Flowers bloom at Tooth of the Lion Farm and Apothecary in Orwigsburg. PHOTOS BY WES CIPOLLA
Originally published in the Pottsville Republican-Herald on June 11, 2022.
Ben Wissinger owes the love of his life to two troublesome goats.
Katelyn Melvin, owner of Tooth of the Lion Farm and Apothecary, could no longer care for the goats, so Wissinger brought them to his family sheep farm in Sinking Spring. In 2020, Melvin hired him to work on her 14-acre farm on Red Dale Road, Orwigsburg, where she grows herbs for teas, tonics and elixirs. This May, Wissinger married his boss, and they became the farm’s co-owners.
“You work a lot of hours close together,” he said, “and you end up falling in love.”
On the last morning in May, the scene at Tooth of the Lion was straight out of an impressionist painting — women hunched over planting lemon verbena in fragrant fields of orange and white blossoms, their backs facing the hot sun. The herbs they pick will be dried, mixed and sold online and at farmers markets in Philadelphia and Emmaus. Later this year, the farm will be organic certified.
“I think a lot of it is listening to the plants, and just kind of experimenting with the plants,” Melvin said. “I sound like a total hippie weirdo” — she laughs — “but the reason why I love it is that it really takes years to build a relationship with different plants. Everything is always a little bit different, that’s what keeps it fun and interesting.”
Melvin likes to say that she was called to her work — she didn’t get into plants, the plants got into her.
“When I first got into farming, it really meant a lot to me to do the physical labor of farming,” she said. “I was never really encouraged to do that kind of work, so it felt really empowering. It was important to me to pass that on and hire staff of any gender.”
Melvin calls Tooth of the Lion, which she founded in Philadelphia in 2013, a “feminist-oriented” business.
“It’s her vision, her farm, but we run it together,” Wissinger said. “It’s been a lot of fun. I really enjoy working with her.”
“Ben is the most supportive person ever, and that is why we own it together,” Melvin said. “Working cooperatively has been a real interesting experiment, too.”
The farm’s name comes from the English translation of the word dandelion, which itself comes from the French “dent de lion” or “tooth of the lion.”
“Dandelions are just sort of a happy, free, tenacious weed that is available in Philly,” Melvin said. “They can grow anywhere, in a sidewalk crack or wherever, and every part is edible and medicinal.”
She still uses dandelions in one of her many recipes, which she devises in a kitchen on Pine Creek Road. The pink-walled workshop still has remnants of the Maple Leaf Ice Cream Farm that once occupied it, and boxes of “daytime stress support elixir” — an alcohol-based blend with extracts of chamomile, lemon balm, skullcap, motherwort and honey. It also regulates menstrual cycles.
Chamomile plants at Tooth of the Lion Farm and Apothecary.
“It became really popular after COVID,” Melvin said.
The elixir’s flowery scent betrays a powerful medicinal taste that makes your heart feel warm.
“It definitely is bitter,” she said. “I like bitter things.”
On the farm hill, chamomile and elderberry plants shook in the breeze, which cooled the women as they snapped cornflowers from their stems. A black butterfly danced in the lemon balm. The women gathered the colors — pink, white, blue, maroon — in buckets strapped around their necks.
“I still can’t get over the view of the chamomile,” Melvin said as she observed her farm from the top of the hill.
This is peak chamomile season, and it has become Melvin’s cash crop. She doubles the acreage every year and uses the comblike teeth of a chamomile rake to collect the flowers. It takes an hour for a single person to harvest two pounds of what will become dried chamomile. It is one of the few crops on the farm harvested by hand.
“The chamomile flowers are like the happiest little stars,” Melvin said. “As long as you don’t have any allergy problems, it’s wonderful.”
When she first became the farm’s owner in 2018, Melvin grew more than 100 crops and flowers.
“Taking time to self-care, knowing when to rest, is something all farmers and humans should work on,” she said.
She walked through the calendula, “big old happy flowers,” and stroked the soft petals with her thumb. She sells the dried flowers to skincare product manufacturers.
Melvin’s mother, Renee, whose garden inspired Katelyn to work with plants, now works on her daughter’s farm. She calls it a “mini work vacation.”
“It’s in our DNA but she took it to the next level,” Renee said. She held a jar of homemade lemon, mint and calendula tea, her chest bright with sweat and sunscreen. “It’s physical, it’s love, truly. You’re not doing it for the money, you’re doing it for the passion and just the benefits from the earth.”
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