Edible Food Find: Urban Pharm
Photos by Michael Piazza
Longtime friends Anne Bunn and Jill Forney spent many happy hours with their families and some close friends in Forney’s Cambridge backyard during the pandemic shutdowns. The gathering spot, where Forney also grew up and raised her family of seven, was an oasis during that challenging time. The pair notes, “We were out here around the fire while eating, drinking, laughing and being a colorizing life support for each other. We were doing as much as we could with the limited capacity that we had.”
That backyard was also the place where the seed for Urban Pharm was sown. Wanting to spread this positive energy to others, they decided in January 2021 to deliver a “good for you, happy-making all around” weekly box to a group of 15 friends for a month. Each little wooden box included four homemade items, including a long-simmered broth and an apple cider–based shrub. (For the uninitiated, a shrub is a concentrated combination of vinegar and a sweetener, infused with fruits and herbs. It’s used as a beverage base and anywhere vinegar might be used.)
Bunn and Forney got such positive feedback on the boxes that they distributed a second round, this time asking each of the original recipients also to give a box to someone outside their friend group. After again receiving resoundingly positive feedback (especially on the shrubs) they began talking about turning the shrubs into a business. That fall Urban Pharm was born.
Although Bunn and Forney didn’t have a food business in mind when they began sharing their boxes, few were surprised when that was where they landed. Forney (a psychotherapist) was part of the founding team at Nashoba Brook Bakery, where she once ran the food program. The kitchen, she happily notes, is like a playground to her and tinkering there is a way to create a warm and comforting environment where people feel taken care of. Bunn (who worked in book publishing) adds, “The work that we’ve done, some of it professionally and some of it personally, was often around food and gathering and beverages and prioritizing family and friends, so it made sense to others and to ourselves.”
Bunn and Forney have grown the company organically, learning along the way with advice, time and input from many, including their customers and suppliers. They’re grateful for generous time and advice provided by Laurel McConville (creator of Nectar & Green) as well as for Minneapolis-based Rowan Made who, while designing their labels, also helped them figure out who they were as a company. While Bunn and Forney each brings different strengths to the partnership, they stress that the dynamic of working together has been critical to their growth and success.
“Everything about how we built this business to date is deeply relational including the relationship between us, the relationship with our customers and the relationship with vendors,” Forney emphasizes. “It’s a real strength of the business. It really matters.”
Urban Pharm crafts three bright, balanced and deliciously fresh signature flavors as well as occasional limited edition seasonal shrubs. They make and bottle them at Foundation Kitchen in Charlestown and use local sources for most ingredients, including Sewall Orchard, Carlisle Honey, Curio Spice Co. and Busa Farms. The bottles are hand labeled in Forney’s kitchen. They are sold at various farmers markets and pop-ups in Massachusetts and Long Island, as well as on their website. Bunn and Forney hope to obtain a wholesale license and sell at stores by the end of the year.
“From its inception, Urban Pharm has been a practice and an expression of a particular understanding of what ‘good for you’ means, namely whatever enlivens your body, humanity and spirit,” Bunn and Forney emphasize. “We are about making what is good for you delicious, celebratory, unexpected and accessible”
This story appeared in the Fall 2023 issue.
