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. 

The older I get, the more I realize that what my Dad really wants for Father’s Day is for me to show my love in ways that prove how much I know him as an individual and how much I want him to be happy and whole. The gifts that he most appreciates are also usually homemade, practical, and showcase the skills and knowledge I have acquired through the years.

Facial toners have come a long way since the 1990s, when the most common commercial varieties (often marketed to teenagers) used high concentrations of alcohol to help remove oil from the skin. Purported to reduce acne, they were purposely drying and too astringent for most skin types. Today’s facial toners with natural ingredients, on the other hand, provide benefits that can help to maintain the normal pH and hydration of our skin, both of which are essential to maintaining the moisture and elasticity that gives our complexions a smooth, healthy appearance. 

When a bit of wellness support is in order, many folks reach for a bottle of their favorite Mountain Rose Herbs syrup or elixir. There’s a lot of plant goodness, history, and love packed into each bottle of the botanical-infused syrups and elixirs that are handcrafted by our team in Eugene, Oregon, and we’d like to offer you a peek behind the scenes of how we mix up each magical bottle!

Ayurveda is probably the oldest continuing health system on the planet. With a tradition going back thousands of years, Ayurveda offers a framework for understanding the body and how to best support its quest for balance. In the Ayurvedic tradition of health care, mind, body, and spirit are inextricably entwined.

Here at Mountain Rose Herbs, we understand that the modern commercialization of Mother’s Day sometimes makes it easy to forget that this holiday is rooted in age-old celebrations from around the world. One of the most ancient “mother holidays” was a festival held by the Greeks in honor of Rhea, the mother of the gods. At dawn, people made offerings of cakes, drinks, and flowers in her honor. Other celebrations, like the sixteenth century “Mothering Sunday,” evolved over the centuries to become a day in which grown children visited home and little ones picked flowers for their mothers. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

My family loves fruity vinegars. We use them multiple times a week in vinaigrettes, marinades, barbecue sauces, sipping vinegars, and shrub cocktails.

Albania's mountains and valleys teem with rich botanical bounty. Mountain Rose Herbs and United Plant Savers visited its fecund countryside at the peak of the autumn harvest to meet the farmers and wildharvesters who help bring culinary apothecary herbs and fruits to plant lovers across the world (like the ripe and ready hawthorn berries above!).

Since 2013, Mountain Rose Herbs has hosted Free Herbalism Project, a free biennial, community event located in our hometown of Eugene, OR. Each event, we host two experts in the field of herbalism, and these inspiring instructors go in-depth on any number of botanically inspired topics. Past presenters have included Rosemary Gladstar, Dr. Tieraona Low Dog, Guido Masé, jim mcdonald, and many more!

Herbal sprinkles are a quick and easy DIY project that will help you fit more healthful herbs into your meals. Instead of having your spices tucked away in the cabinet, keep a few versatile blends on your table, and you’ll find that eating herbs at every meal is easy—when they are right in front of you, you can’t help but use them! Pretty soon, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without such a pleasing array of spices at your fingertips to liven up breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Books are wonderful resources to begin exploring herbalism and can also enrich an already healthy practice or study regimen. As you might guess, here at Mountain Rose Herbs, we have some favorite titles. Not only do these top herbalism books provide many insightful and educated viewpoints, but they also offer recipes, stories, and massive compilations of the many ways to use healthful plants. While many books will share some similar themes, each author brings their own unique viewpoints and experiences to enlighten and inspire. Personally, I can never have enough reference books around!