Appalachian Botanical Co.
1889 Daniel Boone Pkwy
Foster, WV 25081
(304) 956-4015
[email protected]
Jocelyn Sheppard is the founder and president of Appalachian Botanical Co. (ABCo). Prior to launching ABCo in 2018, she spent 20 years as a consultant working with technology startups, entrepreneurs and nonprofits. She has also worked as a college librarian and a program manager at the National Technology Transfer Center (Wheeling, WV). Sheppard earned a PhD in English from SUNY-Buffalo and a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of Virginia.
Question: Please describe your company and products.
Answer: Appalachian Botanical Co. grows lavender and raises bees on a former strip mine in Ashford in Boone County, WV. Our mission is to build a botanical enterprise that puts West Virginians and reclaimed coal mine land back to work. We provide second-chance jobs to local area residents, and, to increase the odds of retaining these jobs, we help our workers access important support services.
In 2020, we began producing 100 percent pure essential oil and hydrosol steam distilled from Lavandula x intermedia varietals. We bottle and sell the essential oil and hydrosol mist separately, and they are featured ingredients in our other body care, culinary and home goods products.
Popular body care products include an organic body cream (containing 29 botanicals!), a lavender-sage massage oil and three varieties of hydrosol mist: lavender, lavender vanilla and lavender sage.
We’re one of the very few domestic producers of lavender honey (as opposed to honey infused with lavender). We blend pink Himalayan sea salt with our lavender buds to make a finishing salt that is excellent with savory (meat, fish and vegetable), and sweet (dark chocolate, caramel, lemon) dishes.
We have a zero-waste philosophy, which means we use every part of the lavender plant. We use the rest of our lavender buds in sachets, and instead of composting the stems, we gather and dry them in bundles to use in fireplaces and campfires, or for grilling food. Even the biomass left over from the distillation process is applied as compost in our fields.
Question: How did you go from working with tech startups to working in the lavender business?
Answer: I was hired to co-write an Appalachian Regional Commission POWER grant to fund a technical demonstration that ended up showing lavender could thrive in reclaimed, low-nutrient soil. The project was successful, and after it ended in 2018, I resolved to start a commercial enterprise that would leverage the lessons learned from the project. By then, I had gotten to know many of the stakeholders who could help my new company succeed.
Question: How many employees do you have?
Answer: Depending on the time of year, we employ between 60 and 85 people. More than 90 percent of our workers are from Boone County. We’re proud to employ people who are in recovery, who were previously incarcerated, who are dealing with brain injury, cognitive impairment, post-traumatic stress disorder, or who lack a high school diploma.
Question: Where do you sell your products? Are they available for sale at health food stores across the U.S.?
Answer: We sell our products directly to customers via our website and to approximately 40 retailers in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky and Indiana. These locations primarily include health/artisanal food stores, wellness centers and boutiques.
Question: What are you most excited about for your business right now?
Answer: We’re thrilled to have hit several major milestones: we’re up to 50 acres of lavender planted and our apiary now has 46 beehives; we had our first major harvest in summer 2020, and since launching sales in September 2020, we’ve shipped orders to 47 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. It’s definitely exciting to see customers placing repeat orders, and we always appreciate it when they leave us notes describing their ties to West Virginia and Appalachia and when they tell us how much it means to them to support our social mission.
Question: What’s next for the company?
Answer: We believe we’re well positioned to expand into new regional markets and at the same time build toward establishing a national brand. We’re also exploring options for exporting to several countries that research suggests would be good markets for our high-quality organic products and our mission-driven business model.
We are currently in the process of securing the services of several independent reps, and we’re definitely eager to hear from retailers and distributors who would like to work with us.
