Fruity fizzy drinks are a staple in my household. As much as we love water, there is something extra satisfying about a fizzy beverage— the sound and sensation of carbonation bring a kind of magic and celebration to the very mundane act of imbibing. My partner and I have even taken to adding agave nectar to flavored sparkling water to satisfy both our craving for effervescence and our sweet tooth. This simple method of creating a bare-bones mocktail inspired me to try my hand at crafting an herbal variation to bring a bit more glamour and some seasonal wellness to our fizzy drink routine.

If you love including apple cider vinegar in your food and beverages, there are a few fun herbal preparations that you can accessibly make at home. Vinegars are a great way to work with herbs and can be very customizable depending on your own palate and what’s in season. One of my favorite methods of working with herbal vinegars is by making herbal shrubs.

This nourishing facial serum is a very special one in my recipe book. Made with four of my favorite skin care oils, this blend is deeply hydrating and yields a lovely bronzing hue that can be tailored to many skin tones. The star of this recipe is sea buckthorn oil, which in my opinion, is an underutilized oil that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. While most skin care oils are pressed from the seeds of a given plant, sea buckthorn oil is pressed from the seeds and berries which yields a vibrant golden hue and contains abundant antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids. Sea buckthorn oil also contains linoleic acid which has been shown to support the skin’s lipid barrier,  helping to reduce overall moisture loss. For all of these reasons, it remains high on my list of favorite skin care ingredients.

Sometimes I formulate my morning tea blend the night before, placing my tea-set on my desk so I’m ready to sip and write first thing. Other days, I blend in the predawn darkness as water boils, fingers caressing rough pu’erh 普爾, soft chrysanthemum, fragrant tulsi. 

Every year, Mountain Rose Herbs sponsors dozens of herbal and community events that help to educate and empower the herbal community. As the Sustainability Specialist for Mountain Rose Herbs, it was a true honor to participate in the 15th Northwest Herbal Fair, held in the lush, vibrant surroundings of Quilcene, Washington. This event, the largest gathering of the herbal community in the Pacific Northwest, was a beautiful convergence of indigenous wisdom, plant medicine, and the connections that bind us to each other and to the natural world.

Blackberry season is upon us once again here in the Pacific Northwest, which is a season I have impatiently waited for every year since I was a young girl. Some of my fondest summertime memories as a child were spent under the scorching sun while cautiously reaching my tiny hands into overgrown thorny bushes to reach the ripest and juiciest berries that my limited reach could grasp. Although my childhood berry-picking excursions typically ended with purple-stained clothes, deep red drips down my hands and arms from smushed berries, and a sunburn, the feeling of walking home with buckets upon buckets of fresh blackberries always made each trip well worth the discomforts.

Recently as I was scanning the grab n’ go refrigerated beverage aisle at my local supermarket, I was astounded to see how many new companies are providing bubbly concoctions with traditional tangy apple cider vinegar. Not only does the apple cider vinegar offer a refreshing flavor, but it can also support a healthy digestive system. Quality organic, raw and unfiltered apple cider vinegar contains healthy bacteria and enzymes that support the gut microbiome and make for an exceptional menstruum to infuse herbs into.

My mountains are on fire. I watch the hungry flames lick at my familiar skyline. Fire trucks zip up and down our canyon road as helicopters wheel overhead. I smell smoke, and know what comes next: weeks of gray skies raining ash, then months to years of barren blackened slopes and tree stumps where yesterday I petted my favorite sages and lingered under expansive old oaks.

Seaweeds are one of the best foods to keep stocked in your pantry. Not only are they incredibly shelf-stable, but they add complex flavors to many kinds of meals, including soups, savory breakfasts, and stir-fries. Their nutrient density, however, is really where they shine. Seaweed is packed with necessary vitamins and minerals. In fact, they contain almost all of the essential amino acids, minerals, and trace elements the human body needs.

If I’m doing summer correctly—which is to say, getting out into the mountains and down to the river, hiking, swimming, and sucking up some of that vitamin D-boosting sunlight—I inevitably end up with bumps, bruises, and achy muscles from pushing the limits on how much fun I can pack into one season. I learned a long time ago to keep a tin of classic herbal muscle rub at the ready. This easy-to-make old-school salve brings together the muscle-supporting properties of St. John’s wort and the time-tested, warming qualities of capsaicin to ease the occasional aches and discomforts that come from living life to the fullest.

Herb enthusiasts and plant lovers know that referring to certain plants as “weeds” often feels like an arbitrary degradation of an important and valuable botanical. After all, who gets to decide what is a weed and what isn’t? And why must they be so maligned? Because they are resilient? Bountiful? Uncontrollable? (If so, I would say that we could all stand to take some inspiration from them at times). Our deep misunderstanding of weeds is especially unfortunate because many of them offer us an array of nutritional and medicinal benefits that are, quite literally, rife for the picking. No plant illustrates this dynamic better than the dandelion.