Welcoming you to Laughing Birch Herbals
Here in the Pacific Northwest, flower buds are popping, nature is singing and we’re all getting a little sun drunk on more than a few warm, blue-sky days. Nature walks require a few less layers, and the warming air is becoming intoxicatingly fragrant with cottonwood buds, delphinium, wild cherry blossoms and a cacophony of verdant, tender-shoot growth.
And right on time along with our plant friends, Laughing Birch Herbals is officially launching into life!
We’re excited to bring to you the essence of our vibrant forests and meadows, through our small-batch production of outstanding herbal formulas, focused on locally-sourced cultivated and wildcrafted herbs of the Pacific Northwest. And as we can’t stray too far from our traditional apothecary roots, we are also offering custom formulations from our selection of hundreds of herbal extractions!
As nature is now waking up from its winter nap, we’ve been busy getting out there to all our harvesting locations, checking up on the plants and seeing how it’s going for them so far this season. You know, we feel a personal connection with the lands on which we harvest, and many of them we have been working with for several years. It’s important to us that we harvest in a balanced, sustainable way, that leaves the lands just as healthy and abundant than if we hadn’t ever been there!
Sometimes, we are even able to enhance the natural location is some way. Clearing super-invasive plants, spreading native seeds present outward of their growing population borders, and in the larger picture, supporting environmental advocacy groups—we are in this as responsible members of our local biomes. Checking in on our wildcrafting locations several times a year (including outside of harvesting season) lets us know how plant populations are fluctuating, how ever-increasing extreme weather patterns are affecting the plants, and gives us assurance that the plants are growing in pristine conditions. One of the ways we like to travel these long distances is via mountain bike, but more on that in a later blog…
Alongside our locally-harvested herbal formulas, I’m very excited to unveil a completely unique offering of herbs to all of us in the US!
Included in our line of innovative herbal blends and products is a special collection of traditional Turkish herbs, directly and personally sourced from sustainability-minded farmers and harvesters in Southern Turkey. Now, many of these you can’t even find on-line, as they are not known as ‘commercially-traded’ herbs.
I’ve been traveling to Turkey every year since 2014, and I’ve been to some very magical places there—and these herbs we’re bringing you are packed with the aromatic essences of these incredible, pristine sites. Nestled along the warm Mediterranean Coast of Turkey, the Torus Mountains rise suddenly upwards, their jagged peaks only slightly worn at the edges, nestling many highland valleys and meadows. The Yürük villagers that have lived there continuously for centuries have carved out a beautiful semi-migratory life—traveling with their goats to the lowlands for the winter and returning to their family lands in the ‘Yayla’ highlands to tend their summer gardens and harvest wild herbs.
I’ve had the extreme fortune to be welcomed into this community as family, learning the language along the way, and my heart is forever changed. It’s indescribable learning from the elder ‘village aunties’ about how they harvest the herbs, what parts of the plant they use, when they harvest, how they process them…and being able to comprehend this (more or less) as they share this in their native language conveys a nuance of meaning and connection with the plants that books can’t touch.
So get ready to be introduced to adaçayı, muşmula, dut yapraği, nane, çınar, avokado yapraği and more…
Don’t worry, I’ll let you in on their translated names soon, but for many of these, we don’t even have a taste memory of anything like it. I’m hoping these powerful herbs become as well known as those from Ayurveda or Chinese Medicine—as they’re easy to grow and harvest and are at very low risk of overharvesting. We’re obtaining these herbs through fair-trade rates directly from the harvesters and farmers, with the purpose of centering their stories and furthering community empowerment. Oh, I have so much to share with you! Stay tuned…
So all these amazing, glowing-with-life-force-herbs come our way—directly from our Turkish partners or from our homelands in the Pacific Northwest, and what do we do then? Then the alchemy begins!
I’ve been close buddies with many of these plants for decades and know intimately how they operate, how they blend to taste, which herbs they pair well with in creating balanced formulas, and the best ways to extract their phytochemical magic. We also have a chemist and biologist on our staff for quality control and extraction review in our apothecary lab. Our synergistic formulation relies on employing the most effective herbs and formulation techniques from several traditions, as well as capitalizing on ever-emerging scientific findings on herbs and health.
You’ll find that most of our herbal products are either in tinctures (squeeze-top dropper bottle) or tea infusions (dried herbs ready to add hot water and steep). We want herbs to be an enjoyable and easy addition to your busy days. From my 25 years as a clinical health practitioner, I’ve found that even the most powerful herbs, healthy diet or perfect stretching routine mean nothing if they aren’t used or followed regularly! That’s why I’ve put a lot of thought into multi-purpose blends (herbs that have lots of special skills) that are easy to take and can even be taken while traveling—something that’s right up my alley, as you’ll soon learn…
So until next time, head over to our shop and meet your new best friend herbal-allies, ready to join you on your journey of health. And follow us on Facebook and Instagram as we take you alongside our herbal escapades this beautiful, emerging season of growth and nature connection!
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