Together, They’re a Force of Nature

Native Ceuticals + Jennifer Grant

After years of battling anxiety and depression, Jennifer started researching alternative methods to handle stress outside of your traditional western medicines like antidepressants, and she found CBD. “I tried to find the best fit for me and I did, with a company out of California. A year and a half ago, my husband and I were presented with an opportunity to open our own store with a local company, and because I knew the ways CBD helped me, we jumped at the chance,” said Jennifer, and she quickly added, “we simply wanted to help people.”

Native Ceuticals is a safe space that welcomes you with warmth, and even though the space is open, you still feel like you belong. Jennifer has ensured that she has hired kind and knowledgeable employees in order to keep the space safe for you to ask questions about CBD and learn about how it will help you. Most items sold at Native Ceuticals are manufactured and grown within a 100 mile radius of Iredell County. “Our hemp is grown here and it is manufactured and processed in Mooresville, so we try to keep it as local as we can,” said Jennifer. They sell tintures, pain creams and sticks, topicals, face cream and serums, soap, vapes, bath bombs, CBD jam, honey, and pet products.

Jennifer loves helping others and it’s written all over her face as she speaks about her business and how it has helped so many people, including her father. “My father reached out to me, and he was kind of skeptical, and he’s from the older generation, so of course he is. And I said, ‘look, all you have to do is try it,’ and he has really bad hips and legs and so I just shipped him one of our pain sticks and three days later, he was like, ‘I don’t even know what to say - I hate that it took me a year to listen to you.’ His movement is better, he can get up and down a lot better, and it takes away the pain while he sleeps, and if it can help just do that, then it’s worth it,” said Jennifer.

Agave Juice Bar + Talisha Kufeld

Five years ago, owning and operating a juice bar was just a dream to Talisha and her husband, but it was a dream they followed, and instead of letting it stay with the stars, they made it come true. “We set a goal - if there wasn’t a juice bar, smoothie bar, or an organic vegan place here by 2020, we were going to open one,” said Talisha, and the steps they took to ensure that Agave would be perfect for Downtown Statesville makes you love it even more. “In 2019 we decided that we were going to look into the process of opening a juice bar, see what we needed, and just gather everything together. As we went along, that whole trial, we went and ventured off to Colorado, Asheville, and multiple cities and states all around the U.S. We tried their juice bars and got some ideas, and then when we were on our honeymoon, we came across one in Colorado that was family owned and we decided that that’s the same style we wanted to do.”

Talisha’s family helps her run Agave, and since their soft opening on November 2nd, they have been selling out of juices left and right. This passion for helping others started when Talisha was 18 years old, and working in the ICU at Davis Regional Medical Center. “I saw a lot of patients come in for health reasons as a result of what that they were eating and their diet, and then later on, it changes your body in the way that you absorb food and take on nutrition,” said Talisha, and after spending six years around doctors, nurses, and nutritionists, her passion was only ignited even more and she wanted to create positive change in the lives of others.

With the obvious effects of nutrition on the body, Talisha didn’t want to keep her health craze to herself, and we’re all thankful she decided to share her delicious flavors with all of us in Statesville. “Our goal for Downtown Statesville is to just bring everyone together and promote health and spread the word, and know that you can get your veggies and it doesn’t have to taste bad,” said Talisha, and let us all tell you, her juices are fresh, delicious, and ready to make you love your daily intake of fruits and veggies!

Together, they’re a force of nature