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Escarpment Gardens Herbal Tea: doing it all

May 24, 2019   ·   0 Comments

BY – CONSTANCE SCRAFIELD 

Ostensibly, Joey Lemieux’s herbal tea business began with the Soaring Heart store “and that happened with Ellen [Brakel].” 

He told us about that: “We had started our business from home but wanted to get out in the community. We put out what we thought there was a need for – healthy food. We were sort of new to the community. If we opened the shop, we thought it would help with two things: give the community what it needed – in 2007, which were natural products and especially the tea. 

“I got the idea to put out my own product. We sold a lot of tea and I got to notice the trends.” 

Still, his personal history for the years before the shop did their part to bring him where his is today. Born in Canada, “we moved to Texas when I was a baby and moved back to Ontario when I was 10 years old.” 

Later, living in Barrie, as an adult, “I took a permaculture course at the Ecology Retreat Centre (ERC). I had looked all over the place and there was one there in Hockley. A week after I finished, I got an email from them looking to hire me for maintenance for them. I moved here. 

“Eventually, I met Ellen. She was putting up a yurt – a round tent -like structure that was originally used by nomadic people from Mongolia. She wanted a place to get away and asked the ERC if she could put the yurt there. I helped her put up the yurt and we met and she ended up staying with me. I was renting a cabin there. 

“There was a transition from the ERC. At that point, we had the chance to go out on our own. We found a safe place for our children and our pets in Mono. Ten acres, on which we are growing plants for herbal teas. We have a green house , good sized garden. I’m building a solar dehydrator. Everything is electrically dehydrated.” 

He began to outline his routines, “I grow herbs but I also sustainably wild harvest – trees and berries and roots that I harvest for the teas. I learned what to harvest, a lot from my permaculture course. I learned a lot from just spending time in nature, tasting them and getting to know them personally. I’ve always grown up in the country; I was never in town; that’s originally where I got inspired. 

“The shop was open almost ten years. We had taken courses. I am a certified nutritionist and permaculture designer, that’s all about doing human designs that go in line with nature.” 

Moving on, they sold the store building to their tenant, a chiropractor. 

“This has happened organically – that’s kind of how my whole life has been. There’s still lots of bruises that go along with an organic system but, hopefully, it all works out. 

Now, I’m planting hardy hibiscus; ‘hardy’ means it will come back after the winter. A lot of what I do is experimenting; it’s just a lot of trial and error to see if they work. Sometimes, they do and they don’t but, if they do work, then that’s a plus. 

“I started selling my own herbal tea in 2015, in the Shelburne farmers’ market, which I helped to start. That’s where I started selling the teas and I could tell people liked them and that encouraged me. Honestly, I’m always pleasantly surprised when people like the teas and continue to come back to buy them – it’s a good feeling.” 

Inevitably, “I bring in 20% of the ingredients. I’ll always have to bring in some things. My work ethic is to grow as much of the ingredients for the teas as I can. Now that is 80% and that’s awesome, considering no one is doing herbal teas the way I’m doing it. Mostly, I sell the tea in tea bags. It took me a long time to find a source. I was getting them through the USA. Only this year, I found a factory in China where the bags are unbleached and they don’t have any plastic in them.” 

This has proven much more cost effective. 

The process for making the herbals teas is quite strict. Mr. Lemieux explained it, “I grow and pick and harvest, herbs etc. Dehydrate them slowly at low temperatures. We have a long low building with big shelves for storing stuff in glass jars; they’re not stored for long because I’m using it all the time. The hydro hasn’t been too bad; we also have solar panels. 

“I always keep the mixtures the same. My boxes and labels took me a long time to find but I get a pretty good deal. 

“I dehydrate as much as possible to get me through the winter. In the winter I can still harvest cedar leaf, white pine needles, black cherry bark. There are 40 varieties; not all in stock some of the year.” 

This past year, his business was certified Naturally Grown, which is “same guide lines as organ, more grass roots. So, anything that comes from the farm is certified naturally grown. I sell the teas at farmers market and on line, some farm shops. I do some wholesale to local business.” 

Online he does well: “I ship far to customers, all around the world. People visiting the farmers markets bring the teas far away with them. I do pretty well online.” 

He summed it up: “The only way to keep up is to make progress every day. I’m always working, specially in the summer. I do three farmers’ markets personally every week, plus ship to one in Collingwood. There’s life, too.” 

Still, is this fun? “Oh yeah, I love it. I just have to make a good effort at it. People come to the farm to save on shipping; there are weekly yoga classes here and guests to our air bnb.” 

They brought the yurt with them. 

“It’s a big round tent on a platform,” he informed us.”We were featured in Explorer magazine as one of the top 10 Yurt camping sites in Ontario. 

“We rent that right through the winter. It’s warm with the wood stove and big enough with a 20 foot diameter. So, we have a weekly routine of getting the yurt ready for guests. They fend for themselves; we provide firewood and linen.” 

For the future, “I just want to keep the farm growing sustainably; more and more herbs and provide more tea and do it in a easier way. Once I get all the plants growing really well; mostly perennials that do the best.” 

He said, “I make sure there’s plenty of diversity in the gardens.” 

For more information or to shop, www. escarpmentgardens.ca 

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