As we prepared for the Green Festival in San Francisco last year, Irene and I decided to build a new booth for the many events we attend around the country. We brainstormed, thumbing through industry catalogs filled with everything from pop-up displays to fancy, super modern structures. It didn’t take long before we became disheartened by the search.
The lack of sustainable materials available to choose from made for dismal prospects. Could we really print giant photos of nettles and calendula on a big plastic backdrop? The thought of displaying a newly manufactured booth made of synthetic materials at an event focused on environmental harmony and green living made us cringe. That’s when the BIG idea struck. We would build our new booth using only recycled, reused, and reclaimed materials!
Our grand vision was to create a sunny herbalist’s garden with a mossy fence, rustic cabinets, old herbal books, rusty farm tools, and maybe even a wheelbarrow that we could fill with fragrant herbs – a plant lover’s heaven. This, of course, would be a huge undertaking since the two of us were fiercely committed to sourcing every piece of furniture, wood, nail, twine, and prop on our own – none of it newly manufactured. We made a list of every salvage mill, thrift shop, and recycling center around Oregon and set out to make our vision a reality.
The adventure began at BRING Recycling in Eugene. BRING is an amazing non-profit that helps the community re-purpose household appliances and building supplies that would otherwise be dumped in the landfill. Piles of bath tubs, lamp shades, old lumber, discarded doors, bike parts, hardware, and dressers are stacked high, waiting for the perfect project to come along. We were super excited to score old barn wood, nails, hinges, posts, and heavy iron volley ball net stands to construct a weathered fence for our booth.
Hopping from one thrift store to another, our garden started to unfold. We found an old ladder that would be an ideal display stand for stickers and brochures, a schoolhouse chalkboard to write information about the booth materials we’d found, and a gorgeous wooden flower cart we knew would make an interesting medium for sampling herbs. We even found used Astroturf made from recycled soda bottles!
With the car packed full of anticipation and potential, we made our way back to Eugene to start the design process with Shane McCloskey, a local designer and carpenter extraordinaire. Within a few weeks, he engineered and constructed a tradeshow booth that not only has the genuine charm of an aged garden fence, but also breaks down into a compact package, minimizing our shipping needs.
After months of searching, designing, and building the garden, it was thrilling to finally experience our lovely and inspiring booth in its full glory. Plus, it really got us thinking…if we created a beautiful display using nothing but items that were unwanted, what other wasted treasures might be hiding in the garbage? How can the business community, as well as individuals, consume less and re-purpose more? An important question for everyone to ponder.
We hope that you will stop by for a visit with us and check out our new green booth during the GreenFestival in San Francisco, November 6th and 7th. We will have plenty of herbal freebies to give away, so come see us!
Over the last three decades, the Mountain Rose Herbs Team has created and recreated thousands of recipes. This article is the result of many of our staff's combined herbal expertise and passion for herbalism. We hope you enjoy these time-tested recipes.
As we prepared for the Green Festival in San Francisco last year, Irene and I decided to build a new booth for the many events we attend around the country. We brainstormed, thumbing through industry catalogs filled with everything from pop-up displays to fancy, super modern structures. It didn’t take long before we became disheartened by the search.
The lack of sustainable materials available to choose from made for dismal prospects. Could we really print giant photos of nettles and calendula on a big plastic backdrop? The thought of displaying a newly manufactured booth made of synthetic materials at an event focused on environmental harmony and green living made us cringe. That’s when the BIG idea struck. We would build our new booth using only recycled, reused, and reclaimed materials!
Our grand vision was to create a sunny herbalist’s garden with a mossy fence, rustic cabinets, old herbal books, rusty farm tools, and maybe even a wheelbarrow that we could fill with fragrant herbs – a plant lover’s heaven. This, of course, would be a huge undertaking since the two of us were fiercely committed to sourcing every piece of furniture, wood, nail, twine, and prop on our own – none of it newly manufactured. We made a list of every salvage mill, thrift shop, and recycling center around Oregon and set out to make our vision a reality.
The adventure began at BRING Recycling in Eugene. BRING is an amazing non-profit that helps the community re-purpose household appliances and building supplies that would otherwise be dumped in the landfill. Piles of bath tubs, lamp shades, old lumber, discarded doors, bike parts, hardware, and dressers are stacked high, waiting for the perfect project to come along. We were super excited to score old barn wood, nails, hinges, posts, and heavy iron volley ball net stands to construct a weathered fence for our booth.
Hopping from one thrift store to another, our garden started to unfold. We found an old ladder that would be an ideal display stand for stickers and brochures, a schoolhouse chalkboard to write information about the booth materials we’d found, and a gorgeous wooden flower cart we knew would make an interesting medium for sampling herbs. We even found used Astroturf made from recycled soda bottles!
With the car packed full of anticipation and potential, we made our way back to Eugene to start the design process with Shane McCloskey, a local designer and carpenter extraordinaire. Within a few weeks, he engineered and constructed a tradeshow booth that not only has the genuine charm of an aged garden fence, but also breaks down into a compact package, minimizing our shipping needs.
After months of searching, designing, and building the garden, it was thrilling to finally experience our lovely and inspiring booth in its full glory. Plus, it really got us thinking…if we created a beautiful display using nothing but items that were unwanted, what other wasted treasures might be hiding in the garbage? How can the business community, as well as individuals, consume less and re-purpose more? An important question for everyone to ponder.
We hope that you will stop by for a visit with us and check out our new green booth during the GreenFestival in San Francisco, November 6th and 7th. We will have plenty of herbal freebies to give away, so come see us!
Over the last three decades, the Mountain Rose Herbs Team has created and recreated thousands of recipes. This article is the result of many of our staff's combined herbal expertise and passion for herbalism. We hope you enjoy these time-tested recipes.
