We were lucky to catch up with Alanna Gray recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alanna, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I moved to San Diego with my husband in the end of 2015. We had decided to live and work with my sister and brother in law on their vegetable farm. We learned how to prepare soil, grow, harvest, and package veggies for a weekly CSA. I very much enjoyed early mornings, working with the land, and being able to have my very young daughter with me while I worked. We continued with the CSA model for 2 more years but were getting burnt out on the labor intensive, longer hours, and how intense annual vegetables are on the land. I was also expecting another child and my sister was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. We chose to put the CSA on hold, while we figured out a different direction for the farm.
In the beginning of the year my second daughter was born and a few months later covid changed what we could do to have a productive farm. As I was contemplating ideas on what we could do, I opened our community freezer and found bins full of frozen elderberries. I had made elderberry syrup in the past and really enjoyed its taste and benefits. I bottled and shared the elderberry syrup of this frozen find with friends and family, everyone loved it!
This sparked an interest in growing and using more medicinal plants. I also looked to the plants to help my sister with what she was going through. I believe that the plants not only work on our physical body but on our psychological and spiritual selves as well.
A particular plant had started growing in one of our greenhouses that we didn’t know much about or even how it got there. It seemed to be calling to us though. We looked it up and found it in our Kumeyaay ethnobotany book. The plant was Yerba mansa. It was widely used by the people of the southwest, it grows in a riparian habitat and can aid the body in many ways, predominantly through its astringent and anti microbial properties. I started making salves with the leaves, tea with the flowers, and tinctures with the roots. This plant has greatly helped me and my family. I knew that there were so many other plants that we could grow, learn from, and make medicine with.
I chose to enroll in an in depth class for clinical herbalism, so I could have more tools to understand the plants and needs of people more clearly that differ from our western medical views.

I feel that there is a need in our society to return to all natural, non toxic products, the biggest one being body products. All cultures have used plants as medicine and beauty products for thousands of years, why did we turn away from them?
This is where my focus went. Making oils, creams, toners, and sunscreen that are completely safe and very beneficial for our skin. We absorb everything we put on our skin, it actually goes into our body, I wouldn’t ingest most of the ingredients that go into body products, why would I put them on my skin?
Most of my products are oil based, I infuse fresh or fresh dried whole plant material into the oil to get a powerful extraction of the medicinal properties and the essential oils. There are many brands out there that simply add bought essential oils to a carrier oil, but I believe that the plants have so much more to offer us when used in their whole form. Plus you need a lot less plant material to create an infused oil than you do an essential oil. For me the sustainability and health of the plants comes first.
I grow, tend to, harvest, and process at least 80% of the plants that I use in my creations. It’s how I connect with each of the products I make. I know all the love and energy that has gone into each plant and each product. You can’t have healing products if the plants themselves have not been treated well. I usually make products seasonally based on what is available at the time.
I believe that is another aspect of this business that is different than most, I base it off of what I can grow and have available. I do outsource a few things that I can’t grow, I like to buy these from small farms that have similar practices to mine.
This is truly slow medicine, nothing is rushed. I feel that you can feel the love, the time, the energy in each of the products I make. I think that over time people will realize that this is what we need, not just bandaid products can actually cause more damage, but something that was made just for them, that heals, and has evolved alongside us for thousands of years.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have a background in kinesiology and have always been interested in health and fitness. I also have felt a strong calling to work with the land, helping plants grow and ecosystems thrive. When the opportunity came up to enroll in a clinical herbalism course that would better help me understand the energetics of people and the energetics of plants, I knew it was what I wanted to do. Work with the land and with people, connecting them with the earth also. With this extra knowledge I feel that I can create oil blends of plants that match up with certain body/ skin types. In each of my body products I create, I research about the plants and use my own intuition to formulate a blend that has the most healing potential. I try to provide a range of blends that are cooling or warming, soothing or stimulating, and most have properties that are cleansing, wound healing, and astringent. I grow majority of the herbs I use in my craftings, allowing me to really build a connection between the land and my products. I love hearing how my products help people, how it helps them feel good in their own skin!
I believe that when you use the products I craft you can feel the difference in quality and energy of what you’re putting on your skin.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of clients for me is markets where I get to talk to each person, share samples with them, and get to know them so I can recommend products specific to their needs. When I share samples with new clients, they can feel the difference and enjoy the smells of the oils or salves. I want them to feel confident in what they’re buying, actually trying the products is always very helpful. Plus at markets I usually have a local clientele, it’s great to keep my products local and have them available to locals when so many products are outsourced.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I feel that building an audience on social media takes time and patience. It’s not going to happen in a day or week, or even a month. You need to find others that have similar values as you do, if you have many ideas in common it’s easier to reach out and share what you have to offer. Also just be yourself, I’ve found that others are able to connect with your vulnerability, with your day to day struggles and triumphs. I try to share what my day to day in the garden, with the plants looks like. They can see the plants growing, the care that the plants receive, and the moments I find beautiful in day to day life. No one’s life is perfect, don’t make it seem like your life is. Be real and be you. When you share what matters to you, you’ll attract others that feel similar and want to support you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HerbcraftersPortal
• Instagram: herbcrafters_portal
• Facebook: Herbcrafter’s Portal
• Other: Patreon: Medicine of the Singing Earth https://www.patreon.com/medicineofthesingingearth

Image Credits
All photos are my own.