Erika's Blog

I'm often asked how Bethel Botanicals started. As I searched for a healing cream to put on my skin during radiation treatment for breast cancer, I wanted a cream that was natural, organic if possible, and one that would stop the skin from toughening, burning, drying, and changing texture. Because I had taken a comprehensive herbal apprenticeship, I knew what herbs and oils would be most helpful in the healing process. My radiologist had asked me to stop taking vitamins because he did not want my system, filled with antioxidants, so I needed to make the cream without vitamins or other substances that would add antioxidants.

I developed the Healing Cream. It included all the oils, herbs and essential oils that would soothe my skin and facilitate the healing process. It felt good to use. I believed in it. It really seemed to work. My skin did remarkably well during radiation; I experienced minimal redness, swelling and cracking, and no peeling. I never developed the leathery skin that many people experience after radiation. I have continued to use the Healing Cream. I believe these oils and herbs are effective for our skin for all situations, whether our skin is stressed or not, but they are invaluable when our skin needs the extra attention.

Subsequently, I made more Healing Cream and gave it away to others undergoing radiation, to my grandchildren as they were born, to friends for their feet and hands, as a night cream, to gardeners and farmers, to other herbalists, to craftspeople, to massage therapists and to my elderly mother and her friends. The Healing Cream became used not only for radiation, but on dry hands, cracked feet, red baby bottoms, as a night cream, full body cream and after bath moisturizer. The feedback I got was that it helped all skin problems enormously. One friend even said she put it on bites and stings and it helped with the itching. Encouraged, I began producing this and other natural and organic products. Bethel Botanicals began and grew into a web based business which provides natural and organic skin care products, bath products and soaps, teas, edibles, and non-toxic cleaning and home care products. Some of what we sell is grown on our land, some products are manufactured, and some we distribute.