MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ)- This weeks market spotlight is Botánica Quetzalli. Owned by Keia Lewis, BQ is a herbal and well-being based company that blends traditional indigenous and Mexican herbal remedies with eastern practices.
Lewis says she moved around a lot growing up, but settled in Milwaukie for 10 years where she attended a yoga school and learned more about ayurveda, a sister science to yoga. Lewis now lives in Marquette where she runs BQ and practices ayurveda, energy healing, Reiki, and does herbal consultations at Sage and Spry on Front Street in Marquette.
Inspired by her grandmother, Lewis’ practice is based in her family’s Chicana Indigenous roots. She says her grandmother was a Cuandera, or a traditional Mexican medicine woman, as well as a herbalist and midwife. She says in talking with her grandmother she realized herbalism and working with plants was in her DNA.
“What I’ve been taught from my elders is the plants show up when they want to work with people.” Lewis said. “I just see myself as a kind of conduit for the plants. I just bring them forward and let the community find them or decide if they want to work with them or not.”
Through Botánica Quetzalli, Lewis sells Herbal teas, tinctures, balms, and many other plant based products for general health and wellness. She says the regular caffeinated tea blend is a popular pick for those new to herbalist products, but she also has more botanical and specialized blends. Lewis works out of the Barrel & Beam Test Kitchen to create artisan products like her tinctures, both alcohol based and vegetable glycerin base.
You can see more from Keia Lewis on her Facebook and Instagram pages, and you can catch her on Wednesday afternoons, and every other Saturday at the Marquette Farmers Market.
