Growing cures

When Dot Kettle and Georgia Richards found their paradise near Dovedale, in the Tasman hinterland, it ticked every box: flat land, open spaces, mountain views and, as a bonus, the Dove River winding prettily through the heart of it.

That was 2008, and Dot and Georgia were capital city corporates. In the eight years since, they’ve become peony growers and created a skincare business that taps both traditional Chinese medicine and modern science.

Their Dove River Peonies venture is built on a range of peony root-based soaps, creams and shampoo bars that offer relief to sufferers of itchy skin conditions such as eczema.

As is the way with some business ventures, it arose from serendipity. They’d planted the Dovedale property in peonies and were selling into the cut flower market here and overseas.

“We decided to research how to grow the best peonies possible,” says Georgia, who used to be an IT analyst. 

“We discovered that white peony tuber was used a lot in Chinese herbal medicine. It has anti-inflammatory properties and accelerates the healing process of skin wounds, and is used a lot for immune deficiency disorders. All of that led us to believe it might be good for eczema, which our kids suffered from.”

When the first peony soap proved successful, they took the plunge and began developing a skincare cream. They invested in machinery, including a herbal dryer and a carrot washer from China customised to handle peony root, and went fully organic.

Keen to know which of their two dozen planted peony varieties had the most potent root (the critical active constituent is paeoniflorin), and helped by a grant from Callaghan Innovation, Georgia approached Nelson’s Cawthron Institute for testing. Two varieties tested high for potency, well above the British pharmacopoeia standards that Dove River is committed to follow.

The result has bolstered their plans to next year release a range of capsulated health supplements aimed at joint inflammation, menopause and immune deficiency.

“There’s science behind peony root that gives us the confidence to continue to develop a range of natural products,” Dot says. “Everything points to a growing demand for natural products, but also for products that guarantee quality and traceability.

We can, hand-on-heart, say: ‘This is organically grown, from our patch, and we’ve had oversight and controlled the whole process, from the peony patch right through to the finished product.’”

Reported by Matt Philp for our Summer 2016 issue

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