Winter can be hard on the skin, especially the complexion. If you think about it, you literally “face” the blustery temperature and winds of winter, only to come inside to be abruptly met with warm, dry heat. This cycle can create quite a bit of turmoil for your skin, and it’s times like these that your largest organ appreciates some extra love and attention. This is what sparked the inspiration to create a DIY protective balm for the face (though I actually use it for the whole body).

Miso soup is an absolute must for me during the winter months. I’ll often make a large batch of it and warm some up for breakfast, cracking an egg into the umami-packed broth. It’s a common staple served at Japanese and Korean restaurants, often simply garnished with bits of tofu and chopped green onions. The two main components to miso soup are dashi and miso paste. Dashi is typically made with preserved fish and kombu, a flavorful and nutrient-rich seaweed. I decided to try making a vegan dashi stock using dried shiitakes along with my seaweed, and was pleasantly surprised.

When the work day is done, many of us begin thinking about what to cook for ourselves and our families. On days that I’m hungry as soon as I walk through the door, I am always grateful when my meal is ready for me. It prevents me from eating things I otherwise wouldn’t or shouldn’t. With my busy lifestyle and Italian appetite, I’ve developed a real appreciation for slow cookers!

If you filled your 2019 with natural self care sessions, DIY projects, and culinary experiments, you weren't alone! Plant-lovers like you from across America and beyond trusted Mountain Rose Herbs to keep their kitchens and apothecaries stocked with the highest quality herbs, teas, oils, and more—and we couldn't be more grateful! We know you're always on the lookout for new ingredients to fuel your herbal adventures, so we're sharing the year's greatest hits from our extensive selection of organic and sustainable offerings. Here are our 11 best-selling botanicals of 2019, along with helpful reviews from real Mountain Rose Herbs customers!

The use of tea in cooking is an ancient and common practice in China and Japan for adding depth to a variety of dishes. For dishes as varied as steamed rice, tea eggs, soups, and desserts, there are endless recipes to experiment with by adding tea.

Feeling a little blue is pretty common for all of us. Sadness can strike on any scale, ranging from a simple Blue Monday to lingering, debilitating heartache. We all struggle with difficult emotions that, at times, can seem to overshadow everything else. Luckily, our herbal allies may be able to help ease the hurt.

Another year has passed, and 2020 is now upon us! As we look forward to sharing 12 more months of herbal learning and discovery with our readers, we'd like to highlight our most popular how-to posts from 2019 (ranging from natural body care formulations to herbal remedies) to motivate and inspire you from the get-go. We hope you'll revisit these ideas (or try any you may have missed the first time around) and let us know how they go—and stay tuned for more plant-powered content to come! 

I didn’t grow up eating spicy foods. As embarrassing as this is to admit now, the thought of eating food that was spicy was actually scary to me. I felt like I never knew what I was getting into and as far as I was concerned, eating something too spicy was crossing the line of no return and would ruin my whole meal. That is, until I learned how to properly cook with them!

In 1974, I ran into a woman who claimed my chronic sinus problems came from my colon. She showed me an illustration created by pioneering nutritionist and iridologist, Bernard Jensen, which showed a distorted colon encrusted with hardened fecal matter. She also quoted Jensen’s famous line, “death begins in the colon.” This wasn’t unusual thinking among the Utah midwives and herbalists I began to associate with in the late 1970s. They all believed that one key to keeping healthy was to stay regular. Although I no longer believe that colon cleansing is a therapy everyone needs, I do see value in keeping the colon regular. All of us suffer from time to time with the affliction one of my friends jokingly called “stucky-gutsies.” 

Brassicas—that genus of plants in the mustard family that includes broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and brussels sprouts, among others—have not always been my vegetables of choice. I blame the fact that I was a child of the 70’s: bell bottoms, 8-track tapes, rotary phones…and seriously overcooked vegetables. My father was considered a “health nut” who insisted we eat whole grains and sprouted seeds, and that we take a daily dose of what he called mushroom tea, now commonly known as kombucha. However, outside of our home, it was a weird time for food, an era when a popular party and potluck dish called “Watergate Salad” was made from a horror list of ingredients that included marshmallows, instant pistachio pudding, and a whipped topping of high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oil. But, in my opinion, it was the abused vegetables that were the worst. Bowls of once healthful veggies were commonly presented as limp, cooked-to-death wastelands. No wonder I spent years thinking I didn’t like brassicas.