May 13, 2024
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Geneva’s Peaceful Parlour tea house to close

Third Street store to sell off all items by April 30

By Brenda Schory
Shari Ralish, owner of Peaceful Parlour, 212 S. Third St., Geneva, announced that the store is closing April 30 after nearly 15 years. The store specialized in tea blends and herbs, tarot cards, readings and tea leaf readings.

Shari Ralish, owner of Peaceful Parlour, 212 S. Third St., Geneva, announced that the store is closing April 30 after nearly 15 years. The store specialized in tea blends and herbs, tarot cards, readings and tea leaf readings. (Brenda Schory)

GENEVA – Over the 14 years Peaceful Parlour has been open at 212 S. Third St., Geneva, owner Shari Ralish estimated having sold a half-ton – 1,000 pounds – of tea.

One wall in her shop is stacked floor to ceiling with jars of tea, such as Earl Gray, Darjeeling and Golden Monkey, and herbs such as nettle, red clover and comfrey. Other items include mugs and tea balls, jewelry, bags, sage to burn for a home’s spiritual cleansing, meditation tools, incense, books, tarot cards and card readings and tea leaf readings.

But now beginning her 15th year in business, Ralish, a Geneva resident, is looking to move on and will close her shop April 30. Peaceful Parlour will also be on the map for the Geneva citywide garage sale April 26-27.

“I’m going to do something else,” Ralish said. “I have joined the coordinating team of the Midwest Women’s Herbal Conference.”

The Midwest Women’s Herbal Conference, founded by Wisconsin resident Linda Conroy, offers workshops and classes to explore herbalism’s tradition of healing.

Ralish said she has done a three-year herbalist apprenticeship with Moonwise Herbs.

There’s no official certification to becoming an herbalist, just life-long learning, she said.

“I learned botany to identify plants with confidence and how to utilize herbs to make herbal infused vinegars and oils,” Ralish said. “I learned different body systems so that I understand working with herbs and ... their actions and how they support the body to function more optimally.”

The herbal approach she studied is known as a wise woman tradition – essentially grandmothers’ kitchen remedies.

As part of her herbalist apprenticeship, Ralish interviewed her grandmothers, aunts and cousins about their cultural food traditions. This sparked her desire to travel this summer to her family’s ancestral home in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.

“I found out about Taste of Serbia in Lake in the Hills,” Ralish said. “I found out that our grandparents grew up in villages about 100 miles a apart. ... And I fell in love with plums, the national fruit of Serbia.”

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