Patty Travioli has set up her Heartwood Forest Farm for success as the local “Apothecary Farmer” celebrates 10 years of growing on the Leelanau Peninsula delicate lands.
Heartwood Forest Farm hosted an open house on National Herb Day earlier this month.
“It’s our anniversary and it’s National Herb Day and we decided to have an open house and nothing is better than inviting the community to come over,” Travioli said.
Heartwood Forest Farm is nestled within the woodlands of Cedar where good things grow and bees make honey. They are specialty growers of farm cultivated culinary and medicinal herbs.
Patty, who’s originally from Goodrich, has owned the south Cedar property for 20 years.
“When we came here, It’s the same story everyone else has, we loved it,” Patty said. “Ten years ago, I kind of stepped back and looked at everything that’s going on, and growing plants is a passion of mine.”
One thing led to another and now the property produces large amounts of plants and herbs with over 20 years of organic farming experience.
Ever since the beginning she has been fascinated by plants and went on to graduate from Michigan State University with a degree in horticulture.
Travioli will be doing something different this summer. She typically goes to multiple farmers markets, but will be taking a step back this year and instead teaching classes at the farm. They’re all plant related classes about making paints or extracting pigments from plants to make paints or to dye fabric.
“These classes are to dive deeper into the actual plant, other than having a plant and a garden or harvesting for your meal,” Travioli said.
Heartwood Forest Farm initially was an old Scotch Pine farm that was cleared out for lumber.
“They were dead, and as that happened, we kind of started on this end with the hoop house,” Travioli said.
Heartwood Forest Farm received a grant through USDA initially for a hoop house. She started simply with vegetables then built a second hoop house.
“I’m kind of done with anything new. I’m just gonna kind of work the area as it is. There’s a large pollinator habitat, which you kind of can’t see, but it’s all along the driveway now,” she said. “ Then the culinary and medicinal herbs, I grow entirely for farmers markets and for the community and I grow vegetables just for our family.”
Heartwood Forest Farm offers bulk herbs of oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, French tarragon, lavender, and oats.
“We just harvested a lot of the flowers for teas like chamomile,” she said.
They are also taking pre orders for plants marshmallow, angelica, basil (five varieties), calendula, catnip, chamomile (two varieties), cilantro, dill, lemon balm, lovage, marjoram, mint (three varieties).
“I feel like I am at a point where I want to work more intentionally with the plants as opposed to being production oriented,” Travioli said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, there’s still something new to learn about every plant every year.”
Heartwood forest Farm’s roadside stand opens just before Memorial Day weekend where plants will be located. Ordering online is always an option as well.
