Thanks to the support from their mentor, Margrit (née Mikulis) and Jay Malouf of Chantry Farm in Brattleboro received their organic certification on Halloween – a date they will always remember! During NOFA-VT’s Farm Beginnings program they were matched with Jeff Carpenter of Zack Woods Herb Farm and continued and evolved their work together through the Transition to Organic Partnership Mentorship Program in 2025.
As new farmers, they have been working their land since 2017, but officially became a farm in 2023. Their “slow to grow” process has provided them the opportunity to develop their farm with great purpose. Sharing wide interests in organic farming practices and also, Applied Biodynamics, in 2019, they participated in the biodynamic course taught by Mac Mead and his team at Threefold Community Farm in New York. Their practical training has served to strengthen their abilities to see nature as a whole, honoring the individuality of their land with a daily practice of following the rhythms and elemental forces within the environment and on their farm. Additionally they both have “off farm” professions. Jay is a certified arborist with over 35 years of experience and Margrit is a licensed Naturopathic Doctor who specializes in Ayurvedic Medicine and Lyme Disease serving communities in Vermont, New Hampshire, and throughout the USA for over 20 years.
Pictured: Jeff Carpenter, Margrit and Jay Malouf
Jeff and his wife, Melanie, have been in the organic herb business for more than 26 years, first as herbalists and owners of an herbal product company. They started their farm in 1999 partly to source high quality raw materials for their herbal products, which were hard to find locally. There weren’t a lot of resources at that time and other herb farmers over the years have urged them to capture and share what they’ve learned. They have written a book, The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer, and Jeff teaches and consults about herb farming. He sees a lot of potential in the niche medicinal herb market and is excited to help others be successful.
Both farms are growing herbs destined for herbal products. Jeff sells retail through his website and to longstanding wholesale customers who make topical products, like for skincare, and those meant to be ingested for wellness and immune support, like capsules, liquid extracts, and teas. His favorite herb to grow is stinging nettle!
Margrit and Jay are growing a range of medicinal herbs that Margrit uses in her Ayurvedic and Naturopathic practice. Some of the herbs they have been growing the last few years include bitter melon, ashwagandha, dong quai, schisandra, roses, saffron, mint, and holy basil varietals, to name a few. In the forested areas, they are growing Siberian and American Ginseng, and other rare and endangered plants like Himalayan Valerian (Jatamansi), which have been over-harvested in parts of the world. They have committed to focusing on sustainable cultivation, realizing it is most ethical and impactful to grow their own. Margrit makes her own formulations for her clients, encapsulating, freeze drying, and making extracts and essences from the herbs she grows. As they expand, they are eager to begin selling value-added products online, and direct to consumers with a goal to expand into a local retail market in the next 2-5 years.
Margrit shared about working with a mentor: “Our main crops are medicinal herbs. Because of Jeff’s experience, our similar interests and cross over with what we grow, Jay and I have been fortunate to be able to lean on Jeff. This has been valuable to us especially because of the unique aspects of our farm. We also share a similar thought process, a good flow, we work at our pace, and he’s a great listener. Otherwise, we would feel a little alone on our herb farm island! Jeff provides great reinforcement, and in terms of the organic application process, he helped us at critical points. He also reminded us that Vermont Organic Farmers are eager for us to succeed, which has helped build our confidence exponentially. I highly recommend this program!”
Why pursue organic certification? “Farming is intentional for us; agriculture is spiritual. Organic certification is an opportunity to refine the farm and farmer, giving us a format to follow so that we can accomplish several things. We believe that following an organic standard helps us to support the health of our farm which relates to the health in our community. We look at our farm as an organism, with a particular nature, and just like humans she has needs in order to be healthy. From our humble beginnings the goal is to give back to the land, we believe this is the framework of the organic and biodynamic standard. We also want our crops to be the best quality, and we want to be held to a high standard. Organic certification gives us something we can rely on which aligns with our values and helps consumers know what they can expect from our farming practices and the quality in the products they purchase from us.”
It was a joy walking around the property and having Margrit point out what is happening in each bed, plus I received photos of the saffron harvest while it was in progress in the fall! They are growing 80,000 saffron corms at the moment. Margrit shared that they had a great season and expanded crops. They have been asking themselves, “what is growing well?” and making decisions from there.
As part of their mentorship experience this year, they have discussed a range of topics including crop planning, soil fertility, post-harvest processing, and equipment purchases. Margrit shared: “Jeff gave us some keen guidance relating to the processing arm of our production. Discussing this with him gave me the solution to a problem with our “lot” system, which I realized was going to save hundreds, if not thousands of hours, of record keeping over the life of our farm. This was such a great moment, because Jeff reassured me that he had approached things the same way initially when he got started on his farm, and learned quickly that he could simplify. I call this a perfect wisdom moment, and I didn’t feel like I made a mistake because we were thinking along the same lines; we just needed to simplify.”
Jeff also set up a visit to Foster Farm Botanicals in Calais, “a large herb farm under management from Nate Brennan who spent 25 years as the farm manager at Pacific Botanicals, a 140 acre herb farm in Oregon. It was fun and I think we all learned a lot from each other.” According to Margrit, “this opportunity helped me to understand another scale of farming which is very different from what we do. It was incredibly valuable for me to witness the state of the art production facility, and experience their advanced farming techniques.”
Cultivating these types of learning experiences is what the organic mentorship program is all about. It’s incredibly heartening to hear how much Margrit and Jay have benefited from working with Jeff, allowing them to make progress on their land and achieve the goal of obtaining organic certification. Congratulations to Chantry Farm!
Chantry Farm is one of 48 producers certified for the first time by Vermont Organic Farmers in 2025. Join us in welcoming them.
