Village Farmacy and Herb Collector

View the project final report

Commodities

• Additional Plants: herbs

Practices

• Crop Production: varieties and cultivars
• Farm Business Management: new enterprise development
• Sustainable Communities: local and regional food systems, new business opportunities

With the growing interest in herb plants and seeds in the United States and beyond, it would stand to reason that with the proper training and experience, a new farmer or an existing farmer could venture into herb plants and seeds as a cash crop in the state of Georgia. Not much land is needed to produce a variety of popular herbs and the market is available via social media, on retail media networks like Amazon and through collaboratives like the Common Market in Atlanta, GA. Gone on the days when one has to depend on foot traffic to make a dollar.

The Village Community Garden farm project will launch the Village Farmacy and Herb Collector project as a demonstration and training site for herb production and will engage its existing community members and surrounding rural counties and beyond from seed to market. The project also seeks to provide research on herbs that are not readily available in the stores or in Georgia. For example, with the assistance of University of Georgia, Dr. Greg Fonsah planted forty-one banana plants at the farm project to demonstrate that bananas can grow in Georgia. The Village Farmacy and Herb Collector is also interested in growing and cultivating unusual seeds like saffron which is normally grown in the Middle East. However, a couple of people in Vermont along with the University of Vermont seem to be growing the herb successfully.

The Village Farmacy and Herb Collector project will expand our current farming practice to include an entrepreneurial and agriculture business focus ventures focused on herb and seed production as a cash crop. We expect to expand our educational outreach to include business practices needed to make a living with farming. We will experiment with growing herbs three ways - in aeroponic towers, perennial peanuts as ground cover and on raised beds with plastic.

The expected outcome is that farmers can encourage each other through collaborations with innovative techniques, economic growth, healthy living, food security and improved quality of life. Southern Sky Center endeavors to assist beginning, veteran and transitioning farmers to create a livelihood from their land. Encouraging more individuals to enter the field of agriculture is the overarching goal of the project. The vulnerable populations of Worth County, Dougherty County and beyond, youth, and new generation farmers and farm enthusiast, food producers and the society at large will be significantly impacted by this project.

For the last ten years, Southern Sky continues to work and expand our reach to new farmers and farm enthusiasts. Therefore, the farm project has gained considerable recognition through the years and we are already training and working with several farmers interested in replicating the Village Community Garden farm project.  As it stands, vegetable growers may consider growing herbs and, they usually think of fresh-market herbs. Fresh market herbs can be grown on large acreages for sales to wholesalers and chain stores or on very small acreages for direct sales to restaurants, farmer’s markets, and specialty grocery stores. Finding the resources for getting started in fresh-market herb production are now readily available with the popularity of herbs and naturopathic remedies.

FINAL UPDATE:

After two years of having launched “The Farmacy”, the interest in growing herbs, learning about medicinal remedies as an individual and for their families has proven to be thriving enterprise as a cash crop, as predicted. As previously stated, with a small plot of plan, a producer can produce a variety of popular herbs and they are marketed via social media, in retail store fronts, and farmers markets. In fact, the success of the enterprise is largely through word-of-mouth which superseded any need to rely on outside media networks like Amazon and collaboratives like the Common Market in Atlanta, GA. The Farmacy is in the process of launching the website for the enterprise by the end of July 2026. Eda Garcia, is the sole proprietor of the Farmacy and has expanded the projected to a larger nursery space than what was previously used.

To enhance the educational component of the project, Eda Garcia, teaches herbalism the third Thursday of the Month at the Village Community Garden. This additional activity serves to attention to the Farmacy which has proven to enhance the marketing of the products that make up the Farmacy.

In May of 2025, Eda Garcia completed her herbalism certification. She has created an apothecary space at the nursery which bring clients and shoppers to the Farmacy on a daily basis. Clients arrive by appointment for an herbal consultation regarding their health and wellness issues and journey. Together we create a nutrition plan and herbal remedy to support their health and wellness journey.

One of the most important considerations for herbs is site selection which has already been selected. The site has good drainage, adequate water supply, and we will utilize black plastic which has been prepping the land for the last two years. Black plastic had the best results for reducing weeds.  Also, twenty-five aeroponic will grow herbs. Ten towers grow the equivalent of 2 acres of food. The aeroponic towers are housed in the hoop house which will also be used for seedling before transplanting. Our partner at 1Dog Ventures LLC will assist the project with herb fertilization as they have an expertise through their citrus production.

The Village Farmacy and Herb Collector project will market the seeds and the herb plants.  There will be a high demand for bedding plants in the spring and the fall. We expect to use our existing hoop house for now because it will produce a variety of herbs including annuals and perennials. The herb plants can be sold in many ways including mail order, specialty shops, nurseries, and spring fairs and festivals.

The key to being successful with herbs is marketing. There is a wide variety of herbs and herb products, therefore there are many opportunities for all size herb operations. There’s also the opportunity to produce value-added products from the herbs. Because the herbal industry is new to most new and existing farmers, the Village Farmacy and Herb Collector project will utilize the farm and the demonstration site to educate the public.

When harvesting the herbs, planning ahead to identify when to harvest and what needs to be harvested from the plant is pivotal since not all herb parts are harvested the same way. There is so much to learn about herbs as medicine. However, now more than ever, resource information is now available to laymen.  Post harvest handling is also significant to understand in order to not damage the roots and herbs.

Throughout the project, the plan is to adhere to seven industry specific Key Performance indicators for herb farming which is imperative to measuring success. The initial measures performed will be quantitative and will include annual herb yield and sales volume. By tracking annual yield will help with productivity and profitability for the farm operation. It will also allow for any modification and areas of improvement when necessary. Once the product is present to market, quantitative research will measure customer satisfaction through surveys and after sales ratings, sales growth rate, sales volume, herb quality rating and return on investment (ROI). 

UPDATE:

I went a different direction and grew in pots rather than growing in the ground. It worked well because I was able to travel with the herbs which proved to be a good marketing campaign for the Nursery. I also did not grow in the aeroponic towers as planned. I stuck with the pots because as a new grower I wanted to learn and limit experimentation.  However, I did use the organic fertilizer introduced to the farm for our citrus production. The spot that I had prepped for the last 2 years, was not used. I used a smaller patch of land to start with and my partner built a netted structure that would protect the herbs from the extreme heat once they got outside.

This year, I will use the original larger site that had been prepping because it is a much larger space, but I will also continue with the pots. For this spring season, I purchased raised bed boxes for theherbs and do a UPick scenario. I noticed last year, that although many purchased medicinal plants, I wonder how many will grow that plant to maturity and create medicine from it.  I did begin drying my herbs and making it available to the public. In October 2024, I opened a shop in the Kelly Street Market where I sell my dried herbs and my tea blends from dried herbs. That opportunity is quite lucrative and I am able to move herbal products to the general public.

By the end of December, I did begin utilizing the much bigger space of land for the herbs, and provide shaded net to protect the herbs. However, the snow we received at the top of the year collapsed half of the structure due to the weight of the snow. We have replaced the structure now and we are ready to bring our plants home from a greenhouse at Fort Valley State University. The winter weather did not allow for planting young seedling. I requested support from Fort Valley State and they let me plant my seeds in their temperature-controlled greenhouse which resulted in 85 to 95 present yield.   They will be coming home next week to the new shelter.

New Update:

My previous update on the objectives did not change. In fact, the changes made to the project as of the previous update were successful decisions. I still have not grown in the aeroponic towers, but there are plans to do so with the building of the Sankofa Taste Test Kitchen which is schedule to be completed by Summer 2027. The Kitchen will enhance the work of the Farmacy as I aspire to include nutrition in my Farmacy and nursery work.

The partnership with Fort Valley State University after two years have enable the Farmacy to plant seeds early in January in a temperature-controlled greenhouse. The partnership enables students to observe the progress of the plants starting with the seed process. Once the seeds are gown enough to transport to the Farmacy location, plants continue to thrive and are ready for market by March. The Farmacy dries the herbs in a leased factory space and produces blends of medicinal teas which are marketed at the Tifton Farmers Market, and Kelly Street Market in Sylvester GA. In addition, with the growth of the Farmacy and the demand for product required the Farmacy to lease a space to manufacture medicinal tea blends, dry and package products for distribution and sales. 

The project has inspired my partner who leads the non-profit garden at the Village Community Garden. My partner, has created an enterprise with larger herbal plants considered superfoods: Moringa and Turmeric. He has also included banana plants with the venture that has proven to be successful for his work and to support the non-profit space financially.

This year, over 10,000 were grown from seed to plant to market. Last year approximately 5000 plants were the target. We believe we can continue to grow that number since the Nursery is becoming quite popular and well known.