Our Blog

We travel to our farm partners' fields across the world to maintain close relationships with our growers and learn from one another.

We visit the Pennsylvanian forest farmers cultivating a new way forward for their prized local botanicals, allowing us to provide organic North American ginseng that supports the ecology and economy of this unique region.

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!).

Our farm liaisons travel to the Southwest US to visit the family that's been channeling the region's heat into their top-quality organic chili powders for nearly a century!

United Plant Savers' Susan Leopold and Mountain Rose Herbs' Jennifer Gerrity travel into the Balkan mountains at the peak of the autumn harvest to visit our organic farm and harvest partners in the Bulgarian countryside.

Amidst the stunning foliage of a golden autumn, I journeyed into the lush valleys and mountains of Bulgaria to seek out the wild plant collection sites where our regional partners harvest an array of our botanicals. Accompanying me on this trip was my esteemed colleague, ethnobotanist Dr. Susan Leopold, Executive Director of United Plant Savers. We wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the horticulture of Bulgaria, meet the people who harvest these plants, observe their traditional methods firsthand, and learn about the culture surrounding plants in the Balkans.

Our farm liaisons travel to America's northernmost state to visit the pioneering farmers working to cultivate organic rhodiola in Alaska's rugged landscape.

Arriving at a property that looks across the water to Kachemak Bay State Park, we have our first rendezvous with a group of farmers engaged in a bold agricultural experiment: cultivating organic Rhodiola rosea in the rugged Alaskan countryside. These folks have staked years of work on the hope that this much-prized adaptogen hailing from Siberia and northern Asia can thrive in the challenging agricultural conditions of their wild home state. For us, it has already been a long day of travel that’s left us more than ready to cozy up with some hot tea and take in the incredible views. But we are here to help with the harvest, and there’s work to be done.

Mountain Rose Herbs farm liaisons travel into Canada's north woods to visit the harvest sites of our certified organic, wildharvested chaga mushrooms.

The late January landscape of northeastern Canada is stunning, but brutal. This snow-covered expanse presents an imposing front that challenges all who would enter its wild recesses, but our local harvesters know this ground and hike on, undeterred. We follow behind, spurred onward by the promise of encountering an elusive and treasured resident of this hibernating land: Inonotus obliquus, the chaga mushroom.

Verdant fields of our certified organic passionflower flourish on our Italian farm partner's land. Gianfranco's family has passed down its agricultural wisdom through the generations while inspiring other farmers to embrace organic growing practices.

Gianfranco's kind eyes gaze lovingly at the single passionflower blossom he clutches in his hands. He buries his nose deep in its vibrant purple petals and inhales. “I could have made more money growing other crops,” Gianfranco says through a translator, “But I have a big love—I am in love—with passionflower.”

Our Mountain Rose Herbs farm liaisons regularly travel to visit our family farmers. On a recent trip to Europe, David (one of our farm liaisons) met Frank (a fourth-generation farmer) and got to see his fields first-hand.

Near the snow-capped peaks and pristine glacial streams of Cascadia lies a Pacific Northwest family farm. A gravel road winding up an arid canyon leads to the small plot of land where our certified organic milky oat tops are grown, harvested, and dried.