The Free Herbalism Project Presented by Mountain Rose Herbs

Mountain Rose Herbs created the Free Herbalism Project as a way to honor our deep roots in the herbal community.
 Check out this amazing project and related podcasts at http://freeherbalismproject.com

In 1987, Rosemary Gladstar began a small business to provide class supplies to her students at the California School of Herbal Studies. When she moved to Vermont, the mail order portion of the company was passed on, and Rose Madrone created Mountain Rose Herbs. Shortly after, Rose enlisted the help of her friend Julie Bailey, a teaching herbalist, wilderness guide, and avid gardener, and by 1991 Julie bought the small herbal business. Over the years, Mountain Rose blossomed and in 2000 when her partner and passionate wilderness activist Shawn Donnille became co-owner, the word spread quickly via the internet and word of mouth and Mountain Rose Herbs soon became known as the go-to source for high quality organic herbs by herbalists, students, and natural health stores around the country.

Fast-forward to 2011 and the Rootstalk Festival. After many years of sponsoring and attending wonderful herbal conferences around the country, we started planning our own special event. As plant lovers and herbalists, the folks at Mountain Rose are intimately connected with the healing power found within wild places. As an herbal company, we work to infuse this nature centered perspective into all of our practices to promote an educated, independent, and righteous community. Rootstalk allowed us to cultivate this movement by bringing together a distinctive mix of experts from diverse backgrounds in the herbal and environmental movements to share their invaluable insights, skills, and rich knowledge about the earth. The festival was a beautiful experience that exceeded all of our dreams!

However, while we tried to keep Rootstalk ticket prices as low as possible, the festival – like so many other events – was cost prohibitive for some people. We decided that we needed to transform Rootstalk into an educational community gathering for everyone who wanted to participate and learn. Suddenly, inspiration found us – “Make it FREE!”

To turn this inspiration into reality, we restructured the Rootstalk Festival into a series of free herbal lectures and events now called The Free Herbalism Project. These events are free to the public and feature respected herbal teachers from around the country. These events will also offer an opportunity to raise funds for non-profit organizations, free clinics, and small herbal schools through the sale of t-shirts, mugs, herbal books, DVDs and other herbal goodies.

We are excited to present this series to you as a gift of our gratitude. We hope you will gather with us to send the herbal tradition of shared knowledge out in ripples and waves of hope and healing throughout our community.