Feature Member Spotlight
Community AND Health THROUGH
HOMEGROWN HERBS Story and photos by Michelle Kunjappu
There’s often a link to childhood — the smell of something baking, the sight of an antique rocking chair, or the sound of a screen door banging — that connects you to your past. For Katelyn Melvin, owner and operator of Tooth of the Lion Farm, that “something” is chamomile.
K
atelyn, whose 14 acre farm rests in the picturesque hills of Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, grows 30 herbs on about six acres total, but her personal favorite is chamomile. Since her grandmother grew chamomile, “that’s kind of my favorite crop and our specialty,” says Katelyn. In fact, that’s one of the things that Katelyn likes so much about the little flower — it’s familiar. The reason for her connection and love for herbs isn’t hard to pinpoint. Her mother, Renee, had a big garden at their home
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in suburban Philadelphia, and her grandparents, who lived down the road from them, also had a large garden. Her grandfather bred his own tomato varieties and her grandmother grew chamomile. “Little seeds, so to speak, were planted when I was younger.” She began growing plants in her own herb garden in high school and after a stint at college studying anthropology, Katelyn ended up returning home to start farming, “just to see what it was like,” she adds. “I started farming because I liked working closer with the
land and always enjoyed the work.” She began studying plants as medicine through Goddard College, “and that was how I started the Tooth of the Lion business,” she says, adding that the name is a reference to dandelions, derived from the French “dent de lion,” a nod to the toothed edges of their leaves. To begin sharing on a larger scale, Katelyn eventually decided to go ahead and purchase land of her own. So in 2016 she did just that, meeting with a Farm Credit loan officer who gave her advice on her business plan and helped walk her through an equipment loan for a tractor and a small line of credit. Two years later, she took out her second equipment loan and extended the line of credit as the business grew and she invested in processing and marketing. Next in her sights was purchasing the Orwigsburg property, and by 2017 Katelyn put in her first full growing season. She’s joined by two full-time farm employees, a part-time employee, and Ben Wissinger, her co-manager at the farm. The staff she’s worked with at Farm Credit “seem to know about small farm businesses,” she says. “I definitely appreciated that they were willing to work with me and understood a small business, and they’ll come out to the farm. Also, they get to know the property because it is hard to imagine, really, what we do until you see it,” Katelyn adds. “Katelyn has worked to develop her business based on her end-users’ needs and wants,” shares Kelsey Feeg, Katelyn’s loan officer. “She has carefully crafted specialty products to meet customers’ demands and markets her products in a careful, specific way which has helped with her success.” Kelsey adds, “She also works to educate others about the work that goes into farming and her business, and is an advocate for other small farming operations. Working with Katelyn is enjoyable and inspiring — her business is truly one of a kind!” Much of the chamomile consumed in the United States is imported, and one of Katelyn’s dreams is to be able to scale up her chamomile production, introducing Americans to much fresher (chamomile may be months old before it ever hits grocery store shelves), stronger chamomile.
