Summary

Blessing Moon Herbs LLC offers everything from loose herbs to beeswax candles to gardening seeds to tinctures.

There is also a hot bar with soups and lattes. And a place to get kombucha on tap.

Located at: 2805 East State Boulevard, Fort Wayne and open Tuesday-Saturday

Brittany Bowen, born and raised in Hawaii, found herself unpacking her herbs and making a life in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 2018, after her husband did a google search for "affordable cities in Indiana". She and her husband both grew up in Hawaii, moved to Washington state at the beginning of their parenting years, and then found themselves yearning for a new city to call home and settle in to raise a family. They moved to Fort Wayne and Brittany's passion of healing the body with herbs found life in her new business, Blessing Moon Herbs LLC.

Brittany found the local crunchy/natural/holistic people in Fort Wayne without doing much looking; they seemed to find her as soon as she started showcasing her tinctures, salves, and syrups at the Downtown Fort Wayne Farmers' Market in 2018. And off it went. She started outgrowing her setup and started looking for a storefront in late 2019. While it meant lots of leg work to get a storefront running, she and her husband, Zac, were all in because they knew this would fulfill that itching desire to cater to this new community of like-minded holistic people.

Most people come to her store with small ailments or pesky symptoms and they wish to find a little salve or syrup to heal it naturally. And Brittany loves this because she likes to support our bodies running fluidly, provide a foundation for the natural functions, and not merely mask symptoms. I sat down with Brittany in January in her cute little storefront to ask this bright, multi-talented woman a handful of questions.

Questions with Brittany, the owner

Brooke: I get your vibes. I have seen you, your posts for a couple years and I've seen your shop posts since it opened 6 months ago. Needless to say, I'm feelin' it! Tell me how in the world you got to this point.

Brittany: “I've been working with herbs for about a decade, sharing remedies I started making for my own kids and family when I started working with a Naturopathic Doctor. While living in Seattle, I read the book "Life without plastic" and felt really inspired. It just opened up a whole new world of resources that I had never heard of.”

Brooke: I know you were vegan at one point... tell me about that. How did you go from vegan to now making bison bone broth?

Brittany: "I was vegan for 4 years and my health went down really quickly; I was tired, had brain fog, and couldn't keep up with one kid.... but was in denial because it was such a strict community. I had to shed that part of my identity and pride. I started to put animal products back into my life, but what finally made me dive head first was when my son had a severe vaccine reaction (seizure and tremors, and severe sensory processing issues like textures with foods and aversion to touching grass). That's when I really started embracing what animal products had to offer nutritionally. From what I've read, I've seen that when people are vegan for 2-3 years, then their nutritional stores start to deplete and that's usually when people start to have health issues. To elaborate on my son's reaction; he had 1 shot at 6 months old (cried for 12 hours straight) and then I saw the seizures and sensory issues. What was helpful in reversing that for him was the Andy Cutler heavy metal detox and the GAPS diet.”

Brooke: Why do you kinda hate essential oils?
Brittany: “I don't feel like they are sustainable or safe. Basically, you're not going to be exposed to entire field of lavender in the natural world, so putting that on your skin is not natural... and not sustainable. You can use plant materials that are - it will be safer, environmentally friendly, and sustainable.”

Brooke: I saw the blurb you posted about liver function and the person writing gave herbal remedies to support the liver and I love how she said "You don't have to be an herbalist to start using these herbs right now. I love that because it has always felt intimidating. What do you say when people feel like that?

Brittany: "That's the good thing about herbalism. It's the people's medicine. I usually start with certain books, getting to know the plants one by one, and then collectively accumulating them into an arsenal of healing remedies. If someone is new to the herbal world, I suggest these two books to get started: “Midwest Medicinal Plants” by Lisa M. Rose and “Herbal Remedies for Vibrant Health” by Rosemary Gladstar.”

“That’s the good thing about herbalism. It’s the people’s medicine. ”

Brittany enjoys seeing the "aha" moment for people when they realize they can take care of themselves and don't need to run to the doctor for every little ailment. It is sustainable and practical. She has reaped much from this community because she has given so much of her self. Her employee said Brittany is so generous and helpful and willing to go the extra mile for people.

Brittany feels like they have almost outgrown their new storefront space, after only 6 months of operation! Leave it to this mom to move to a brand new city and establish a strong business within 2 years while raising 3 children under six years old. Did I mention she is also going through a clinical herbalism course that will amount to 800 hours of learning? Yeah, that too.
Sigh. Thanks, Brittany, for pouring into the holistic community... we sure are glad to have you in our neck of the woods!

See her Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/BlessingMoonHerbs

And website:
www.blessingmoonherbs.com