Avena Botanicals is an Herbal Apothecary, Biodynamic Medicinal Herb Farm, Shop, Classroom and Clinic
Since Avena's beginning, we have been carefully handcrafting our herbal remedies from the freshest and highest quality organic, biodynamic and wild-harvested herbs available. Nearly 70% of the herbs used in our products come from our own certified biodynamic gardens and from nearby islands and meadows which we harvest from annually. What we cannot grow we purchase locally from other certified organic and biodynamic farms.
A visitor on a sunny day in summer will see large baskets of fresh, hand-harvested herbs being carried by the gardeners into the apothecary. Throughout the summer the gardener’s baskets are overflowing with fresh sacred basil leaves, orange calendula flowers, yellow mullein blossoms, red rose petals, purple bee balm flowers and the green leaves of lemon balm and comfrey. The aromas that fill Avena’s drying room and medicine making room are sweet and pungent and alive with the goodness that nature provides.
Once inside the apothecary our freshly harvested herbs are quickly processed into herbal extracts, oils and alcohol-free glycerites, ensuring that the freshness and potency of each herb is preserved. Herbs gathered for Avena's teas and salves are immediately placed upon drying screens in our temperature controlled drying room where they are monitored daily. Our processing equipment is simple: stainless steel commercial blenders for macerating the herbs, oven roasters for preparing our infused oils, and a 12 ton hydraulic press for separating the blended herbs from their liquid bases. Our jars of salves and crèmes and bottles of oils and herbal extracts are mixed, poured and labeled by hand. The recipes we use have been perfected over the past 26 years.
