Kaua‘i Farmacy offers self-healing remedies made in Kaua’i

Doug and Genna Wolkon discovered intrinsic motivation by helping others navigate through a monetary system they felt didn’t work them.

Rather than trying to comply, the Wolkons took control of their healing remedies and transformed their passion into a business.

The Wolkons, both originally from the Mainland who arrived in Kaua‘i over a decade ago, were unaware their healing journey would create an opportunity to educate and empower others into adopting a holistic lifestyle.

For the owners of a small acreage farm outside of Kilauea, called Kaua‘i Farmacy, it is like walking through nature’s medicine cabinet, which is congruent with one of their marketing mantras for their business to “heal yo’ self.”

Consumers suffering from psychological or emotional attrition resulting from the fear of the unknown driven by mainstream media coverage will now be presented with options to change their lifestyle at Kaua‘i Farmacy.

According to the Wolkons, it is not just about the food you consume, adopting the lifestyle is about resetting your mentality.

“Kaua‘i certainly has the opportunity to embrace this health and wellness lifestyle that is derived on-farm through an agricultural community,” Doug Wolkon said. “This is a lifestyle of plants and people working together to create vitality, and optimal health and wellness.”

They built their business model on the philosophical wisdom of Hawaiian La‘au lapa‘au, Ayurveda, Chinese medicine and tribal ingredients.

The Wolkons use cultivation techniques in their brewery which offers 80 varieties of organic, healing plants from food orchards.

Their small farm includes honey bees, butterflies and other pollinators, along with wildfowl. Their farm also includes no organic imports. Everything at Kaua‘i Farmacy is made and cultivated on their farm.

Pressing the reset button

The Wolkons hope consumers don’t attempt to change their lifestyle out of fear of contracting COVID-19 because they feel people changing their lifestyle, for this reason, will be short-lived.

They hope consumers come to their farm wanting to modify their lifestyle away from a more synthetic society many people throughout the country have become accustomed to.

Genna views that with the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone in the world is forcing a shift in this mentality.

According to the Wolkons, people need to make a change, and that lifestyle change will be permanent.

“I think we have to shift our mindset, and it’s going to take something of the magnitude of the pandemic to do that,” Genna said. “I am embracing this as a transitional time for the community, the economy, everything. The (natural) medicine is meant to give us energy, give us life force, give us the ability to feed ourselves, and the potential to have the performance our bodies are meant to do.”

Fear of the unknown

The Wolkons feel the economic infrastructure has created a society predicated on fear.

“There is fear-based pandemonium, and that is fragile because when people get into this fear-based mentality, they tend to fall into a victim state ‘I am broken, I need to fix it,’” Genna said. “They also think that someone else is going to tell them what to do versus tapping into what we need to do.

We must remember we have the empowerment to self-heal and help better our situation,” Genna said.

Nature’s gift

Doug Wolkon remains passionately adamant about driving home his company’s mission statement in offering healing remedies not available in your local grocery store.

This isn’t just a business to the Wolkons. The herbal, holistic, and natural healing lifestyle has become a passion which is the true driving force behind their business, not the other way around.

“The thing about plants is that they give us information, and with all of the confusion that is happening right now, the truth has a way of finding its way to the surface,” Doug said.

According to Doug, when the truth emerges it allows consumers an opportunity to become empowered.

“What we eat, drink and consume is mother nature’s plant and they help us find the truth,” he said. “They create self-awareness to help us empower our immune system.”

Let the plants do the work

The variety of herbal medicines the Wolkons offer will not always be the same for each consumer.

Based on several different variables, the consumer will use medicines based on their stress and emotional regulation. They may have to constantly alter their rotation of herbal remedies they require based on their changing needs.

“I always tell people that are new to us they need to have the plants come and do the work,” Doug said. “So often we find ourselves trying to convince and arguing about which way is healthier and which diet is better. The plants give you the answer and resurrect your intuition.”

Doug feels Kaua’i Farmacy could lead the way for consumers looking to find the right combination of herbal remedies.

“You have to figure out the diet and lifestyle, and what is the answer for them, and then convince them this worked for me,” Doug said. “We need to exemplify our responsibility as a group of people that live this lifestyle and it worked for us. We live in harmony, and we need to let the people see which product works for you.”

Doug knows that during this COVID-19 pandemic, people have to make the adaption and not live in constant fear.

The Kaua’i Farmacy YouTube channel allows a vehicle to make that transition happen by educating people around the world about their lifestyle.

“This is about marrying your lifestyle, which is a celebration of the herbal lifestyle, with real-time gardening and farming connecting the people with the land and community,” Doug said.

The Farmacy is currently offering 50% off for kama‘aina to try the many herbals teas and natural remedies in their store. For more information, you can go to kauaifarmacy.com.