About us
A newly formed experiment in growing food and herbs sustainably, Sweet Belly Farm is located in Salmon, ID near the continental divide. We believe in interconnected, local food systems and bringing natural healing to people through plant medicine. We are now developing herbal healing products made with locally sourced and wildcrafted herbs. It’s so exciting to tap into the healing power of native plants like yarrow, arnica, and cottonwood bud that grow wild right here in the mountains around the Salmon Valley in Idaho, and make salves, lip balms, oils, tinctures, and tea blends. We also infuse many herbs in our jams, jellies, and syrups made from locally gleaned (extra) fruit that would otherwise go unused.
Local & Sustainable - Healing Herbs - Ethical Wildcrafting - Joy
Our story: In 2015 Cameron started Sweet Belly Farm, by growing produce in the Salmon Community Garden. She started going to the Lemhi County Farmer's Market and loved her role in the garden as coordinator for the other community gardeners.
In 2016, Cameron worked with Swift River Farm, and learned much of the work and play involved in running a market produce farm and CSA (community supported agriculture) operation. She started making value-added products like jams, salves, lip balm, and tinctures with some of the herbs and fruit that she gathered in the wild and grew on the farm. She and her partner bought a beautiful piece of land that will eventually be the growing location of many of the ingredients for Sweet Belly's products. See the story of the property on our blog.
In 2017 and 2018, there was still much to help out with at Swift River Farm, but big changes were happening at Sweet Belly Farm. Cameron was busy making new products like herbal bath salts, and expanding into different kinds of jams and jellies. Some of the herbs she grew and gathered were dedicated to blends of herbal tea, while others were infused into oil for the best kind of herbal skincare. On the property, the future home of Sweet Belly Farm, we (Cameron and partner Tim) built a garden fence, put in an irrigation well, and planted fruit trees.
Fast forward to the fall of 2021, Sweet Belly Farm was able to start growing herbs on our own land. We used lasagna gardening technique to build the soil in raised garden beds built above the stony soil. Read about this technique on our blog here. We are happily harvesting the first of our own fruit and herbs from our property this year, and working towards expanding our pollinator habitat and perennial growing areas bit by bit. Read more about our values here.