Healing Salves

We spent a lot of time this summer harvesting comfrey, lemon balm, and fennel from our gardens and chopping fresh herbs around the picnic table in Grace's garden. We infused olive oil with these herbs in the hot greenhouse for several weeks, then strained the oil to make these deep-healing salves. A touch of cocoa butter makes them extra moisturizing, and beeswax hardens them. We use these salves around the house for cuts, stings, bruises, burns, itches, and dry skin-- I even use them on my hair sometimes!

Sweet Medicine Salve is our richest salve, infused with healing comfrey. We add essential oils of tea tree, lavender, and lemongrass to this salve for their antiseptic and calming properties. This is a fantastic household salve for all purposes.

Bronze Fennel Salve is infused with beautiful, sweet smelling fennel. We add a touch of essential oil of fennel. This is a calming and carminative salve for general use.

Lemon Balm Salve has a warm, cheering scent from our infusion of lemon balm leaves and essential oil of lemon. This is the lightest of our salves.
We make our salves in 2 oz and 4 oz glass jars. Enjoy!
J.D.

J.D.'s Farm Story

In a sense, I have lived in the country all my life. I grew up far from my nearest neighbor in rural Missouri. My folks were educated idealists from a long line of farmers, and they wanted their children to experience the country life they found most comfortable. They also provided plenty of books, and these became my escape from my little world.

I left for college with hopes of finding a way to live as a poet, and ended up exploring the country over the next ten years. When I reached Phoenix Rising Farm in Florida, I knew I’d found a place where the poetry in my heart could live. I also found out about the intense rhythms of farm life and farm work. Working on a 40 acre organic farm, I was expected to pull long days of hard labor with minimal breaks. I learned some strategies for making my motions efficient in Florida, and in the wild blueberry fields of Maine where my friends and I traveled to work in the summers. Over time this efficiency of motion became a kind of dance, or prayer.

When I was ready to move on to my own farm, my grandmother was ready to pass her family land on to me. I moved to Indiana in 2003 with my partner Kilgore, and we started building a cabin on the 80 acres of old forest and fields that had been in my family since the 1880s. Over the next year, we struggled to build our house with hand tools while living in a tent nearby. We started a painting company in the nearby town of Greencastle to support ourselves and pay for our building materials—in time, this evolved into my business Rogue Renovation. When Kilgore left, I began reaching out to Bloomington, Indiana for a community to support me while I built my farm. I’m still connected to the wonderful community there, but I’m slowly working my way back to my land.

I have been amazingly lucky to be able to steward a piece of land this beautiful and untouched, and so imbued with my family’s history. I am even more excited about building my farm here now that I am starting a family of my own. My partner Bruce and I are having a great time parenting two-year-old Silvan, and renovating a tiny farmhouse in Spencer, Indiana while we build our farming skills and business. We have goats, ducks, chickens, rabbits, dogs, and many cats… and two beautiful peacocks I couldn’t resist. We are fledgling vendors at the area farmers markets, and supporters of the local foods movement.

Grace lives down the road, and we make soap, salves, massage oils, lip butters, and anything else we can think of in each other’s kitchens, and work together in her family’s gardens. This is one of the most fun and positive things I do. Working with herbs in this way to make beautiful, natural cosmetics and soaps is a great fit for me, and brings me back to many of the things I enjoyed in my childhood. I call my farm Fullcircle because I feel like I’m always coming back to this… my feeling of deep connection to the natural world and people who take care of it.

New Herbal Massage Oils!

We make our massage oils with fresh lemon balm infused olive and sweet almond oils...and add a light touch of scent with pure essential oil. Currently we carry Lemongrass, Rosemary Eucalyptus, Tea Rose, and Lavender. Yum!

Grace's Farm Story (yes, the short version!)

Growing up in small towns amongst the beautiful Appalachian mountains of North Carolina instilled in me a strong sense of connection with the land. My favorite homes were those where wild onions, mints, flowers, and raspberries grew. My grandmother's gardens were a childhood solace.

In 1997 I moved to northern New Mexico with my then toddler son, Isaiah Truth and began my farm living journey. We found a little cabin on a 20-acre off grid community farm in the Truchas Mountains north of Velarde. Here we learned about self sufficient farming, permaculture, and solar living. We showered outside, planted and harvested much of our food, milked dairy goats, made our own cheese and tofu, composted everything, and started a small business making and selling goat's milk soaps, and wild sage bundles at the local flea market. This experience was the first of many farm and community living situations we found ourselves in.

We moved back to N.C. in 1999 and spent a year living at Earthaven Ecovillage. I met my husband there, attended herb school at the North Carolina School of Natural Healing (now ASHH), built a slip-straw and cob home, and conceived and birthed my second child, a beautiful daughter... Lily Bird.

In 2001 my family and I moved to Southern New Hampshire. We found a community farm with a bakery, orchard, and school. We spent the next five years baking artisian wood fired breads, gardening, teaching at a waldorf-inspired pre-school and kindergarten, experimenting more with animal husbandry, and having our third child, Abel Dyami.

Having these wonderful experiences planted a strong desire in us to purchase our own farm, and in 2006 we did just that! After a quick trip visiting through the midwest we found a 25-acre homestead near Bloomington, Indiana and made it home. Woo Hoo!!

Four years later we have built a herd of dairy cows, guinea hogs, chickens, llamas, and sheep. We have planted 100's of perennials and fruit trees, built a greenhouse, and hand dug our garden. In 2009 I started another soap business with the lovely J.D. Grove (Full Moon Milk Soaps). In the next few years I hope to build an herbal sanctuary and education program here at Moon Valley Farm...but first I need to finish nursing school! Phew! Thanks for taking the time to read my farm story.

Love, Grace

Welcome!

We are Grace MacNeil and J.D. Grove, two farm girls and mamas in Southern Indiana. We make all natural milk soaps with milk from our goats and cows, and hand gathered herbs from our gardens and land. We are excited to start this blog to share our experiences, products, and farm stories.