This weekend, the second annual Eugene Tea Festival will fill the Farmers Market Pavilion and Plaza with sweet, earthy aromas, gentle music, and sophisticated conversation about tea and culture. Many of our very own vendors will be showcasing their knowledge, skills, and wares related to tea, and we highly encourage you to show your support for them as well as other members of the community by stopping by!
One such vendor is Rooted Remedies, an apothecary whose brick and mortar has been open in downtown Eugene for over a year now. The owner, Kassaundra Lynn, sells a variety of tinctures, balms, salves, oils, and seasoning salts in addition to tea at both her storefront and our market. Being an herbalist as well as a business owner, Kas wildcrafts many of the ingredients used in her products in a sustainable way, so as to not put at-risk plant species in further danger. This includes herbs like yarrow, dandelion root, rose petals, lemon balm, and hawthorn, all of which are used in their tea blends for differing purposes, such as focus or relaxation. Sourcing these plants from Pacific Northwest forests, they believe that “working with the herbs and wild foods in your local ecosystem is a fantastic way of working with your environment to build resiliency for your health and wellness”.
Kas describes the tea-making process, no matter how extensive or fancy, as a kind of ritual that forces yourself to slow down. In terms of preparing dried teas, Rooted Remedies prides itself in making each blend in small batches to ensure freshness, and packaging them into individual portion tea bags, tins, or in bulk. Tea specifically has always been a part of Kas’ life, including having tea time with her grandmothers as a child. “When I was little, my grandmas would dress me up in frilly dresses and take me to high tea. As I got older, attending high tea was no longer part of my experience, but drinking tea always remained.”
Another such vendor is Boho Boto, short for Bohemian Botanicals. This apothecary, owned by herbalist Ryan O’Connor Wolik, similarly offers tinctures, tonics, body care products, and extracts as well as tea at our market and online, specializing in mushroom-based and chai teas. Most of the ingredients used in these products are foraged or grown by Ryan herself, and for the purposes of making tea blends, are harvested, air-dried, blended, and packaged. The mushrooms used in her teas, like reishi, artist’s conk, and agarikon, as well as herbs like hawthorn, tulsi, and rosehips are gathered anywhere from the Oregon coast to the Cascades.
Ryan’s exposure to tea started during her college years in Massachusetts and London, where going to local tea shops and learning about British, Scottish, and Irish tea culture sprouted a love for tea as a drink. She specifically enjoys cacao, which Ryan says she drank every day, even in the summer. Having been studying herbalism for 13+ years and selling herbal products for 10+ years, Ryan is happy to still be learning and growing as a person and as a business. Her “soul couldn’t be happier” having abandoned a well-paying corporate job to connect people to plants.