Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Popish.
Hi Hannah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstories.
It’s been a winding path over here, and I’m grateful for each bit as it led me to the next. The thread wants to work with people for the good of our personal health (mental, emotional, physical) and for our planet’s health. From a Master’s in Social Work to a coffee buyer and taster to growing and creating with herbs, it’s been a journey! In my travels to coffee farms around the world, I realized many parts of the world rely on the plants around them to keep them healthy, and often, by necessity, they have a greater connection to the natural world around them. I wanted to bring this sense of health connectedness into my life and the local community. Thus, a career in farming and herbalism was born!
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Taking an alternative path and being an entrepreneur has meant some rockiness and ingenuity along the way. I’ve had many side hustles while getting poppysol farm + apothecary off the ground, which has meant taking longer to gain focus on the business itself. Many folks still are unsure what an herbalist is or that the role can take many different forms, from growing and selling plants to having a clinical herbalist practice and seeing clients and making herbal products. And, when you are your boss, you are in charge of making all the decisions and organizing your time which in theory is awesome, and yet sometimes, in the day-to-day, is a challenge. I am still figuring it out, but that’s part of the fun!
Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Poppysol is now entering its ninth year of operations. The business’s main focus is growing herbs, making teas and tinctures, and other herbal products to sell, and now also creating whimsical flower bouquets that include cultivated flowers, native plants, and herbs. I’ve grown plants on one acre in Chatham County for the last five years. (You can see a virtual tour of the space on my YouTube channel). I’ve been close to and learning about plants since childhood. At age fourteen, I made an herbal encyclopedia, not knowing I would one day be officially heading down this career path. Since then, I have been able to study with numerous excellent teachers with different approaches and continue to seek further education as the plants are always teaching us. Seasoned plant people always have more to share too!
I also love helping folks get inspired to grow herbs, flowers, and native plants on their properties. I offer consultations on garden design and tending land. Working with plants in our direct environments can be a lot of fun and more straightforward than we think, especially if we work with what nature already provides.
All poppysol products can be found at www.poppysolnc.com and at the RambleRill Farm Saturday Slow down market in Hillsborough on the first Saturday of every month from April through December. The spring plant sale will be at my farm Saturday April 22 at 10 am and people can email for more details.
What was you like growing up?
Oh man, on the one hand, I was a bit of a loner, bookish, solitary, and had a vibrant inner imaginative life, ha! On the other hand, I was in every play from the end of middle school through high school; so theatrical. I also loved gymnastics and dancing. I only loved outdoor activities and getting dirty in my college years! What an evolution.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.poppysolnc.com
- Instagram: poppysolnc
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/poppysolnc
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@poppysolnc
Image Credits
Debbie Roos, Chatham County Extension Officer (for the main photo of me and Mimi the farm dog)
