Adelma Simmons

Adelma Grenier Simmons (December 16, 1903 – December 3, 1997) was one of the leading herbal figures in America in the 20th century. A legend for her knowledge of herbal lore and history, she was also a prolific author and sparked an interest in herb gardening across the country. Known as "The First Lady of Herbs," she owned and operated Caprilands Herb Farm in Coventry, Connecticut, for over 55 years.

Adelma A. Grenier was born December 16, 1903, in Sheldon, Vermont. She was the daughter of Albert Norman Grenier, a barber of French-Canadian descent, and his wife Abigail (née Crowe). When Simmons was 6 years old, the family lived in Cambridge, VT but relocated to nearby St. Albans before she was 15.

By 1930, the family had moved to Holyoke, Massachusetts and Simmons worked as a buyer, designer and decorator for the Albert Steiger Company, a department store based in Springfield in Massachusetts. Her parents had also found work with the company although they wished to return to the country life.

Though sometimes said to have been founded by Simmons in 1929, records show the family was still living in Massachusetts at that time. Caprilands was to be the name of the 50-acre (200,000 m²) plot of land in Coventry, CT bought by the Grenier family around 1930. The large 18th-century farmhouse and outbuildings sat upon the grounds of a failed dairy farm. The land had been neglected and was of poor farming quality due to the large number of glacial boulders and wetlands.

Simmons is said to have made her first attempt growing vegetables while running a goat farm on the property, finding that goats thrived on the rocky terrain; hence the name, Caprilands, capri being the Latin root for goat. Though interesting, goat farming was not very lucrative. In the 1940s, after a devastating vegetable season resulting in the death of her crop, Simmons turned her attention toward growing herbs. Herbs, similar to weeds, thrived on the land.

After several decades of determination and effort, Simmons herb farm flourished.

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