This post is part of our series featuring International Herb Symposium sponsors.

UpS: Thank you so much to Lonnie Galt-Theis, Owner and CEO of Equinox Botanicals, for chatting with us. Lonnie, please give us an introduction to the company.

EB: Equinox Botanicals makes high quality, ecologically conscious botanical products. Our solar powered farm and bountiful botanical sanctuary borders the United Plant Savers Goldenseal Sanctuary in Southeastern Ohio, and has been lovingly tended for over 50 years. The majority of the plants in our products were organically grown in our gardens and forests, or sustainably and respectfully wild harvested from this land. Our mission is to provide fresh, ethical, trustworthy botanical products that are made with respect for the plants and earth, and help humans.

UpS: What are three surprising things about Equinox Botanicals?

EB: 1) Maybe not surprising but Paul created The Golden Salve recipe 45 years ago now! That’s the product that started it all 🙂
2) We are a smaller company than people often realize – with a main team of only 4 people!
3) The water in our apothecary is gravity fed from a spring Paul developed back in the 70s and then runs through a filtration system. The water we use to water the gardens is gravity fed from two ponds Paul built.

UpS: Do you have a favorite memory from the IHS?

EB: Paul taught at the IHS a number of years, although somewhat begrudgingly because it was always hard for him to leave the gardens in June :). I was able to attend the 11th IHS with him when they were showing the movie about his life, The Sanctity of Sanctuary: Paul Strauss and the Equinox Farm. It was my first herbalism conference and it felt like a homecoming, plant people are my people, and I was like a kid in a candy shop going from class to class, soaking up as much information as I could from the incredible array of teachers from around the world. The memory that is standing out at this moment is a class where we connected to the essence, the being of a huge European linden that was in flower and humming with bees. I remember feeling joyful warmth in my belly and entire body. We then expressed what we experienced through the art of oil pastels. Although I have felt spiritually connected to plants my entire life this was my first experience dropping into a deeper state with a plant and it was a doorway for me into plant spirit medicine.

UpS: If you have a plant conservation program, please tell us about it:

EB: We are passionate about he conservation and cultivation of At-Risk medicinals, and currently forest farm American Ginseng, Black Cohosh, and Goldenseal, as well as steward wild populations by planting their seeds.

UpS: Please tell us something about your company that you’re really excited about. This could be a new product or initiative, a way you’re reaching out to your community, etc.

EB: I am excited about our Hemp Aid that contains goldenseal we forest farmed and that has been Forest Grown Verified (FGV) by United Plant Savers.

Curious? Watch the interview with Paul below, and visit their website to learn more about Equinox and about Lonnie and Paul.