Anne Heart discovered her interest in wellness and body connection while in college. While attending classes to eventually obtain her Masters in Architecture, she spent every free moment learning about wellness. She apprenticed with a local herbalist, spent time gardening, and eventually started formal training to study the healing arts.
Out of this passion rose her current business of wildcrafting and offering sessions in herbal medicine. She has had a private bodywork practice for over 10 years starting in Boulder. Now at her mountain cabin in Nederland, she sees clients in person for bodywork, yoga and ayurvedic sessions. She harvests fresh herbs from her garden and the forest and uses her own herbal infused creams and oils. This has led to growing her wellness company to include an apothecary.
Heart’s healing arts background includes training and certification in massage, Ayurveda, western herbalism, yoga, dance and Rolfing Structural Integration and Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula Care. She was inspired to create her apothecary when her son was born, and she was not able to see clients in person. “Wild crafting, growing herbs and making medicine at home was work I could do with my son, and I felt it also benefited him,” Heart says.
While gathering herbs they would take long hikes to the spots specific herbs grew and he would play in the dirt as Heart worked in the garden. As she made medicines, she let him explore by giving him bits of the ingredients she was working with. She says, “Creating an herbal medicine business felt very fluid and integrated into my life as a new mother.”
Her business has grown as her family has, now including a daughter. The apothecary blossomed in the past six years and includes products such as: infused ghee, herbal cordials, botanical skin care, tinctures, spices, medicinal honey, and herbal teas. Products are added as she experiments with other uses for her wildcrafted ingredients and now include many hand-made boutique items such as: hand-made journals, plant dyed kitchen towels, paper garlands, candles, and other fiber arts.
Mother Mountain is in a cabin in the back of the family’s property. Heart desired to work with more of her local mountain community rather than commuting to Boulder. So, the Heart family built a cabin in the middle of the forest behind the house. Trees from the land were used in the construction and friends and family lent their hands at building the space. As a wellness center it is appropriately surrounded by nature. The serenity of the location helps support Heart as she works with people. They may see mountain lion, elk herds, and moose families as they visit this special spot.
All of Heart’s skincare products are food grade (meaning you could eat them) and the wildcrafting she does reflect her love and the joy she gets in her line of work. She whispers or sings blessings as she harvests ingredients which adds a unique energy to the final product. Her gratitude has a beneficial impact on her energy which reflects to those she works on. The healing power of nature helps her clients connect to the earth as well.
Heart finds her favorite part of her job to be relaxing peoples’ nervous systems and supporting a connection to their own bodies through a connection with the plants. She is grateful for the powerful healing arts teachings she has received and has great success relieving her clients of chronic pain. The work they do with her eases their stress levels and hopefully guides them into a space of greater wellness and joy.
Mountain Mother is located in Nederland and can be reached at 913-645-2866. Check out Mother Mountain’s Online Market at https:// www.mothermountain. co/market and book a bodywork session with Anne Heart at https:// www.mothermountain.co/massage. Get inspired with seasonal recipes, craft ideas, herbs, family activities and rituals in Heart’s blog at www.mothermountain.co/ journal and follow Anne Heart on Instagram www.instagram.com/annekathrynheart/.
Sponsored by the Town of Nederland, with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.