Have you ever tried herbal medicine?

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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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forever
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all right what's up everybody we're back
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with another episode of greetings from
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the garden state i'm mike ham we are
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here in pompton plains new jersey
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actually my birthplace uh with at mayor
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nick kitchen with shannon mulligan mayor
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nick that's going to be a mouthful to
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say over the course of the whole episode
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but uh shannon welcome to the show thank
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you thank you for having me of course of
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course and this is this is a cool little
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spot because this is like a throwback
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for me uh just because i you know grew
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up here um but this was this is
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relatively new this was not here full
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disclosure when i was when i was here
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but uh but tell me a little bit about
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like what is mayor nick kitchen and then
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we'll just kind of talk about you and
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all that kind of stuff sure uh so marina
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kitchen is in herbal apothecary um we
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like to say a modern-day herbal
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apothecary
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started in 2015 by my husband matt and i
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and we
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really have been
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working hard at trying to create this
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you know place where people could come
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and feel welcome and you know um
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safe kind of because we are working with
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plant medicine so sometimes it gets a
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little like
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vulnerable for people yeah um but we
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started like i said 2015
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at our house um matt was harvesting one
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day and came across a huge patch of
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oregano and he's like
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what am i gonna do with all of this
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oregano
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so we literally like had two bottles of
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wine that night sat down and just
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started
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throwing ideas out and it kind of just
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bloomed from there we started as um like
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a subscription box type of company okay
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which
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didn't do well at all
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it was really hard to come up with five
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or six new products every month to send
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to you know our customers so we were
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really pulling at the strings to come up
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with unique products and we found
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ourselves
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kind of making products that didn't go
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in line with what we wanted to
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do yeah so
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we did that for about a year
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and kind of like just decided you know
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what let's work with plants that we're
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growing
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and make products that we
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love use and want to share yeah so
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that's kind of how it started you know
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six years ago right so you mentioned
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harvesting yes like what do you live on
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a farm is that we don't live on a farm
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so we live you know a couple towns over
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we have a home garden okay but we do
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lease land up in wantage new jersey in
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sussex county where we grow over 50
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medicinal herbs
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varieties so we probably have about five
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thousand plants in the ground at this
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time and then we just continually grow
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from seeds so we'll be starting seeds in
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about three weeks at home under lights
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and then you know it progresses up onto
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the farm okay so
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it progresses up to the farm and then
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eventually you open up this spot but
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like so did you have a background in
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like herbal medicines and things like
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this it was just like we just have this
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oregano and now we're just gonna like
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learn what we can do with it like why
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not open like an italian right
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um good question so i had taken a class
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about 12 years ago with now my friend
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and mentor robin rose bennett and it was
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on plant medicine so i met her at this
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tiny little herb shop up in chester new
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york and absolutely fell in love with
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the idea of plant medicine yeah so from
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there so that takes me back about 12
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years um started studying it kind of on
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my own books went to classes and then
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ended up getting accepted into her
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three-year apprenticeship
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which
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totally opened my mind to
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so many things
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um so that's when i really got into
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wanting to work with the plants and make
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the medicine
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matt had always been a gardener grew up
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gardening i didn't
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but he grew up with his family gardening
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so he always had his hands in the dirt
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so that's really his
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like forte yeah he loves gardening
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growing things like that right love that
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so and then you mentioned it started as
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a subscription box service which you
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know you said didn't do great which is
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fine i mean not every business is a you
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know a winner right out of the gate um
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but then so you know you're doing these
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things and then you open up like a
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retail spot so take me through like the
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thought process with doing that sure
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so we had
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we did the subscription base for about a
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year decided it wasn't for us and then
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was just an e-commerce site so we were
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shipping all of our products
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we were first working out of our kitchen
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at home which is where marinette kitchen
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kind of came from because it started in
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our kitchen
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and then we progressed to using you know
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other commercial kitchens when we
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started growing and we needed that you
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know to be doing it in a commercial
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kitchen yeah so it was in 2019 where we
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decided you know what this is
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we're just lugging crap literally back
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and forth from kitchen to home kitchen
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to home um so that's when we started
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looking for a spa this here was the
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second spot we looked at fell in love
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with it it was completely gutted um so
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we had a blank slate to work with and
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put in our commercial kitchen and then
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it lent itself to the retail spot right
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and then like what's
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like i'm i'm curious to know kind of
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like having a retail spot now and you
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know like actually putting your stuff
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out there for people to like come by you
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know i'm sure there's a lot of education
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that goes into it and like you know why
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would someone use these things which
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we'll get into later in the episode and
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what some of your products are which
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we'll also get into later in the episode
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but um like when you first opened was
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like the community was it a
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well-received thing was it something
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that people were just like what is this
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and they just wanted to come in and
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check it out uh a little bit of both
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yeah so because we had a pretty good
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following leading up to us opening a
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retail spot because we had been shipping
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nationwide for a couple of years
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um we
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you know
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we continually grew our audience whether
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it was social media through our
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newsletter just through community
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so
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i think when we open people loved the
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idea that they could come in and see
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what we have rather than just kind of
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picking it up off our front steps which
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we did for a lot of locals
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um and then you know they
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we did get a lot of people coming and
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being like oh you know are you a
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restaurant because they see kitchen yeah
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sure right um but you know it
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it brings in a lot of people who are
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curious and they they want to learn
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right and that's one of our biggest
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things is to really
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educate why we do it how it could help
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rather than you know reaching for your
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tylenol or whatever um so i think it the
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town itself was amazing yeah yeah yeah
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awesome because this was like we were
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talking about this when we talked on the
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phone like this was basically an iconic
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pumped and playing spot before before
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basically you came it was carnival spot
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pizza
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which i just think is just so
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interesting and i remember being here
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eating pizza when i was a kid and now
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we're in here and there's no pizza
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you know it's weird but uh not weird
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that's not why i shouldn't say that but
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just it's different it's very different
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so um so like we're going to get into
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the specifics of what they are what they
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do and how you make them but like what
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are some things that people could expect
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to come in like when they come in what
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do people normally buy when they're in
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here so our best-selling product is our
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elderberry syrup it's been our number
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one product for the past six years so we
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haven't changed the recipe once so it's
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been the same ever since we're just
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making it in larger batches now since we
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have our own kitchen
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so it's it's really people i think find
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us through the elderberry syrup and then
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start to get interested in okay what
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else do you have what's a tincture how
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can i use this oh you make salves oh you
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support other local makers and we have
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them in the shop so
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it kind of opens their mind up to you
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know oh let me see what they have
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because a lot of people walk in and be
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like
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i don't know where to start yeah you
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know so i always ask you know is there
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something you're having trouble with
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sleep anxiety digestive issues and then
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you kind of just get the conversation
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started right yeah i was gonna ask like
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what are some things that these would i
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mean i know we're gonna do specifics
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again but like you know people come in
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here and like is it kind of like a
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concoction of different things like here
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have elderberry syrup and uh tincture i
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don't even know what that is but we're
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going to talk about that later um but
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it's just kind of like trying to figure
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out like what's best for them you know
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yeah so we kind of guide them into you
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know what we think would be best for
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them clearly we're not sitting down and
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having a consultation so i'm not getting
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a full background so it's always a
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suggestion on what we think may work for
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them yeah so it could be like i said you
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know digestive issues or i can't sleep
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or i'm so stressed that it's up like you
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know causing digestive issues or so uh
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we try to
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you know guide them towards what we
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think would work and then you know if
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they have questions we're always open
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for questions shoot us an email give us
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a call whatever the case may be yeah we
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love like the open line of communication
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with our customers so and then you
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mentioned like you know the elderberry
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syrup it's the same recipe is that
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something that like you also get to play
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with like if you're trying something new
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or just like hey what if we combine this
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with this and make like a mutant herbal
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medicine or something like that so yeah
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we do um so a lot of things we make are
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it's called like folk herbalism so it's
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been around for
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hundreds of years you know and it just
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gets passed down through
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generations so a lot of it is pretty
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straightforward on what we make a
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tincture is usually an alcohol-based
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product that extracts the medicinal
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properties out of the plant
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but sometimes where we could get really
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creative is we do blends so we do
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oxamiles and elixirs that are blended
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herbs so then we're kind of like working
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with herbs that would help the same
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you know ailment or anything like that
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so that's where we kind of get to play
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sure um i don't think we'd ever change
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the recipe to elderberry
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but we definitely you know we could play
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around and see
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different herbs could work with other
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things okay and then like what you know
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take me through also just like the
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difference now having a commercial
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kitchen and instead of doing it you know
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on your stovetop and your actual kitchen
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you know take me through like how much
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better i guess or maybe prevents
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different uh presents different
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challenges or stuff like that so
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i mean thankfully we haven't really
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found any
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challenges with doing it here other than
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if we're not in the store and we need to
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come to do something it's not like just
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walking upstairs and doing it in the
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kitchen right so
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but we're able now to make
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a lot more product
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we have more space it's not in our house
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so work life was very
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blurred
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having it at home just because it was
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always there right so
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having it here now has been one of the
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best things for the business and i think
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it's allowing us to grow
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quicker yeah yeah i love that yeah i
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love that um all right so we're gonna
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take our first break of this episode uh
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then we're gonna get into what i've been
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waiting for because i need to know what
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a tincture is that's a fire tonic
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oh yeah that's like i'm into that one i
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don't know why um but we're gonna take
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our first break uh and we'll be right
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back so this is the greetings from the
11:02
garden state podcast on my cam we're
11:04
here in pompton plains new jersey at
11:05
mayor nick kitchen with shannon mulligan
11:08
mayor nick we'll be right back
11:11
it is time for today in new jersey
11:13
history the seashore's finest train the
11:15
blue comet started making its runs from
11:17
jersey city to atlantic city on february
11:19
21st 1929 it would continue transporting
11:22
people along the coast until 1941 and
11:25
that is today in new jersey history
11:30
all right we're back this is the
11:31
greetings from the garden state podcast
11:32
i'm mike cam we are here in pompton
11:34
plains new jersey at mayor in a kitchen
11:35
with shannon mulligan mayor nick so in
11:37
the first segment we talked a little bit
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about your background the background of
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the business all that kind of stuff
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which we normally do
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but now we're going to get into the
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experience side so this is our
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experience segment that we're trying to
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change it up a little bit with the way
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that we do these episodes so i think my
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first question right out of the gate and
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i you know i'm not even sure if you know
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what i'm going to ask but like why
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would people you mentioned it was like
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folk medicine or folk medicine or
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something like that like
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what why would someone go this route
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rather than just doing like i'm just
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going to the doctor and get like tylenol
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whatever it is yep um so i think we're
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seeing a uptick in people wanting to go
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a little more holistic a little more
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natural health um for themselves their
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families
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so i think the
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the push for that is there and we're
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here to kind of serve the community with
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that sure
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i think people are just realizing
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sometimes it's not the best option and i
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have nothing against
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western medicine
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there's a place and a time for it but if
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you have a cold or you have some
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congestion or you have
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i don't your ankle hurts like you don't
12:44
need to right away run to the doctor and
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get a prescription or an antibiotic or
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be taking you know 19 tylenol throughout
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the day
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so
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our goal is to educate
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folks on how they could use plants
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because
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a lot of the time if you look back on a
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lot of those original
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medicines yeah they're plant derived
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right so
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we're taking it from you know
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generations that only use plants and now
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trying to educate and teach people that
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hey you could take a tincture or you
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could rub a salve on your knee or elbow
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if you're sore and not have to worry
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about yeah any side effects or anything
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like that right
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so
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that's our goal and that's what we're
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trying to teach okay so i think
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you know introducing it to anybody is
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great yeah now i'm
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you've tickled my fancy so the
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elderberry syrup we've talked about it
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like five times already so
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it's right there yep so we'll show it to
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the camera so people watch it on youtube
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can see um and then so what is
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elderberry syrup okay and what does it
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do sure so it's an immune boosting syrup
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and it is made with just five
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ingredients so we make it with dried
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elderberries
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uh dried cloves dried cinnamon
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fresh ginger and raw honey
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that is jersey honey okay so we try to
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keep it local as as local as we can
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so the elderberry syrup we
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it simmers for about eight to ten hours
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when we have it on the stove and it's
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literally just simmering in water we
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then
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take it off the water strain it and
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that's when we add the honey we don't
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want to add the honey while it's hot
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because that's going to
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either burn or yeah it could like
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crystallize like a sugar or it will
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um lose its benefits okay so you want it
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in that like raw state yeah so with just
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five ingredients we take a tablespoon
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daily and that's what we recommend most
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people to do if you're feeling sick or
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run down you could up it to two to four
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tablespoons a day so instead of reaching
14:41
for that night quill or you know
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something to help a cold or a
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wrong cutting up
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yeah you probably could take it for
14:48
bronchitis it would help with a you know
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sore throat or cough
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we
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think going this route okay is best so
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it basically just like
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it's like a overall immune boost yeah
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awesome so and we take it year round i
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know a lot of people say oh come
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september i start taking my elderberry
15:06
syrup throughout the winter months which
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is fine as long as you're taking it at
15:10
some point but we say we like to take it
15:12
year round because you could get a cold
15:14
in the sun you know so it's not you
15:16
could get a virus you could get anything
15:18
in the summer right so we like to do
15:20
that's one of our most like preventative
15:22
type
15:23
medicines we make yeah and why do you
15:25
think it's the recipe or is it because
15:26
of its benefits like why is it the best
15:28
seller of mayor in a kitchen i think
15:30
it's
15:31
well the elderberry itself the the berry
15:34
um is high in vitamin c and tons of
15:37
vitamins nutrients and has been known to
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be one of the most
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potent plants for immune health okay so
15:43
i think that and i think a lot of people
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have become familiar with it it's one of
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those
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you can find it at your shop right you
15:51
can find it at the cvs so i think people
15:54
have become familiar with it and that's
15:57
why they kind of like link us to
15:58
elderberries here like oh i know
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marinate kitchen i've had their
16:01
elderberry syrup let's see what else
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they have so yeah and so that's very
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interesting so and then basically you
16:07
just take a
16:08
tablespoon of it whatever like
16:10
it's one of the things i'm interested to
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know about these things too is like
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elderberry syrup like could you do
16:16
anything else with it besides just take
16:18
it like you're not gonna put it on
16:19
pancakes i would imagine you could it's
16:20
a little bit of like a thinner syrup
16:23
rather than a thicker syrup
16:25
um
16:26
but yeah we've had people put it on
16:28
pancakes ice cream you could mix it into
16:30
a seltzer
16:32
i'm not gonna lie we've put it in
16:33
champagne before and had it a little
16:35
yeah you know cocktail
16:37
so you could definitely use it in other
16:38
ways but it's main focus is just to you
16:41
know boost your immunity take you know a
16:43
tablespoon or a shot in the morning and
16:45
go on with your day yeah okay so what
16:47
else we got over there fire tonic
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so fire tonic is super spicy and it's
16:57
kind of like our counter of elderberry
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so elderberry is sweet okay this is
17:01
spicy um if you want i could read what's
17:04
in it because some people are amazed at
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what goes into it so the base is apple
17:08
cider vinegar we then have onions
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turmeric jalapeno lemon lime ginger
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black peppercorn horseradish garlic
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parsley thyme rosemary and honey okay so
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this also is very immune boosting i mean
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if you think about everything that i
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just listed if you were to take a shot
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of it
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your nose might run your eyes might tear
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because it's spicy right um but it'll
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really knock like a cold out of you
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we swear by it my husband swears white
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like he loves it um
17:41
a lot of people also use it as a food so
17:43
because it's vinegar based you could add
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it to marinades to salad dressings to
17:48
things like that where you would add a
17:49
vinegar and it just adds some spice to
17:51
it okay this is so like like these
17:53
things we're talking about when you're
17:54
doing them those different ways like if
17:55
you put the elderberry syrup in your
17:57
champagne does that like affect its
18:00
efficacy um
18:01
[Music]
18:02
well you probably don't want to do that
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all the time
18:05
because i would imagine too much
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champagne would not be good
18:08
um but i mean if you're still getting it
18:11
you're still taking it so i don't think
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it would you know
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not dilute but not make it as effective
18:18
as if you know you were to take it
18:20
straight right right um so the fire
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tonic if you were to do it as a food
18:24
you're gonna probably use a tablespoon
18:26
or so so it's not
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a like we'd also take a tablespoon of
18:31
this or like a little shot glass of it
18:33
and just swing it back yeah um i usually
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have to like hold my nose and close my
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eyes and
18:38
get sucked up for the fire time yeah but
18:41
you said it essentially has like the
18:42
same properties yeah as the or like i
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mean that properties uh
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use yes i guess yeah so you could do
18:48
this medicinally um i tend to reach for
18:51
the fire tonic
18:53
not medicinally uh preventively i tend
18:55
to reach for it if i'm already feeling
18:57
sick or run down or wake up and just
18:59
feel like crap um i'll take it right the
19:03
elderberry i tend to take almost every
19:04
day just as like part of my habit now
19:06
okay cool and then uh what else we got
19:09
over here we have a tincture so i just
19:11
happened to pull a white pine tincture
19:12
it's
19:13
since been one of i mean it's white
19:15
pine's been one of my absolute favorite
19:17
trees
19:18
to use in medicine for years i was a
19:21
plant ally of mine when i was doing my
19:22
apprenticeship and i've just learned to
19:26
i use it all the time what's a plant
19:28
ally so a plant ally is something when i
19:30
was doing my um
19:32
apprenticeship with rob and rose bennett
19:34
every year so i was with her for three
19:35
years every year you had a plan and you
19:37
focused on that plant okay so it's kind
19:39
of just a plant you sit with you work
19:40
with you learn everything about it so
19:42
the white pine is uh the tree of peace
19:45
which i think we could all use everyone
19:47
loves peas
19:49
grows everywhere in new jersey pretty
19:51
much so it's very accessible so we make
19:54
a white pine tincture
19:56
with it uh for digestion and respiratory
19:59
and i also like to use it if you're just
20:00
having one of those days and you just
20:02
need like a hug i called a hug in a
20:04
bottle so like it's in a dropper bottle
20:08
in like actual bottles yep so you would
20:09
take like a dropper full you'd squeeze
20:11
the bulb and take a dropper full you
20:13
could take it straight which i tend to
20:14
do with most of our tinctures uh you
20:16
could put it in tea water if you're
20:18
doing a shake or a smoothie you could
20:19
put it into that okay it doesn't it
20:21
won't dilute it or you know
20:24
cause any
20:26
like yeah i guess dilution yeah
20:29
so a tincture is
20:31
something you extract we use alcohol to
20:34
extract the medicinal properties okay
20:36
you could also do a water extraction
20:38
which would be a tea
20:40
but when we do the alcohol extraction so
20:42
we're taking the
20:43
alcohol
20:45
constituents out of the plant okay so
20:48
you're when you
20:49
work with constituents it's either
20:51
alcohol or water got it okay so we make
20:53
our tinctures with alcohol okay cool so
20:56
we got syrups we got tonics we got
20:57
tinctures that's what we've got on the
20:59
table right now you mentioned salves yep
21:01
to sell so a savvy would use externally
21:04
savv
21:05
uh you use externally like you would a a
21:07
lotion or something like that so right
21:09
oil based yeah like an ointment okay um
21:12
what else do we do we do the elixirs and
21:14
oximeters
21:16
we have flower essences which you use
21:20
energetically
21:21
so you take them internally but it's
21:23
more for like energy moving and
21:25
more of like a spiritual type of
21:27
medicine rather than if you have a
21:28
headache or right digestive issues okay
21:32
um what about the sleep one that's what
21:34
i'm interested in like what would i use
21:36
for sleep yeah so i don't sleep good
21:39
my favorite herb or
21:41
we'll call it a weed because it's a very
21:43
invasive plant here in new jersey is
21:44
mugwort okay uh grows everywhere people
21:47
are trying to eradicate it everywhere
21:49
and i'm like give it all to me
21:52
give shannon your mother
21:54
if there's any take away from this
21:56
episode that's what we've got to do
21:58
so yeah it grows wild it's a great sleep
22:00
aid it also induces lucid dreaming so if
22:03
you're into dream work it's a great
22:05
plant to work with it's super bitter so
22:07
i wouldn't recommend
22:08
taking it as a tea or anything like that
22:10
we i like to take it as a tincture okay
22:13
okay yeah so
22:15
yeah there's a lot of like extra stuff
22:16
like you mentioned like dream work like
22:18
i just want to like get knocked out like
22:19
i don't want to wake up in the middle of
22:20
the night like that kind of stuff um but
22:22
i think it's like it's interesting
22:24
because this is all like it kind of
22:25
marries like medicine side with like a
22:27
spiritual side and it's very
22:29
like you said like holistic yeah you
22:30
know and i think that not many people
22:32
maybe not not many people but a lot of
22:34
people don't no do that kind of stuff
22:36
and it's like the connection of earth to
22:39
body
22:40
you know connection so we like to think
22:42
of it in those terms yeah and then um so
22:46
one of the other questions that i had
22:47
too was like you were reading off the
22:48
ingredients of the fire tonic before and
22:50
you mentioned like with the elderberry
22:52
syrup the honey's new jersey honey um
22:55
are these things like what would you say
22:57
if you could ballpark a percentage of
22:59
stuff that you're actually growing
23:00
yourself and bringing in here to to make
23:04
um i'd say about 60 okay yep all right
23:08
so a lot of our tinctures are single
23:10
herb tinctures so that we're working
23:12
with just one herb um for
23:16
the elderberry
23:17
unfortunately cinnamon and cloves don't
23:19
grow here in new jersey so that's
23:22
something we're not growing um but we do
23:24
you know source
23:26
organically
23:27
um
23:28
the herbs in the fire tonic are our
23:30
herbs so we try to incorporate as much
23:32
as we can whether it's local or ours
23:34
into our products okay cool and then
23:36
like i would imagine just because i mean
23:38
you did it too and not they should
23:39
probably come here instead because
23:40
you're a pro but like someone could do
23:42
this at home absolutely yeah yeah and we
23:46
we teach so okay we'll we've done
23:49
classes on how to make a tincture we did
23:51
a fire cider workshop in the fall
23:54
because that's when people you know want
23:55
to start using their immune boosting
23:57
medicine so
23:58
yeah we teach on how you could do it
24:01
because
24:02
one day i might not be here yeah you
24:04
know so
24:05
it's like the folk thing you got to pass
24:06
it down yeah yeah i love that so
24:08
we love to educate anything i learn i'm
24:11
not going to keep to myself because
24:12
that's not going to benefit anyone so
24:14
everything i learn i am sharing got it i
24:17
got it i love that um all right so that
24:19
was awesome now i know what all these
24:20
things do um
24:22
like i know what a tincture is now um
24:24
but we're gonna take our second break
24:26
our last break of this episode uh so
24:28
this is the greetings from the garden
24:29
state podcast where you're here in
24:30
pompton plains new jersey at mayor in
24:32
the kitchen with shannon mulligan mayor
24:33
nick i'm mike hamm we'll be right back
24:35
[Music]
24:37
it is time for your new jersey fun fact
24:39
of the day did you know that
24:40
cheerleading was started in princeton in
24:42
1869
24:44
and that is your new jersey fun fact of
24:46
the day
24:49
all right we're back this is the
24:50
greetings from the garden state podcast
24:52
i'm mike kim we're here in pumped up
24:53
plains new jersey at mayor in a kitchen
24:54
with shannon mulligan marinick uh so
24:56
shannon that was pretty good i did that
24:58
was very good um
25:00
in the first segment we talked a lot
25:01
about the background of the business
25:02
kind of like what you do here what mayor
25:04
knit kitchen is we learned about
25:06
elderberry syrups and fire tonics and
25:07
tinctures in the second segment and kind
25:09
of like what they do and how you make
25:10
them and all that kind of stuff but in
25:12
our third segment for all of our
25:13
episodes we always like to tie it back
25:15
into the community in some way um so we
25:18
talked about education type stuff before
25:20
so like what are some ways you mentioned
25:21
like off air just before you were like
25:23
trying to build and continue to build
25:25
that community that you had started
25:26
would you say six years ago yep six
25:28
years ago um and so talk to me a little
25:30
bit about that like so how are you
25:31
trying to build that community what are
25:32
you doing to try to get out there and
25:34
make sure people know like what you're
25:35
all about sure so we
25:39
our whole thing is to really it is to
25:42
build a community around this and to
25:44
make people aware that it's available
25:46
for them it's kind of like the people's
25:48
medicine
25:49
so we have a weekly newsletter that we
25:52
send out you just subscribe on our
25:54
website
25:55
we're also very active on instagram and
25:57
facebook and we don't want to be that
26:00
company that kind of just throws up a
26:01
post disappears doesn't answer questions
26:03
so we invite anybody to shoot us a dm
26:06
send us an email give us a call here in
26:08
the store you know we want to keep those
26:10
open lines of community like
26:11
communication open so
26:13
people feel comfortable coming in and
26:15
asking those questions that they might
26:16
not feel comfortable you know talking to
26:18
their partner with or whatever the case
26:20
may be
26:21
so we
26:23
here at marina kitchen would love to
26:24
create like a real
26:26
solid-based community around teaching
26:29
and learning from one another because
26:30
someone comes in and i'm learning from
26:32
them also sure you know i'm not just the
26:34
one giving they're also giving to me so
26:36
i think that's a great way to
26:38
start that community yeah where you
26:40
could you know talk to your customers
26:43
and not just
26:44
kind of take their money and run yeah
26:46
right so our whole thing is to really
26:49
just get involved with them also they
26:52
email us we email back and ask questions
26:54
so we could get a little deeper with
26:56
them yeah and figure out what's going on
26:58
and how we could help them yeah does it
26:59
also go on the side too like you
27:01
mentioned you do like classes and stuff
27:02
like that but i would imagine if
27:03
somebody's gonna take a firetonic class
27:06
they're going to want to they have some
27:08
you know like idea like oh i like this i
27:10
want to learn how to make it also
27:12
but take me maybe through like the
27:14
education side of trying to like put
27:15
these things in front of someone like me
27:17
who before i met you knew nothing like i
27:19
didn't even know these things existed
27:21
and like what they did you know what i
27:22
mean but like so does that come into
27:24
play too it does um we actually run a
27:27
this is our second year doing it my
27:28
husband runs it so we do a farm
27:30
apprenticeship so it's a 10-month
27:32
program where people from all levels of
27:35
you know
27:36
have never gardened to people who are
27:38
gardening who are making medicine you
27:40
know across the board
27:42
so we
27:43
he literally walks them through starting
27:45
from seed
27:46
to planting to running a farm to
27:49
harvesting to making product
27:51
so that's one way we educate we hold
27:54
classes here in the
27:56
kitchen we hold classes out in the field
27:59
for we do weed walks and you know talk
28:01
about plants that are growing so it's
28:04
really just a lot of
28:06
teaching others what we know and you
28:08
know you could be a beginner you could
28:10
know nothing about plant medicine you're
28:11
like oh i'm interested in learning how i
28:14
can make one product for me and my
28:16
family yeah so we do things from
28:18
beginners to like i said people that
28:20
have been gardening and are making
28:22
things but want to take it even further
28:23
right right and then like you were
28:25
talking a little bit before when we
28:26
first uh opened with the first segment
28:28
how you know pompton plains the
28:30
community around here uh was very open
28:33
and like very welcoming and all that
28:34
kind of stuff and you know i'm not sure
28:36
how like i remember that liquor store
28:38
across the street has literally always
28:40
been here since i mean i'm 31 that
28:41
liquor store has been here for at least
28:43
that long but a lot of businesses down
28:45
here like have changed like there's no
28:47
more jones hardware there's no more
28:48
nothing so i think it's like it's
28:50
interesting to kind of to see the
28:51
changes in any town
28:53
but talk to me about like the
28:54
relationship with the town and and that
28:56
kind of stuff so we have a great
28:58
relationship with the town we have
29:00
like zero complaints or anything like
29:03
that and
29:04
we have people coming in who say oh i
29:06
saw you opened i wanted to see what you
29:08
were or
29:09
hey you know we saw you open we wanted
29:11
to just come in and wish you good luck
29:13
yeah so it's it's been very receptive we
29:15
haven't had any type of
29:17
like negativity um trying to like run
29:19
you out of town right or like oh the
29:21
witches are here yeah
29:23
um so when we first moved into there's a
29:25
couple stores here um it was literally
29:28
just the pierogi and the pet shop and
29:29
then the hair salon since then we've had
29:32
a photographer move in two doors down we
29:34
have a knitting store right next door so
29:36
it's now like a full block and it's
29:39
great because everyone works together
29:41
everyone supports one another people
29:43
come in here i tell them to go next door
29:45
to you know pick this up go get
29:47
pierogies so it's it i feel it's a very
29:50
community driven type
29:52
town oh yeah and i have friends that are
29:55
raising their families here and say like
29:57
just the community itself is amazing and
29:59
i think when people live here they never
30:01
leave right yeah and like i love that
30:04
part too because like a lot of times
30:05
like when we talk about these things i
30:07
think you know people like automatically
30:08
assume like well these small businesses
30:10
they need to be active in the community
30:11
but at the same time it's like the
30:12
reverse is also really cool to see like
30:15
the changes happening and putting a
30:16
place like this and we joked about the
30:18
witchcraft stuff but it's like you know
30:20
that's something people can benefit from
30:21
a place like this and i think like being
30:23
open to that and being willing to come
30:25
and try it i think that's the most
30:26
important thing obviously but i always
30:28
like to see the kind of reverse
30:30
community relationship not the business
30:32
selling stuff to a people but the people
30:34
like supporting them in ways that go
30:35
beyond you know just making sure that
30:38
the register is full yes you know yep so
30:40
i mean we've worked with
30:43
within the community we've done classes
30:45
with the girl scouts
30:46
i have a
30:48
class booked with the library
30:50
so it's us also giving back to the
30:52
community you know our time
30:54
is and teaching back to the community
30:57
where you know i'm teaching eight
30:59
nine-year-old girls how to make their
31:01
own
31:01
bath salt or something like that with
31:03
herbs that they're learning about so i
31:05
think it's great that we could kind of
31:07
like you said give and take from each
31:09
other and it's it just shows that it's i
31:12
mean we picked a really great town yeah
31:13
no no yeah it definitely is for sure
31:15
yeah um and you know great people come
31:17
from it so
31:20
yes they do uh but like so and then as
31:23
we kind of progress like you progress in
31:25
the store you've been here remind me
31:26
again how long you've been here uh we
31:27
opened in december of
31:30
2019. okay
31:32
no i'm lying 2020. okay even still
31:35
that's still pretty good so a little
31:36
over a year a little over a year um and
31:38
then uh so talk to me baby like do you
31:40
have plans of maybe like like what the
31:42
future could hold for a place like this
31:44
you know kind of seeing what the first
31:46
year was like and then maybe what you
31:47
want to do as you kind of progress yeah
31:50
uh we definitely want to start hosting
31:52
more workshops uh
31:54
that first you know six months we were
31:55
here was a little dicey with getting
31:57
people to come in um for a workshop and
31:59
be close to one another but
32:01
we would love to just continually like
32:03
teach
32:04
and
32:05
you know expand our product line so in a
32:07
few weeks we're gonna have a whole new
32:09
t-line um we're gonna be setting it up
32:11
right over there
32:12
so we are we're expanding product wise
32:15
and also
32:16
you know uh education wise we're also in
32:20
12 or so stores within the local okay
32:23
you know area that's selling our
32:24
products to so it's nice to be in their
32:26
communities yeah as well right we have
32:29
local makers that we sell their products
32:31
candles soaps things like that so it's
32:33
nice to have you know we could support
32:35
them and also share their products so
32:37
it's all about
32:38
i think you know it's
32:40
kind of like community over competition
32:42
yeah exactly that's what it is you have
32:44
to especially supporting i mean i'm 50
32:47
50 owner with my husband so it's not 100
32:49
women-owned business but supporting a
32:51
lot of these women businesses you know
32:53
that might have left their full-time job
32:55
to do what they love is yeah it's so
32:58
rewarding yeah definitely and it's
33:00
that's really cool to to you know to
33:02
know and all that and i like obviously
33:04
wish you the best of luck with all that
33:06
kind of stuff and also it would be weird
33:08
if he was like the competition over
33:10
community especially in a business like
33:12
this i feel like it's very like
33:13
welcoming it is yeah you know maybe
33:15
different than other places right you
33:17
know and we hear a lot of people say
33:19
like
33:20
i'm so happy you guys are here we needed
33:22
this there's not many like this you know
33:24
so there aren't
33:26
there are there definitely are
33:27
apothecaries and you could find them in
33:28
your you know local areas but there
33:30
aren't many yeah it's not like
33:33
a pizza place sure exactly and we're in
33:36
new jersey and there's plenty of pizza
33:37
places um all right so what is the
33:39
physical address of the shop here it is
33:42
612 newark pompton turnpike pumpton
33:45
plains new jersey awesome so people want
33:47
to come check out the store that's where
33:48
you go
33:49
if they want to look a
33:50
facebook instagram like let's hit them
33:52
with the handles and the
33:54
website so it our website is
33:56
www.marinetkitchen.com
33:59
and you can find us on instagram and
34:01
facebook at marina kitchen
34:03
and
34:05
you could sign up for our newsletter
34:06
right on our website awesome do you have
34:08
any like not maybe not specifics but
34:10
like classes and stuff like that that
34:12
are coming up or we don't have our
34:14
calendar out yet okay uh it will be
34:16
released soon and we're going to start
34:18
classes mid-march um which will give us
34:19
the opportunity to do some in the
34:21
kitchen and then some outside it's a lot
34:23
easier to work with
34:24
fresh plant material right then dried um
34:27
even though we do slush from outside you
34:30
know bring that into the kitchen see we
34:31
can do it yeah right um but yeah so come
34:34
in march we should have our calendar out
34:36
and we usually host about two to three
34:37
classes a month awesome awesome all
34:39
right so if people are listening and you
34:40
want to go check out mayor in the
34:41
kitchen she gave you the website she
34:42
gave the social handles there's the
34:44
counter coming out soon enough i hope um
34:46
and then or you could just come down and
34:48
check it out and grab a elderberry syrup
34:50
or a fire tonic or a tincture because we
34:52
learned what those were today um but
34:54
shannon thank you so much for having us
34:55
here today this was great i
34:57
really appreciate it yes thank you
34:59
so this has been an episode of the
35:01
greetings from the garden state podcast
35:02
i'm mike cam we were here at pompton
35:04
plains we were here in pompton plains
35:06
new jersey at mayor in a kitchen with
35:08
shannon mulligan mayor nick
35:10
thank you again for listening and we
35:11
will catch you next time
35:20
[Applause]
35:20
[Music]
35:29
[Applause]
35:33
[Music]
35:47
you