BSN Stories

Union, Illinois
Sanctuary Steward: Cindy Bloom

The Cherokee people say there is a place in the Smokey Mountains where the animals go to be healed. The Creator warned the people not to follow the wounded animals to this magical lake or the wild game would vanish forever. The animals guard this place and keep it invisible to the human eye. It is said that if we continue to respect ...

West Rockport, ME
Sanctuary Stewards: Deb Soule, Liz Ferraro, Julia Yelton

Avena Botanicals one-acre medicinal herb garden is situated on 30 acres of field and forest that borders 6000 acres of undeveloped woods and wetlands. We are on a south-facing slope, 400 feet above sea level, only 4 miles from the ocean. Being in a rural area, we are blessed with a diverse bird population, ...

Kenmore, WA
Sanctuary Steward: Jenny Perez

As the long days and short nights of summer approach equidistance, I reflect on another season in the Bastyr Garden. Over the five years that I have been involved with the garden, the focus of Bastyr’s student gardener team has been to harness the potential energy ever-present in our herb garden, shaping it to display the beauty of ...

Harwich, MA
Sanctuary Steward: Donna Wood Eaton

This 7 acre farm, bounded by town-owned “Greenspace” and privately owned undeveloped woodlands is the home of Cedar Spring Herb Farm. Comprised of 4 acres of wooded uplands with 1 ½ acres vernal pool and 1 ½ acres cedar swamp, many wild plants thrive in this specific habitat: pink ladies slipper, pipsissewa, wintergreen, high and ...

Bloomington Springs, TN
Sanctuary Steward: Lisa Bedner, RN, AHG

My heart is full that these 23 acres have been added to the UpS Botanical Sanctuary Network. Many Native American Nations once shared this area of Middle Tennessee near Cookeville as a source of plant medicines. The elders have told me that when the Cherokee and others were forced to move further north and east, that ...

Canon City, CO
Sanctuary Stewards: Chris and Tammi Hartung
A United Plant Savers Botanical Sanctuary since 1997

Desert Canyon Farm is owned by Chris and Tammi Hartung. It is a USDA certified organic wholesale farm in southern Colorado. The farm specializes in growing potted herbs (more than 350 different varieties of all types) and potted heritage heirloom and ethnic food ...

Marshall, NC
Sanctuary Steward: Robert Eidus

We have been very busy at Eagle Feather Farm this year, especially on the local level. We were one of six farms on the Carolina Farm Stewardship Assoc 1999 Mountain Farm Tour where over 150 people visited and attended workshops on preparing a fall ginseng bed and spraying with goldenseal spray as well as tours of the center. We have ...

Cottage Grove, Oregon
Sanctuary Stewards: Devon Bonady and Brian Basor

Fern Hill Nursery and Botanical Sanctuary is nestled in the Southern Willamette Valley of Oregon, between the Coast and Cascade mountain ranges. The land ranges 500 ft in elevation, encompassing 52 acres of diverse native forestland. Stands of native medicinals have grown wild on the land for many generations ...

Fulton, MD
Sanctuary Stewards: Jim and Peggy Duke

"Wintergreen's a breath of spring on the wintry forest floor
It makes a body sing when the songs don’t come no more..."

Nestled between the hustle bustle of the Baltimore-Washington, DC metropolitan region, where the piedmont meets the coastal plain in the Patuxent River valley, is the Green Farmacy Garden. ...

East Meredith, New York
Sanctuary Stewards: Steven Bower and Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower

In January 2007, we walked and intuited what is now our 12 acres of hillside, woodland, wetland and open pasture for the building of our new home—and the dream I'd been waiting for, a UpS At-Risk medicinal plant sanctuary. What attracted us to this land was its feel. We sensed a solid grounding ...

Williams, OR
Sanctuary Stewards: Sara Katz & Ed Smith

In 1993 Sara Katz and Ed Smith, founders and owners of Herb Parm, purchased a lovely 85 acre farm in southern Oregon. While the lay of the land was beautiful to behold, this farmland had been over-grazed by sheep and cattle for the prior 20 years, so the job before us was (and is) to restore the fertility to the land that had ...

Duluth, MN
Steward: Friede Rica

The Little Knife Botanical Sanctuary is located in a transition zone, ecologically speaking, between the southern hardwood forests and the boreal evergreen woods of the north. It consists of 19.7 acres situated 1 mile inland from Lake Superior and about 12 miles northeast of Duluth, MN along Hwy 61. We, my father and I, have owned the property for ...

Laytonville, CA
Sanctuary Stewards: Tonya Whitedeer & ThreeCrows Cargill

We have named our land Medicine Creek, for not only are there wonderful healing plants of the Green Nations everywhere but there is also a sacred feeling of calm and serenity throughout the ten acres. We know that we were shown the way to this wonderful haven to nurture it back to how it once was when our ...

Chilmark, MA
Sanctuary Steward: Rebecca Gilbert

Native Earth Teaching Farm is located in Chilmark on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. My grandmother bought this farm in the 1920’s from the estate of a whaling captain’s wife. One hundred fifty years ago it was mostly naked of cover, sheep were everywhere and the walls were being built by African slaves and Indians paid mostly in ...

Franklin, PA
Sanctuary Stewards: Sonja Hunt & Leslie Alexander

The idea for Restoration Herbs was conceived on a windy beach in Scotland, UK in May 2004 and was born in Franklin, PA in June 2005. After several months of searching we finally found this property tucked away in a corner with an acre of woods falling down to a creek behind the house and 5 acres of pasture in front. ...

East Barre, VT
Sanctuary Steward: Rosemary Gladstar

We currently own six hundred acres, 550 plus in wilderness forest, and 50 in fields with two homes and a retreat center. This land has a long history of logging, 100 acres is old growth. 450 is recovering from logging activity of previous owners and heavy damage from ice storms.

Plants already growing here include; ...

West Kingston, RI
Sanctuary Stewards: Kate and Dan Rakosky

We live in a tiny pre-revolution era village called Usquepaug, Rhode Island located in rural South County. Thirteen years ago it was our great blessing to become stewards of this land. The two-acre parcel we affectionately call Sagewood was once part of a nearly 300-year-old farm. The house is still intact, retaining the ...

Willseyville, NY
Sanctuary Stewards: Suzanne Johnson and Jeff Joseph

It was our good fortune to become land stewards in 2003, when after a long search we purchased 33 acres of forestland in south-central New York State. We are both Biointensive gardeners and naturalists and have also studied primitive skills with Tom Brown’s Tracker School. I have herbal certificates from Donna ...

Applegate, Oregon
Sanctury Steward: Barbara Hughey

We moved to SW Oregon two and half years ago. When we first saw what would be our new home we marveled at the different kinds of environments that were here. Forested hillsides, gave way to bright sunny open fields, and from south to north there is a lovely creek, overhung with big trees. Alders, oaks and ash form the canopy. The ...