The first thing you notice when you open the door of Gail Crankshaw's store in Frankenmuth is the indescribable, intoxicating fragrance that more than 500 herbs, spices, and teas make when they line homemade pine shelves in a small retail space.
The second thing you notice about Crankshaw's unconventional downtown store,
Those Nature People Herb Haus, is the profusion of herb-infused ointments, lotions, makeup, soaps, salves, shampoo, essential oils, salt scrubs, candles, and teas tucked into nearly every inch of the store. Behind the antique counter are floor-to-ceiling shelves lined with Mason jars filled with every kind of herb imaginable--everything from feverfew and frankincense to coltsfoot and chickweed.
While the three-year-old store on Main Street now has a website that allows for online shopping, many of Gail's regular customers travel 30 miles or more for the sensory-overdrive experience of walking through her store.
"They know the herb shop smell," Gail says. "We've had a few people say it smells like their grandma's."
If not for the modern-day telephone and the meditative music piped into the store, you could almost convince yourself that you were walking through a 19th century apothecary. There are a few other details about the store that also recall an earlier time. Except for a small handful of items, everything in the store is made by Gail, who also picks and dries the herbs from nearby fields and her family's farm in Gladwin. Below the store is the basement where Gail creates almost everything she sells. And much like shopkeepers from an earlier time, Gail lives above her downtown store in an apartment with her husband, Patrick, and her two small children.
Gail's passion for herbs started when she was a young girl, working in a produce stand at her grandmother's. Gail's grandmother taught her how to identify herbs, what they were used for, and how to make soap.
And while her interest in herbs remained constant, Gail decided on a traditional career in the medical field. She worked as a nurse in the Greater Flint area for thirteen years--mostly in convalescent homes. But it wasn't until she began experiencing a few health problems of her own that she returned to her roots, and the healing, medicinal power of herbs that her grandmother used when she was growing up.
By the time she was thirty years old, Gail was in so much pain at the end of some days that she could barely walk. Driving down the road, she sometimes would have to pull over when it hurt too much to hold the steering wheel. Rheumatoid arthritis was the diagnosis. The doctors wanted to start her on steroids and immune modifiers to help manage the disease. Gail took ibuprofen instead, and worked on accepting the fact that she would probably end up in a wheelchair at an early age.
Three years later, Gail was diagnosed with endometriosis, a uterine fibroid tumor, and polycystic ovaries. Doctors first prescribed oral contraceptives as a remedy, but these soon created other problems like migraines, nausea, and moodiness. Eventually, doctors told Gail her only option was a hysterectomy. She scheduled the surgery, but continued to search for other answers.
Gail decided to see an herbalist, enrolled in an herbalism class, and began reading books about herbal medicine. She also began detoxing her body through herbs, eating organic food, and using a natural progesterone cream made from a wild yam and herbal tea blend. As the days progressed, the pain and stiffness in her joints subsided, and the gynecological problems disappeared. She decided to cancel her hysterectomy. And then, defying doctors' predictions, Gail got pregnant.
Gail was enough of a convert after these personal experiences with herbs that she decided to abandon her career in traditional medicine to focus full time on learning all she could about herbal medicine. She also began selling herbs, soap, and other products at area flea markets. Then in August 2008, Gail and her husband discovered the location in Frankenmuth and decided to open up their own store.
While making all her products and running the store, Gail continues to pursue a degree in naturopathy. She also offers a number of classes to customers--everything from herb identification and medicinal herbal preparation to soapmaking and learning how to use herbs in cooking. Gail offers many of the classes at the store, but she also offers customers the option of taking the classes in the comfort of their own homes. Gail also provides herb and nutritional counseling to her customers.
When Gail is not teaching, running the store, or taking care of her family, you can usually find her in the basement of her Main Street store, creating all of the salves, soaps, lotions, teas, tinctures, and other products that line the shelves upstairs.
Once the weather warms, you'll also find her driving along country roads looking for burdock, mullein, lemon balm, motherwort, soapwort, comfrey, and cleavers. When Gail finds what she's looking for, she usually stops and asks farmers for permission to pick them.
"They normally think I'm a little crazy," she says. "But I just tell them I'm after their burdock and mullein."
To many of the farmers, the herbs grow as unwanted weeds alongside their fields. But to Gail, they're ingredients for healing. Mullein, for example, can be soaked in oil and used for earaches. Motherwort is good for heart and reproductive system issues; burdock is a blood purifier and works well for lymphatic issues; soapwort is good for making soap and shampoo; and lemon balm is good for nervous system, anxiety, and blood pressure issues.
Sometimes it takes a little experimentation to get the right combination, Gail says. But she usually enlists the help of friends and family members to test-drive her products before she sells them. Whether it's a new deodorant, a new ointment for baby rash, or a new soap or blend of tea, Gail usually has no problem finding willing volunteers.
"My friends," she says grinning, "are my guinea pigs."
Jenny Cromie is a Mid Michigan-based freelance writer and editor.