With the holidays soon upon us, it’s time to start preparing for my seasonal lycii (goji) berry winter cocktail. As I mentioned in the fall, my adventures with herb-infused spirits started with a remarkable hibiscus-infused martini that I had at one of my favorite local brewpubs. I was so inspired; I now have a stock of mason jars full of herb-infused liquors ready for whatever mood my friends and family might be in. For the holiday season, I wanted to create an herb-infused cocktail that would have a brilliantly red, festive color and a delicious sweet-tart flavor profile. Healthful lycii berries turned out to be the perfect answer!

As autumn is now officially here, my mind has turned to the supportive power of elder berries. Elderberry syrup is obviously a tried and true ally for immune system support*, but elder berries also make an excellent base for cocktails and mocktails. My Elder Bellini recipe is one such fall cocktail that provides both remarkable flavor and immune system support*. I must admit that it isn’t exactly an “herbal cocktail” per se—because it is made with herb-infused spirits, it is ostensibly an extract that is added to juice to impart a slight herbal flavor in a full-bodied cocktail. The beauty of this method is that you can make the infusion ahead of time, so you have your elderberry-infused base on hand whenever you get the urge for a remarkably beautiful, delicious cocktail.

Mountain Rose Herbs has gotten together with our long term partner Beyond Toxics on their most recent project called 1000 Friends of Bees Campaign. As most of your know, a large percentage of our honeybee colonies are being threatened by habitat loss, introduced diseases, the spread of parasites, and worst of all, the widespread use of pesticides. Many biologists agree that without the simple honey bee, our entire food system would collapse as would other essential plant systems.

Want to make your donation to land and river conservation go even further? Donate to the McKenzie River Trust by March 31st and Mountain Rose Herbs will automatically match your donation dollar for dollar up to $5,000. This is a perfect opportunity to double your investment in Western Oregon land conservation, and it will help advance the programs put into place by this priceless organization we all love and adore. Please help McKenzie River Trust secure these much needed funds by sending them your contribution by the deadline, and remember for each dollar you donate, Mountain Rose Herbs will match it up to $5,000.
To learn more about the Mountain Rose Herbs matching gift campaign and to donate please visit

Want to publicly announce your love of pristine rivers for a chance to win a $250 gift certificate from Mountain Rose Herbs?
All you have to do is “Like” Pacific Rivers Council on Facebook and post a comment on their wall about why healthy rivers are special to you, pretty simple eh?  This little act by itself will put you into a drawing for a $250 gift certificate from Mountain Rose Herbs and for complete (and easy) instructions, please see below.

We are utterly thrilled to announce that Mountain Rose Herbs is an EarthShare business member and we have setup a generous employee giving program which connects our staff with like-minded environmental organizations that work to protect and defend the places we hold dear. This further outlines the legacy of generosity which is fundamental in the operational foundation of Mountain Rose Herbs, and the simple act of setting up a workplace giving program through EarthShare will guarantee that the natural gifts this planet offers us will always be protected. If you are employed by a company that is not an EarthShare member, we would like for you to encourage your employer to become one, and if you are a business owner who is not an EarthShare member, we would love to see you become one! To learn more please see..... www.earthshare-oregon.org

As most of you know, all of us at Mountain Rose Herbs have an unbridled soft spot for our wilderness areas and the great outdoors. In fact, our love for wild places is so strong that we dedicate time, staffing, and money to the preservation and expansion of our state's natural heritage, and in doing this we realized that we could accomplish something much larger.
Just over a year ago we began the groundwork for a company run grassroots program called the Mountain Rose River Project which focuses on the preservation, restoration, and enhancement of our Northwest rivers, and we are happy to announce that the Mountain Rose River Project is now official!

Want to make your donation to land conservation go even further? Donate to the McKenzie River Trust by March 31st and Mountain Rose Herbs will automatically match your donation dollar for dollar up to $2,500. This is a perfect opportunity to double your investment in Western Oregon land conservation, and it will help advance the programs put into place by this priceless organization we all love and adore. Please help McKenzie River Trust secure these much needed funds by sending them your contribution by the deadline, and remember for each dollar you donate, Mountain Rose Herbs will match it up to $2,500.

As most of you have heard, we have been sadly hit with another defeat by the USDA’s recent deregulation of genetically modified Alfalfa. All of us at Mountain Rose Herbs don’t like the idea of folks in funny lab suits manipulating nature’s blueprint and for these people who have always promoted that it COULD be done, we have always retorted with SHOULD it be done.
In 1999 Mountain Rose Herbs began campaigning for mandatory labeling of genetically modified food items and at that time we had partnered with a ground breaking organization called Mothers For Natural Law. Sadly they are no longer with us but we have not stopped the fight! Currently our regulatory compliance manager Bryan Burnette has begun developing a partnership with Organic Consumers Association as the Oregon representative for the national campaign for mandatory labeling of genetically modified food crops and you can be rest assured that we have forcefully voiced our opposition to the USDA’s recent deregulation of genetically modified Alfalfa. We will continue to petition all of the agencies involved in labeling law that items which contain GMO’s be labeled as such because we firmly believe that if the American public knew what they were buying, they would not buy it all.
If nobody buys the product, we win, and they lose.
We urge you all to participate in a little action yourself and our friends at the Organic Consumers Association have created an online form which can be sent directly to the USDA. We implore you all to give up 1-2 minutes of your time to address this pressing issue and we guarantee it will make you feel good all over.
Organic cheers and good luck!
Shawn Donnille