ABOUT OUR DRIED HERBS

We only produce SMALL QUANTITIES of all our herbs.
Please do not try and order by the pound, we don't have pounds and pounds of material. We produce small gourmet harvests of each of our herbs.

Here is how.

1. All our herbs are grown on our organic farm.
Everything is grown here we do not buy in any products to sell on to you.

2. We don't use ANY pesticides at all
Organic does not mean no pesticides it just means different pesticides. We use NOTHING, our plants are never sprayed with anything but water (meaning rain) we don't top irrigate our plants either. All they ever feel is natural rain.

3. Our fields are kept 'clean'.
Many wonder why we use ground cover between our herb rows. There are many reasons but a very important one is that it keeps the plants clean. There is no splashing of soil onto the plants which can transfer pathogens from the soil onto the plant. Good herbal supplement companies demand that herbs are grown this way, but most farms do not do this. We do. Your herbs are soil less. (well unless its a root then of course they will have been soil).

4. We hand harvest and hand inspect every herb we grow.
There is no mechanization for harvesting our herbs. We use snips or a hand scythe to cut and collect the herb. This way we can avoid any plants that we don't think are up to standard or maybe a bird pooped on one, we can go around that and only harvest the best pristine herbal material. Most farms cut with mechanized equipment so they cut everything good and bad.

5. We practice regeneration.
While we will completely harvest a annual herb, or at least cut it right down if its one that will regenerate for a second crop all our perennial plants are only partially harvested. For anyone looking at our perennial rows after harvest may not even realize that we have been through and 'thinned' the plant. We only take a portion of each plant. This allows the plant plenty of leaf are to survive and grow healthily. This can only be done if the herb is hand harvested. Mechanized harvesters will take the whole top of the plant cutting it down to the ground. We keep our plants happy and healthy and only take a portion of each one.

6. Herbs are hand inspected.
Once a herb has been harvested it is hand inspected, any unwanted material like tough stems, suspect material, brown leaves and such like are removed manually before it goes to be dried. Most herb producers just dump all their fresh herbs in a large drying shed as it is without inspection so all suspect material is dried along with it. Its much harder to target this bad material after that plant is dry so it just goes on to you.

7. We WASH our herbs.
Almost all our herbs go through a gentle wash. This removes any dust, dirt or pollen from other plants that may have fallen onto the plant along with any soil, insects or other foreign material. It's surprising how much stuff is removed! Looking at the water after gently washing what would be considered a pristine herb reveals a lot of this material that would otherwise have been left and still been on the herb when you receive it. Our wash is brief and gentle to ensure no compounds from the plant are removed.
We don't wash all our material. Flowers and some herbs that have important compounds that are strongly water soluble are not washed but they are still thoroughly inspected before drying.

8. Careful drying.
All our material is dried slowly and carefully in solar powered dryers in the DARK. This ensures that none of the compounds are bleached out or in any way altered by direct sunlight. Too many herb companies use greenhouse like structures to dry their herbs. This exposes them to the sun and can cause bleaching. Such transparent houses get VERY HOT meaning the compounds may be changed by heat or even 'cooked'. This can drive off volatile compounds which can be an important part of the herbal makeup and could render the herb useless for some applications.
We use much lower heat over a longer period to ensure that as much of the herb is preserved as possible.

9. Our herbs are stored whole.
We keep our herbal material as close to its natural state as possible when it is first dried. We do remove any large stems and stalks that are not considered importantly herbal. (Not for all as some plants the stems are considered very important herbally.) Our material is not crushed and certainly not powered. Both processes can release many of the important compounds far to early. Keeping them in the whole leaf as long as possible ensures you get the best product.

9. Cool storing.
Once our herbs are dried they are placed in sealed buckets to ensure they stay dry and no moisture can be introduced to the product. These buckets are then stored in a climate controlled stockroom that keeps the herbs cool. Changes in temperature and humidity can be very detrimental to the compounds in the herb and they can begin to break down. We try to ensure the herbs are as pristine as possible for you.

10. Order processing.
Our herbs stay in their pristine bulk state until you order them. Only then are the removed from their sealed bucket and packaged into the size of bag that you require. Only at this point is material either cut sifted or powdered (only available on some herbs) at the request of the buyer.

11. Herb packaging.
Our herbs are packaged in plastic resealable stand up light proof pouches. This ensures that your herb is kept as pristine as possible until you are ready to use it.

We are proud of our herbs and the quality we offer. At each step we ensure that the herb is kept in its best state to provide you with the best possible product on the market today. Grown very organically in the United States.