Monday, July 28, 2008

Herbs and Spices

Since HERBS is the first word in our name, I want to share how we got started selling them.


One Christmas about 12 years ago we were pretty poor and had no idea what to give everyone as gifts. I happened across an ad for a company that sold all the ingredients to make potpourri. One of the items was whole cloves. I was so impressed by the size and fragrance, I decided to try their other herbs, for our own use. 


The next one we got was Bay Leaves. They were huge, actually the largest I had even seen.

We were doing craft shows at the time and started packaging them. To our surprise folks were very happy with them and started asking for more. We only added culinary herbs at 1st, because that is what I knew about, since I love to cook.


But because we were living in NM alot of people were asking for the herbs they have used for centuries for healing and well being. We sought out Mexican herb suppliers along with other suppliers of dried Botanicals too. 


The shop was in our living room for a few years until there was no more room. In 1998 we opened a brick and mortar store with nearly 400 herbs, spices, healing herbs and Mexican herbs. In 2001 we sold and closed the store in order to move to New York.

The inventory is building again (up to 130) and the goal is to have them all listed on eBay by the 1st of October along with alot of potpourri ingredients, recipes and fragrance oils. As folks request certain herbs, we will be adding those too. 


Most are packaged in 1 ounce packages and are so much fresher than what is bought commercially. When we sell them now at face to face meetings, we give a warning to use less than they normally would since they are so much more potent that what they are used to buying. 


We are so grateful for those early beginnings and all the lessons our customers have taught us about the use and advantages of some things I never ever heard of.





No comments:

Post a Comment