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.

Every year in the heart of summer, I wish I could capture the gorgeous, sunny days and save a little piece of them for the cold and grey winter. Luckily, I found one way transport my senses to brighter and warmer times once the chilly temperatures have set in. What better way to capture the season's radiant energy than in an organic aroma oil? 

Stand beneath a blooming linden tree, and chances are you will slowly become aware of an almost unbelievable event taking place. The tree will be so alive with the hum and buzz of happy honeybees so absorbed in their harvest, they may very well bounce right off of you! An 80-year-old tree near my home presents a nearly surreal experience under her widespread, blooming boughs.

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. 

Summer sunshine heralds the heyday of fun outdoor play for little ones, but these warm days can also bring heat and humidity that can be hard on soft baby skin. Thankfully, making your own baby powder is affordable, easy, and allows total control over the ingredients to which you expose those sensitive little bottoms—and as a mom-to-be, all three of these factors are presently of keen interest to me. Since many conventional ready-made baby powders contain synthetic chemicals and artificial perfumes that I wouldn’t care to cart around on my own skin, I’m definitely interested in finding natural baby care alternatives for keeping my little sprout fresh and clean!

For skin that requires a little extra nourishment and moisture, green tea skin care formulations can offer gentle, yet stimulating, hydration support. This skin serum recipe infuses the benefits of green tea leaves into organic olive oil and brings in the goodness of select essential oils for a pampering and beautifully scented blend.

As a born-and-raised Oregonian, I tend to crave the summer sun. Skin has its limits, however, and after venturing out on or around water on a sunny day, I find that my largest organ needs as much R&R as I do! Like many folks, I’m a big fan of aloe vera gel, but it can get messy and goopy to use on its own. Fortunately, by combining the generous cooling benefits of aloe vera with wonderful witch hazel extract and skin-loving calendula hydrosol (a mild plant water created during the essential oil distilling process), you can create a non-goopy recipe that is physically refreshing, easy to use, and makes for a comforting end to a long day in the outdoors.

The summer grilling season is here! Although there are many of us to who love to grill year-round, there is nothing like cooking outside on a beautiful, warm summer evening surrounded by loved ones. Try out this spicy barbecue sauce recipe we’ve created with all sorts of good-for-you herbs and spices. As always, feel free to customize to suit your tastes!

With each new trip around the sun, I find myself paying more attention to skincare tips from experts and other folks around me. Applying oil to the skin has been a common theme throughout the Ayurvedic classes I’ve been able to experience. As the Ayurvedic doctors would say: If you can take the time to change the oil in your car or condition your leather possessions, why neglect your own body?