Nestled in Campbell River, what is now known as the Standing Spruce Farm wasn’t always a natural fit for agriculture, explains owner and operator Lesley Assu. When she and her husband bought the property 10 years ago, it was an industrial cement-pouring lot. There was a lot of clay, not a lot of topsoil, and no grass. After a heavy rain, concrete shapes would surface in the yard. “We put down the first fence and I threw down seed and I swear I just willed it to grow,” she says.

Hard work and iron will transformed the property into a small bounty. Standing Spruce is now home to cattle, ducks, chickens, and the occasional pig — cared for by Assu with help from her husband and two children. “I like to sow a lot of the seed by hand,” Assu says. “I just feel that you’re more in touch with the ground. I like to take my kids out and do what we can, to have that connection with whatever spirits are in the area. I believe a lot of my success happens from just honouring their presence.”

That success has allowed Assu to focus on her new business: the Standing Spruce Apothecary. For years, Assu brewed her wildcrafted products and medicines for family and friends (her brothers jokingly call her “the Haida witch”), but over the past year she dedicated herself to scaling the apothecary into a full-time operation. Now, through her website or her Campbell River farm store, visitors can buy a range of products: mugwort and willow body glow moisturizers, sage soaps, herbal teas, calendula balms, rose salves, candles and more.

Assu kindled her passion for traditional medicine during the months her family spent in Haida Gwaii every year. “Just the memory and repetition you get from living in such a beautiful, spiritual place. It’s quite different there. The food is healthier, people are living off the land, everyone has a connection to the sea and the forest. Everyone is picking, everyone is harvesting, everyone has Labrador tea in the cupboard to help you sleep, everyone makes salves from devil’s club,” Assu shares. “Even as a small child, you would be dipping cups into mint and nettle tea that had been simmering on the stove for days. And those little memories of seeing jars of bark or nettle or tonic — that’s what you remember. It made a huge impact on me.” 

As Assu grew up, she immersed herself in that interest, taking summer student jobs with We Wai Kai Nation that were focused on Indigenous ethnobotany and medicine. She spent hours researching, reading, and conducting interviews with the community Elders. It’s that wealth of knowledge and experience that guides Assu when she develops new products for the apothecary.

Assu begins all of her recipes with a visual inventory of her property. “I see what’s growing. What is nature telling me? What is nature trying to offer me? I collect that and work from there.” One year, a large crop of burdock appeared in her fields; she knew what to do with it instantly. “I know that burdock is going to be made into a tea when I look at it. I know that it has a lot of liver-cleansing capabilities. It’s more of an astringent tonic. It has those cleansing capabilities and is going to be a purifying agent. That’s what I do with every plant. I look at it and I listen to it and let my spirit tell me what’s happening there, and that’s the honest truth.”

However, Assu is quick to point out that Standing Spruce is also constant work. “People who want to homestead — you don’t get the rest everyone else does!” she laughs. 

It’s not uncommon for her to be up until two in the morning, researching and testing new products. Assu dedicates two days of the week to product creation, two to shipping, and two to foraging — all on top of caring for her livestock — but she wouldn’t trade it. “It’s just all so special. Every year is different. When you ask me about what success looks like for us, I picture looking at the stars one year or that huge crop of burdock appearing out of nowhere. Or really wishing we had an alder tree and then one showing up in the front yard. All these pieces of magic that fit in.”

This year, what Assu looks forward to is sharing that magic and continuing to grow her business. “I want everyone to know that these products work, to enjoy them. Being able to get it into more people’s hands, that’s all I look forward to.”

Photos by Blue Tree Photography (courtesy of Standing Spruce Farm and Apothecary/Lesley Assu)

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