ABOUT

Hello and Welcome to Herbabilities!

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Herbabilities, The Background Story:

The older I get the more I want to simiply life. But I also want to make it simplier for my kids. It seems this world has gotten far from simple. Far from the days when I was a kid growing up on a small rural island, when everyone knew each other and if you got into trouble your mom would hear about it before you got home. 

Growing up my Great Grandmother - Granny Kirk, owned a farm and share cropped land from CSX. We grew running around barefoot on the farm. Helping plant and collect crops. Gathering pecans when they were season. Collecting the chicken eggs. Sitting under the trees with aunts and great aunts, shelling peas and shrimp, to be put up and stored.

My Granny Nick owned a resturant. Everything was made from scratch - but it was also made as a family. My aunts and Granny's in the kitchen canning foods and making meals. When someone was sick everyone took over meals and sat and visited and pitched in. The health benefits were coming through in the food and in the since of community. Even with it being a typical "Southern" diet - it was still healthier because it was yet to have all the extra junk in it. It was just the fresh foods and some salt and sugar. 

If only I'd realized how magical it was at the time. It was fun and free. We didn't have much and I definitely grew up in hand me downs of cousins. But we never went without food. We either caught it or grew it. We didn't eat much processed food until I was older. And you know what else - we were healthier. We hardly ever spent a day home from school sick. 

As I got older and my parents lives and ours got busier, Granny's and Great Aunts got older, we started to loose some of that - a lot of it to be honest. We stopped growing and catching foods. We started eating more processed foods. We spent way less time outside, barefoot and running around. Less time with elders sharing stories and showing us how to do things. And before I knew it a piece of me was gone. 

Fastforward decades and I'm now a mom. A "geriatric" mom at that. Such a horrible term. I had them at the age of 29, 32 and 42. And like many I thought that if they were selling it in the stores and at resturantes then it was fine to eat. One friend likes to point out how I used to argue that point with her. And then I started having health problems. And the doctors wouldn't listen to me. So in the process to get to the root of it all I started changing everything we were eating and how we were eatings. One to be healthier obviously. But also so doctors couldn't just tell me to diet and exercise when I went to them with a problem. It indeed didn't end up being diet and exercise but the journey to prove that to them definitely led to us being healthier as a whole. Cutting out things and making changes before diet did become the root of it all. And we did become healthier. I learned so much. And once you see it, you can't unsee it. 

As with anyone, I was a little skeptical of herbal remedies to begin. The real turning point was when we all got a horrible stomach bug after selling Girl Scout cookies door to door and at booths. I decided to give elderberry syrup a try and it made such a believer out of me that there is now always a communial bottle in our fridge. I soon started sharing it with friends and family, which led to getting orders. And so Herbabilities was born.

But here's the thing - it takes time. Lots of reading and research. Lots of sorting through what's real and not. Verifying sources. Trying foods and recipes. Classes. It's a lot for anyone - especially a working mom.

And that was the inspiration for starting my herbalism business. I want to help moms cut through all the noise when it comes to keeping them and their families healthier. I wanted to share with all my friends and families the things I'd found to help us be healthier. And I wanted to do it with food because making and sharing meals together growing up and even with my own kids had always been about love. So each bite is my way of sharing a little bit of love with each of you. 

So where did the chocolate come in? Good question lol. In 2019 I went on an herbalist retreat to Costa Rica. From the beginning it just felt like the trip was calling to me and that I HAD to go. And keep in mind - I'd never traveled out of the country by myself. I didn't have a passport. I don't like to fly. And my youngest was only 2 and I was worried about being gone for 10 days. Mentally there were so many reasons and even obsticles, like my original birth certificate not being good enough for a passport lol. And every time I'd say maybe it was a sign I shouldn't go. But then my intuition would be like NO - you HAVE to go. And so I did. The whole trip was amazing, but there was one day in particular that was life changing. We spent a day at Sacred Seeds making chocolate bean to bar. As I watched and tried it myself, I was just in awe. And then I bit into the chocolate we'd just made and was blown away. I'd never tasted anything like it.

I was raised on big named brand chocolate. I didn't know there was a difference. I didn't know what chocolate actually consisted of and what you actually needed to make it - which by the way is really nothing more than the cacao it's self. This amazing and medicinal treat - provides you with everything you need to make it and enjoy it! I immediately was like this is how all chocolate should taste and was like why are all these other companies putting all this junk in their chocolates that we don't need?! I was so inspired by the trip and the revelations that I came home and found an online chocolatiering program and started classes. I became a certified chocolatier and sharing healthy chocolates became a part of who I am and what I want to share with the world. 

I often get asked when people see the name of my business - Herbabilities - what does chocolate have to do with herbalism and being healthy. My reply - everything. Cacao and cocoa butter - the main parts that should make up every bite of chocolate you eat, are superfoods and so medicinally good for you physically and mentally. As long as it's a good quality chocolate.

We all have busy lives. Jobs. Kids. Partners. Dreams we're following. Constant activities for the kids and ourselves. And we all want what's best for our family. All of that to say I understand we want healthy lifestyle choices but we also want and NEED them to easily fit into our busy lives and not consist of dozens of capsules, mixing, research, planning and shopping. We want and NEED options that are more ideal and even second nature, to incorporate into our daily routine. No one needs more complicated. And that's my goal - to help make it simple and seamless for you and your family just as I do for mine.

Welcome to my journey. I look forward to sharing it with you and hope I inspire you to embark on your own journey.

-Kim-

Herbabilities, the Business:

Herbabilities is a Florida Cottage Food Law home-based business. My goal is to create products that you can easily incorporate into your hectic lives to help with your wellness journey, so that a healthy lifestyle is more second nature instead of one more thing to add to the to do list.  My focus is on creating organic chocolates and culinary products using sustainably sourced and organic ingredients from my own garden and other organic vendors. 

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I have a BA in Psychology with over 20 years of social work experience. I've been a certified master herbalist since 2018.  In 2020 I earned a chocolatier certification through Ecole Chocolate.