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October 31, 2008
Yerba Buena Harvesting
Sheez, talk about a nice day! I'm writing this on Halloween, but thinking back to the beautiful, hot July day Laura (on the right, our customer service manager) and Alli (left, sales manager) spent wildcrafting Yerba Buena, Coyote Mint and Yarrow in the coastal mountains of northern California.
This is everyone's fantasy of what we do all day long at Juniper Ridge - frolicking in the mountains, harvesting wild herbs in our little sound-of-music-baskets, and it's totally true, that's exactly what it's like here at Juniper Ridge. This is where we answer the phone, send out orders, make the soap .... Naw, I'm just kidding - we work in an office and spend plenty of time in front of our computers just like everybody else. But during the wildcrafting season in the summer and fall, we do get to go out and do fun stuff like what you see here in this picture. Hmmm, I wonder how can we make this our full time job?
This is one of my oldest, bestest friends in the plant world, Yerba Buena! Not to be confused with Yerba Mate (the trendy and oh-so popular south american herb for tea), Yerba Buena, spanish for good herb, is a delicate, lemony flavored mint that grows in the coastal mountains of Northern California. It smells so nice that the early spanish settlers originally named the town that grew into San Francisco for this local favorite. When I first started Juniper Ridge, I used to sell this as a bulk herb at the Berkeley and San Francisco farmers markets. It was so much fun because I'd harvest wild herbs in the middle of the week and bring fresh tea blends to the market, what an amazing fresh-from-the-mountains treat!
Here I am with my head burried in the Coyote Brush, cutting yerba buena stems. The technique for sustainably harvesting Yerba Buena is to cut only the upper part of the growing stem, essentially pruning the herb so it bounces back the next year. You can harvest the same patch of Yerba Buena indefinitely using this technique because it responds well to pruning.
Here's Laura demonstrating the same technique for Coyote Mint. Coyote mint is more shrub like and can be easily be harvested sustainably by pruning back a 1/3 or so of the upright branches, it always comes booming back.
Thank you Laura and Alli for a beautiful day, a reminder of what it's really all about and why we do the work we do - I wish I had pictures of us enjoying the wonderful bulk tea we made, look for this as a new product available on a seasonal basis starting next year!
Posted by Hall in Wildcrafting
Comments
It sounds so wonderful and therapeutic! Thank you for sharing this. Just reading your post and looking at the pictures was relaxing. I'm new to your site, but I've been browsing through your products, and I can't wait to place my order and get a taste of those gorgeous mountains for myself :)
Posted by: AmberBelen at November 13, 2008 9:46 AM
Yes! The blog is back and action. Good to hear your voice, Hall. Love and miss you guys. -Vicki
Posted by: Vicki at November 14, 2008 2:40 PM
