A Return to The Vancouver Wellness Show
2017 will be the third time at the Vancouver Wellness Show for Cumberland-based Harmonic Arts, who will be once again offering what they say is a well-received ‘Whole Herb and Superfood “Wellness” Package’.
Although Harmonic Arts says they’re sure they would be successful from anywhere on the west coast, owners Yarrow and Angela Willard feel it’s the special connection with the mountain town of Cumberland and the abundant feeling of the Comox Valley that keeps them there.
Yarrow goes on to explain “we are nourished very much by the wild lands and farm community of the north Island. The Island also offers a unique micro-culture of health minded people that have helped to nurture the growth and innovation that our company has experienced over the last 9 years.”
Harmonic Arts works closely with local farms in the Cumberland community, but these local suppliers are not their only major sources—as farm and harvesting connections grow, the company also sources ethically harvested or cultivated herbs and other ingredients from across the country.
Their mandate is only top quality organic and/or ethically wild harvested products.
Competition and Community
When asked about competition, the Willards say the real competition is for attention. No one really offers exactly what Harmonic Arts does, and once the growing wellness company is found, their customers are usually very grateful to have access to their products.
Yarrow explains that companies that do have similar products are more like collaborators than competitors, as everyone in the rising medicinal herb industry are all raising the bar of health for each other, together.
It’s very pleasing and exciting to both Yarrow and Angela that in recent years, more and more people are on the lookout for concentrated extracts and synthetic compounds in capsules as their health tools.
“The more people we expose to working with herbs, mushrooms, superfoods and other natural ingredients, the better. There’s room for many other innovative companies once enough people catch on to using plant medicine for health.”
In fact, one of the local events Harmonic Arts participates in (in collaboration with one of the farms they work with), is called the Vancouver Island Herb Gathering. This event hosts many vendors that would or could be considered competition, but are (like Yarrow previously emphasized) more like collaborators.
More information about this event can be found at www.herbgathering.org.
Accessible Herbal Instruction
Harmonic Arts prides itself on taking education further, by offering unique instruction to interested parties on how to become one’s own herbalist. Some of the information one can learn from Harmonic Arts can be learned this weekend at the Vancouver Wellness Show!
The most well received content this way is their plethora of over 120 videos on YouTube, which are geared around the benefits of harvesting and foraging to create one’s own plant medicine.
They also share many blogs, articles, and recipes on their website, as well as have an active social media presence and strongly connected community. One of the benefits of the information age, is that people can inform themselves well, and so many of their customers have a good idea of how to work with plant medicine.
For those that don’t, Harmonic Arts provides easy formulas and blends to worth with, to ensure their customers can learn more.
Contacting Harmonic Arts
Due to the diversity of what they offer, many customers can now choose to work with them directly, by purchasing their quality products from their website. This way, they can custom order what works for their individual health needs. (In fact, the Willards say that online sales now account for upwards of 25 percent of their revenue!)
Harmonic Arts offers a small clinic where Angela sees clients part-time above their show room and production facility, but the grassroots company also sells products to many naturopaths and other health practitioners across Canada. This way, professional guidance can be given to clients on how to work with some of their more unique products–products that may be available for purchase at the Vancouver Wellness Show.
Although their products have mostly been sold in health food stores (first on the island, then across Canada), Harmonic Arts’ line of products (including but not limited to dried herbs, oils, and tinctures) can also currently be found at Whole Foods, Greens Market, Pomme Naturals, and many other great stores in Vancouver.
For more information on Harmonic Arts, visit them at the Vancouver Wellness Show on March 3-5th, or visit their website at www.harmonicarts.ca.
