Palcho's Products- Classes in Fermentation and Botanical Bodycare Products
Welcome. I offer a variety of seasonally rotating classes throughout the year in my spacious studio in the Oley Valley, Berks County, PA. Classes include
- Food and Beverage Fermentation including summer and fall vegetable fermentation, fermented condiments such as Miso, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauces, and Cider Brewing.
- Making Natural Herbal Lotions and Potions including luscious creams and light lotions, healing balms, salves, and herbal infused body oils, specialty facial care serums, and herbal extracts for bodycare, culinary and medicinal purposes.
- Edible and Medicinal Weed Walks and Foraging
I make and sell
- Handmade pottery including stoneware vegetable fermentation crocks, bread making bowls, plates, bowls, food storage containers and more.
- Bearfat Hidefood Salve (a premium skin and leather conditioner) and Oregano Shield Oil (anti-viral, anti-bacterial).
This website is home to my historical and contemporary art, ceramic sculpture, and pottery and to the roots of Karen’s Botanicals Natural Skincare business.


Meet Karen
Karen Palcho is an artist, traveler, teacher and former owner of Karen's Botanicals-Natural Skin and Body Care Products. She is also co-owner of Nu-Art Graphics-Industrial Screen Printing and Die Cutting, located in West Chester, PA.
In 2011, she sold Karen's Botanicals to a wonderful couple, Pam and Edward Mitchell from Taylorsville, Georgia. With new found time, she now transforms the alchemy of making lotions and potions into the alchemy of making organic goat cheese, wild yeasted beer, fermented foods, and ceramic fermenters, along with music and art. Karen's interests remain rooted in a fascination of transforming earth-based, raw materials into useful, tasty, and beautiful things.
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Articles, News & Information
Edible Weeds: Learn about Chickweed
Chickweed (Stellaria media) is one of our most common, useful…
Harvesting Wild Greens on the Equinox
Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta and Cardamine pensylvanica) is one of the…
Nettle Weed Walk Video Class with Karen
Urtica dioica, Stinging Nettle, is one of the most nutritious,…
Dandelion Weed Walk Video and Recipe for Dandelion Wine
Learn how to identify, use, and appreciate the common weeds…