In the last couple of years, the global demand for seaweeds has skyrocketed. It’s no surprise, as seaweed offers a stunning array of nutritional benefits and packs a unique salty and umami punch due to its high glutamate content. Seaweed is also used in a variety of non-food applications, including cosmetics and beauty products, scientific research, traditional medicinal applications, biofuels, fertilizers, and more. Considering all the uses for these aquatic plants and the increase in demand for such products, it is more important than ever to consider best practices for harvesting and processing these precious materials. It is this consideration that drives Mountain Rose Herbs to work closely with our harvest partners in offering organically certified seaweeds.

In 1987 Mountain Rose Herbs was founded on a commitment to sustainably source all of our botanicals, and since then we’ve made every effort to uphold that commitment. One of the most important aspects of keeping that promise is ensuring transparency in the supply chains for each lot of material that we receive in our warehouse. Maintaining this requires a close relationship between Mountain Rose and our farm partners, and this relationship is managed by our Procurement team.

There’s no denying the enchanting lure of harvest time. The plants soak up long stretches of sunlight and integrate the photons via complex biological mechanisms into helpful and radiant biomass, until that splendid moment in which they are gathered and thoughtfully prepared for your cabinet.     

Foster Farm Botanicals has been a valued partner of Mountain Rose Herbs since 2016. They make it easy to supply our customers with a wide array of the high-quality organically certified botanicals that people have come to expect from us season after season. In August of 2019, a few of our team members had an opportunity to visit this special farm and get to know more about its history and the inspiration behind the operation.

For over 30 years Mountain Rose Herbs has taken special care to curate our relationships with trusted farmers and partners to provide only the freshest, highest quality, locally sourced botanicals. We are intentionally located in the verdant Willamette Valley so that we may optimize the opportunities for sourcing as much local abundance as possible. These botanicals are the foundation for our line of expertly curated extracts and tinctures.

Our farm liaisons travel to America's northernmost state to visit the revolutionary farmers working to cultivate organic rhodiola in Alaska's rugged landscape.

Arriving at a property that looks across the water to Kachemak Bay State Park, we have our first rendezvous with a group of farmers engaged in a bold agricultural experiment: cultivating organic Rhodiola rosea in the rugged Alaskan countryside. These folks have staked years of work on the hope that this much-prized adaptogen hailing from Siberia and northern Asia can thrive in the challenging agricultural conditions of their wild home state. For us, it has already been a long day of travel that’s left us more than ready to cozy up with some hot tea and take in the incredible views. But we are here to help with the harvest, and there’s work to be done.