Farmtrue Expands: Holistic Health Business in North Stonington

North Stonington — It’s been half a year since Lynn Goodwin and Kim Welch opened the Route 2 production facility for their company Farmtrue, and they’re ramping up efforts to expand from selling ghee to promoting a broader Ayurvedic lifestyle.

So what is ghee, and what is Ayurveda?

Ghee, common in South Asian and Middle Eastern foods, is made from cooking butter and removing solid residue and other “impurities.” Ayurvedic medicine is a lifestyle practice that focuses on nutrition and meditation for healing the mind, body and spirit.

“It’s a very holistic approach to living, in the sense that it looks at what you eat and what you take in through your senses,” Welch explained. She added, “It also looks at the individual as very unique, a very unique makeup, so it’s not one-size-fits-all.”

After renting a kitchen in Middletown, R.I., the four-year-old company purchased the property at 81 Norwich-Westerly Road in March of 2016 and set about constructing its 3,600-square-foot production facility.

“This area just seemed perfect, because being surrounded by farms, it made more sense for us personally,” Goodwin said.

Welch has lived in North Stonington for 14 years, while Goodwin resides in Newport but is moving to South Kingstown, R.I., in several months.

They started production in the luminous new kitchen in May, and rebranded from Farm to Gold to Farmtrue in June. A new website for Farmtrue is launching in the coming weeks.

“We’re trying to stay true to our commitment to connecting people to the source of their food,” Welch explained of the name change. She said Farmtrue gets all its butter from grass-fed farms in the northeastern United States.

Farmtrue hosted its first open houses in September, and the company is starting Mindful Mornings, which is 90 minutes of yoga, meditation, healthy snacking and community connections.

The cost is $25, and the first two events will be on Nov. 19 and Dec. 17. Welch hopes to eventually start holding Mindful Mornings weekly.

Another first for Farmtrue is a pop-up market from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Dec. 2, which will feature Zest Fresh Pastry, Terra Firma Farm, The Vegan Potter, Adam’s Garden of Eden, Treefort Naturals soap, Whole Harmony tea and more.

The market benefits the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center; while vendors don’t have to pay to participate, they must bring canned goods.

Farmtrue last year did a one-day workshop with Jonathan Edwards Winery and plans to do another at the end of January. It will include yoga, meditation, food and discussion of Ayurvedic practices.

Goodwin and Welch also plan to start cooking classes, and in the spring or summer they hope to further open the facility to the public with a café of healthy grab-and-go options.

For now, the company’s main products are its three varieties of ghee: regular, garlic scape and vanilla maple chai ($12 each, for nine ounces). It also sells nasal oil and mouthwash made with ghee.

Farmtrue products can be found at Fiddleheads Food Co-op, Holmberg Orchards, McQuade’s Marketplace, Dave’s Marketplace and Old Wethersfield Country Store. The company also sells at farmers’ markets throughout Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Goodwin and Welch met at a local Ayurveda workshop nearly six years ago, and then they spent a year studying together at the California College of Ayurveda.

Ayurveda touts ghee for aiding the digestive process, though the Centers for Disease Control and American Heart Association advise limited intake of ghee due to its high saturated fat content.

Ghee can be used at higher temperatures than butter and has a longer shelf life.

e.moser@theday.com

First appeared Nov 19, 2017 Source: – https://www.theday.com/article/20171119/BIZ02/171119363

‍