Expanding the Chesapeake Herbshed: Networking and Education to Improve Safety and Market Access for Medicinal Herb Farmer Community in the Northeast

Commodities

• Additional Plants: herbs

Practices

• Crop Production: food product quality/safety
• Education and Training: demonstration, farmer to farmer, networking
• Sustainable Communities: quality of life

Project Focus

Medicinal herb growers surveyed in the Chesapeake Herbshed need accessible education for safe cultivation, harvesting, and post-harvest processing of herbs. This lack of guidance affects worker safety and product quality, which limits market-readiness and economic returns. Growers also expressed need for stronger peer learning opportunities and connections with regional buyers to improve farm income and support long-term sustainability.

Need

National and regional demand for domestic herbs is higher than supply of herbs. Lacking training, growers have experienced costly production mistakes, products that failed to meet buyer standards, and increased risks to worker health. As operations scale, these gaps become more significant.

Solution

To address worker health and product safety risks, Fox Haven will formalize and expand the Chesapeake Herbshed (CH), a multi state (PA, MD, DE, DC, WV, VA) peer network of 70 medicinal-herb farmers, 51 in Northeast SARE region, and 39 buyers. CH will organize peer-led training in safe cultivation and post-harvest practices while strengthening market connections. The project will reduce production risks, improve product quality, and increase market readiness and long-term economic resilience for herb farms.

Approach

In 2027, farmers will have access to a year-long series of digital and in-person education and networking opportunities including:

• Webinars - focused on record-keeping and safety skills for market-readiness
• Field Days - focused on farm techniques that prioritize grower/consumer safety and buyer processing specifications.
• Monthly virtual meetings - providing peer support and troubleshooting.
• Assessment and Networking Events- bringing growers and buyers together to look at regional herb samples and reinforce shared processing standards, potentiating market opportunities for farmers. Representatives from Vermont Growers Initiative will attend to cross-pollinate with CH members.
• Website infrastructure - education portal hosting a member directory, library of peer-produced recordings, and an archive of newsletters and safety document samples. New member farms will be identified and connected to the network.

In 2028, farmers who participated in educational events will be encouraged to implement new and improved safety practices and market readiness skills on their farms with stipends to support behavior changes. Stipends will pay for:

• The creation of at least 1 new farm document resource that will impact the safety of farm employees.
• Infrastructure and equipment that supports safe production of market-ready crops.

Quarterly newsletters authored by CH members who engaged in new and improved practices will be produced in the second year to disseminate knowledge and encourage the adoption of changes on more farms.

Pre and post assessments will measure adoption of safety practices, improvements in record keeping and processing standards, and strengthened market connections. Impact will be measured through adoption tracking, documentation audits, buyer feedback, infrastructure verification, and network growth metrics in addition to pre and post assessments.

Through Chesapeake Herbshed's expansion, Fox Haven will respond to Mid-Atlantic (MD, PA, WV, DC, DE) medicinal herb farmers' needs by improving farmer safety, market-readiness skills, and peer/buyer connections.

Chesapeake Herbshed will:

1. Build network infrastructure; a website with directory and education portal.
2. Host a year-long series of digital and in-person farmer-led education and connection opportunities.
3. Assist farmers through stipends to implement new or improved farmer safety and market-readiness practices (i.e. producing market-ready high-quality processed herbs with accompanying regulatory and buyer-required documentation).
4. Connect more farmers to these specialty training resources through an online resource library.

Our farmer community will report the following benefits:

a) increased knowledge of safety in herb growing practices and market readiness skills

• 50 unique growers will participate in educational programming.
• Of these 50, 30 will create new safety documents for their farms and invest in farmer safety or market readiness equipment with stipend support
• Of 30, 25 will report they have implemented practices using these documents and equipment on their farm after 6 months

b) increased connection among growers and growers to buyers,

• 25 additional herb growers will join CH
• 20 growers will report making business connection with a buyer at Grower/Buyer events