From Asheville’s Heart to Chakra Gardens: My Journey of Healing and Growth

🌿 A Life Rooted in Asheville’s Spirit
I’m Franny Tacy, and for over 25 years, Asheville, North Carolina, has been my home, my muse, and my teacher. This mountain town, with its vibrant pulse and ancient wisdom, has shaped me into the woman I am today—Farmer Franny, the “hippie in high heels” who left a pharmaceutical career to sow seeds of healing at Franny’s Farm. But my deepest grounding, inspiration, and lessons come from a sacred space right here: the Asheville Yoga Center, now the International Ayurvedic Center, where souls from across the globe gather to learn from masterful teachers. It’s where I align my chakras, find my center, and draw the wisdom that fuels our Chakra Gardens and the tea blends of Franny’s Farmacy Botanical Division.

🌱 The International Ayurvedic Center: My Sanctuary
The Asheville Yoga Center, reborn as the International Ayurvedic Center, is a beacon for those seeking holistic healing. People come from every corner of the world to train under its renowned teachers, diving into Ayurveda’s 5,000-year-old science of life. For me, it’s more than a training ground—it’s where I return to realign my energy, soak in the teachings of balance, and connect with the Earth’s rhythms. The center’s programs, from yoga teacher trainings to Ayurvedic practitioner courses, blend ancient practices with modern insights, offering tools to harmonize body, mind, and spirit. It’s here that I’ve learned to listen to my doshas, chant the mantra “LAM” for my root chakra, and brew herbal teas to soothe my soul.

But my greatest teachers aren’t just the ones leading classes. They’re also the relationships that have shaped me—some still blooming, others faded but rich with wisdom. Just because I act with awareness and the best intentions doesn’t mean I’m immune to life’s raw edges. None of us are. Love, loss, joy, and pain—they’re all part of this dense reality of being human. And then there’s death, the one truth no one escapes. As Rumi so beautifully said, “Death is our wedding with eternity.” It’s a date with the divine, a reminder to live fully in each moment, to learn from every teacher, and to grow through every season.

🌻 Lessons from Life’s Teachers
My journey hasn’t been a straight path. I’ve danced through Asheville’s LEAF Festival, coached sports for 12 years, and taught school before my pharmaceutical career took me far from the land. But the lessons from those years, and the relationships that came and went, taught me resilience. Some connections no longer flourish, yet they left behind seeds of wisdom—patience, forgiveness, and the courage to keep growing. At the International Ayurvedic Center, I’ve learned to see these experiences as chakra imbalances that can be healed with intention. A blocked heart chakra from a lost friendship? I sip our “I LOVE” Heart Chakra Tea, with tulsi and nettle, and breathe into gratitude. A scattered mind? I turn to our “I KNOW” Crown Chakra Tea, with peppermint and lavender, to find clarity.

Hurricane Helene tested me in ways I never imagined, flooding Franny’s Farm and our flagship Franny’s Farmacy store with devastating losses and only 5% insurance coverage. But the teachings of Ayurveda, and the wisdom from my life’s teachers, carried me through. I sold half the farm to regenerative farmers, consolidating our vision on two properties where our Chakra Gardens now thrive. These gardens, and the THC-free tea blends they inspire, are my offering to the world—a reflection of the healing and growth I’ve experienced within.

🌿 Chakra Gardens: Growing Healing
The Chakra Gardens at Franny’s Farm are my heart made visible. Each plot is dedicated to herbs that balance one of the seven chakras, from ashwagandha for grounding the root to butterfly pea for awakening the third eye. These plants are grown with reverence, tended by hands that know the soil’s sacredness. Our Chakra Tea line, part of Franny’s Farmacy Botanical Division, is born from these gardens—blends like “I AM” for stability and “I SEE” for intuition, crafted without THC to harness pure plant power. Every sip is a ritual, a moment to align with the wisdom I’ve gained from Asheville’s teachers and life’s lessons.

Ayurveda teaches us that healing is an inside job, but it’s rooted in the Earth. The International Ayurvedic Center showed me how to listen to my body’s signals, and my life’s teachers—human and divine—taught me to trust that growth follows pain. Rumi’s words remind me that even death is a step toward eternity, so I live boldly, planting seeds for others to heal as I have.

🌟 An Invitation to Heal
Franny’s Farmacy Botanical Division is my love letter to you, inspired by the International Ayurvedic Center and the teachers who’ve shaped me. Visit our three retail locations in Asheville, sip our Chakra Teas, and join me in this dance of healing. Let’s grow together, rooted in the wisdom of the land and the divine within us all.

With a heart full of gratitude and hands in the dirt,
Franny Tacy

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