Meet Sunny Morehouse | Herbal medicine grower and educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sunny Morehouse and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sunny, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I have always played by the “rules”. I have had an adventurous and fortunate life that has not followed most conventional patterns, but it has always been with internal conflict.

We (my husband and I) were pushed by life to take more risk, out of a kind of existential need. My dad passed away completely unexpectedly and we were left mutliple, unfinished “big-kid” tasks in his wake. It came at a time when we had decided to play more by the rules and both had steady, normalish work. My husband worked in the service industry with a company he had been at for almost a decade and I was working a computer job while going through an online masters for therapy and seeing clients. There were pieces of it that we liked and was grounding but also a sense that this was not the life or the people we had imagined for ourselves.

We decided to turn 180 degrees, back to where we had met- in agriculture. We moved multiple members of our family with us to an amazing farming community. We launched into being an herbal medicine farm- my deepest dream and one we had started and put aside 5 years prior. We did do our homework…crunching numbers, contacting potential buyers and reading the market. But we also just went for it. Some people we talked to (friends, family and neighbors and acquanetinces) were very skeptic. But others have been very suportive and those were the ones we listened to. We are still a very young farm and business and it remains to be seen how our risk taking will work out for us in the long term. But even if we our model or entire business changes, the feeling of taking the leap as a team and as a family has been very rewarding.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our business is special because we are a seed to product herbal company. The majority of herbs, even organic certified, are grown and imported to N. America and distributed by a few large companies. Very few herbal products, even organic and in natural food stores, are created with herbs that are from the same continent that the business is located. We feel strongly that using locally grown herbs not only has a positive impact on sustainable supply chains but it is actually more potent medicine. For people in Colorado to have plant medicine in their body that was grown in Colorado has a different effect than plant medicine grown across an ocean in a totally different natural climate. It is said that plants which grow in a given place are informed of the needs of the people who live on that soil as well- such as extreme dryness, low humidity, hot summers, ever-changing winters and the pressure that puts on our bodies to adapt.

Many of our herbs are grown from seed we have saved, keeping that genetic wisdom the seed has gleaned close to home as well. Our goal is to eventualy supply all our own soil amednment needs on site which will create a circle of Soil to Seed to Plant to Medicinal Products and always saving seed to bring it back around again.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I had a friend visiting in mid summer, the hayday over here in Ag land, I would bring them to Sweetgrass in Paonia for breakfast, Espresso Paeonia for the obvious
Then on a little farm tour to our neighbors, Thistle Whistle and Flipside, maybe check out a few beautiful wineries and vineyards here like Stone Cottage. Then go to the Arbol Farmers market in downtown Paonia and come back more towards Hotchkiss to finish the evening at an outdoor music show at Big B’s down the road from us.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We have had a lot of support (in many ways) in starting our farm. My mom has been our cheerleader since the beginining and took the leap of moving to a rural area with us and helping us make it a reality. She has believed from the outset that we can make it work.

My father-in-law has been a monumental help on the farm. Covering chores for us so we can have a date night once in a while. He is an innovator and our original inspiration for make-shift tools and fence or whatever repair.

My husband’s mom has has faith in us the whole way.

None of this would have been possible without the help of my late father.

So, our parents! We have been very blessed in many ways to have their support.

And…must include- not only Jeff Carpenter’s landmark book on growing medicinal herbs, but also Jeff himself who told us that we needed to keep our dreams of what this can be alive.

And our new awesome community and herb buyers. We had a great first year and it wouldn’t have been so without amazing herbalists who supported us by buying our herbs at the real cost of production- much higher than giant farms produce at. And we are grateful and lucky to be in a community of so many organic producers and farmers that show us it is possible to live a good life in agriculture and have been generous with sharing their knowledge and wisdom with us.

Website: arizefarm.org

Instagram: @arizebotanicals

Other: arizefarm@gmail.com