Get To Know Helen Norman, Founder Of Star Bright Farm And Proponent Of Herbs And Their Powers
GET TO KNOW
Helen Norman, Founder Of Star Bright Farm And Proponent Of Herbs And Their Powers
Story by Diana Keeler / Photography by Helen Norman / Video by Leah Corbin
More than a quarter century ago, Helen Norman and her husband Mark Elmore
discovered and purchased a crumbling farm in Maryland with the dream of
raising certified organic crops, caring for the land, and raising their
family. Today, the couple’s children are grown (and active on the farm) and
Star Bright Farm has become a model of organic and regenerative farming
practices, widely acclaimed for farm-to-home products made from USDA
certified organic ingredients that are grown, harvested, dried, and
blended at the farm.
Helen Norman’s Star Bright Farm is a wonderland: a 130-acre certified organic
farm in the rolling hills of northern Maryland. Twenty-seven years ago, Norman
and her husband, Mark Elmore, purchased the 1850s property — and since then,
they’ve poured their lifeblood into it, creating a vibrant, dynamic farm
that’s supported both their family and Star Bright’s wider community.
Above: Helen in the “Kitchen Garden” with Grizzly (the family’s Jack Russell Terrier)
harvesting Swiss Chard” for dinner. Right: Looking over the Lavendula
Angustifolia (English Lavender) towards the barn.
Above: Helen in the “Kitchen Garden” with Grizzly (the family’s Jack Russell Terrier)
harvesting Swiss Chard” for dinner. Top: Looking over the Lavendula
Angustifolia (English Lavender) towards the barn.
A widely published lifestyle photographer, Norman came to Star Bright in service of
a desire to return to where she’d grown up to raise her own two children: Peter
and Patrick. She and Elmore were looking for “an old stone house with about 10
acres,” she says. Her brother, an organic farmer whose own property was nearby,
suggested the land that became Star Bright. “We looked at it, and literally
everything was falling down — but it was beautiful.
“THERE’S SO MUCH EMPHASIS ON WHAT PEOPLE PUT IN THEIR BODIES – FOOD – AND THERE’S SO
LITTLE EMPHASIS ON WHAT PEOPLE PUT ON THEIR BODIES WITH SKINCARE.”
— Helen Norman
The farm sites, the way the buildings were all sited — it was all beautiful. You could
see the potential.” The couple had one more unique advantage: “What's blissful
about being young is you don't see that it's going to cost you every penny that
you have,” she says, with a laugh. “So we bought it, and then we just slowly
started renovating — the house first, so we could move in. Slowly, over the
years, we rebuilt all the other structures, with the barn being the last
one.” Now, the couple’s children are grown, but not far from home: Peter,
who left the farm to study agriculture at the University of Vermont, is
now Star Bright’s head farmer. Patrick, based in Brooklyn, shoots their videos.
Above: Star Bright Farm is a certified organic herb, small fruit, and lavender
farm whose closed-loop system starts and finishes on the farm.
One of the farm’s main preoccupations came as a result of one of Norman’s assignments,
photographing a lavender farm. “I decided I really wanted to grow lavender,” she
says. “And Peter said sure, but not only that — he also wanted to grow aromatic
and medicinal herbs.” Now the pair grow two dozen herbs on the farm, from parsley,
sage, rosemary, and thyme to yarrow and marshmallow root. Those herbs are used
in a product range that includes herbal teas, bath teas, and bath salts. They’ve
also given mother and son a chance to closely collaborate.
“You never know where your kids are going to go,” says Norman, who notes that her
son Patrick returned to the farm part-time over the past couple years, between
traveling for work assignments. “I grew up on the farm, and they both grew up
working at the farmer's market. One of them decides to become a farmer, the other
one's a videographer and he walks around and like he’s never set foot on a farm — and
I’m like, ‘Patrick, you grew up here.’ But he’s a great videographer! It’s
wonderful having them so close.”
For the moment, Norman and her family are preparing for spring: “It’s a whole lot
of planning right now — getting the greenhouse ramped up, starting our
seeding next month,” she says. “All the herbs that we grow we grow from
seed or propagation.” Later this season, they’ll build a processing barn,
where they’ll distill hydrosols used for consumption; they’re already
working with a Baltimore cocktail bar that uses them in their zero-proof
drinks.
Above: Peter harvesting Lavender for bunches and distillation, and
with Leah picking Lemon Balm used for dried teas and hydrosols.
Top: Peter with Leah picking Lemon Balm used for dried teas and hydrosols.
Above: Peter harvesting Lavender for bunches and distillation.
For Norman, it’s just the latest step in an ongoing practice that honors the materials
we use — especially those we apply to our bodies, in our skin and beauty products.
“There's so much emphasis on what people put in their bodies — food — and there's
so little emphasis on what people put on their bodies in our skincare,” she says.
“It's like, why would you put good stuff in your body and not good stuff on your
body?”
The key, she says, is sharing a greater appreciation of herbs and their powers.
“People think yarrow is just a pretty thing in a bunch of flowers — but it’s
incredible on your skin,” she says. “If you were to nick yourself, yarrow
can help knit your skin back together. That’s the power of herbs.”
WHY HELEN BELIEVES IN THE POWER OF HERBS
“Herbalism has been used for thousands of years, in every culture of the world as a way to
heal. Each culture collected what was native to their area and discovered its powerful
uses in healing. In modern times we can sustainably grow what we need for our health
and in ways that are best for the planet. Modern medicine that is created in a lab is
done so to mimic what herbs have done. We believe in drawing from the source and not
an engineered source."
Above: De stemming Lemon Verbena for teas, face creams, and tonics. Dried Echinacea,
known for its immune boosting powers.
HYDROSOL DISTILLATION AT STAR BRIGHT FARM
Hydrosols are the pure floral waters made by hydro/steam distillation of flowering
herbs and transforming the resilience of plants into liquid form. In this
video Peter explains hydrosols and shows how they’re made in a copper still
on the farm.
Left: Peter packing the “column” of the copper still with freshly harvested lavender
to make hydrosols. Right: Assembling the still and sealing where the “hat” meets the column.
Left: Peter packing the “column” of the copper still with freshly harvested lavender
to make hydrosols. Right: Assembling the still and sealing where the “hat” meets the column.