A muddy herb garden in Hackney is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word “wellness”. In recent years, the market for health and wellbeing products has taken off across the globe – spawning luxury products like Goop’s £65 “wellness” candle and WelleCo’s £85 Detoxifying Liver Tonic.
But in 2015 Nat Mady bucked the trend, founding Hackney Herbal – a social enterprise that uses herb-related activities like foraging walks and panel discussions to promote mental health and wellbeing. The enterprise came to life in a community garden, and Mady has retained its local focus by offering many of her activities to local residents for free.
Wellness should be affordable
“[Wellness] shouldn’t be something that is associated with a big price tag,” she says. “And I think sometimes the people who really need it the most don’t have access to it.”
Mady holds between three and five free community courses every year, alongside reunion events bringing together a group of about 40 regulars. These events include everything from making herbal bath soaks, to foraging walks and film screenings.
The wellness aspect of the enterprise is focused on getting back to nature, and encouraging people to take ownership of their health by making seasonal remedies made out of herbs growing in the borough – namely nettles, elderflower, mugwort, wild roses and rose hips.
Remedies include blended teas for hayfever, tonics made by infusing fresh herbs in apple cider vinegar, and cough syrups.
As well as picking herbs from the various community gardens around Hackney, Mady and her team take participants on herbal walks around the Olympic Park and Hackney Marshes to show people what they can find for free in the wild if they don’t have their own garden, or time to grow their own herbs.
Connecting with plants
“A big part of it is just having that connection with plants or spending time in a green space,” Mady says. “You can do a lot by just really trying to take time out and tuning in with what you can hear and what you can see and taking off your shoes and walking on the grass.”
Hackney Herbal’s free events are funded mostly though ticketed courses, which start at £25 per person, and sales of their loose leaf herbal tea blends. The blends are packed by hand in the borough using organically sourced dried herbs – many of which are grown in local community gardens. Hackney Herbal tea is stocked in locations around the capital, including Edge & Company, Planthub and Tate Modern.
“People really love the story of the tea,” Mady says. “And some of the blends are quite unique”. Among those on sale on their website are the UNWIND blend, made of lemon balm, fennel seed and chamomile, and the BREATHE blend, made of peppermint, sage and echinacea.
Growing success
In 2019, the enterprise attracted 2348 people across various activities, bringing together residents with a diverse range of personal stories. “The younger people may be trying to be more health conscious or trying to make products themselves and be conscious of what they’re buying,” Mady says.
“But maybe the older people reminisce about things that maybe their parents did, or even their grandparents,” she says. “Particularly if they’re from another country or another culture where somebody in their family was the person you would go to if you were ever sick and they would find the herbs for you to have… I think people are trying to reconnect with that knowledge that hasn’t been passed on.”
In addition to the social side of the project, Mady and her team also put great effort into promoting environmental awareness through their courses. “Our approach is to give people the opportunity to see why the environment is so valuable, and then hopefully develop their own value system,” she says.
For more information, visit Hackney Herbal’s website.
