It’s been a long couple of years. Many of us are feeling mental fatigue and existential stress, which negatively impacts our immune systems and overall wellbeing. This year, having some easy winter health formulas on hand feels more important than ever. They can’t cure the state of our world, but they often can help support our immune systems before we get sick and can provide some relief when we’ve caught whatever winter crud is going around. The following formulas have been Mountain Rose Herbs' favorites for a long time and are wonderful additions to your winter care routine. From our home to yours, we wish you a healthy, restful winter!

Whenever I am cooking, I am always thinking of ways to add more plants and nutrition. I like to challenge myself to have at least ten different plants represented in every meal. It’s a challenge I learned from Rosalee de la Foret. It is actually trickier than expected. However, in all of our lineages, somewhere we have ancestors who lived more directly with the land. These relatives consumed many more phytonutrients than what we are accustomed to—I am sure many more than ten per meal—so it can be done. Adding nettles to tortillas is a delicious new way to add one more plant to your meals.

If you’ve ever checked the ingredients list on your favorite chai blend, you may have found yourself dizzied by the long list of herbs and spices involved. While such an assortment might take some work to assemble, this variety also makes chai spice recipes a delicious way to enjoy a whole host of beneficial botanicals in a single cup. And one of our favorite additions, from both a flavor and wellness perspective, is sweet and adaptogenic astragulus root.

Here in the Coast Range and Willamette Valley of western Oregon, we know our foggy, rainy winters are responsible for the stunningly gorgeous, green landscapes we love so much. But, wow, it’s been cold and gray this winter! As a born-and-raised Oregonian, I’m one of the weirdos who loves rain, who adds extra blankets to my bed so I can sleep with the windows open to hear and smell the winter weather. I love sloshing around in rubber boots, and taking drizzly forest walks in the fog, and struggling against the cold rain to plant a super-early garden. There is a name for people like me: pluviophile (someone who finds joy and peace of mind on rainy days). However, for most people, the combination of dark, wet, and cold is incredibly challenging. It grieves me to watch my sun-loving, light-deprived friends and family sink into annual winter doldrums, which is why I love to make this mood-boosting herbal extract with its blend of warming, uplifting, relaxing herbs to help alleviate those seasonal blues and give a little relief to my favorite people.

A new year, a fresh start, and the ideal time to begin something. The idea of making big or small changes to improve our lives seems to be an appealing notion for many of us and though we have the option to make these resolutions any time , the New Year seems to carry a certain weight. It is a jumping off point, an invitation to assess what is working in our lives and what isn’t. The resolutions themselves are almost a way to formalize our desire to create new habits, practices, and routines that will better serve ourselves and the world around us. This year, I’m not asking myself as much about what isn’t working for me in my personal life, but more what I am doing that isn’t working for the world. What habits can I change to better serve the planet that I live on?

Modern athletes seeking to support health and performance have no shortage of high-tech, lab-synthesized supplement options at their disposal. However, many active individuals are seeking out more natural options to power their active pursuits, and herbalists have plenty to contribute to the conversation!

This vegan poke bowl recipe is healthy, filling, and makes the perfect addition to your weekly meal plan. It takes a bit of planning, but sure does pay off. Cook the rice and tempeh, make the sauce, and chop the veggies ahead of time in preparation for the work week. Then, simply combine the ingredients for protein-rich lunches or dinners sprinkled with organic nori flakes and organic sesame seeds. You can also assemble these bowls in individual containers and have premade delicious meals throughout the week. In my house, high-vitamin, protein-packed, easy-to-digest poke bowls are a perfect vegetarian option for meatless Mondays.

My acupuncture clinic is perhaps similar to a martial arts studio. Nobody punches or kicks in my clinic, at least not on purpose, but I support people as they fight through aches and pains from injuries both acute and chronic. After treating pain-related conditions with acupuncture, I often aid recovery by rubbing a liniment, or Die Da Jiu (跌打酒), into achy joints and tissues. The aromatic herbs and precious resins in this formula scent my treatment room like an ancient apothecary, while moving stuck traumas, helping tissues release their stored issues, and lending a golden glow to affected areas.

Each year as I make my holiday gift list, I have a certain set of criteria that I aim for. Offerings that are thoughtful, personal, and useful are my top priorities. I have generally found that homemade gifts are more appreciated than things that I can find in mass at any big box store. Small batch DIY gifts also allow for customization and are great for keeping waste out of landfills.  

I want to share some of my favorite recipe ideas that hail from a variety of different masterminds on the Mountain Rose Herbs team. I recommend using these as a baseline and tailoring them for the person you are gifting.

I’ll admit it, I have some big, sappy feelings about lemon balm. You might even say that I have an herbal crush on the plant, and let’s be honest, I don’t think I’m the only one. This herb tends to evoke that feeling in its fans. We don’t just use lemon balm we also hold a deep and abiding affection for it. When we decided to write blog posts about our favorite herbs, it made me pause and ask myself just what it is about lemon balm that I love so much? I am a creature guided by my gut feelings and intuition. Which can be wonderful, but admittedly, not the most scientific approach. So, I sat down to do some research on my beloved Melissa officinalis.