Sequim Farmers Market
Dates: Aug. 13, 20; open Saturdays 9 a.m.-3 p.m. through October
Location: Downtown Sequim at Sequim Avenue, Washington Street
Contacts: www.sequimmarket.com; manager@sequimmarket.com; 460-2668
What’s new at the market is Goodness Tea. Shaelee Evans started making pregnancy tonic teas that tasted like dirt back in the early 2000s.
She thought, “This tea could be this nutritious and taste good,” so she started messing with the recipe putting more nutrition and deliciousness into it.
In the end she made it heavenly.
While this was developing, Shaelee was sharing tea with friends and then the demand started for her to sell tea.
It was in 2007 that she got her business name, Goodness Tea. For Shaelee, putting goodness into your body means connecting to the healing energy of plants.
“The plants are something to be grateful for especially when it’s all gloomy and grey,” she says. “They are all around us, plus there is so much knowledge to be discovered regarding plants.”
In 2014, turning over a new leaf as a single mom, Shaelee set her determination on making her business work. With a conviction for homeschooling and spending time with her three children, she saw Goodness Tea as her ticket.
She began at the Port Angeles Farmers Market. Not long after, she found a farm location in Sequim to live on and it had a commercial kitchen on site. This opened many possibilities for her.
“At the root level, this is about doing what is best for my kids as well as working with and making products I believe in,” she says.
Shaelee sells bagged tea blends, loose tea blends, equal exchange coffee and hot or cold teas and coffees on site. All of these products are organically sourced and local when possible. She sells kombucha and medicinal mushroom teas plus sourdough breadsticks and scrumptious vegan cookies, such as hot date cookies and quinoa chocolate chip.
Shaelee says she also is happy to make a custom blend of teas for you if you have something in mind.
As a small business owner, she says the learning curve has been steep and she has had tremendous love and support along the way. Her bagged tea blends are now for sale at Nash’s Organic Produce and Country Aire.
“I kept making mistakes,” Shae-lee says, laughing. “And I kept learning, people have been encouraging me along the way.”
She tells me she works with companies she believes in.
“I do my best to use my moral compass when I am making decisions for the business and then I have to be patient,” she says.
Shaelee exudes positivity and dreams big. She wants to see the farm and the kitchen where she lives utilized by the community. She dreams of gleaners processing food there and distilling it down into dried super food blends.
“Something packed with nutrition to make soup good!” she says.
Shaelee also has vision for a teahouse in downtown Sequim where local food is served and people can relax. She explains that her business plan is to follow peace and stewardship of the Earth. She adds that she also wants to give people meaningful jobs.
For lunch, Shaelee has a quinoa bowl with fresh chopped vegetables and smoked fish. There seems to be something fresh to discover at Goodness Tea every week.
Come to the Sequim Farmers Market, relax with some Goodness Tea and learn all about the nutritious possibilities.
