Where To Buy Fresh Herbs For Making Medicine
Sourcing Organically-Grown Herbs For Your Home Apothecary
As much as I’m trying to turn my rugged mountaintop into a garden oasis—it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards this year. Daily windstorms, bad air quality from nearby wildfires, and a near total lack of rain has made gardening in my neck of the woods nearly impossible this season.
But as I continue to remind myself, growing my own herbs isn’t the only option. So if your garden efforts have been similarly thwarted so far, or if you just don’t have the space for a big ol’ herb garden—here are some of my favorite ideas for sourcing organic, quality herbs to make your own herbal medicine.
Make a list
Before we dive into where you can find your herbs, its best to make a list of which plants you’re looking for. Start by thinking about the medicine you want to make, then backtrack a list of herbs you need (kind of like a grocery list). Now’s also a good time to consider amounts. In most cases, you’ll want enough of an herb to fill (or partially fill) a jar.
Of that list, are there any that grow locally that you can safely wildcraft? If the answer is yes, you might want to skip buying those in favor of foraging them yourself.
For the rest of the herbs on your wishlist, you have a few options. You can either try to grow them from seed, purchase established plants from a nursery, or buy fresh/dried plant material from professional growers.
Like I mentioned up top, growing isn’t going so well for me this year. Here are some of the alternative strategies I’ve used to source high-quality herbs beyond wildcrafting or growing.
Strategy 1: Befriend a farmer
After weeks of nursing failing calendula seedlings, I finally gave up and got in touch with a local farmer. Her greenhouse was filled with organically grown veggies and you guessed it—some prolific patches of Calendula, Resina a strain that was specifically developed by an herbalist for its high resin content.
Many of our best herbal medicines come from plants that are also used in beauty gardening, and if you ask around you just might be able to find an organic farmer or gardener willing to sell you some of their flowering plants like calendula or echinacea. Organic is important because it means you won’t be ingesting any harmful chemicals in your herbal medicines.
Strategy 2: Shop local
If you can’t seem to find a gardener or farmer who’s willing to sell you some of their crop, you can also start scouting around local grocers and co-ops. Oftentimes these stores have good relationships with nearby farmers, and sell the very same herbs and plants those farmers grow.
You might stop by your local farmer’s market and chat with vendors, or even just pop into the natural grocer near your house. Since these herbs are grown locally, this is the next best solution to actually working directly with a farmer. Get curious, and introduce yourself. Tell people you’re an herbalist and looking to buy ____ to make medicine. They’ll be intrigued and more likely to want to help you.
Strategy 3: Order in bulk online
If you aren’t able to source locally-grown herbs, not to worry. You can always order quality herbs for medicine making online from reputable vendors. One of my favorite places to order bulk herbs? The Oregon-based farm and collective, Mountain Rose Herbs.
Depending on what you’re looking to buy (and where you live), Mountain Rose has also put together this list of herb farms (organized by state) where you can place online orders and have them shipped directly to your house.
The bottom line
Learning how (and where) to find herbs for your medicine making takes time. If you can’t grow at home, don’t be discouraged. Instead, get creative and get curious. There are a lot of amazing fellow plant lovers out there, willing to help you grow your home apothecary. Sometimes all you have to do is ask.
As an Amazon & Mountain Rose Herbs Associate, I earn a small percentage from qualifying purchases made through this post.