Tea Time

TOm bauer PHOTOs, missOulian Larry Neskey stacks bundles of tulsi on racks in a drying shed at Awesome Herbs farm near St. Ignatius on Monday, Aug. 29. The farm grows a number of herbs and plants for herbal tea blends.

tea time: Couple grows, dries, mixes herbal blends on Mission Valley farm

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ST. IGNATIUS — Inside a speciallydesigned shed at Awesome Herbs farm in late August, Larry Neskey used a ladder to stack huge fragrant bundles of tulsi herbs on the shelves so they could dry in the summer heat.

“Getting the drying shed built was really awesome because it was really a bottleneck in the operations, ” Neskey explained. “It ’ s kind of the next step we want to do to be able to produce the amount we want to. ”

In a nearby field with a spectacular view of the Mission Mountains, the plants are harvested by hand as honeybees swarm the light purple flowers.

Tulsi, an aromatic, flowering shrub in the basil and mint family that originated in India, is one of well over 15 herbs Neskey and his wife Katie grow and dry in the summer for herbal tea blends.

They ’ ve got rows of crops like anise hyssop, echinacea, chamomile, stinging nettle and milky oats. As you can imagine, it ’ s a paradise for bees, but it ’ s also a picturesque and aromatic place to work and live for humans.

The couple hires part-time workers through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) program in exchange for living quarters and other benefits. They ’ ve gotten several large grants, like one from the Montana ’ s Growth Through Agriculture funding program, to build out necessary infrastructure like the drying shed.

By showing up to the Missoula and Bigfork farmers markets and growing their online sales, they distribute about 1,000 pounds of dried herbs every season, which equates to about 4,000 pounds of harvested, non-dried plants.

The pandemic is partly responsible for their business, strange as it may seem.

Larry and Katie Neskey, owners of Awesome Herbs, pivoted to growing herbs for tea during the COVID pandemic.

In January of 2020, they were originally planning on starting a pizza farm, where customers could come out and pick toppings and learn about agriculture. COVID halted all that. They had been growing herbs already, so they got creative and pivoted.

“We ’d talked about doing tea before but the biggest hurdle was that we didn ’ t have a big drying space, ” Katie explained. “And so we got grant money for the drying space and the greenhouse. And now we have a year-round, shelfstable, shippable product. That ’ s kind of how it happened. ”

She noted that their product is relatively lightweight, so they don ’ t have to haul huge truckloads of produce to farmers markets.

Now they plan to nearly double the production of Awesome Acres herbs next year. They ’ re also hoping to get a wholesale license.

“Having a shelf-stable product as a farmer is pretty priceless, ” Larry explained.

“It ’ s something we can sell year-round. We don ’ t have to worry about it getting rotten or anything like that. ”

One variety of tulsi makes up about 60% of the volume of herbs they grow.

“We grow a ton of it, it grows really well, it ’ s our favorite, ” Katie said. “So that and nettle are the two biggest for us. And the rest is much smaller amounts of like monarda (bee balm) and echinacea, more medicinal things. ”

Tulsi Kapoor, which is also known as holy basil, is the featured ingredient in their most popular product, called the House Blend. It ’ s also got ingredients they buy from elsewhere and add, including ginger, turmeric, orange peel and black pepper. Their popular “Heavy Nettle Chai” features nettle, raspberry leaf, anise hyssop, calendula, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and black peppercorn.

Although they haven ’ t gotten certified organic yet, they don ’ t use chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides and their added ingredients are all certified organic.

The couple say that they ’ ve had a lot of good conversation with people at farmers markets this year. Some people are unfamiliar with most of the herbs they use, while others are experts who are shocked that their favorite ingredients are grown and blended just an hour ’ s drive away.

It ’ s those face-to-face interactions, chatting about the health benefits of herbs, that both say are one of the more rewarding aspects of the business.

“We definitely didn ’ t get into agriculture to be shipping products, ” Katie said. “So this year we ’ re really trying to get our name out there in Montana. ” AG

For more information on the Growth Through Agriculture program, visit online at agr.mt.gov/GTA.