Entering into the Mountain Rose Herbs Mercantile shop, you are immediately surrounded by various sized glass containers of herbs, salts and oils. Spices such as chili peppers and basil are displayed in clear valves attached to the walls and dried tea buds fill the exposed shelves underneath the check-out desk. High glass ceilings supply natural lighting to the shop, giving the interior an open atmosphere. There is a vintage feeling throughout the store — old cash registers are decorated throughout and bronze phonograph light fixtures hang low from the roof. The merchandise is organized under specialized signs and is stacked on top of aged wooden wagons and shelves.
Lydia Fish, store retail manager, believes strongly in the value of the shop’s natural products. “There is always a time and place for Western medicine eventually, but what’s available to us naturally is usually undermined,” she said.
Eugene’s Mountain Rose Herbs Mercantile ensures its botanical and herb products are USDA Organic, non-GMO and Kosher certified. Customers can buy all types of products such as herbal lozenges and extracts to help treat common colds or headaches. Some customers come in to buy seasonings while others make their own face cream concoctions with the butters and waxes from the store.
Connor Holt, a customer who works for a tea company, makes the trip down to Eugene every few weeks to buy his favorite tea. Holt said he does not know much about herbal products but tries his best to buy products that are “environmentally conscious.”
“I like how the store is organic and local in the community,” Holt said. “You can get whatever you want here related to herbalism.”
Fish said she is “always learning new stuff” at Mountain Rose. Fish believes there are millions of ways to use the products in the store such as creating bath bombs, skin creams and pill capsules. For thousands of years, plants and minerals were the only cure for ailments. Natural ingredients are powerful in their own right, she said. Fish wants people to apply the benefits of plants to their daily skincare or diet regimen.
“When working with plants, you have to trust time,” she said. “A remedy needs to be kept up regularly and people choose not to use these methods because they want instant results.”
Mountain Rose is a company that puts “people, plants and our planet” before profit, according to their website. Fish said their first brick and mortar store opened in 2016, but originally operated as a catalog business by famed herbalist Rosemary Gladstar in 1987. The current CEO, Shawn Donnille, created the online store in 1999 and allowed the company to be accessible nationwide ever since. Fish said the herbs and materials of Mountain Rose are sourced from foreign farms as far as India.
The company upholds ethical standards by investing in plants that grow in their native lands and providing social benefits for growers through their participation in the Fair for Life program. Herbal experts also inspect the products before packaging to verify it is free of chemically-laced substances.
“All of the botanicals we get are identified by professional herbalists,” Fish said. “They are able to look through it in a microscope-type of level. We pass everything through third-party testing to check for heavy metals. Everything here is pretty high quality.”
Caity Huff, a retail associate and University of Oregon senior education student, has worked at Mountain Rose for over two months. Huff’s interest in herbalism compelled her to apply there. Surrounded by medicinal plants all day, she has become well versed with the products in the store. Huff likes the idea of the store as an apothecary where she can “take herbs off shelves and mix around with them” to produce medicinal remedies.
“Since working here, I drink tea almost every day and make my own herbal infusions that way,” Huff said. “I also like making my own natural perfumes and taking certain supplements and tinctures. It is really fun to mix stuff and find new ways to incorporate everything.”
Mountain Rose encourages people to be mindful of what they put in their bodies. Huff said everyone can improve their quality of life by applying one’s “backyard plants” into their healing treatments. She is motivated to get more Oregonians to look into their environment and become versatile in what they can create. Huff recommends new customers begin with edible products such as tea or seasonings because of their easy application to our health.
“Tea is something that people can definitely get into,” Huff said. “It is a gateway into herbalism. Herbs you can eat or drink have really good properties for you.”
Mountain Rose Herbs Mercantile, located on West 5th Avenue and Charnelton Street, is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Products are also available through its website.
