NORWICH – American Homesteader puts quality above all as the neighborhood store with everything needed to “do it yourself” naturally, selling fine Amish furniture, beer and wine-making kits, cheese and yogurt-making supplies, natural food, homeopathic remedies and herbal supplements.

Mike Posson had a vision to open a store for “country folks and other people who live off the land or make things for themselves.”

He did just that on February 27, 2010 when he opened the doors of American Homesteader located at 6167 State Highway 12 in Norwich.

“It started out as a homesteader type store. I wanted a store that sold homesteader-type goods and hard-to-find items. We also had natural foods, herbal remedies and other homeopathic items. Then we got into fine Amish furniture,” said Posson.

Posson said he was fortunate to have an Amish family friend who came from four generations of furniture builders. The family friend had owned his own furniture store and directed Posson in the retail furniture business.

“My Amish family friend made connections for me of what he considered the best of the Amish builders and put me in touch with them,” said Posson.

While Posson said the furniture is obviously beautiful and of good quality, he said it is the qualities you do not see that makes fine Amish furniture so valuable.

“It's the hand selection of the materials, the wood, and the finest and most modern finishes known to man. It's going to last longer. Their goal is to build heirloom stuff; it's supposed to last generations,” said Posson.

“It's a personal thing. It's a pride. They take pride it what they do,” he added.

Posson said along with selling fine Amish furniture, he wanted to peak the public's growing interest in taking care of their health naturally by selling herbal supplements, sports supplements, vitamins, herbs, homeopathic remedies, essential oils and natural oil tinctures.

The NOW product line is American Homesteaders lead product line in herbal products. The family-owned company was developed in 1967, lists more about what it puts in its products than the FDA requires and guarantees the types of ingredients and percentage of ingredients it puts in its products.