Rx: Calendula and wormwood

“It’s pronounced ‘Es-oh-pus’ after the band of First Nations Lenape people who originally inhabited the area,” said Sarah Elisabeth, manager at the Esopus Agricultural Center in Kingston, NY. In the Lenape language, she explained, Esopus can mean land of flowing water and high banks, or wellspring of creation.

Elisabeth, an apothecary, edible landscaper and teacher, has always had a connection to ancestral knowledge. While she gave up formal religion at 16, her wise woman ways have guided her ever since.

It was a “calling” that prompted Elisabeth to migrate from Brooklyn to the mainland (the Bronx) on her way Upstate, back in the early 2000s. Trained in horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden and Bronx Botanical Garden, Elisabeth’s shift to agriculture took hold while she was working at the greenhouses of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. Both lines of work kept her in close touch with her “plant allies” — plants that show up repeatedly in your life, guiding you.

When Elisabeth and her husband moved up to Beacon, NY, in 2006, she was a lone force on the local ag scene. She and her husband lived a simple life, he working as a union carpenter in New York City, she taking odd jobs to buy tools and seeds to cultivate small plots of land.

Fast forward two decades, and Elisabeth no longer feels isolated. She is looking forward to welcoming six farmers of color to the Esopus Agriculture Center this year. The Center has also created a community garden with 110 plots: a 20-by-20-foot plot is $100 for those who can afford it, otherwise free. She has spent the last few years installing and cultivating a 40-foot circular herb garden at her teaching space at Wildseed Community Farm & Healing Village in nearby Millerton, NY. The herb garden, comprising five concentric circles, echoes the non-linear path of life and the cycle of reciprocity, she said.

The Wildseed herb garden was born during the pandemic, which witnessed a fractured healthcare system that was failing communities of color. In response, Elisabeth distributed free medicinal herbs in the South Bronx starting in 2023. Since then, she and her husband have held three free herb giveaways each year, giving away the equivalent of $1,000 worth of medicine each time.

The people they serve, mainly Black communities and Hispanic immigrants, are often familiar with the herbs Elisabeth provides – like wormwood, wild bergamot, tulsi, sage, calendula and comfrey.

Customers repeatedly return with stories of healing and gratitude, she said. An elderly woman used the herbs in her recovery from brain cancer surgery; a mother spread herbal salves on her child’s irritated skin.

“When we ‘sold out’ in an hour and a half, we knew we were onto something,” said Elisabeth.

The spirit of reciprocity has guided Elisabeth to partner with local farms in the Hudson Valley to set up onsite apothecaries with free medicine for the public.

Elisabeth quotes Margaret Mead when reflecting on her community ethos. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”