April 11, 2008

Laura's Anza Borrego Adventure

I am a newer Juniper Ridge employee; camping in Anza Borrego was my first official Juniper Ridge company outing. On our first full day in the desert we decided to tackle a scenic hike that would wind us through views of amazing wildflowers, several palm groves and up tall peaks that would allow us to see the Salton Sea.

Here we are at the start of the hike. We are well rested from a night of sleeping out in perfect weather under the stars. At this point we are also still fully hydrated and curious about our surroundings, so we are asking Hall lots of questions about the beautiful wildflowers and plants along the way.

We all hiked for several hours and arrived at one of the palm groves. They were beautiful in a surreal way - palm trees in a little cluster in the middle of the dry desert. I thought this was an image only dehydrated cartoon characters would see, but they were there, they were real, and they were beautiful. We enjoyed a nice rest there and relaxed for a bit in the shade

We hiked on a bit further and then, in a unified subtle wave, all of the seasoned Juniper Ridge employees decided to turn back and head home. Myself, the eager new employee, and Micky (a dear friend to Juniper Ridge), decided we would continue to follow Hall - our fearless leader - up a steep, cactus-filled mountain under the heat of the desert sun.

Everything around us was beautiful - with the exception of one thing - Teddy Bear Cholla. I made this photo huge for a reason; these little "jumping cholla" were an ever-present part of my Anza Borrego experience. The name Teddy Bear Cholla is really a bit insulting to those of us who were repeatedly outwitted and attacked by these teddy bear plants.

We hiked up and up - finally my Midwestern legs which developed on flat flat land, said no more so I sat on a rock with Micky and enjoyed the spectacular view as my boss galloped towards the summit.

An hour passed, Hall reappeared, and Micky and I were now rested enough to slowly stumble down the mountain. We enjoyed the views for a moment longer and then began our descent.

Here Micky is arriving back on flat ground again! The timing was rather perfect, we strolled towards our campsight at dusk and arrived just as the last bit of light disappeared.

I spent the rest of my Anza Borrego experience enjoying the wildflowers from a chair by the campfire. What a beautiful, beautiful place.

Posted by laurasweitzer at 3:37 PM | Comments (1)

March 26, 2008

ExpoWest Fun

This is my very first blog entry and I'm feeling a little bit shy. Who's reading this? Do you think that "blog" is a funny word, too? I'm afraid I'm going to like this too much and I'll become another Perez Hilton (don't pretend you don't know who I'm talking about). Here I go...

For those of you in the industry (I'm talkin' about natural products here), you know all about ExpoWest. For the rest of you—ExpoWest is the huge tradeshow in Anaheim, California for "natural" products. Spending the first portion of our trip in the Anza Borrego desert was a very smart move (warmth, relaxation, beer, wildflowers), but once we were in Anaheim we hit the ground running. There's so much going on—all under one roof (with awful florescent lighting)—it can be very "soul-crushing" in the moment, as someone so eloquently put it. Now that I'm re-energized, I can tell you that it's not that bad. Our booth was rockin' with constant traffic and activity! Everyone seemed to know who we were—or wanted to learn...we were finally the popular kids! Believe me, we've paid our dues. If you've ever attended a tradeshow, you know that there are good areas to have a booth and very, very bad areas. We have graduated from the bad areas and this year seems to be the turning point for us. There is now no respite from the masses...and I'm not exactly complaining—just a little bit. Seriously, though...not to sound dorky, but it's really amazing to be a part of something that's garnering so much attention. Juniper Ridge deserves it. Check out this photo of our fabulous goods—doesn't it make you want to consume?

Our booth is pretty darn great—it's made entirely of reclaimed wood. Some of the wood is local (from an old chicken coop) and other parts are old plum drying trays (for making prunes). We're quite happy in our little booth—it's a welcoming place since most booths are comprised of plastic and metal. This tradeshow takes place right down the street from Disneyland, so we decided to try our hand at "themed" attire (Juniper Ridge-style)—think Deadwood meets Even Cowgirls Get the Blues meets I don't know what—we got a little bit lazy about it.

Just when I thought I was going to hit a wall from talking to so many people, Hall had the brilliant idea to infuse some Maker's Mark with white sage and mint (we did this in our "hippie shed"—the part of our booth where we store odds and ends - and it felt kind of naughty—like bootlegging). Now I really don't want to tarnish our image or anything, but I want to make it very clear that tradeshows are not conducive to wholesome behavior. I know that there's this "lifestyle" that we try to uphold, but it's hard to be perfect all the time (just for the record—I, myself, am not all that wholesome...I'm not going to speak for the rest of the Juniper Ridge crew). You all must know that Hall's drink was quite fabulous—you can make it at home with our sage and mint teabags. Now for a photo of Hall—ruler of the roost...

Here's to another successful year at ExpoWest! I guess we better start wildcrafting...

Posted by alli at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

March 7, 2008

Anza-Borrego + ExpoWest 2008

We wanted to let everyone know that Juniper Ridge is taking a road trip this week and heading out to the desert and then on to ExpoWest in Anaheim! We're going camping in Anza-Borrego for the next few days and are hoping to see a truly spectacular wildflower bloom. There's been a little rain in the desert this year so the prospects are promising. On Wednesday we'll head over to the Natural Products show, set up our booth, and get ready to greet all of our customers. Come visit our booth if you are at the show (#3812)!

We apologize in advance for being a little slow on the phones next week since most of our employees will be on the trip. Please be patient and someone will get back to you as soon as possible if you leave a message. We'll start posting to the blog again the week of the 18th and will have lots of pictures to share of our adventures!

Posted by vicki at 3:24 PM | Comments (0)

March 5, 2008

Our blog is back!

Welcome to the new and improved Juniper Ridge blog! We've been out of commission for a while now, but we've been wanting to get our blog back in action since we updated our website. The holidays got in the way of that, but now we have a little time to start posting regularly. We've even set up an editorial calendar, so we hope to stay on track with our posts. We're still working out some kinks with the design, but those should be fixed soon.

In our new blog, we plan on talking not only about wildcrafting and our products, but also about cool Western environmental groups, recommended hikes and backpacking trips in the West, native plant gardening tips, and much more. We'll have a monthly contest in which you'll be able to win a Juniper Ridge product for sharing your thoughts and ideas about the outdoors and the West. Think of this as a place to learn more about the outdoors and to get to know what is going on in our community. We hope you will come back and visit often! Here is some information about our first event of the year that will be open to the public.

APRIL HIKE
Please join us on Saturday, April 26th for our annual Mt. Diablo hike. We'll do the Back Creek Canyon/Eagle Peaks loop once again. We did this same hike last year in the pouring rain, but we should have better weather this year. This vigorous hike from the base of Mt. Diablo to the Eagle Peaks area is gorgeous anytime of year but especially in the spring with some spectacular wildflower blooms.

Your trip leader, Juniper Ridge founder Hall Newbegin, is lazy, so while there will be lots of nerdy babbling about native wild plants, medicinal herbs and wild foods, there will also be plenty of rest stops and vegging time to enjoy the splendor of this magical area in all its spring glory. The hike is approximately 5 miles with a little over 2,000 feet of elevation gain/loss so it is a fairly strenuous hike. We will go at a leisurely pace, but you should be in decent shape and it will take about 5-6 hours.

Unfortunately there is a limit to how many people can join us, so please rsvp to info@juniperridge.com by April 1 in order to secure a spot. We'll get back to you with directions when you sign up.

Posted by vicki at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)