The Elder Tree

15/12/2025

🌳 Herb Farm Tour- Day 3 & 4- Marleen Herbs 🌳
We had the honour of visiting the Van de Winckel family in Northern Lutruwita for one and a half days on our herb farm tour.
With their wonderful Dutch hospitality, they totally spoilt us with their delicious herbal teas, coffee roasted by the family, cacao ground by the family, and delicious food and treats handmade by them.

They showed us around their huge organic herb farm- the biggest in Australia. They showed us their fields, their machinery, their medicine making facilities. We learnt a lot about their methods and approach to farming herbs, hard their wonderful stories, and of course got to experience their potent gemmos.

Marleen Herbs provides the fresh plant tinctures four PPC herbs who are Australia's only commercial fresh plant tincture supplying company. We had such a wonderful day learning from these elders Ronald and Marleen, and from their daughter Emma.

Looking forward to returning next year!
🌳

14/12/2025

Today's working bee was great, we got 2 big raised beds built on either side of our portal/ main entrance. Massive shout out to Mikaela and Damo for bringing heaps of tools and energy and staying so late to for it finished. Also big gratitude to Melissa Shaw and our new helper Malika who is going to help us paint up some signs .

Happy with the progress though our volunteer numbers have dropped a bit with the heat so would love to bring in some heat tolerant herbies to come next week and help us plant out our new beds and make up some signs.

Considering the following options:
- late afternoon of Monday 22nd Dec
- early morning Tuesday 16th or Tuesday 23rd
- early morning of Wednesday 24th

Please get in touch or comment below if you could attend any of these times.

We would also love donations of medicinal plants! Get in touch before bringing them please.

Excited to be planting out lots of medicine 🌳

10/12/2025

🌳 NEXT WORKING BEE THIS SUNDAY 🌳
Sunday 14th Dec
8.00am-11am
Bring some food or drink to share at morning tea
Please RSVP

Come along and get your hands in the Earth and help us make an amazing educational medicine garden for the community!

We meet here:
https://goo.gl/maps/k5VzRRvKdAiNrZVu7
(Please park out on the road and walk in)

We are focusing in these next two sessions on the following things:
•⁠ ⁠Weeding
•⁠ ⁠prepping to make herb spiral (unloading and stacking bricks)
•⁠ ⁠turn the compost
•⁠ ⁠⁠sign painting weather permitting

Would you like to help us paint some signs for the garden?
If you have any outdoor paint and brushes to donate we would be most grateful. If you had a steady hand to paint signs that's even better!
If you have a brush cutter please bring along. We are also gathering bricks and stones and all kinds of materials so get in touch if you have any to offer.
Hope to see you there!
** Please bring a dish of food/drink to share for the Sunday session**
** We don't have many tools yet so bring your own gardening gloves and your preferred tools if you have any **
** We would love if you could RSVP so that we have an idea of numbers **
.........
In the furure at The Elder Tree Educational Medicine Garden, we will hold regular classes, courses, workshops and events and the medicine garden will be an educational garden for students. We will also produce medicine from the garden that will go to volunteers and surplus will be gifted to those in need/sold at a low cost for fundraising.

We are so excited to be doing our part in building community resilience and coherence and connection.

Get in touch if you want to join us! Also, we have a Whatsapp group for volunteers so let us know if you want to be added to that.

We are looking for donations of garden tools and landscaping resources and things like bark mulch, frames to set up shade etc etc.

Get in touch if you have some resources to share: info@theeldertree.org

The Elder Tree is a registered not for profit (charity) and we welcome financial contributions. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, please let us know!

To find out more about The Elder Tree, go to www.theeldertree.org

10/12/2025

A wonderful post from Naomi Ingleton at FarmacyCo sharing about our gemmo exploration at Marleen Herbs on the herb farm tour.

05/12/2025

🌳 Herb Farm Tour- Day 2 - Hop Valley Farm 🌳
What an incredible second day of our adventure, with Monica Francia and Cara. A perfect example of a thriving small scale young farm blooming with vitality and potency. We learnt a lot about their systems and methods- everyone was buzzing at the end. And the lunch was incredible. Will report more later... for now enjoy some photos....

03/12/2025

🌳 Herb Farm Tour- Day 1- Goulds/Bronzewing Farm 🌳
What an incredible first day of the tour. The legendary Greg Whitten showed us around Bronzewing Farm which supplies Goulds Natural Medicine with incredibly vital potent herbal medicine.
They Farm by hand and harvest and process by hand. Greg shared the amazing tools that he uses and has modified. He is amazing open source and forthcoming with all the tricks of the trade and we are grateful for all of the valuable information shared.

Now we are on our way to Hop Valley Farm to spend the day with Monica Francia, Naturopath, Herbalist and Nutritionist and Cara.

03/12/2025

And we are off! On our herbal adventure with an epic group of herb farmers on a mission to build community and help Australia to increase our supply of Australian grown potent herbs! Stay tuned for many more posts with exciting updates...

Ps. Already planning the next tours!

28/11/2025

🌳 NEXT WORKING BEE TOMORROW 🌳
Sunday 30th Nov
8.30am-11.30am
Bring some food or drink to share at lunch
Please RSVP

Come along and get your hands in the Earth and help us make an amazing educational medicine garden for the community!
We are focusing in these next two sessions on the following things:

•⁠ ⁠Weeding
•⁠ ⁠prepping to make herb spiral (unloading and stacking bricks)
•⁠ ⁠turn the compost
•⁠ ⁠⁠sign painting weather permitting

Would you like to help us paint some signs for the garden?
If you have any outdoor paint and brushes to donate we would be most grateful. If you had a steady hand to paint signs that's even better!

If you have a brush cutter please bring along. We are also gathering bricks and stones and all kinds of materials so get in touch if you have any to offer.
Hope to see you there!

** Please bring a dish of food/drink to share for the Sunday session**
** We don't have many tools yet so bring your own gardening gloves and your preferred tools if you have any **
** We would love if you could RSVP so that we have an idea of numbers **

We meet here:
https://goo.gl/maps/k5VzRRvKdAiNrZVu7
(Please park out on the road and walk in)
.........
We will hold regular classes, courses, workshops and events and the medicine garden will be an educational garden for students. We will also produce medicine from the garden that will go to volunteers and surplus will be gifted to those in need/sold at a low cost for fundraising.

We are so excited to be doing our part in building community resilience and coherence and connection.

Get in touch if you want to join us! Also, we have a Whatsapp group for volunteers so let us know if you want to be added to that.

We are looking for donations of garden tools and landscaping resources and things like bark mulch, frames to set up shade etc etc.

Get in touch if you have some resources to share: info@theeldertree.org

The Elder Tree is a registered not for profit (charity) and we welcome financial contributions. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, please let us know!

To find out more about The Elder Tree, go to www.theeldertree.org

27/11/2025

We have just had a very last minute cancellation on our herb farm tour. We will be contacting everyone on the waitlist but shout out if you are interested in coming- you must have a farm or have land and be ready to start a farm now!

Complete the expression of interest form here:
https://forms.gle/KwftXh48zKmcSBe89

This is a rare opportunity to learn directly from experienced herb farmers, each with decades of hands-on experience in growing, harvesting, processing, and running successful herb-based enterprises in Australia. Those attending the tour will see various different farming methods as well as drying and medicine making methods on different sclaes.

We’ll be visiting iconic farms such as Goulds Natural Medicine Farm, Marleen Herbs, and Hop Valley Herb Farm, growers who are not only deeply committed to organic, biodynamic, and regenerative principles, but who also supply a significant portion of Australia’s practitioner-grade medicinal herbs. All of these farms have closed loop systems where they grow and manufacture onsite. Some also sell dried herb.

This journey is intended for individuals who are serious about starting/upscaling their own herb farms and are contributing/wanting to contribute meaningfully to the development of bioregional herbal communities across Australia. If you are ready to expand your practical growing knowledge, build meaningful connections, and contribute to a network of Earth-based herbalists, this trip is for you.

In the spirit of wisdom-sharing, reciprocity, and community building, we’ll learn together in a small group of aligned growers and herbalists, sharing meals, stories, and visions for a regenerative herbal future.

During the tour we will explore how each of you can be supported toward your personal goals in your farm and we will offer an array of different mentors, online platforms and support to assist you beyond this tour.

27/11/2025

Meet Taj Scicluna from Botanical Education, our new co-host of the Permaculture Herbalism segment! She is a Botanical Educator, Village Herbalist & Wildcrafter with roots in Permaculture design, and we are so thrilled to have her join Earth Mumma to bring more amazing interviews every first quarter moon on the Elder Tree Podcast.

Find more about Taj and her work here: https://www.botanicaleducation.com.au/

AND, If you haven't yet subscribed to our FREE WEEKLY podcast episodes, please do!

Make sure to follow The Elder Tree Facebook and Instagram pages to be the first to hear what is new on the sound waves and brewing from the team, plus special events and what is available in the Trove for members of our community!

24/11/2025

We have just had a very last minute cancellation on our herb farm tour. We will be contacting everyone on the waitlist but shout out if you are interested in coming- you must have a farm or have land and be ready to start a farm now!

Complete the expression of interest form here:
https://forms.gle/KwftXh48zKmcSBe89

This is a rare opportunity to learn directly from experienced herb farmers, each with decades of hands-on experience in growing, harvesting, processing, and running successful herb-based enterprises in Australia. Those attending the tour will see various different farming methods as well as drying and medicine making methods on different sclaes.
We’ll be visiting iconic farms such as Goulds Natural Medicine Farm, Marleen Herbs, and Hop Valley Herb Farm, growers who are not only deeply committed to organic, biodynamic, and regenerative principles, but who also supply a significant portion of Australia’s practitioner-grade medicinal herbs. All of these farms have closed loop systems where they grow and manufacture onsite. Some also sell dried herb.
This journey is intended for individuals who are serious about starting/upscaling their own herb farms and are contributing/wanting to contribute meaningfully to the development of bioregional herbal communities across Australia. If you are ready to expand your practical growing knowledge, build meaningful connections, and contribute to a network of Earth-based herbalists, this trip is for you.
In the spirit of wisdom-sharing, reciprocity, and community building, we’ll learn together in a small group of aligned growers and herbalists, sharing meals, stories, and visions for a regenerative herbal future.
During the tour we will explore how each of you can be supported toward your personal goals in your farm and we will offer an array of different mentors, online platforms and support to assist you beyond this tour.

Only 8 days to go until we begin our herb farm tour in Lutruwita (Tasmania)! A group of 8 herb farmers will be embarking on an adventure (along with our founder Tatiana Lustre Dawn and assistant Lucille Pots) to visit three herb farms:

🌳Hop Valley Farm with Monica Francia, and Cara Brooke
🌳 Goulds Farm with Greg Whitten
🌳 Marleen Herbs with the Van de Winckel family

There will be other spontaneous adventures involved in the tour, and we will be filming a lot of content so stay tuned for an (ametuer) documentary of the trip (any video editors out there want to help?).

We hope you like this photo of an all star cast almost 2 years ago down at Marleen Herbs. From left to right: Greg Whitten, Ronald Van de Winckel, Dawn Whitten, Sue Evans, Nina, Emma Van de Winckel, Marleen Van de Winckel, Jason Hawrelack, Tatiana Dawn.

It was hard turning so many people away and it is great that there is so much interest. Tatiana will be organising more herb farm tours in the coming years. The next one will likely be in Victoria, then subsequent ones will be overseas.

Subscribe to our mailing list to find out about them when we announce dates and locations:
https://mailchi.mp/ab3586ebb123/the_elder_tree

24/11/2025

Only 8 days to go until we begin our herb farm tour in Lutruwita (Tasmania)! A group of 8 herb farmers will be embarking on an adventure (along with our founder Tatiana Lustre Dawn and assistant Lucille Pots) to visit three herb farms:

🌳Hop Valley Farm with Monica Francia, and Cara Brooke
🌳 Goulds Farm with Greg Whitten
🌳 Marleen Herbs with the Van de Winckel family

There will be other spontaneous adventures involved in the tour, and we will be filming a lot of content so stay tuned for an (ametuer) documentary of the trip (any video editors out there want to help?).

We hope you like this photo of an all star cast almost 2 years ago down at Marleen Herbs. From left to right: Greg Whitten, Ronald Van de Winckel, Dawn Whitten, Sue Evans, Nina, Emma Van de Winckel, Marleen Van de Winckel, Jason Hawrelack, Tatiana Dawn.

It was hard turning so many people away and it is great that there is so much interest. Tatiana will be organising more herb farm tours in the coming years. The next one will likely be in Victoria, then subsequent ones will be overseas.

Subscribe to our mailing list to find out about them when we announce dates and locations:
https://mailchi.mp/ab3586ebb123/the_elder_tree