On Saturday Bracken and I went to town to run some errands and also to go to the grand opening of the Mountain Rose Herbs Mercantile. Our family loves Mountain Rose Herbs and we’ve been long time customers. We’ve been grateful over the years that we lived close enough to pick up online orders at their warehouse and it has saved us so much money on shipping, especially with the heavy items like clay. You can imagine our excitement when we found out they were opening up a storefront! (Conveniently located right across from another favorite store of ours, Down To Earth.)

Jeff wanted to come with us for the grand opening, but decided that he really needed to get some work done in his shop that day. In the end, I think it was better that he didn’t join us because it was much more crowded than I had expected it would be. Jeff gets claustrophobic in crowded indoor spaces and isn’t a fan of long lines either, and I realized in hindsight that coming on the opening day wasn’t ideal for him. I figured if we got there right when they opened, we’d be arriving before it got too busy (I don’t know why I thought that), but when we got there we saw a long line of people standing in the rain, waiting to get inside. It was busy!

When we came in the door, we were given a free tote bag (yay!), and some herbal tea to drink while we walked around. There was some foot stompin’ music playing, a fiddle and a banjo, in the corner. I brought my favorite herbal book with me that I’ve had for years and we got it signed by the author, Rosemary Gladstar. It was such a pleasure to meet Rosemary in person, she is just as warm and lovely as she is in the words of her book. I asked if she could write her note in the book to Bracken because I would be passing the book along to him someday. He chatted with her about collecting leaves and his garden, and then I got a picture of the two of them. Seeing her was a bright highlight in our day.

In the mercantile, I loved the chalkboard walls with the tins of herbs and teas. You could open up the tins and smell everything. Bracken liked the wooden bathtub full of rosebuds and needed some rosebuds after that. There was so much to see, I knew I wanted to come back later with Jeff joining us and explore the space more. I loved seeing how much the community of Eugene loves (and supports) Mountain Rose Herbs! There were so many happy faces that day, and so much excitement over the new storefront. If you are ever in Eugene, I highly recommend visiting the mercantile, it’s a wonderful place.