We supply herbal products that are potent, pure, clean, and fresh.
We cultivate and gather herbs with love and care; we never use pesticides or synthetic fertilizer.
Thank you for Supporting our Family Business!
Our Story
For the last three years, InsideOut Wholeness has grown from a side project to our full time occupation and primary means of sustaining our family. We couldn’t do it without you!
Iris and Leo love life, freedom and sharing. We met in 2011 and set off together to try to escape Babylon. We were a good match, Leo a wikipedian and technical writer, Iris a school teacher and natural healer. Iris had already been making herbal medicines for friends and family for close to a decade at that time.
After our first child was born and our second was on the way, Iris took a leave of absence from Baltimore City Public Schools, where she had taught High School English for 12 years. She tried to return to the classroom in 2020, but her reentry was blocked with red tape. (No big surprise, since she bragged about ignoring the curriculum and teaching the children…see some of her students’ writing at rm201.wordpress.com, or order copies of her students’ Zine on the Baltimore Uprising to see what Baltimore’s youth can do when you take them out of the maze and into reality.)
While on leave, she had been making small quantities of her herbal potions available for sale, so when her means of supporting her family were cut off, she pivoted. Leo made this beautiful website, we got a color printer, label paper and some recycled ink, and turned our already-too-small rowhouse into Business Headquarters.
We collect most of the herbs ourselves– in our garden, the gardens of friends and, when the herbs are plentiful and not endangered, in the woods and wilds. We were growing in raised beds and containers in our tiny, cement pad in Baltimore. It had it’s advantages, being surrounded by concrete made it warmer than almost anywhere in the state of Maryland, and the plentiful carbon in the air was right there to be made into leafy goodness by our plant friends. But in 2021 we took a huge leap and bought a field just outside the entrance to Cacapon Park in Berkeley Springs, WV!
We expected to jump right in, but Fate had other things in store. Less than two months after taking stewardship of the land, we found ourselves expecting a third child! Fortunately, we have an amazing community and very supportive families, so the going was rough, but we were able to keep going.
Regenerative Agriculture is the process of improving soil health and biodiversity while growing plants for food, fodder or medicine. In our new role as farmers, we are working hard to work with the land, rather than against it. Leo built our driveway across muddy bottom land with real honor and respect for the flow of the water and the animals and plants already inhabiting the valley. We are living in a 30-year-old RV, working the land with well-worn tools and converting a third-hand Amish built shed into our Roadside Stand, Warm Springs Herbal.
We meticulously source ingredients and materials to ensure that NONE are GMOs, and that we are using as many organic and fairly traded products as possible while supporting other small businesses. We have a demonstrated commitment to supporting businesses owned by Black and Indigenous people, as well as immigrants, women, queers, disenfranchised white dudes and anyone oppressed or neglected by capitalism and empire.
Our packaging is minimalist, with as little plastic as possible. As much as we can, we reuse and recycle. Our glass bottles and jars are recyclable, but you can also return them to us for reuse and get a small discount off your next purchase. The plastic or metal cap is recycled and the glass is meticulously cleaned, sterilized, and refilled with a fresh cap.
We believe that beauty is important and that making the world a more beautiful place is a legitimate goal. We reject the standards of beauty that corporate media and consumerism sell. Instead, we believes that you are beautiful when you feel good.
Wholeness, unlike wellness, is a state of accepting and embodying your full self. In the Wise Woman tradition, we don’t shun our problems and diseases; we make them our allies. Let InsideOut Wholeness help you learn to make peace with who you are and grow into who you want to be!
