Hi, I’m Kiah. I've been fascinated with the natural world my entire life. I love thinking about how ecosystems function, how soil and water shape what can grow where, and how plants sustain us. Ultimately, my interests turned into a formal education, the formal education brought me to a historical New England farmstead, and I’ve finally returned to the passion I started with — all distilled into Brandywine Farmstead & Studio.
The farmhouse was built in the 1830s, with floors that hold memory and garden beds full of rusted artifacts left behind by generations of inhabitants. I didn't build this place from scratch, but I'm slowly learning to work with it, rather than against it, one season at a time.
Brandywine itself is named after my sweet girl Brandy, a pig who arrived before the garden, before the herb beds, before I fully understood what I was building here.
My Credentials, Briefly…
I hold a Master of Science degree in interdisciplinary ecology, with a focus in soil and water science, and a 1,200-hour certificate from the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine's Herbal Immersion Program — one of the most comprehensive herbal medicine training programs in the country.
I mention these not to lead with letters after my name, but because they're the foundation of how I think about everything else on this site. Ecology taught me to see a garden as a living system rather than a collection of individual plants. Herbalism taught me that those same plants have been feeding, healing, and sustaining people for as long as we've existed. Both of those ways of seeing show up in nearly everything I grow, make, and write about here.
What I Do Here
Herbalism is the center of it. I grow, harvest, and prepare medicinal plants — salves, infused honeys, oxymels, tinctures — using both traditional herbal knowledge and the ecological training that helps me understand why these plants do what they do. I write about specific plants, specific remedies, and the reasoning behind them, because I think the "why" gives the practice essential context.
Gardening and ecological observation are the ongoing and endlessly interesting work that underlies everything else I do. I pay attention to what this particular piece of land wants to grow, what the bees are doing and why, what a heat wave or a rainstorm does to a garden in real time. Ecology isn't just my degree, it’s how I look at the world outside my back door.
Art and studio work live alongside all of it. I make things by hand — beaded jewelry, and other creative work that grows out of the same instinct that draws me to plants and land: an interest in slow, careful, made-by-hand things in a world that mostly isn't.
Slow living is less a pillar than the atmosphere the whole place breathes. It's not about doing less. It's about paying enough attention to notice what's actually in front of you instead of moving too fast to see it.
An important note: I'm an herbalist and ecologist, not a doctor. Everything I share is for educational purposes only and reflects my own training and personal practice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any herbal remedy, especially if you're pregnant, nursing, or managing a health condition.
