Herbalty Cottage celebrates 10th anniversary as health and wellness business in Medina
Photos by Ginny Kropf: (Left) Bonnie Heck stands at the doorway of the infrared sauna in Herbalty Cottage. (Right) Bonnie Heck steps on the vibration plate, which provides a variety of healing benefits.
MEDINA – A serious car accident in 2008 would lead Bonnie Heck down a path to health and wellness and ownership of a specialty shop called Herbalty Cottage.
This year, Herbalty Cottage is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Heck’s road to recovery from an automobile accident would take several years, during which time she was often bedridden.
“During that time I was taking the usual treatments and they were not working,” Heck said. “That included physical therapy, a Tens unit and soft collar. My head was like a bowling ball. I couldn’t keep it up.”
She progressed to teaching piano lessons, sitting propped up in a chair, but couldn’t turn her head up or down or side to side.
“A year after the accident, I fell and locked my pelvis, and couldn’t take a step or move,” Heck said. “My husband and daughter had to roll me over in bed.”
She sought chiropractic help, which got her mobile, but not pain free. A year later, her chiropractor put her through a purification program, which limited her eating.
“I went through a couple days of detoxification and on the third day I felt like I was 20 again,” she said. “I walked around the block for two miles, gardened and cleaned my house from top to bottom. I jumped in the pool and swam five laps and went for a bike ride. I called my chiropractor to tell her I was pain free.”
She eventually went to work in her chiropractor’s office, and after five years of watching patients who struggled to get in there and seeing how they progressed, “I knew they needed extra help. Like I needed extra help. But there was no place in Orleans County to get it.”
She was going to Rochester to buy organic foods and herbs for extra support. Then both she and her daughter started growing herb gardens.
After taking her first walk alone around the block, Heck said she thanked the Lord, but going forward she couldn’t do it on her own. One night teaching a piano lesson, her student’s mother said she had just purchased some property in Lyndonville that would be great for someone who wanted to start a small business.
“It was just down the street from my house,” Heck said. “But the village refused to zone it for commercial use. Now that I had gotten the idea, I had to do something. Tom and I walked the streets of Medina and Albion to see what was available. I had always known the building on Main Street in Medina as Lockport Optical. On one of our walks, we saw the ‘For sale’ sign.”
They toured the building and of all the buildings they had seen, this one needed the least amount of renovation.
“It seemed doable,” Heck said. “But we were too late with our offer by an hour. I began to think maybe this was not the right time and I needed to take a break.”
Almost a year later she talked to a friend in real estate again about what buildings were available. She was looking into a building on the west side of Main Street when she looked out the window and saw this building at 415 Main St. A friend knew the owner and knew it was going to become available.
“A year later I got the opportunity to purchase it,” Heck said.
Bonnie and Tom Heck stand in front of a display of herbal flavored oils at Herbalty Cottage, which is celebrating 10 years in Medina this year.
On Sept. 22, 2015, Heck opened Herbalty Cottage, a business which focuses on health and wellness and provides a place of peace for those who come in, Heck said.
She started with bulk organic herbs, Himalayan salt lamps and products, supplements, essential oils, extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegars.
Then Heck earned her certification as an herbalist.
Shortly after, her daughter Lindsay Uderitz joined her to provide reflexology, acupressure, manual lymphatic drainage treatments, dry bushing, Indian scalp massage, Nerve mobilization therapy and aromatherapy. She is close to being certified as a naturopath.
In 2017, Heck added a far infrared sauna, which is certified commercial medical grade approved by the FDA. Another sauna and salt cave were added in 2019. At the end of 2019, Nancy Rose joined to provide nutritional therapy by creating personalized nutrition and supplement plans specific to an individual’s need.
In 2024, one sauna was retired and red light therapy and a vibration plate were added. Heck explained in earlier years astronauts returning from space were put through red light therapy, before they re-entered public life. She said the National Institute of Health has written more than 3,000 articles on the benefits of red light therapy.
Herbalty Cottage’s products provide relief from almost any malady, including respiratory problems, stress, arthritis, anti-aging, cancer, healing of wounds, and much more. Tom, Bonnie’s husband, adds his support as “jack of all trades,” filling in for his wife when she is out and manning the farmer’s market in Lockport on Saturdays.
Herbalty Cottage is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Extended hours are available until 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays for the salt room and sauna clients.
