our process
the farm
Chelan Valley Botanicals is located at Wildnow Family Farm, a 43-acre permaculture homestead based in Manson, Washington. Permaculture is a method for designing food systems using nature as its guide and we are 13 years into our effort to repair the land after a century of hard use and a decade of neglect. The focus of our energies is creating a regenerative food system that produces yields throughout the year, with an emphasis on growing a large diversity of medicinal herbs for use in our products. Our choice of plants is based on a combination of what does well on our farm and can be wildcrafted or tended in a semi wild fashion and those herbs that need more love and attention to thrive and be productive in our climate.
Things like catnip, poplar bud, wild roses, stinging nettle, burdock, plantain, chamomile, comfrey, red raspberry, sea buckthorn, yellow dock, yarrow, arnica, calendula, helichrysum, lavender, white sage, spilanthes, echinacea, valerian, gentian, angelica, clary sage, mugwort, mint, hops, dandelion, mustard, and many more thrive here in our rich soil and these are our allies that we depend on for their reliable help.
the ingredients
At Chelan Valley Botanicals, we strive to make amazing skin and aromatherapy products that leave you wanting more. We start with lovingly grown herbs, tended throughout the year and harvested at their peak to bring you the best our plant allies have to offer. Those herbs are combined with carefully sourced carrier and essential oils to form the basis of our creations.
Our commitment is to use only the best quality organic or wildcrafted ingredients for the skin and the home, and you can be comfortable using them with your family knowing that we’re using them with our family too. When we are crafting something for use on the skin, the utmost care is put into the ensuring the quality of the oils that are used. We are harvesting our herbs at their peak and that quality must be matched by the oil they are paired with.
The base for many of our most effective and popular products are the infused oils we carefully make each year. The process starts with handpicked herbs, including arnica, calendula, plantain, poplar bud, helichrysum, yarrow and hops, which are then steeped in organic olive oil and solar infused for a minimum of 40 days. The beauty of this process is its simplicity as the oils are imbued with a vibrancy and potency from the herbs and that allows us to bring the best our farm has to offer to you year-round. Those infused oils form the foundation for our healing salves, lip balms, and the household essential 3 Giants.
In addition to the infused oils we make, we also distill a variety of hydrosols for use in our products. Hydrosols are a product of steam distillation, the same process used to produce many essential oils. For our purposes the distillation process creates such a small amount of essential oil that the hydrosols are the real prize. They are a wonderful infusion of the herb that are the backbone of several of our items such as Bug Me Not, and the Blue Rose Face Cream.
mixology
All the things we make were created out of a need to solve a problem. Whether it is bug bites, headaches, body aches or any other type of aches, each presents an issue needing attention and opportunities to lean on our plant friends. Through careful research and thoughtful observation, the best plants for the job reveal themselves and are incorporated in the next steps. With trial and error, a core set of recipes has been crafted by Barbara and Seth to meet a variety of problems that fall roughly into the categories of pain, anxiety and sleep. If we can help you with one of those or all of those, our creations are doing their work.
