PROFITABLE HERB GROWING
For a richly satisfying, cash money project to finance that homestead it looks like growing herbs - with net profits as high as $5,000-$10,000 an acre - just about beats all.
March/April 1971
By the Mother Earth News editors
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DETAIL: HANDBOOK OF PLANT AND FLORAL ORNAMENT FROM EARLY HERBALS/DOVER, 180 Varick St., N.Y., N.Y. 10014/$4.00.
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For a richly satisfying, cash money project to finance that homestead, it looks like growing herbs—with net profits as high as $5,000-$10,000 an acre—just about beats all. The folks at Nichols Garden Nursery, out in Albany, Oregon; would like to see others share this bounty and N.P. Nichols has written a little manual packed full of solid ideas for setting up and operating a thriving herb business. Proof that the Nichols' ideas work can be found in the article following this one.
RELATED CONTENT
If you want the whole story, send $1.00 to Nichols Garden Nursery, 1190 N. Pacific Highway, Albany, Oregon 97321. By return mail you'll receive 250 mixed herb seeds, a catalog and the complete 10,000 word manual, PROFITABLE HERB GROWING. Until your copy arrives, here's the excerpts from...
by N.P. NICHOLS
The growing and processing of herbs for a living offers greater opportunities today than ever before. There has been a wide resurgence of interest both in culinary and medicinal herbs which has opened new markets that are waiting to be served by small growers like yourself. Hardly a month passes by that some large national magazine does not carry an article or feature on herbs. Even LIFE Magazine not long ago, devoted a lengthy, well-illustrated feature to the subject. The demand for herb plants and seeds is growing rapidly, and most nurseries dealing in them report that the demand is still ahead of the supply.
A FEW EXAMPLES OF HOW SOME PEOPLE GREW INTO THE HERB BUSINESS
Forty years ago, when he was a schoolboy, Roy E. Anderson was given a dozen chive plants by his mother. He now grows and markets 35 acres of this herb and is the largest grower of chives in the country.
Sheldon and Hariette Widmer, when they retired to a small farm in Indiana, decided it would be fun to raise herbs. The hobby grew into a successful business, and today their Cherry Hill Herbs are nationally famous.
Miss Arnold, in 1939, bought a single horehound plant at the Providence, Rhode Island spring flower show. She now produces and markets 3000 pounds of this dried herb material alone, plus scores of other varieties.
Patricia Winters, whose start was as humble as Miss Arnold's, now grows 15 acres of herbs and employs 12 people at the height of the season.
There are hundreds of people across the country on one-half, one, and two acre tracts who have achieved security making their living growing herbs.
A SUCCESS STORY WITH LAVENDER SACHETS
A few years ago the gift shops of our area broke out with a rash of lavender sachets. Each had an artistic mailer tag attached to it which made them popular with the tourists who bought them for souvenirs to mail back to their friends. The gift shops were enthusiastic with the sales and many thousands of these lavender sachets were sold that summer. We were fortunate to later meet this man on one of his selling trips through this locality. His story is remarkable and we will tell it in his own words.
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