In college, I befriended an exchange student from France who arrived in NYC just before fall term. Sonia and I would often meet at coffee and tea shops during our break from classes. After discovering a shared love of baking, we made plans to meet at her dorm and make a quintessential American apple pie together. Since she was French, I entrusted her with the pastry making, and I would bring everything for the yummy apple pie filling. To say I was excited was an understatement.

With the start of autumn come vibrant red maple leaves, cooler temperatures, and the ubiquitous resurgence of pumpkin pie spice. Our blend of organic and fair-trade ingredients is the perfect way to welcome back the season of sweaters, ciders, pies, and family gatherings.

Glazed popcorn and autumnal weather are a perfect match, and I dared to enhance the experience by adding everyone’s favorite fall flavor—pumpkin pie spice! There’s no snack better to pass around a backyard bonfire with my friends while telling our favorite stories from summer.

With the start of autumn come vibrantly colored leaves, cooler temperatures, and the ubiquitous pumpkin-pie-spiced-everything! But you don’t have to trek to the nearest coffee shop or ice cream parlor to enjoy this seasonal taste treat—you can savor this flavor in the comfort of your own kitchen. With Mountain Rose Herbs’ organic pumpkin pie spice blend, you can easily craft your own seasonal creations at home.

When spring hits, my body craves green things like nobody’s business! There’s nothing like a bowl of the season’s first new growth to connect with nature’s fresh, revitalizing energy, and salad inspiration abounds around every turn. As the season progresses, however, I find my tastes evolving with it, and though my love of all things leafy wanes not at all, I begin craving other texture and flavor combinations beyond a raw bowl of greenery.

It’s not news that many Oregonians love to enrich themselves with good local produce that is sustainably and organically grown. And with the abundance of explorable nature surrounding us, portability is a major plus when choosing healthy snacks to enjoy during a rewarding hike through an old-growth forest or along our scenic coastlines. When preparing your provisions before hitting the trail, Real Live Food Oregon (RLFO) has you covered!

Tulsi tea, lime, agave—served chilled or over ice, it’s the perfect mood-supportive cup of joy for a swelteringly hot summer day. Aguas frescas are my go-to warm weather drink, and with good reason! They’re incredibly simple and (bonus) very easy to combine with herbal tea for an extra kick of botanical support or flavor. And when the thermometer hits 100, and I can hardly stand to be in the kitchen, throwing fruit, tea, lime, and sweetener into a blender makes for a great, almost-instant snack, not to mention a fabulous natural hydrator.

When embarking on an adventure, whether backpacking through the back-country or taking off on a long flight or road trip, nothing helps keep your spirits and energy up like the right snacks—and few things will knock you out of sorts more quickly than the wrong ones! Unfortunately, with all the other bustle of preparing for your adventure, nutrition is often left to the last minute, forcing us to opt for items that aren’t great for our health, our wallet, or the environment. However, with just a bit of planning, you can bring along delicious and nutritious goodies that will power you up instead of slowing you down.

For many of us, summer is a time of outdoor events and celebrations. It's also a season of abundant botanical splendor, when sweet-scented air wafts through our windows, colorful flowers dance freely in the breeze, and rich green foliage offers cooling shade during the hottest days. So what better way to embrace the spirit of the season than by infusing floral flavors into freshly made ice cream? 

If you’ve ever endeavored to brew your own kombucha, you know that the SCOBY-covered result of your initial ferment has a rather plain flavor when compared with your favorite professionally made varieties—but it doesn’t have to stay that way! The combinations of herbs, spices, fruits, and juices that can add flavor to your homemade kombucha are almost endless, allowing you to transform your original tangy tea canvas into countless quaffable masterpieces.

Matcha is all the rage these days—and for good reason! It's delicious of course, and it's also famous for its healthful properties. Matcha tea contains catechins, a type of phenolic compound that has abundant antioxidant activity. One of the catechins found in matcha, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), has been found to be an especially powerful antioxidant. The preferred office beverage around Mountain Rose Herbs as of late has been a coconut milk matcha latte with a touch of honey. Matcha shouldn’t be restricted to just tasty drinks, though, as it has quite the culinary versatility as well.