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About Us
"Our mission is to create the highest quality herbal products while nurturing plants, people, and pollinators. We make our products using fresh, organic & biodynamic herbs. These vital plants along with a sacred connection to place promote wellness of the body, mind, and spirit and encourage humans to be mindful and loving
stewards of the Earth."
-Deb Soule, Founder & Herbalist
Who We Are
Avena Botanicals' staff is a collaborative team based in Midcoast Maine. Some of us were born and raised in Maine and others moved here because of the beauty and quiet. We are herbalists, gardeners, healers, professional artists, writers, teachers, parents, hikers, meditators, yoga practitioners, bee-keepers, local food enthusiasts, and more.
What We Do
Our skills are unique, and finely-tuned. We create high quality, hand-crafted herbal products that serve people's health, spirit, and well-being. Over 70% of the herbs we use are grown in our certified biodynamic gardens. Our extracts, teas, oils, salves, elixirs, and cremes are available throughout North America.
Why We Do It
We believe that handmade herbal products, well-tended herb gardens, and biodynamic practices promote health, spiritual awareness, and wholeness for individuals and communities and for our Planet Earth.
Core Principles
Crafted By Hand
Everything we do is done by hand from seed planting to pouring our cremes to shipping our packages. Our hands keep us directly connected to serving plants, people, and our planet.Simplicity
We value simplicity and the traditional ways of hand-crafting herbal products. We use simple tabletop tools instead of large, mechanized machines -- we do not mass-manufacture. The beauty and aroma of the plants we grow infuses our hearts and work environment on a daily basis.Biodynamic Gardening
This holistic and spiritually alive system of organic agriculture enlivens our soil, water, and plants along with the soul, spirit, and consciousness of humans. Biodynamic preparations and practices create herbal products that can benefit body, mind, and spirit and connect individuals to the source of their sustenance.Chemical-Free
Since our inception in 1985, we have used no chemicals, additives or solvents of any kind in our herbal products or in our farming practices. Our on-site production facility is free of toxic paints, finishes, and synthetic scents and we use only 100% biodegradable cleaning supplies.On-site Manufacturing
Avena's products are produced on-site in our custom-built facility. Come visit us on a sunny summer day and you will delight in the baskets of fresh herbs coming inside from our gardens. It doesn't get any more local than this.Small Batch Size
Creating gentle, organic, high-quality herbal products that promote good health is our goal. Producing our products in small batches ensures that their freshness and efficacy meet our high standards.Community
Avena's gardens are open to the public year round, Monday-Friday. They are a peaceful sanctuary for people (and pollinators) to enjoy, learn in, and experience the gifts of nature. We host various herb walks, classes, retreats, and year round talks and summer-time tea in our herb shop.Integrity
This value remains constant in our thoughts, words, and actions. We care about the health and well-being of the people and plants we serve and take extra care as we collect our herbs and create our products.Friendly Customer Service
"Work is love in action" wrote author Peter Caddy. We love assisting people over the phone, through email, or in our herb shop. We personally answer our phones and cherish our customer family.Harmony with Nature
Despite the modern world's technological advances, many people around our planet remain unhappy and disconnected from nature. Avena's peaceful gardens, retreats, and hand-crafted herbal products assist people seeking to live in harmony with nature and with the Spirit that connects all living beings.Balance, Health and Wellness
We aim to create a working environment that embodies balance, health, and wellness. We ring a bell at noon for any staff who chooses to stop and meditate for 5-10 minutes. Our weekly staff meetings are held outdoors in summer and in a room overlooking the garden in winter. As a staff, we share yummy potlucks, birthday cakes, inspiring books, and garden walks.
Our Team
Deb Soule
Founder & Herbalist
Deb is an herbalist, gardener, teacher and author of The Woman's Handbook of Healing Herbs and How to Move Like a Gardener. Raised in a small town in western Maine, Deb began organic gardening and studying the therapeutic uses of herbs at age 16 alongside the internationally known herbalist Mary Bove. Deb's faith in the beneficial qualities of plants includes a desire to make organic herbs easily accessible to women and families living in rural areas.
Deb's passion for plants, gardens and wellness and her commitment to sharing herbal knowledge with others is central to her work. She frequently is a guest-lecturer at various conferences as well as an instructor for botany and horticulture students, garden clubs, and medical students. In 2005, People, Places and Plants magazine named Deb as one of the 50 most influential gardeners in the Northeast.
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John Affleck
Shipping
John came on board in 2016 as a gardener, but now assists us several days per week in our Apothecary and Shipping department. He has a penchant for poetry and is known for coining witty herbal nicknames for most of our staff.
Brittany Cooper
Garden
Brittany joined us as a gardener in 2018 and has stayed on with us ever since. She helps maintain and harvest herbs from our herb gardens, and contributes to keeping the garden organized with its record-keeping.
Michelle Cross
Bookkeeping
Michelle joined our team at the beginning of 2020 to help us with our bookkeeping.
Daniela Esposito
Office
Born and raised in New York, Daniela joined the team at the start of 2018 with a background as a health & fitness editor, yoga instructor, quality control associate, and lover of all things food and Broadway. Outside of her role at Avena, Daniela finds balance among family life... including a husband, two young boys and a cat, cooking, and enjoying time outdoors.
Alyson Flemming
Apothecary
Alyson started at Avena in the spring of 2018 after twenty years in the culinary industry. She enjoys the sense of life balance and calmness she has since discovering by working in our Apothecary. In her spare time, she savors hiking, cooking from the bounty of local farms, and crafting pottery. She spends as much time as she can with her husband, dog, and two cats at her home in the woods.
Elsie Gawler
Teas
Elsie originally joined us as one of our seasonal gardeners in 2018, but now creates our tea, powder, and dried herb blends. She is also a gifted musician, and often performs with other members of her folk-singing, fiddle-playing family.
Erda Grass
Customer Care
When Erda joined the team in 2016, she brought with her three decades of fascination with holistic health approaches, including nutrition, herbs, and love of supporting others in building better health naturally. Involved in organic gardening and farming for years, she is a local-foods enthusiast, permaculture design and biodynamic agriculture student, and an inspired student of non-violent communication.
Bob Harden
Facilities
Bob has enjoyed being part of the Avena team since the spring of 2007. In earlier roles, he worked in shipping, tea making, and oil & tincture creation. Currently, he tends to our facilities needs and helps with groundskeeping. Bob is an avid honey beekeeper, caring for Avena's bees as well as his own.
Audrey Maddox
Cremes & Salves
Before joining Avena to help craft our cremes and salves, Audrey apprenticed on another local farm and lead the gardening group at a day program for adults with intellectual uniqueness. Prior to that, she attended the University of Maine, where she studied Ecology & Environmental Science and researched native pollinators. In her free time, Audrey enjoys tending to plants and channeling her creativity through music, dance, art, and cooking.
Natalie Travia
Quality & HR
After a full career in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, Natalie was keen to use her experience in quality systems and cGMPs to benefit a small business like Avena. Natalie relocated to Maine from Pennsylvania in the fall of 2018 with her husband and two cats. She enjoys exploring Midcoast Maine, meeting others within the community, and balancing work with her home life and volunteerism.
Sara Vesta
Office & Purchasing
Sara joined Avena in the summer of 2019. Drawing on her Virgo nature and training in librarianship, she aims to weave ease and flow throughout Avena's administrative processes. Sara is grateful for the opportunity to practice her contemplative, nature-based spirituality in both her personal and professional life.
On Our Grounds
Biodynamic Farm
Avena Botanicals is the first Demeter-certified biodynamic farm in Maine. Biodynamic agriculture is a holistic and spiritually alive system of organic and ecological practices and philosophies based on the teachings of Dr. Rudolf Steiner. One of the core beliefs and practices of biodynamics is to help heal the Earth.
Herbal Apothecary
Over five hundred pounds of fresh, hand-gathered herbs come into Avena's apothecary annually and are thoughtfully prepared into herbal tinctures, elixirs, glycerites, and oils. Over 70% of these herbs come directly from Avena's certified-biodynamic gardens. Our herbs are fresh, aromatic, sweet, bitter, pungent, and beautiful.
Herb Drying Rooms
Over seven hundred pounds of fresh, hand-gathered herbs come into Avena's drying rooms annually and are immediately weighed and laid onto large screens. Most of these herbs are grown in Avena's three-acre gardens. We also collect a few herbs from nearby islands and meadows.
Herbal Classroom
The Herbal Classroom offers classes in herbal wellness, women's health, Ayurveda, meditation, biodynamic agriculture, pollinator habitats, and yoga for farmers and gardeners. Indoor and outdoor classes occur in our beautiful gardens and octagon-shaped classroom. The Herbal Classroom is a non-profit, 501c(3), educational center situated on the same property as Avena's biodynamic farm and apothecary.
Sanctuary for Pollinators
Avena's gardens have been purposefully planted with protective hedgerows and flowering plants that offer nectar and pollen to dozens of pollinators. Shimmering ruby-throated hummingbirds and various butterflies, honey bees and native bees fill our gardens with an array of colors, sounds, and personalities. The presence of pollinators fills our hearts with joy and gratitude.
Herb Shop
Our shop is located in an 1830's farmhouse adjacent to our biodynamic gardens. Delight in the old wooden beams as you smell the aromas of herbs, browse an herb book, or talk with our staff about which herbs to purchase.
"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries
of the earth are never alone or weary of life."
-Rachel Carson
© 2020 Avena Botanicals
