Do you know where your herbs come from?

Working in relationship with bio-regional plants

Do you know there are many local companies and farms growing herbs right here in Alberta, like Reclaim Organics, Chickadee Herb Farm, and sourcing local herbs and mushrooms like Mona Foods? We work with these companies as well as grow and forage many of our ingredients. 
We may be classified as a zone 3, but there is an abundant mount of plants that are here to share their gifts and support our wellness and we can take care of them too in relationship with the land. You can forage for many plants in urban areas or grow them in your garden or even on your balcony! 
If we only gathered locally and purchased from local farms, we would have an abundant array of plants to pick from!
At PLANTiful, we focus on foraging for those plants that are plentiful in the wild. What we don't forage for, we get as locally grown as possible, as fresh as possible and organic always. When it is a plant/lichen/mushroom that is slow growing or not abundant, we use with care and limit the number of products that it is in.
We have invested in equipment like a hydraulic press, and a dehydrator so that we can undertake WHOLE-PLANT PROCESSING, which mean we take the plant in whole form then process it ourselves into dried leaves, powders, and infusions such as plant infuseed oils, tinctures, or oxymels. Whole plant-processing helps ensure that we have high quality ingredients and can make high quality products. When you capture the plant as soon as it's ripe and process it right away, much more of the delicate flavonoids, antioxidants, carotenoids, and resins are able to be captured by us.
 Fresh calendula getting ready to dry on our dehydrators for several hours at low temp.
If we were to work with only plants able to grow wild or be garden cultivated in Alberta, here are some examples: 
  • Balsam Poplar
  • Birch
  • Burdock Root
  • Chamomile flowers
  • Calendula
  • Chickweed
  • Cleavers (aka Sticky Weed)
  • Comfrey
  • Dandelion
  • Echinacea
  • Hops flowers
  • Horsetail
  • Lilac blossoms
  • Lemon Balm leaves
  • Juniper berries
  • Oxeye Daisy
  • Marshmallow
  • Mint family
  • Muskeg Tea
  • Nettle 
  • Oats
  • Pine
  • Pineapple Weed (wild chamomile)
  • Plantain leaves
  • Raspberry
  • Stevia
  • Seabuckthorn
  • Spruce, White
  • Spruce, Black
  • Roses
  • Rosemary
  • Tamarack
  • Thyme
  • Usnea (old Man's beard - lichen)
  • Violets
  • Willow Bark
  • Yarrow

This list is only just scratching the surface. It's impossible to know every plant well. I've chosen the ones that we have worked with in relationship and ones I enjoy using medicinally.

A wise herbalist once said it's better to know a handful of plants really well than a 100 herbs only slightly. A handful of plants from this list could address seasonal imbalances quite easily. When you consume the plants where you live, they help you thrive where you live. They are adapted to this unique environment and help you adapt & thrive too.

Other ingredients we purchase or process locally or are grown within this bioregion of Canada include:

  • Alberta Apple Cider Vinegar (made form Edmonton Grown Apples)
  • Alberta Wildflower Honey
  • Alberta Cera Flava (We use Yellow Beeswax because it still has honey, pollen, some propolis, and more nutrients than White filtered beeswax known as Cera Alba does not).
  • Alberta Bee Pollen
  • Grass-fed Alberta Beef Tallow
  • Butter
  • Canadian Pink Salt (mined from ancient sea beds under the prairies)
  • Clear Stock 96% from Strathcona Distillery
  • Mushrooms - such as Chaga, Reishi and more