Meet Lina & Adam Stein | Owners & Dreamers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lina & Adam Stein and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lina & Adam, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
We really started taking the idea of entrepreneurship seriously after the loss of a few family members on both sides of our families. Loss really has a way of putting things in perspective. These experiences changed how we wanted to spend our time, how we wanted to grow as people, and how we wanted to contribute to our community. Because of our backgrounds, interests, and amazing connections – our goal became to start a business that focused on growing flowers and herbs and making natural products that incorporated flowers, herbs, and essential oils.

We named our business, Yarrow Field & Farm, after one of our favorite flowers – yarrow – which is native to Colorado and has incredible medicinal and spiritual properties in addition to being beautiful. Thanks to the support of family members and friends, as well as a whole lot of pivoting, we’ve been able to build a small beauty business that focuses on sustainability, beauty, warmth, nature, wellness, and yes – yarrow!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We both have unusual backgrounds that lend to different parts of running the business. Adam has been a landscaper, a teacher, a day trader, and a caterer in former lives. He has a deep love of gardening thanks to his father who was a botanist. Lina is an attorney and has been a nonprofit fundraiser for most of her career – in her spare time she does floral art and works on miniatures. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve both honed in on incorporating more and more sustainability into our daily lives and finding ways to stay as natural as possible in our diet, skincare, and health.

So much thought and care goes into what we make. For example, we grow all our own organic herbs and flowers for our products (unless it’s not possible in Colorado’s climate and soil), our oils and butters are all ethically sourced (our shea butter comes directly from a women’s co-op in Ghana), we only use essential oils, 99% of our products are vegan, and we reuse packaging materials when fulfilling orders. This type of intention was really key for us when we thought about how we wanted to impact our community and clients.

We’re finding that there is a growing demand for products with these values and this level of quality. Ultimately, when people start thinking of their skin as what it is, the largest organ of the body, they see the value of switching to high-quality, natural topicals, and the results speak for themselves. Customers have shared with us amazing stories that their chronic skin conditions were alleviated with regular use of our soaps and serums and they found time for self-care with our products.

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?
We are fortunate to have lots of visitors, everyone finds a reason to come visit us in Colorado! If someone is coming for a week, these places are always on the itinerary.

Day / Overnight trips:
Estes Park and the Stanley Hotel
Breckenridge and lunch or dinner at Piante Pizza

Hike the Grand Mesa and lunch/coffee at Main Street Market in Cedaredge
Tour the South Park City Museum and stop afterwards at Mountain Sun Arts in Fairplay

Gold mine tour in Georgetown
A half day to Evergreen
The Denver Botanical Gardens

Shopping:
Local Goods in Lafayette
Red Canyon Art in Lyons
Lafayette Flea Market
Sunday Supply in Fort Collins
All the antique markets along Highway 287 near Fort Collins
Rosy Rings in Denver

Eating:
Moxie Bread in Louisville
River & Woods in Boulder
The taco truck on Main Street in Lafayette

White Rabbit in Fort Collins
Huckleberry in Louisville

Hiking:
Lyon Gulch to Homestead Meadows
Alderfer/Three Sisters area
Grand Mesa National Forest
Chautauqua Park in Boulder

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
In the beginning, we worked with an amazing family herbalist, Arielle Chilcote-Barnard, who helped us craft our all natural first aid kit (one of our first products). She imparted her knowledge of crafting tinctures and salves as well as helped us grow in using our favorite herbs medicinally.

Another key mentor and supporter in our journey has been Melbe Sweet of Sweet Foraged Things. Melbe is Lina’s cousin and at the time we started Yarrow Field & Farm, she was CFO of Ananda Apothecary. She leant her knowledge on all things related to essential oils and gave us incredible deals  on essential oils so we could afford to get started. Melbe also mentored us in honing our merchandising aesthetic for our market booths. Yarrow Field & Farm and Sweet Foraged Things now regularly collaborate at markets.

Lastly, Lina’s dad Steve is who inspired our first soap – Steve’s Favorite Lavender. He was diagnosed with cancer and requested we make a lavender soap that would relax him. We worked on crafting the perfect formula and ended up starting our line of cold process soaps thanks to Steve’s request.

Website: www.yarrowfieldandfarm.com

Instagram: @yarrowfieldandfarm

Facebook: www.facebook.com/yarrowfieldandfarm

Other: www.etsy.com/shop/yarrowfieldandfarm

Image Credits
Doug Ross photo (for Wilderness Kit); Tara Geary (market booth photo)