Blind Herbal Taste Test with Erika Galentin

Our senses can tell us a lot about herbs. They can indicate freshness, give us clues about how they work in the body, and if you listen closely enough, how well they align with our individual bodies. Our dear friend, Erika Galentin, came for a visit to our headquarters in Eugene, Oregon to share how a practice of blind taste testing can be a powerful tool in getting to know our botanical allies, even when we think we already know them. She takes us through the process of using each sense and offers helpful prompts for us to consider along the way.
Valerian: From Farm to Apothecary

We always look forward to the brisk autumn afternoons when we visit our farm partners in Washington to join their annual valerian harvest. They have been growing organic valerian for more than 30 years. Harvesting and milling the roots to preserve their botanical integrity is a process that requires both passion and skill, as well as specialized equipment. This combination of experience and technology makes it possible to produce the top-shelf botanicals that Mountain Rose Herbs customers rely on for their health and wellness. Today, think of the health supplement you took, a meal you ate, or tea you drank, and imagine all of the farmers who helped to bring that experience to you. Let’s take a moment to honor their work and commitment.
Guasha Massage Tutorial with Jiling Lin

Have you ever had the opportunity to experience guasha? This traditional East Asian practice is sometimes used as a complement to massage, acupuncture, herbalism, moxibustion, energy work, lifestyle medicine, and more. Practitioners draw a guasha ban (刮痧板) (guasha tool) over the skin with varying degrees of pressure to elicit different effects on the body.
Although guasha is used to treat complex bodily issues, one wonderful way to experience this age-old art is a gentle facial guasha. We’re excited that our friend, herbalist, and East Asian Medicine practitioner, Jiling Lin, has a new blog with all the information we need to do facial guasha at home!
Plant Stories | Featuring Richo Cech & Co-Host Jiling Lin

On this episode of Plant Stories on Herbal Radio, we had the opportunity to speak with the acclaimed and enthralling herbalist, Richo Cech. We dive deep into Richo’s life and passions, discussing everything from his seed-seeking adventures in Africa, to captivating stories of how he grew Strictly Medicinal Seeds from the ground up (pun-intended).
Richo Cech started his professional work as an archaeologist and ethnobotanist in East Africa. Upon his return to the United States in 1978, he began cultivating and saving the seed of medicinal plants. Over the years, his gardens have become the basis for Strictly Medicinal Seeds, growers of organic, open pollinated and GMO-free seed and plants of medicinal herbs, culinary herbs, succulents, trees, and garden vegetables. Richo and his family produce a popular, bi-yearly, hand-illustrated seed catalog that provides access to this collection of common, quirky, eclectic, and bizarre seeds and plants. Richo is author of “Making Plant Medicine” (2000), “Growing At-Risk Medicinal Herbs” (2002), and “Growing Plant Medicine” (2009).
Richo has botanized in China and Africa, resulting in the introduction of many new and exciting medicinal herb species to gardeners throughout the world.
The Benefits & Uses of Mallow | Featuring Shana Lipner Grover

We’ve been loving our recent plant walks with Shana Lipner Grover of Sage Country Herbs. We were lucky that she spent some time with one of our favorite herbs: mallow (Althaea officinalis).
Like other members of the Malvaceae family, mallow is a demulcent that is rich in mucilage, so it’s both hydrating and soothing. Our mucosal membranes must be moist to be healthy. A tea made from mallow is not only good for a dry, irritated throat, it also encourages and triggers the secretion of important mucus in the rest of the body at the same time: so as the mallow tea soothes your throat, it also triggers similar action in the sinuses, eyes, digestive tract, bladder, and more! And, because that essential mucus carries immune antibodies, it helps bring those antibodies where they’re needed.
Gentle, tasty mallow is a phenomenally effective herbal ally. Listen in to learn more about mallow and other Malvaceae family demulcents!
The Nurtured Herbalist | Tea Talks Roundtable

Join herbalists Jiling Lin, Erika Galentin, and Camille Freeman for a lively Tea Talks Roundtable discussion on Nurturing the Herbal Practitioner.
We explore:
• some of the challenges that come with running an herbal practice
• how to create a work cadence that’s realistic in the long run
• establishing clear boundaries between work and personal life
• how to run an herbal practice that feels ethically aligned, and sustains you
• how we can feel supported and connected as herbal practitioners– and continue growing and evolving as people and clinicians
• the role of the herbalist in modern life
• …and more!
Plant Stories | Featuring Lucretia VanDyke

We are so pleased to feature another interview with our friend Lucretia VanDyke. On Herbal Radio, we have learned about Lucretia’s upbringing and what led her to work with plants, but we have never gotten to learn what plants she loves and why. In this Plant Stories episode, Lucretia talks about her favorite edible plants of New Orleans and the significance they played in her upbringing that began her herbalism journey.
With a journey that began when she was a little girl mixing herbs, mud, and roots on her grandparents’ farm, Lucretia VanDyke has had a lifelong connection to the plants. She has been in the wellness industry for over twenty-five years. Her quest for knowledge and storytelling has led her all over the world to learn about remedies, traditions, and ceremonies from indigenous healers.
One of the foremost experts on Southern folk healing arts, Lucretia integrates rituals, plant spirit meditation, holistic food/herbal medicine, and ancestor reverence into people’s practices.
Lucretia has worked and trained with many internationally known spa and skin care companies. She is a holistic educator, speaker, herbalist, sacred sexologist, ceremonialist, spiritual coach, intuitive energy practitioner, diviner, author, and world traveler. Lucretia brings her vivacious spirit and her message of ancestral connection in herbal practices to inspire others to embrace their unique relationship with the plants. Teaching herbal classes, cooking, storytelling, and foraging in the woods learning native medicine charges her soul.
Lucretia’s book African American Herbalism: A Practical Guide to Healing Plants and Folk Traditions is now available through Mountain Rose Herbs: https://mountainroseherbs.com/african-american-herbalism
Mountain Rose Herbs Wins 100 Best Green Companies to Work for in Oregon (2022 & 2023)

Since its inception, Mountain Rose Herbs has put plants, people, and planet before profit. Led by these values, we’ve been a longtime leader on the list of green companies, helping to positively shape the herbal industry with environmentally focused initiatives. Our core values revolve around sustainability and as such, we’ve implemented innovative programs in energy efficiency, zero waste, and alternative commuting incentives.
WHAT ARE GREEN COMPANIES?
While the definition can vary in its details, green companies are essentially businesses that commit to practices that positively impact their community and the environment. Most states have created an award system to recognize the regional businesses that are the best employers based on their commitment to employees, community, and the planet.
This brings us to Oregon Business’ 100 Best Green Workplaces in Oregon. To win this award, employees throughout the state participated in an anonymous survey, rating the sustainable initiatives in their workplace and their satisfaction with those policies. In addition, employers were independently scored on their answers to a list of 15 sustainability-oriented questions.
Interviews on Herbal Radio with Thomas Dick | Featuring David Winston

This week’s guest on Interviews on Herbal Radio is esteemed herbalist, David Winston. David is well known in the herbal community for his decades of clinical experience, teaching, and medicine making. We hope you enjoy!
David Winston is an internationally known lecturer, author, ethnobotanist and the founder of Herbalist & Alchemist.
For over 45 years, David has been studying, practicing, teaching and researching Chinese, Western/Eclectic and Southeastern American herbal traditions. David’s world-renowned two-year herbal studies program, the David Winston Center for Herbal Studies, has been educating Herbalists, Physicians, Nurses, Naturopathic Physicians, Veterinarians, and Nutritionists in the art and science of clinical herbal medicine since 1980.
David has one of the largest private herbal research libraries in the U.S. The Herbal Therapeutics Research Library has over 8000 volumes, from 1550 to present, and over 15,000 articles on file. This library is a working library used for research for the herbal and nutritional industry as well as for his writing and for Herbalist & Alchemist.
David was one of the professional herbalists who founded the American Herbalists Guild, the first professional herbalists’ organization in the US, which certifies clinical herbalists. He is on the professional membership review committee. David Winston has been on the Review Committee of the Botanical Safety Handbook, which produced a significant information resource, which the entire botanical industry, from manufacturers to researchers, relies upon.
He is the clinical herbal consultant to hundreds of prominent physicians (MDs, NDs, DOs, DCs) throughout the US, Canada and Europe. David has authored hundreds of articles and a number of books on herbs.
Mountain Rose Herbs Seed Stewardship Project

As many of you know, at Mountain Rose Herbs, we invest time and energy into striking a balance between offering as many sustainably grown and harvested organic herbal allies as possible and simultaneously supporting the conservation of at-risk and endangered plants. We are excited that more and more people are recognizing the abundance Mother Nature has to offer and the many benefits that the botanical world provides. Unfortunately, the increasing impact of overharvesting on wild plants has left many of our most important botanicals at serious risk.
With this in mind, Mountain Rose Herbs has been working with United Plant Savers (UpS) to launch a new Seed Stewardship Project! With the help of UpS Executive Director Susan Leopold, we have chosen a variety of at-risk plant seeds that we are giving away to people who are able to plant them and help rebuild our at-risk plant communities. Now, when you place an order on MountainRoseHerbs.com, you will have the option to select a seed package for FREE. Plant them in a window box, in your back yard, or in a natural area where these plants once thrived—together we can ensure their survival one seed at a time.