Crafted with Care
Hearthmother Goods Created by Laurel Bettinger…
The story behind Hearthmother Goods is really about my family’s health journey, figuring out how to Sabbath, how to rest and how to be just more human. My husband and I have been married for 10 years, and he’s been a restaurant manager the entire time. It’s also been a decade of raising babies and then adoption, taking on the legal guardianship of my two little sisters. So, it’s like we suddenly went to five kids overnight. And that whole time, my husband was working 80 to 90 hours a week. It was a lot. But I think it also accelerated our growth as people,” explains owner Laurel Bettinger, who crafts and sells traditional organic herbal remedies like elderberry syrup and fire cider. “The reason I named my business Hearthmother Goods is because I believe that’s the way God made me, to be that warm fire in my home. That’s where I come alive.”
With five kids, staying healthy can be a challenge. “When you’ve got a toddler, they’re licking the grocery cart. They’re coughing in your face. They’re just little germ factories. But elderberry is up there with the açai berry in terms of having some of the most antioxidants that God ever put into a plant. It also lowers inflammation throughout the body. Studies show that it binds to the virus and stops it from duplicating itself. That means your sickness is shorter and less severe. But at the rate I was buying elderberry syrup, it started getting expensive. So, knowing where an elder tree grew, I decided to start making it myself. The syrup tasted better, and a fraction of the cost. It just became our routine. I always had elderberry on hand by freezing it and portioning it out through the year, especially in winter.”
A daily dose of traditional tonic fire cider is also required in Bettinger’s household. “The base of fire cider is raw apple cider vinegar. Naturopaths always talk about doing your cider vinegar shot. It’s good for your gut and digestion. But we take the apple cider vinegar and infuse it for a month or so with several antiviral, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory medicinal herbs. It’s got all kinds of stuff like jalapeno, ginger, garlic, turmeric, oregano, thyme, horseradish, etc. Cold weather tonic warms up your body, helps your circulation, helps decongest you, and just supercharges your immune system,” explains Bettinger, who adds that her recipe has evolved over time.
“The first time I made fire cider, it tasted horrible,” she says. “It was so spicy. But it was worth it. A sniffle would start coming on, and we’d just suffer through a small dose and be better within a couple hours. So, I experimented with balancing the flavor so my kids would take it. Now, the flavor is medium-spice, a little sweet, and goes down smoothly. Even my three-year-old takes it every day. Not that my kids have a choice. It’s part of their daily chore checklist. It’s ‘brush your teeth, scrub your fingernails, brush your hair, and take your elderberry and fire cider.’”
Bettinger’s love of concoctions goes back to childhood. “I was raised homeschooled, the oldest of six kids out in the boondocks.
My first hobby was acting like an apothecary. I would collect stuff that I thought looked like magic herbs in the woods, gather tadpoles and baby fish out of the pond. I would have an aquarium along with little jars of this and that, and I would set up a trading post with my brothers and sisters selling all kinds of tinctures. I was such a wild, little dirty girl, but it was so fun.” Now that hobby is changing her life. “I wanted this little side gig to take a backseat to the important parts of my life. I just thought that if I could make a little extra money doing something that my kids already needed because the remedies helped my family to stay healthy, then great. But it just grew and grew.”
Bettinger is taking the success of business in stride. “There have been some awkward growing pains because I’m trying to keep up with the opportunities that have been handed to me, while still keeping my priorities straight. I’m not a ‘boss babe,’ or some crazy entrepreneur. I am a mom first and foremost, but at the same time, my husband has been at my side telling me to do my best because this is a good thing that might take us somewhere, and maybe one day this will get us out of the restaurant business. And sure enough, it has. Now my husband is transitioning to helping me with practical assistance. I’ve taught him all the recipes, and he helps with filtering and bottling. This gives us the ability to do more quantities faster. By the time next fall rolls around, that’s going to be his full-time job, and our family’s bread and butter. It truly feels like a miracle to me.”•
Hearthmother Goods
www.hearthmothergoods.com
