April 2, 2026
Herbs hold a special place in many gardeners’ and farmers’ hearts. For some, they reconnect with ancestral traditions. For others, they represent a departure from extractive systems, and sometimes, it’s simply the plants that call to them. Producing herbs commercially adds another layer: financial sustainability. While billions of dollars of culinary and medicinal herbs are imported annually, growing demand for natural beauty products and supplements makes domestic production a viable opportunity.
Two Vermont farmers, Sarah Shaw of Hillside Botanicals and Julia Etter of Nomad Farm, are exploring how to amplify herb production through the USDA-funded Vermont Herb Growers Initiative, in partnership with the Vermont Vegetable and Berry Growers Association. The project aims to gather information on commercial herb production and build networks among farmers, covering everything from cultivation to post-harvest processing and market access.
Sarah and Julia first connected through NOFA-VT’s Journey Farmer Program, a peer-to-peer mentorship program for farmers in their first few years of running their farm. Their shared experience and challenges as herb growers led them to collaborate on a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant proposal to support the development of this Herb Growers initiative.
The Vermont Herb Grower’s Initiative builds on previous efforts to support herb growers in the state, including the Vermont Herb Grower’s Association and Vermont Herb Grower’s Cooperative (2000–2014). Drawing lessons from these earlier projects, Sarah and Julia are
slowly developing the initiative with a focus on the economic and social potential of collaboration, while being realistic about the work involved.
“There’s all this work, on top of being, you know, farmers,” Sarah laughed recently. But she and Julia recognize that farmers are the ones who do the work from seed to sale every day, and their voices are essential to shaping the initiative. The project seeks to engage herb growers of all scales to share knowledge, build networks, and learn from each other.
Sarah Shaw is co-founder and co-owner of Hillside Botanicals, a certified organic herb farm and herbal product manufacturer established in 2018 in Central Vermont. She is also a certified Clinical Herbalist and works as a nonprofit consultant in the natural products industry. Julia Etter operates Nomad Farm, an organic certified diversified farm in Windham County, growing culinary and medicinal herbs, and raising chicken and pastured pork.
Collaboration remains the guiding force for the initiative. As Sarah notes, “The best exchanges about farming happen when farmers come together to share experiences and build common ground around shared needs.”
Learn more and sign up for updates at vtherbgrowers.com.
