CHICOPEE, Mass. - John Evans became interested in medicinal herbs while working as a talk show radio host.

Evans said he learned a lot about the benefits of medicinal herbs through conversations with Kathy Duffy, a repeat guest who was the owner of The Herbarium in Chicopee. Duffy would later become Evans’ business partner and wife.

“I joined up full time and have been here ever since. I didn’t get into the technical herbal studies until some years later,” Evans said. “I took programs through the Herbal Research Foundation and got a certification which essentially said I knew what I was talking about.” 

Evans has owned The Herbarium since 2020. He bought it from his wife when she focused more on teaching herbal medicine.

Evans also runs a healing program for stress, anxiety, and insomnia. He calls learning and educating people about herbs “addictive.”

The Herbarium has been open for over three decades and Evans said herbs being used as medicine dates back through history. He wants customers to know that in the past, herbs like his have been approved, but today they’re not measured the same way pharmaceuticals are.    

“It’s having that kind of knowledge. It’s the satisfaction of seeing something being offered to someone that’s so simple and yet can have such a profound effect on them,” Evans said. “And that’s one of the things that keeps us going.”

The Herbarium is located at 264 Exchange St. in Chicopee. For more information, click here.