Meet the Owners
Hello all! My name is Melissa Adlebush, but most people just call me Aurora. I have been studying herbs for over 25 years. It was always my dream to open up my own herb shop, and we have grown by leaps and bounds!
I opened my first shop 10 years ago in the tiny hamlet town of Morrison WI. It was an old stone general store that i transformed into my house, laboratory and retail herb shop.
Being that we were out in the middle of no where, we had to really work to get our product to the people. We started at the farmers markets in the close by bigger cities and now travel all over Wisconsin selling our wares at Renaissance Fairs, Fairy Fests, and big street festivals.
In 2016 my husband quit his full time job and joined me in the herb business. Kevin now runs our store in Appleton where we have a great array of metaphysical items to accompany our herbal products. The Appleton store also houses our classroom where I teach many herbal classes and have guest instructors including renowned author and herbalist Matthew Wood.
I teach many Plant Identification courses, a year long Apprenticeship class and am the president of the Fox Valley Herb Society.
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I met my partner Aurora back in 2012, and her passion for herbs and healing was clear from the very start.
It took me a while to take it all seriously. I started out by helping where I could, at shows and events mostly, while still working my day job. My career wasn’t exciting or fulfilling, but it helped pay the bills. Before I knew much of anything about plants, I began by learning about our products. I listened to Aurora explain all the different tinctures and remedies to our customers and expanded my knowledge from there. For about four years that was the routine: I just helped out part-time whenever I could get time away from the “day job.”
At first it was kind of overwhelming - I realized I was very ignorant to all of it. Nobody explains the nuances of your nutrition and all your medicines to you in your day-to-day life. It became clear I had a lot to learn if i was going to be able to really help my wife as well as our customers.
We decided to open the appleton store so that we could be much more accessible to our customer base. So many of the folks who came to see us lived in the Green Bay and Fox Valley areas; we wanted to be closer to them. Eventually the day came where I left my career of 18 years so we could fulfill together what became our dream.
I’m still learning every day, and end up calling Aurora fairly often with questions. For my part, I’ve taken our year-long apprenticeship program and still take classes whenever i can. Every summer we try to get in as much time as possible doing field studies together. I’ve come to really enjoy the time we spend together in our garden and making our products.
What I love more than anything is actually helping people, when they come back and let us know a product has worked and what a big change it’s been for them in their lives. Talking to the customers, and learning their stories. I see everyone who walks in our door as a friend.
