North Minneapolis apothecary’s goal: ‘Where holistic well-being meets community empowerment’

The scent of fresh vegetable soup greeted customers who walked into Eva Nyrie Garrett’s north Minneapolis storefront last week.

The aroma wafting from the kitchen tucked into the corner of Natural Me Apothecary is just one of many comforting and healing aspects of the city’s first Black woman-owned shop of its kind, which has now found its brick-and-mortar home at 707 N. 47th Av. in the city’s Webber-Camden neighborhood just off Lyndale Avenue.

Garrett, a certified herbalist and naturopath — or practitioner of alternative medicine — founded Natural Me Apothecary in 2019 with the mission to make natural-based remedies and healthy food accessible to everyone, regardless of income or background. She opened her shop in November, and her mission statement, “Where holistic well-being meets community empowerment,” shows her intent to care for and heal an underserved community.

A North Side native, Garrett witnessed firsthand health disparities on the North Side. According to the 2023 Minnesota Health Access Survey, nearly 31% of Black Minnesotans forwent care, making them the third highest racial group after Hispanics (34%) and Native Americans (41%) not seeking health care services when needed.

“That was one of the main reasons I wanted the apothecary to be in north Minneapolis because I kind of wished there was something like that when I was growing up,” Garrett said.

The apothecary offers a selection of over 320 herbs and other goods sourced from small, locally owned businesses. Garrett hosts classes and workshops that teach the community how to make remedies like tinctures, salves and teas.

“Food is medicine and what you eat is what is supposed to heal you,” Garrett said.

Eric Gustafson, a regular at Natural Me Apothecary, visits the store weekly for soup during his Friday lunch break. He doesn’t live in north Minneapolis, but he works in the area.

“We don’t have many options for lunch around here,” Gustafson said. “Along Lyndale here there are a few places that closed down, and that’s why it’s exciting to see a new place like this to give us another option.”

The store is filled with an array of herbs, oils and infusions designed to promote health in myriad ways, and to naturally treat other ailments.

Gustafson is a fan of Garrett’s most popular product, Fire Cider — a traditional herbal remedy made of mostly apple-cider vinegar, ginger, herbs like rosemary and thyme, turmeric, jalapenos, oranges and lemons — intended to help control blood sugar levels.

“It tastes like nothing you’ve ever had in your life, like Fire Cider that’s what it tastes like,” Gustafson said. “I’ll take my little dosage first thing in the morning before I brush my teeth.”

Garrett said a lot of her diabetic or pre-diabetic clients take Fire Cider, which is also an anti-inflammatory and a probiotic.

“I just like making things,” Garrett said. “I like infusions, you know, where I take an herb and I infuse it into an oil and I use that oil to make something healing.”

Garrett worked for AT&T for nearly two decades before leaving her corporate job to work full time at her apothecary. She started her holistic journey when she created the New Moms Group with Appetite for Change in 2011.

A true full-service business owner, Garrett officiated the wedding of Maurice and Charisma Clark in her apothecary. She knew the couple before they began dating when they attended her raw, vegan cleanse. She worked with Maurice at AT&T for 17 years and meet Charisma through their shared community work.

“I realized that they were connecting during the detox,” Garrett said. “They said they wanted to get married, and I said, ‘Well, I’m a minister!‘”

On March 20, the couple exchanged vows.

The apothecary also features a library stocked with health and herbal books, allowing community members to research and better understand herbs and their potential health benefits.

Garrett co-authored Nature’s Cookbook with Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy (CEED), a grassroots organization that conducts research and provides education on climate, energy and the environment, according to their website.

Garrett’s work extends beyond her apothecary to address food insecurity and health equity in the Twin Cities. She is the co-founder of Natural Roots Wellness, operations manager of Frogtown Farm and a team leader with the Metro Food Justice Network.

Lachelle Cunningham, a Minneapolis chef and co-founder of Natural Roots Wellness, said the idea for Natural Roots Wellness started when they started going on plant foraging walks. Learning from each other they started hosting cooking workshops together that integrated teachings on herbal medicine.

“We both have this love for plants; it’s kind of unreasonable,” Cunningham laughed. “We would get so excited about the plants and other people wanted to learn from us.”

Garret also started a biweekly initiative called the Harvest for Health: Community Salad Bar & Produce Program, which provides free healthy meals and local produce to north Minneapolis residents at her apothecary.

“My hope is that eventually instead of asking me, soon they’ll come in, and they’ll grab those books,” Garret said. “They’ll sit down, they’ll get a notebook, and they’ll write some stuff down, figure something out, maybe ask me a few questions and then grab the stuff and make it themselves.”