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Business & Tech

Sanctuary Serves as Business Model at Seven Arrows Farm

More than thirty years in business for owners Michel and Judy Marcellot.

“See, there’s one there…and over there. This one just came up today,” says Linda Haczynski to a customer. 

The two of them are standing in front of a large plate glass window in the tea room at Seven Arrows Farm where Haczynski is the manager. They’re looking out over a bamboo grove where freshly sprung sprouts stand over a foot tall at less than one-day-old. 

Among many other things, Seven Arrows Farm is known for bamboo. They sell more than twenty varieties of the plant, which is regarded as a symbol of longevity in China. It’s an appropriate backdrop for a business more than 30 years in the making. 

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Married owners Judy and Michel Marcellot have worked side by side since the inception of Seven Arrows Farm. Judy had been working in social services when she met Michel, an employee at a nursery across the street. With a shared vision of creating a “place of peace and sanctuary” they began working the land to grow herbs. They pitched an umbrella on the lawn and sold plants to passersby. Three decades later, Seven Arrows is a five-acre compound housing a plant nursery, gift store, learning center, consignment shop and tea room.

“Because we are a mom-and-pop shop, we had to continually grow and do things that other people weren’t doing,” says Judy Marcellot, who defines her job as “making people feel good.”

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In addition to bamboo, Seven Arrows offers “uncommon plants” such as over 350 varieties of hostas, including their own limited edition hybrids. They also sell organic compost and a spectrum of vegetables and edible plants. In addition to one-on-one support, customers can hire Seven Arrows to build and install raised garden beds in their yards. If that’s not an option Judy Marcellot offers up some simple advice.

“Don’t make it harder than it is,” she says. “Dig a hole, put a plant in.”

Adjacent to the extensive gardens is the gift shop where one can purchase dried medicinal and culinary herbs, aromatherapy products, natural cosmetics, books, gemstones, and local honey. Also on the property Michel Marcellot has a small biodiesel production operation where he turns used vegetable oil into fuel for the business’s duel propane/biodiesel heating system. 

“We were green when it was just a color,” he jokes of the business’s eco-friendly ways.

Beyond the rustic grandeur of its buildings and gardens, Seven Arrows seems to have lived up to its lofty aspirations. There is an air of relaxation about the place and in the movements of the employees. Visitors can be seen not just buying the wares, but also walking the grounds, reading books, sitting in meditation, sipping cups of tea and visiting with the many wild and domestic animals that share the property.

Indeed, "sanctuary" appears to be quite a successful business model.

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