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Herbalist, Textile Artist, Instructor living and creating on 5 acres in the northern Catskill Mountains in NY state. Betty is owner of Green Spiral Herbs. She is the Beauty Expert for The Fabulous Beekman Boys and makes bath and beauty products for Beekman 1802, which have been sold to Anthropolgie, Disney and Henri Bendel. Her products have been featured in Cosmopolitan, Vogue and the Chicago Tribune. Betty is also an award-winning textile artist whose works have been exhibited at the White House, Fenimore Art Museum Primedia Gallery, and many publications.
My interest in herbs began when I was working at a local historical farm/museum. I was the lead interpreter for the spinners and weavers cabin and every year we had a Sheep to Shawl Day where we showed all the processes of turning wool to yarn, including dyeing the yarn with natural dyes i.e. sage, marigolds, woad, mint, walnut, and others. It was my first experience with what herbs could be used for and I was hooked. The farm museum also had an herb garden, where with the help of the herbalist I learn the culinary uses of the herbs. I went home and began my own herb garden. Years later we moved and I developed an infection in my ankles that resulted in the amputation of my lower legs. However, that didn't stop me from gardening. We had a raised bed garden built so that I could continue gardening. We plan to extend the size of it this year to add in more herbs and tomato plants. My favorite herbs are basil and rosemary. They are the two that I plant the most of every year and use the most, either in cooking or making herbal oils for cooking (two to three sprigs of rosemary in a bottle of olive oil) and pesto using the basil.