Hi, we're Candace Anthony and Justin Ellis!
We have spent the past decade diving deep into human health, agriculture, nutrition, food systems, plants, plant medicines, natural remedies, and folk and ancestral wisdoms.
We are dedicated to providing nutrient dense food and expertly prepared herbal medicine to our community and beyond.
We are dedicated to providing nutrient dense food and expertly prepared herbal medicine to our community and beyond.
Meet Candace
Candace first arrived in WNC in 2004 to study at Warren Wilson College after spending her childhood in Montana, Vermont, and Florida. In her time at WWC she came to see her big picture motivation was to do work that brought healing to humans.
After completing her BA in Anthropology, she set off to Southern Oregon and Northern California where she spent two years apprenticing on organic farms and studying herbalism. She completed a certificate in Clinical Energetic Herbalism with Herbalists Karyn Sanders and Sarah Holmes at the Blue Otter School, apprenticed at Crimson Sage Nursery, a certified Organic herbal plant nursery in Orleans, CA, and spent a season at Wilding Center, a homestead farm in Jacksonville, OR. She volunteered on and visited numerous other sustainable farms during this period as well. Candace also serves her local area as a birth Doula. |
Meet Justin
Justin originates from Utah and came to North Carolina as a teenager. In his early 20s he spent a couple years in mountains, including spending one summer hiking 400 miles on the Appalachian trail. In 2009 he moved to California to hike a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail.
He first began learning about herbal medicine in 2010 and 2011 with Jane Bothwell at the Dandelion Herbal Center in Kneeland, CA. He took her Beginning herbs class and her 10 month class series, based on Rosemary Gladstar’s curriculum, while also working at an Herb store in Arcata, CA. He spent all of 2011 as a full time apprentice at Claudia's Organic Herbs, a Certified Organic 10 acre herb, vegetable and fruit production farm in Orleans, CA. |
Starting Chrysalis Earth Farm
We met in Orleans, CA in 2011 working on nearby farms. We quickly realized we shared a common vision of facilitating healing through plants.
We moved back to the Southern Mountains in 2012 and studied for three years with Herbalist Phyllis Light, receiving certificates as Practitioners of Herbal Medicine. After a full year of searching, in May of 2015 we moved onto our farm in Sylva, NC the day before our son Sequoia arrived into this world. In February 2020 our second son Calamus arrived. |
Connecting Herbal Medicine and Sustainable Farming
We began the farm with vegetables upon seeing a need for more vegetables at the local farmers market.
In 2018 we decided to add hemp to the crop rotation and began developing a seed-to-bottle product line of CBD-rich hemp oil. Adding hemp to the farm came as what felt like a divine bridge between our background in Herbal medicine and sustainable farming, illuminating a pathway to offer the full extent of our expertise. |
About Our Farm
Farming is an oral tradition and a body of lived knowledge accumulated with participation in each passing growing season. We learned first-hand with some really excellent farmers in Northern California who were part of heralding in the Organic agriculture movement 30+ years ago. Those experiences laid a solid bedrock.
Yet also, farming is never the same from place to place, or even year to year in the same place. It's a direct relationship with the present in place and time. Learning to farm in WNC, and to be the ones visioning, leading, and carrying forth the project was a whole new journey, with the right gear packed, but with no trail map and only the compass of intention. There are some things that can only be learned through being in relationhip with place for season upon season. A type of knowledge that is slow to gain, clumsy to be without, ever deepening, and imparting of grace.
Our intention from the beginning has been to create a a vibrant, healthy, thriving farm ecosystem. We have permanent beds for growing, which lessens soil compaction and thus provides a better home for soil microbes. Just like us, microscopic soil bacteria need air and hydration to live and be well. Porosity in soil allows for soil bacteria to have access to air, access to water, and also for excess water to be able to drain away. (...Stay tuned for more!)
Yet also, farming is never the same from place to place, or even year to year in the same place. It's a direct relationship with the present in place and time. Learning to farm in WNC, and to be the ones visioning, leading, and carrying forth the project was a whole new journey, with the right gear packed, but with no trail map and only the compass of intention. There are some things that can only be learned through being in relationhip with place for season upon season. A type of knowledge that is slow to gain, clumsy to be without, ever deepening, and imparting of grace.
Our intention from the beginning has been to create a a vibrant, healthy, thriving farm ecosystem. We have permanent beds for growing, which lessens soil compaction and thus provides a better home for soil microbes. Just like us, microscopic soil bacteria need air and hydration to live and be well. Porosity in soil allows for soil bacteria to have access to air, access to water, and also for excess water to be able to drain away. (...Stay tuned for more!)