Made on Martha's Vineyard
Tea Lane Apothecary
Tea Lane Apothecary — a line of herbal skincare, teas, and remedies — is about as local as you can get. Emma Tobin, who grew up on the Vineyard and went on to study botany and herbalism, uses as many Vineyard-grown plants to create her all natural products.
Tea Lane Apothecary products include aids for everyday needs like sleep, focus, immunity, stress, anxiety, tick/bug repellent, hair and skin care, and more. All of the herb-infused oils, salves, tinctures, syrups, and glycerites are produced on Island using foraged native plants and herbs grown in Tobin’s garden whenever possible.
“Many of the herbs used in homeopathic medicine grow just about everywhere,” says Tobin, who calls her foraging expeditions “wildcrafting.” “ It’s really amazing how abundant they are and how people think of them as weeds.”
Tobin’s family owns and operates Tea Lane Nursery and Farms. She studied plant sciences at UMass Amherst and The California School of Herbal Studies — a natural for someone whose early life was immersed in nature and plants. As well as working as farmer, gardener, and landscaper, she also worked at her cousin’s organic farm in Vermont, which inspired her to dig deeper into the plant world. “That was probably my biggest influence,” she says. However, her early years growing up on the Island were what really instilled a reverence for nature in the first place. “I’ve always loved just walking around the Island,” she says. “My dad knows pretty much every plant here. He would teach me about everything.”
Available at The Trust Shop, 9 Main Street, Vineyard Haven, and Kenworthy, 38 Winter Street, Edgartown.
