Often we associate the growth of a company with a decline in their ethics. We expect that as a company expands, they might abandon the ideals that they had in the beginning, when they were just a few bright eyed and bushy tailed people looking to make a difference in the world.
What’s lovely about Mountain Rose Herbs it that they seem to get even better with time. We’ve been fans for a long time, so we decided to make them this month’s We Heart feature.
The Evolution of Mountain Rose Herbs
In the beginning stages of their company, (1991-1997), they created guidelines for harvesting wild herbs sustainably. Wild-crafting means harvesting a plant from its natural habitat. Plants surviving in the wild often have more of the beneficial compounds that make them medicinal, but it’s not sustainable to wild-craft if you deplete whole populations at a time. Early on, Mountain Rose Herbs was aware of this and built conscious harvesting into their framework.
By 2007, they had established a Zero Waste Program, which cut the waste produced by their facility from 3,300 gallons a month to just 75 gallons. They pledge to account for every “scrap of plastic, poly-woven bag, break room food scrap, and metal barrel,” often working with materials that are fully compostable and finding new uses for materials that would otherwise be discarded.
In 2010, they became Fair Trade certified by the Institute for Marketology. The Institute for Marketology’s Fair For Life program certifies companies themselves, rather than individual products. This way, you can trust that everything their company does has been held to these standards of fair business practices.
Mountain Rose Herbs has a “Good Trade Program,” which takes things a step further. Their growers set the prices for their own crops. This fair negotiation practice is surprisingly uncommon and absent from most fair trade certification programs.
That there is a good looking timeline.
Mountain Rose Herbs Today
These days, they host free events for their community (both their corporate headquarters and customer service center are located in Eugene, Oregon). Each event brings a renowned herbalist to Mount Pisgah, who shares their knowledge with attendees through lectures, workshops, and nature walks. Events raise funds that the visiting herbalist brings back to their free clinic, school, or non-profit.
We love that they’re not just about selling herbs, they’re about teaching people how to use herbs to improve their health.
You Might Have Used Their Herbs Without Knowing It…
Did you know that Mountain Rose Herbs provides many of the plants we use to make our products? We trust their stringent regulations for their ingredients. They pledge that “no conventionally grown herb, spice, or tea” will enter their facilities, which fits in with our pledge to be organic and wild-crafted.
So if you love our skin care, you already love Mountain Rose Herbs. But you can also purchase herbs and essential oils directly from their site and make your own concoctions, or enjoy them all on their own.
Their product line is extensive, with everything from seaweeds to cosmetic salts to seed packets. We’re going to talk about a few of our favorites things:
Beeswax Candles
Synthetic fragrance brings toxic chemicals into many products, be it lotion or deodorant or, yep, candles. Fragrance is a chemical culprit for another reason: it’s a “trade secret,” and thus ingredients can be lumped under the word ‘fragrance,’ and not listed on the label. We’re not about that.
We love the candles that Mountain Rose Herbs makes. They’re free of synthetic fragrances, paraffin, and petroleum bi-products. If you’re wondering about what makes these ingredients harmful, take a look at our blog post: Top 10 Toxic Skin Care Ingredients (Avoid Putting on Your Skin at All Costs)
The absence of the above ingredients leaves room for 100% pure Oregon beeswax. You’d think that with pure and natural ingredients, these candles would be expensive, but they’re actually totally reasonable. We’re in love.
Diffusers
I don’t know about you, but when people walk into my room, I want them to be in awe of how I achieved such a subtle and signature fragrance. Or at least, I don’t want them to smell my laundry.
Diffusers are a great way to softly scent your room using essential oils. You can use an uplifting blend in the morning, a sexy, calming blend at night… It’s a fun way to get creative and shape the energy and aroma of your space.
Mountain Rose Herbs has some cool ones to choose from. The simplest is a handmade, lead-free ceramic piece that holds a candle at the bottom, which heats the essential oils that you drop on top. We love it because it’s low maintenance, classic, and lovely.
Bulk Herbs
Buying in bulk is great way to save money and use less packaging. Of course, if you’re going to invest in a large amount of an herb, you want to make sure it’s high quality.
When making organic skin care, you can’t simply mix some herbs and oils together and hope it makes you beautiful. You have to use truly high quality plants to achieve active and effective products. For us, that means organic and wild-crafted. We trust Mountain Rose Herbs because their quality is really consistent.
One cool thing that they offer is bulk discounts; the more you buy, the more you save. And it doesn’t have to be a single herb. You can mix and match and receive a discount based on the total weight.
With each herb, they let you know if it’s kosher, fair trade, organic, or wild-crafted, and most ingredients have 2 of these badges.
Many of our blog articles have recipes for DIY skin care, hair care, herbal remedies, and foods. We really love making things at home and sharing what we learn with you. Sometimes the recipes have ingredients that you might not have in your kitchen and maybe haven’t even heard of. It’s easy to get familiar and start working with these awesome plants.
Here are a few that we’ve talked about that Mountain Rose Herbs supplies. Just a little herbal inspiration for ya:
Alkanet Root:
This plant, in the borage family, is a great way to give skin care products or fabrics a natural tint. We recently published a blog post about DIY recipes that help ward off dry skin that so often comes with winter weather. One of the recipes was for a moisturizing tinted lip balm, and alkanet root is what gives the balm its tint. It produces a reddish color, and hence has also been used to improve the appearance of less than stellar wines.
Mountain Rose Herbs offers alkanet root and alkanet root powder, which are both kosher and wild-crafted.
Horsetail:
In our article about how to grow your hair long we talked about horsetail and suggested using it to make a natural hair rinse. What does horsetail have to do with hair? It’s the worlds largest source of silica, which is abundant in our own bodies and, among other benefits, helps give our hair luster (and it’s good for your skin as well). Horsetail plants are pretty talented. They take inorganic silica from the soil and convert it to the form our bodies can use.
So rich in silica, horsetail is also called ‘scouring rush,’ because it’s so high in silica that it can be used to polish metal. With that said, you should not consume the whole leaves raw. We recommend making a tea from it, which you can drink or use to rinse your hair.
Mountain Rose Herbs has horsetail and horsetail powder, both kosher and organic.
Roasted Dandelion Root:
Dandelion root helps to cleanse your liver, which it something all of us can benefit from, but especially those whose livers do some extra work. We recommended it to people in their 20s in our article about skin care by age. If you’re drinking alcohol, your liver can benefit from herbal support. Also, roasted dandelion root tea has a flavor profile similar to coffee – you can add cream and honey to it if you like – so it can be a good option for those who wanting to cut back on caffeine.
Mountain Rose Herbs offers dandelion leaf, dandelion root, dandelion root powder, and roasted dandelion root powder – all organic!
This winter, you might be inviting people into your home, cooking for loved ones, and looking for the perfect gifts. We hope that this article came at just the right time – so you can stock up on healing herbs to make tea blends for those you love, essential oils to make your space small lovely, and candles to flood your house with warmth. Be sure to look through their product line, because Mountain Rose Herbs has tons of things that make great gifts. We couldn’t list them all!
Click here to check out Mountain Rose Herbs
What is this We Heart thing?
We Heart is our monthly blog column dedicated to exploring companies and organizations who exhibit passion, integrity, and talent at what they do. We vet companies thoroughly to make sure that we can confidently recommend them, then every month, we highlight one company or product that we love in a blog post.
Click here to subscribe, so you can stay updated on who we ‘heart’ each month. Sometimes, we even offer special deals from the companies we’re telling you about.
Click here to see who else we love.
by Hope Freije
Leave a Reply