Keep Health Blooming
Herbal Delights from Mancinelli Farms
by Holly Madrigal
Flecks of rose petal and bright orange calendula swirl in the piping hot water as the flower tea from Mancinelli Farms is steeped to release its essence. “This tea helps create peace,” says Melissa Mancinelli of her popular signature blend. “And could we all use a bit more of that right now?” Murmurs of agreement, and the tension and anxiety of the day drift away in the unfurling steam. She elaborates,“The flower tea is a relaxing blend but also a tonic, it heals the whole body. Instead of 5-hour energy, I’m promoting 5 hours of relaxing.”
The tea variety brings to mind an old-time apothecary. It can be found at the Trading Post, a corner store in downtown Covelo, along with a full complement of Mancinelli Farms teas, dried herbs, and tinctures. Melissa and her husband, John, have spent a lifetime learning the skills of wildcrafting and herbalism, taking the plants, seaweeds, and fungi of our environs, harvesting them at the peak of ripeness, and drying or processing them into bio-available forms.
John gained his initial herbal education from his Italian grandmother. (Side note: His family was famous in New York for making raviolis and pastas under the Salantano name.) John’s grandma taught him not only to cook, but seeded in him an appreciation for culinary herbs and their benefits. John went on to study herbalism at Dominion Herbal College in Canada.
Herbalist Melissa Mancinelli
Mancinelli Farms encompasses two acres cultivated in culinary and medicinal herbs. The farm was initially an overgrazed piece of land on the outskirts of the Covelo valley. Melissa and John fell in love with the space and set to work transforming it into their passion and livelihood. They built a strawbale house, living in the drying barn until the house was completed, and they have planted about twenty fruit trees and scores of herbs and vegetables, doing everything with very little money. The couple grew their own food, as well as herbs for their fledgling business. They raised their family and nurtured the business slowly, cultivating and selling their herbs and teas throughout Mendocino County and beyond.
Currently, Melissa and John work the farm on their own. The plants are sustainably grown using the Edenic Principle, without the use of chemicals, pesticides, or GMOs. Vines, bushes, fruit, nuts, vegetables, and herbs are interplanted and grown in a semi-wild habitat resulting in high quality, nutrient dense food and medicine crops produced in partnership with nature and the creative force of the universe.
Although their farm is in Covelo, the Mancinellis have cultivated coastal relationships as well. Their good friends Lee and Dorine own the Westport Hotel, and they have been working together to promote workshops and events. Melissa feels that “. . . our farm needs that coastal connection. We do wildcrafting for the nettles and coltsfoot and some other things on the coast. It gives us balance.” Their flower tea has also been well received there. Melissa explains, “I’m selling now at Corners of the Mouth in Mendocino. We have a great relationship with them.”
Mancinelli Farms encompasses two acres cultivated in culinary and medicinal herbs. The farm was initially an overgrazed piece of land on the outskirts of the Covelo valley. Melissa and John fell in love with the space and set to work transforming it into their passion and livelihood. They built a strawbale house, living in the drying barn until the house was completed, and they have planted about twenty fruit trees and scores of herbs and vegetables, doing everything with very little money. The couple grew their own food, as well as herbs for their fledgling business. They raised their family and nurtured the business slowly, cultivating and selling their herbs and teas throughout Mendocino County and beyond.
Currently, Melissa and John work the farm on their own. The plants are sustainably grown using the Edenic Principle, without the use of chemicals, pesticides, or GMOs. Vines, bushes, fruit, nuts, vegetables, and herbs are interplanted and grown in a semi-wild habitat resulting in high quality, nutrient dense food and medicine crops produced in partnership with nature and the creative force of the universe.
Although their farm is in Covelo, the Mancinellis have cultivated coastal relationships as well. Their good friends Lee and Dorine own the Westport Hotel, and they have been working together to promote workshops and events. Melissa feels that “. . . our farm needs that coastal connection. We do wildcrafting for the nettles and coltsfoot and some other things on the coast. It gives us balance.” Their flower tea has also been well received there. Melissa explains, “I’m selling now at Corners of the Mouth in Mendocino. We have a great relationship with them.”
Mancinelli Farms encompasses two acres cultivated in culinary and medicinal herbs. The farm was initially an overgrazed piece of land on the outskirts of the Covelo valley. Melissa and John fell in love with the space and set to work transforming it into their passion and livelihood. They built a strawbale house, living in the drying barn until the house was completed, and they have planted about twenty fruit trees and scores of herbs and vegetables, doing everything with very little money. The couple grew their own food, as well as herbs for their fledgling business. They raised their family and nurtured the business slowly, cultivating and selling their herbs and teas throughout Mendocino County and beyond.
Teas by Mancinelli Farms
Currently, Melissa and John work the farm on their own. The plants are sustainably grown using the Edenic Principle, without the use of chemicals, pesticides, or GMOs. Vines, bushes, fruit, nuts, vegetables, and herbs are interplanted and grown in a semi-wild habitat resulting in high quality, nutrient dense food and medicine crops produced in partnership with nature and the creative force of the universe.
Although their farm is in Covelo, the Mancinellis have cultivated coastal relationships as well. Their good friends Lee and Dorine own the Westport Hotel, and they have been working together to promote workshops and events. Melissa feels that “. . . our farm needs that coastal connection. We do wildcrafting for the nettles and coltsfoot and some other things on the coast. It gives us balance.” Their flower tea has also been well received there. Melissa explains, “I’m selling now at Corners of the Mouth in Mendocino. We have a great relationship with them.”
The Mancinellis have been in Covelo for 20 years and have borne witness to the environmental devastation from logging and overgrazing. They have noticed that the wild herbs are finally beginning to return. Plants such as Yerba Santa, which used to grow everywhere and was regularly used by the indigenous people of Round Valley, had all but disappeared. Now John and Melissa see it making a comeback. They also harvest wildcrafted plants like stinging nettles. “Most people do not know that the majority of nettles used in herbal remedies are grown and imported from Croatia,” Melissa shares. That is a whole lot of carbon footprint for something that grows quite well here in Mendocino County.
As John and Melissa get older, they are looking for creative ways to retain help on the farm in exchange for learning the herbalist trade. During this Shelter-in-Place, their son has returned to help out, creating a website and getting their products online. “It has been so wonderful to have him home,” says Melissa. “And having the retail space downtown has really been great, so that people can buy our products in the same place that they can buy clothes, artwork, and stop by for a haircut or beauty treatment.” Hopefully, they will open for the public again soon.
Melissa is developing a cookbook which will serve as her master’s thesis for Dominion Herbal College in Canada. “I’m basically teaching people how to eat real food again and how to incorporate herbs. Simple recipes that are easy to prepare and utilize. For example, cabbage is one of the best healers you can eat. It’s anti-viral, anti-cancer, anti-ulcer. In the 1920s and 1930s, they used to juice it and drink a quart a day!” Melissa also described the benefits of garbanzo beans, which “grow like crazy here at our farm. And if you make a broth of those beans and add some wakame, or dulse seaweed and kelp, that broth will have such fortifying goodness to help rebuild your bones. And winter squash! That is the perfect ‘end of the world crop’ because you can grow it and it stores so well.”
Melissa believes that people think pills and pharmaceuticals are going to cure them, when what they really need to learn is the benefits of healing plants right in their backyards. “Nobody knows these skills anymore,” Melissa mourns. “The information is everywhere and it’s nowhere. So much knowledge has been lost.” She rattles off various herbs that match with any ailment under the sun, including a smoking blend which improves lung health, and the wild carrot, which is an antidepressant.
In these trying times, ancient skills are experiencing a resurgence. Mancinelli Farms will continue to craft their teas and herbs, and they will educate on the importance of whole foods. These skills, so rooted in the past, have arrived at a new moment of usefulness and will arm us with resources to move into an uncertain future.
Mancinelli Farms products are available at the Trading Post in Covelo and the Covelo Farmers Market, at the Corners of the Mouth in Mendocino, and Downhome Foods in Fort Bragg. Their tea is served at the Westport Hotel. MancinelliFarms.com
Flower tea photo by Ree Slocum. Other photos by Holly Madrigal.
