Matt Walsh

I (Matt) began farming in 2016 at Brix Bounty Farm in Dartmouth, Massachusetts under the supervision of Derek Christianson. After farming in diversified agriculture systems in Hawaii for three years at Olana Organic Farm, La'a Kea Gardens, and Retro Farm, I moved to Maine in 2020 and began gardening on a smaller scale ever since, with a key focus on herbal production. My broader interests are in developing adaptable seed varietals, close-looped fertility systems, the process of developing soil complexity, as well as forest to garden transitioning. Morgan has been working with herbs since 2018 beginning with employment at Kauai Farmacy. She continued her passion by completing a yearlong program at The California School of Herbal Studies. Upon arriving in Maine in 2020, she has been cultivating her own herbal gardens, leading to the development of her first public herbal offering in 2023 - Bloomside Botanicals. In 2024 Morgan completed the Community Herbalist Training at the Earthwalk School of Herbal Traditions in Rockland.

We currently operate our business - Bloomside Botanicals. We are actively touring Maine from our home base in Milbridge, to Portland, setting up whenever we can. In our 1st year of business, we achieved about 20k in sales. We are quickly outgrowing our garden spaces and are looking to scale up and reposition ourselves. Midcoast, with its active herbalist community, seasoned herbal businesses, rich farming heritage, and local support agents, is a dream location for Bloomside Botanicals to settle in deeper. Our vision is to not only purchase land for our own enterprise, but to also lease small parcels of said land for herbalists without land access who need garden space for further exploration into their herbal crafts.