Our Story
MJ first discovered the healing power of plants as a child growing up in Brooklyn. Her Sicilian grandmother would often use traditional herbal remedies to heal her various childhood ailments and injuries. The discovery that many of these natural, unprocessed, whole body remedies were more effective and healing than what could be purchased in a drug store inspired a life long respect, reverence, and passion for the power contained within all that grows from the earth.
She went on to study plant science and agriculture in high school and college. Although grateful for her knowledge of modern botany, she found herself stifled by the constructs of classroom and science lab learning, and frustrated by the curriculum’s lack of focus on plants’ healing power. She began an intensive study of herbalism and holistic healing through the traditional methods of apprenticeships with masters, personal research, and constant practice, experimentation, and introspection. This has proven to be a life-long journey that continues to this day.
Her knowledge and newly found power as an herbalist was put to work as a part of the activist/punk movement in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s and 90s. She provided care for homesteaders who were mistrustful of or simply couldn’t afford treatment from the medical establishment. Ailments specific to extreme urban living led her to begin creating her own blends and formulas that had to be effective, practical, and potent while still taking an unrelenting stand against the pharmaceutical corporations’ use of chemicals, cruelty to animals, lack of worker rights, and unsatisfactory environmental policies.
MJ still has the same uncompromising ethical code of using only the freshest, chemical free ingredients produced with respect and reverence for all humans, animals, and the land. She makes a point of getting to know all her suppliers and those who create her raw ingredients, so she can be assured that virtually every step of the process in creating her formulas was done with good intent. Each product is designed to WORK. They are multi-use, portable, and naturally preserved for extended periods of time. Each ingredient is carefully chosen to be the best quality that can be found. Every step of the production process is done to fully maximize the healing quality in every ingredient. Absolutely no shortcuts are taken. Every single jar of MJ’s Herbals® has been carefully and lovingly handmade and smiled upon by MJ herself.