward to the future and being part of The Herb Farm going forward.
Nowadays I spend some time in my office onsite developing new and exciting products or you may see me out in the garden (my happy place) so make sure you say hello.
- Lynn Kirkland (Herbalist and Founder)