Greenfield residents and their businesses just keep getting more interesting. Meet Jaclyn Cotter Older, a resident of Sand Hill Road, who opened a small business last year that focuses on herbal remedies to help with a variety of ailments along with home decor to cleanse the home and ward off negative energy.
Older’s Althine Health and Home is a hobby-inspired business that focuses on selling its products at the Greenfield Farmers Market and other “pop up” shops throughout the year. Customers can also reach out to her through her @althinehealthandhome on Instagram and she is happy to arrange delivery of her products. Older’s full-time job is at Hewitt’s Home & Garden Center, where she also can focus on her love of nature. As a certified herbalist, Older makes many tinctures and salves, lip balms, massage oil and other beauty products, entirely from plants grown or forged from her more than 30 acres of land in Greenfield.
Popular products include:
- Turkey tail mushroom tincture to support autoimmune system, and anti-inflammatory support
- Lions mane mushroom tincture with anti-inflammatory to help nervous system
- Pain butter, a fluffy whipped topical salve that contains shea butter and beeswax
- Beauty body butter, to give your skin the love it deserves
- Fire cider herbal tonic to boost immunity, relieve cold/flu symptoms, aid digestion and warm you up on a cold day
- Dried herbs for home tea blends and much more!
The process for creating the products is extensive. After collecting the plants and herbs, they are broken up by mortar and pestle, mixed with alcohol and placed in a dark, cool place for up to 8 weeks. Then the plant matter is strained to a liquid and bottled in an amber dropper bottle for use. Salves are infused in avocado oil for four to six hours in a double boiler with shea butter and bees wax.
Her products also include handcrafted wreaths, spell candles, wands, staffs, smudge sticks and, yes, even brooms. Older said these products absolutely are created with “witchery” in mind. She said her mother, Jamie Cotter-Sacala, is the inspiration and creator of these natural items that are meant to cleanse your home from any bad juju and promote good energy. A smudge stick is bound sage with rose petals and crystals and can be hung in one’s home. Older’s neighbor, Bob Lapo, creates beautiful artisan wood bowls that are also sold through Althine.
Older moved to Greenfield ten years ago and married her husband Darbe Older. The two have a three-year-old daughter Fern and a 16-year-old Wyatt.
“What’s appealing about Greenfield is the proximity to the Adirondacks,” Older said. “We don’t have big stores, but do have a large amount of homegrown country.”
Visit Older and friends at the Greenfield Farmers Market from 4 to 7 p.m. at Middle Grove Park. There’s surely something magical in store for you.
