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Tuesday 9am - 4pm Wednesday 9am - 4pm Thursday 9am - 4pm

Reflora & Co., 325 South Main Street, Cheshire, CT (2026)

09/01/2026

THE DAYS...
The Visual Manifesto of Reflora

Every house has its foundations.

At Reflora, ours can be found in five figures moving quietly across a painting created more than a century ago.

Thomas Wilmer Dewing’s The Days presents five women, each carrying an object with symbolic meaning: wings, a mirror, a sword, a lyre and a wand.

Together, they have become a visual expression of the principles upon which Reflora stands.

WINGS OF IMAGINATION

The freedom to wonder, envision and explore what might be possible.

Imagination allows us to look beyond what is already known—to recover an old idea, consider a new one, make unexpected connections and create something that did not exist before.

MIRROR OF TRUTH

The willingness to look carefully and see clearly.

Truth asks us to observe, research, question and discern. It respects knowledge and experience while remaining willing to look again.

SWORD OF FORTITUDE

The courage to stand behind what we discover and believe worthy of preserving.

Fortitude gives conviction a backbone. It asks us not merely to know, but to speak, teach, write and act.

And here at Reflora, the symbolism takes on a life of its own:
The Feather Pen is the Sword.

LYRICAL ARTS

The place where knowledge meets beauty and human expression.

Literature. Art. Music. Craft. Storytelling. The written word. The handmade object. The pleasures of creating something simply because it brings beauty into the world.

These are not embellishments to life. They are part of a life well lived.

PASSAGE OF TIME

The final figure walks away from us, carrying her wand as the days continue onward.

Reflora honors what travels through time: seasons and cycles, traditions and old knowledge, memories and stories, things grown and things made.

Some things deserve to be rediscovered.
Some deserve to be preserved.
And some become the seeds from which something entirely new can grow.

Imagine · Seek · Endure · Create · Honor

These five principles travel throughout the world of Reflora—from natural medicine and the botanical world to literature, history, art, education, the garden, the kitchen and the mercantile.

They are not separate interests.
They are threads of the same tapestry.

Welcome to the World of Reflora.

Wings of Imagination · Mirror of Truth · Sword of Fortitude · Lyrical Arts · Passage of Time

08/28/2026

Sneak preview of new website!

08/28/2026

THE DOCTOR’S DESK
--with Dr. Debra

There is always something on the desk.

A materia medica for repertorizing a homeopathic remedy.
An herbal with a passage marked for another look.
A laboratory report.
A handful of garden notes.
A recipe scribbled in the margin of something entirely unrelated.
A flower essence or aromatherapy guide.
A question that has sent me down yet another rabbit hole.

Welcome to "The Doctor’s Desk"

I’m Dr. Debra Anastasio—a naturopathic physician, educator, gardener, researcher, maker, and lifelong collector of useful knowledge.

For more than thirty years, my work has lived at the intersection of medicine and everyday life. I’m as interested in what happens in the kitchen and garden as I am in what appears in a medical journal or laboratory report.

Here, we’ll explore natural medicine and nutrition, herbs and traditional remedies, new research and old wisdom, food and gardening, practical skills, recipes, curious discoveries, and the occasional subject that simply deserves a closer look.

Some posts will be distinctly medical.

Others may begin with a plant, a book, a bottle on an apothecary shelf, something growing in the garden, or a question someone asked me years ago that I never quite stopped thinking about.

That’s the nature of "The Doctor’s Desk"

Things accumulate here.
Ideas meet one another.

And sometimes something very old and something very new turn out to have quite a lot to say to each other.

So pull up a chair.
Let’s see what’s on The Doctor’s Desk in the days and weeks to come.
— Dr. Debra

08/24/2026

THE REFLORA HAVEN...Where the work begins.

I've been thinking about where we should begin.

And I don't think it's with a list.

I don't think it's with something you need to change about yourself either.

I think we need to make a place.

You probably already have one in mind.

Maybe it's that chair by the window that nobody really sits in but you. Maybe it's the end of the kitchen table in the early morning, before everyone else gets moving. It could be your porch, a garden bench, a corner of your bedroom, or an old chair tucked somewhere beneath a tree.

It doesn't need to be beautiful.
It doesn't even need to be particularly quiet.

It just needs to feel like somewhere you can sit for a while and hear yourself think.

I'm calling it "The Reflora Haven."

Because we're going to be doing some things together here, and I want you to have a place for them to land.

Over the months ahead, I'll bring you things.
A question to think about.
Something happening outside that I think is worth noticing.
An herb or food we might want in the cupboard.
Something old that deserves remembering.
Something useful for the home.
Maybe something we're going to make with our hands.

And sometimes I'll bring you a thread.

That's been on my mind quite a bit lately—the tapestry of a life and all the threads that somehow find their way into it.

Some were handed to us.
Some we chose.
Some have been there so long we've forgotten how they got there.
And every once in a while, we get to choose a new one.

That's part of what we'll be doing here.
I think you'll want a notebook.

Nothing fancy.

In fact, I've made one for you.

"The Reflora Composition Notebook"

Accompanied, naturally, by a furry little koala perched on a good old yellow Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil.

It's unassuming on purpose.

No daily prompts. No boxes to check. No rules about what belongs on the pages or how often you're supposed to fill them.

This is a place to collect the pieces, at your own pace.

Open the cover and you'll find a bookplate that reads:

The Reflora Composition Notebook

This composition belongs to __________________

Began on __________________

Not "this notebook belongs to."

"This composition belongs to..."
Because that's what we'll be collecting here—the pieces of a life.

A recipe you don't want to lose. A leaf you picked up outside. A sentence that stopped you. A photograph. Something your mother or grandmother used to do. A sketch. A remedy. A seed packet.

Or a thought you had while driving home that you absolutely knew you'd remember—and then didn't.

Put it in there.
We're not trying to make it all make sense yet.
We're collecting.

Somewhere along the way, we may begin to notice the threads.
We'll get to that.

For now, look around your home and your yard and find your place.

Pull up a chair.
Find somewhere nearby to set your tea.
Bring your cotton tote holding the treasured composition book and your fuzzy koala perched on a pencil waiting to write with you.

And leave the seat open.
Reflora will meet you there.

Welcome to The Reflora Haven! Next week, we begin the exploration!

© 2026 Dr. Debra Anastasio · Reflora & Co.™ · The Reflora Method™
All rights reserved. Shared for educational and informational purposes only. Not intended as medical advice.

08/24/2026

THE REFLORA COMPOSITION KIT...For a Life Still Being Written.

There are certain things one cannot properly source from a catalog.

This is how I found myself, after an unnecessarily complicated journey, in pursuit of a koala.

Not an actual koala, mind you. There are limits.

I was looking for the sort that could sit comfortably upon a No. 2 pencil.

These things matter.

The notebook had been easier.

I found it almost exactly where you would expect: the familiar black-and-white composition book that has been recording the important affairs of American life for generations.

Spelling words. Algebra. Recipes. Phone numbers. Terrible poetry. Excellent ideas.

And things written in the back during meetings that had absolutely nothing to do with the meeting.

It was perfect.

No leather binding. No inspirational quotation embossed in gold. No ribbon markers or instructions requiring you to become a better person before breakfast.

Just paper.

Next came the pencil.

There are pencils, and then there is the yellow Ticonderoga No. 2.

You know the one.
Sharpen it. Make a mistake. Turn it around. Begin again.

A rather useful philosophy, actually.

The canvas tote came next.

Plain cotton. Sturdy handles. Enough room for the notebook, the pencil, perhaps a field guide, a leaf collected along the way, and whatever else you decide is worth carrying home.

Nothing more was needed. Or was it?

Yes, of course, the koala.
I had been warned that the finest pencil koalas were elusive.
There were rumors.

A small gray specimen had reportedly been seen clinging to a pencil somewhere beyond the stationery aisle.

So I went looking.
Eventually, there he was with all of his colorful friends too!

Furry. Entirely unqualified to assist with personal reflection.

Perfect.
I brought him and his friends home.

And then, when you peek inside the cover, you find the real invitation—an entrance into the world of "Reflora Composition", one that belongs entirely to you.

What happens on the pages from there?
That's your adventure.

We simply gathered a few provisions for the journey.

Especially the koala.

THE REFLORA COMPOSITION KIT: For a Life Still Being Written.

The Reflora Composition Notebook
Botanical Reflora bookplate
Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil
Furry Koala Companion
Natural cotton Reflora & Co. tote

© 2026 Dr. Debra Anastasio · Reflora & Co.™
All rights reserved.

TEXT OR CALL TO BRING HOME YOUR KOALA COMPANION AND BEGIN THE COMPOSITION OF YOU! 203-271-1311

08/23/2026

THE RENAISSANCE SCROLLS: Readings from the Courtyard at Reflora & Co.

Scroll No. 1 — What We Chose to Keep

Come in.
The courtyard is open, and there is room at the table.

This is where we will gather to read from old books, examine forgotten manuscripts, wander through gardens and kitchens, visit museums and libraries, and occasionally follow a curious footnote wherever it decides to take us.

Some of what we find will be centuries old. Some will be much closer to home.

We will look backward, but we are not trying to live there.

We are looking for what was observed, recorded, practiced, made, grown, prepared and passed along—and asking what deserves another look.

Before we unfurl our first scroll, however, I thought we might take a little tour.

Come with me into the archive.

Behind the glass are words written by people we will never meet.
Some bear the name of their author. Others do not.
And yet, a manuscript can tell us quite a bit about itself.

Look at the material on which it was written. Papyrus, parchment, vellum and paper each leave clues. Organic materials may sometimes be radiocarbon dated. Ink and pigments can be analyzed. Handwriting styles, letter forms, abbreviations and language can help place a work within a particular time.

Later papers may carry watermarks. Bindings, stitching and decoration offer further evidence. A passing reference to a ruler, battle, feast day or astronomical event may narrow the possibilities even more.

No single clue necessarily gives us the answer.

The manuscript becomes something of a historical puzzle.

And then there are the marks that have very little to do with dating it.
A darkened corner where countless fingers turned the page.
A correction squeezed between two lines.
A second hand appearing in the margin.
A stain.
A repair.

Perhaps a recipe added years later by someone who had no idea that centuries from then, another person might be studying those very marks.

These are not imperfections to hurry past.
They are evidence that the object had a life.

And that brings us to one of the most interesting questions in any archive:
Why was this kept?

Some writings survived because they were considered important. Some were protected by monasteries, universities, libraries, collectors and families. Some survived because scribes patiently copied them. Later, printing allowed a work to exist in many places at once.

And sometimes something survived for the wonderfully unremarkable reason that no one threw it away.

But preservation has another side.
What was not considered important enough to preserve?

A household remedy.
A grandmother's recipe.
A gardener's observation.
Local knowledge of a plant.
A letter.
A scrap of instructions.

A method everyone knew so well that no one thought it necessary to write it down.
Much of ordinary life disappeared precisely because it was ordinary.

And perhaps that is one reason old writings deserve more than a passing glance.

An archive is not simply a room filled with old things.
It is a record of what someone, somewhere, chose to keep.

Here in the courtyard, we will keep looking.

We will open the old herbals. Read the marginalia. Examine the household books. Walk through gardens. Visit kitchens, apothecaries, museums and libraries. We will compare what was once believed with what we know now—and leave room for the possibility that an old observation may still have something useful to teach us.

We will ask:

What did they know?
How do we know they knew it?
What still holds true?
And what is worth carrying forward?

And while we do, we will leave a few records of our own.
The first scroll is open.

Welcome to the courtyard.

© 2026 Dr. Debra Anastasio · Reflora & Co.™ · The Renaissance Scrolls™
All rights reserved. Shared for educational and informational purposes only. Not intended as medical advice.

08/23/2026

THE BOTANIST WENT TO THE CHOCOLATIER
Strawberry Verbena & Rose Saffron Became the Guests of Honor...

There are people who believe chocolate should taste like chocolate.

They are perfectly nice people.

We simply didn't invite them on this trip.

We began, as we often do, with cacao from the Semuliki Forest of Uganda—organic, transparently traded and left unroasted by Raaka's Brooklyn chocolate makers so the bean keeps its naturally bright, fruit-forward character.

Then someone opened the garden gate.

STRAWBERRY VERBENA

Ripe strawberry meets lemon verbena in dark chocolate.

Berry first. Then that clean, green, citrusy lift of verbena against the deeper cacao.

It tastes less like someone flavored a chocolate bar and more like June wandered into the chocolate shop and refused to leave.

ROSE SAFFRON

This one traveled farther.

Rose petals. Saffron. Dark cacao.

Three ingredients that have been crossing old trade routes, kitchens, gardens and apothecaries for centuries finally find themselves together in a Brooklyn chocolate bar.

The rose arrives first—fragrant but not frivolous.
Then saffron, warm and elusive.
Then the cacao brings everybody back to earth.

Persia met the rose garden.
The rose garden met Uganda.
They all agreed arrive as the Guests of Honor in Brooklyn.

Two botanical chocolates.

One bright with berries and verbena.
The other perfumed with rose and one of the world's most precious spices.

Fruit, flowers, spice and very good cacao.

RAAKA STRAWBERRY VERBENA: Bright · Fruity · Botanical
RAAKA ROSE SAFFRON: Floral · Aromatic · Rare

From the Semuliki Forest to the botanical garden—
apparently chocolate has been traveling without us.

CALL OR TEXT 203-271-1311 TO JOIN THE CHOCOLATE GARDEN PARTY! Organic, Vegan, Cane Sugar-free [sweetened with coconut sugar], Dedicated Facility free from gluten, soy and nuts!

08/23/2026

THE CHOCOLATE AT THE EDGE OF THE FOREST...
Functional Chocolate Bookends from the Semuliki Forest, Uganda

You have to go rather far for good chocolate.

Across the Atlantic. Across Uganda. West toward the Congo, where the Rwenzori Mountains rise beyond the Bundibugyo District and cacao grows near the great Semuliki Forest.

There. That's where we'll stop.

Raaka sources this organic cacao through its Transparent Trade system, working directly with producers and paying premiums for quality. They'll even tell you what they paid for it—it's printed inside the wrapper.

Then the cacao travels to Brooklyn, where Raaka does something peculiar.

They don't roast it!

The unroasted cacao keeps its bright, fruity, slightly wild character. This chocolate still knows where it came from.

And somewhere between Uganda and Reflora, it learned to tell time.

☀️ DAY BREAK · Focus & Energy

Morning has expectations.

Raaka sends reinforcements: cordyceps, chaga, yerba mate, moringa, schisandra, rhodiola and cinnamon, with "530 mg of functional mushrooms" in the bar.

Dark, toasty and caramelly with a warm flicker of cinnamon. A square with morning coffee—or sometime around 3:17, when the expedition has gone badly and morale is slipping.

Take before setting out.

🌙 MELLOW MOON · Rest & Calm

Eventually, every expedition should end.

Same Ugandan cacao. Different traveling companions: lion's mane, reishi, ashwagandha, holy basil, lemon balm, lavender and peppermint, again with "530 mg of functional mushrooms.

Floral dark cacao with a cool trace of mint. Break off a square after dinner, put the kettle on and fold up the day's maps.

Whatever remains unexplored will still be there tomorrow.

Take when you've returned.

Semuliki Forest → Brooklyn → Reflora & Co. → you.

Quite a journey for a little bar of chocolate.

One for the expedition.
One for the campfire.

Chocolate has finally learned to tell time!

CALL OR TEXT 203-271-1311 TO START TELLING TIME WITH FUNCTIONAL CHOCOLATE! Organic, Vegan, Cane Sugar-Free [uses coconut sugar], Dedicated facility free of gluten, soy, nuts.

08/22/2026

New England Naturopathic is now Reflora & Co.
Medicina- Natural Clinic
Litterae - Publishing & Education
Mercatura-Mercantile shop
Same location & phone

05/02/2026

Some things don’t need to be built from scratch… they just need space to gather.

Reflora Apothecary is that space.

A place for herbs, minerals, simple supports, and small daily rituals—now all together, quietly available.

I’ll be opening Apothecary Hours each week for anyone who feels called to stop in.

New England Naturopathic Center, 325 South Main Street, second floor, left at the end of the hall.

Opening Day- May 11th!
Closed Memorial Day.

Reflora & Co.

09/01/2026

08/28/2026

08/28/2026

08/24/2026

08/24/2026

08/23/2026

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05/02/2026

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