For many years, we've dreamed about opening a little apothecary of our own.
A place where you could walk through the door and smell dried herbs, beeswax candles and botanical oils. Where shelves would be lined with remedies and jars of herbs but where you could also stop for a conversation, ask questions, learn something new and feel connected to the people and plants around you.
Now that dream is finally becoming a reality.
We're incredibly excited to announce the upcoming opening of Black River Apothecary in Rochester, Washington.
This new shop will become the brick-and-mortar home of Wild Women Herbs, but our vision for Black River Apothecary reaches far beyond simply having a place to sell our products.
We want to create a community apothecary... a place rooted in plants, traditional skills, local food and the belief that we are all capable of learning how to care for ourselves and our families in meaningful ways.
Why "Black River Apothecary"?
Choosing a name for this space was important to us.
We wanted something that felt connected to the land and community where the shop would live rather than simply putting the Wild Women Herbs name above the door.
The Black River is part of the landscape and history of this area. Naming the shop Black River Apothecary is our way of rooting this new chapter in place.
Wild Women Herbs will continue to be the herbal company we've spent years building, while Black River Apothecary will become something a little bigger: a physical place where our work can intersect with the community around us.
Our hope is that, over time, it becomes a neighborhood apothecary in the truest sense of the word.
A place to find herbs and remedies, certainly—but also a place to learn, gather, share knowledge and support other local growers, makers and small businesses.
A Place to Learn About Plant Medicine
One of the things we're most excited about is having the opportunity to teach in person again.
We believe herbal medicine doesn't have to be complicated or intimidating.
You don't need to know the Latin name of every plant growing in the forest or have an entire room filled with tinctures to begin learning how to use herbs. Sometimes it starts with learning which tea to make when someone in your family isn't feeling well, how to identify the plants growing in your backyard or how to turn a handful of herbs into a simple salve.
Those small skills build confidence.
And eventually, they become knowledge you carry with you.
We want Black River Apothecary to be a place where people can reconnect with those skills and learn practical ways to use plants and traditional remedies as part of everyday life.
The Bulk Herb Bar
One of the centerpieces of the shop will be our Bulk Herb Bar.
Instead of needing to order large bags of herbs online, you'll be able to come into the apothecary and purchase the amount you actually need.
Our shelves will be filled with over 30 jars of medicinal and culinary herbs that you can purchase by weight, whether you need a small amount for a recipe or want to stock your home apothecary.
We'll carry familiar favorites alongside herbs you may not have worked with before, giving you the opportunity to explore herbal medicine without committing to a large quantity.
And, of course, we're always happy to talk plants.
If you're standing in front of a wall of herbs wondering where to begin, we hope you'll ask!
A Zero-Waste Refillery
Black River Apothecary will also include a Refillery Station where you can refill everyday household and personal-care products rather than purchasing another disposable container every time you run out.
We're planning offerings such as laundry detergent, dish soap, household cleaners, shampoo, conditioner, Castile soap and other household staples.
Bring your own container or purchase one from us, fill as much or as little as you need and pay by weight or volume.
Our goal isn't perfection or creating a completely "zero-waste" household overnight. It's simply making it easier for our community to reuse what we already have and reduce unnecessary packaging where we can.
Local Honey & Food
Supporting local agriculture is another important part of our vision for the shop.
We'll be carrying local raw honey and honeycomb, including beautiful jars for your pantry as well as smaller options for gifts and everyday use.
But honey is only the beginning.
As the shop grows, we're planning to add a commercial refrigerator that will allow us to carry more locally produced foods.
Eventually, we'd love for you to be able to stop by Black River Apothecary for things like:
- Local milk and dairy products
- Farm-fresh eggs
- Seasonal produce
- Locally made snacks and foods
We love the idea of the apothecary becoming a small marketplace for our surrounding farming community—a place where local growers and producers can get their food into the hands of local families.
The more of our food, medicine and everyday necessities we can source within our own communities, the stronger and more resilient those communities become.
And Then There's the Backyard...
One of the things that made us fall in love with this particular property is what sits behind the shop.
We have a large backyard with a beautiful structure that is more than 100 years old, and from the moment we saw it, we started imagining what it could become.
Our long-term vision is to use this outdoor space for workshops, classes and community gatherings.
We can imagine summer afternoons spent underneath that old structure learning how to make herbal medicine. Plant walks. Salve-making classes. Tincture workshops. Seasonal herbalism. Wildcrafting. Traditional skills. Local makers teaching their crafts.
Maybe even gatherings we haven't dreamed up yet.
There is plenty of work to do before all of that happens, but we're incredibly excited about the possibilities.
We don't want Black River Apothecary to simply be somewhere you shop.
We want it to be somewhere you come together.
From an Online Herbal Business to a Community Apothecary
Opening a physical shop is a huge transition for our family and our business.
For years, so much of our work has happened behind the scenes—growing and harvesting plants, making remedies in small batches, packing orders and sending boxes of herbal medicine all over the country.
We've been incredibly grateful for what Wild Women Herbs has grown into.
But there has always been a piece missing.
Community.
There is something different about handing someone a bottle you made yourself. About talking with a customer face-to-face about the herbs they're interested in. About teaching someone how to make their first tincture and watching them realize that herbal medicine isn't nearly as complicated as they thought it was.
We've dreamed about having a space where those things could happen for many years.
Now we finally get to build it.
Cultivating Community Through Plants
Those four words have become the heart of what we want Black River Apothecary to represent.
Cultivating Community Through Plants.
Plants have always brought people together.
They feed us. They heal us. They teach us. They connect us to seasons, landscapes and generations of people who came before us.
And perhaps most importantly, learning about them reminds us that we are capable of participating in our own well-being.
Our hope is that Black River Apothecary becomes a place where that knowledge feels accessible again.
A place where you can buy a bottle of herbal medicine—but also learn how plants work.
Where you can refill your laundry detergent, pick up a jar of local honey and discover an herb you've never heard of.
Where you might eventually spend a summer afternoon outside learning how to make medicine alongside your neighbors.
And where supporting a small business also means supporting local farmers, makers and producers throughout our community.
We're still painting, building, organizing, sourcing and getting everything ready to open our doors, and there is a lot of work ahead of us.
But after dreaming about this for so many years, it's incredibly exciting to finally say:
Black River Apothecary is coming soon!
We can't wait to become store owners, meet more of our neighbors and see what this little apothecary grows into over the years ahead.
Of course, all these images are mockups and the space will probably look and feel a little different once we're finished but we wanted to share our general vision with you while we're in the planning stages here! We will be sharing updates on the entire build-out on our social media channels, so be sure to like us on Instagram and Facebook so you can follow along!
When our doors open, we hope you'll stop in, say hello and take a look around.
We have so much we can't wait to share with you!
xo, Megan and Santiago Gurule
Black River Apothecary
9929 Hwy 12 SW Rochester, WA 98579
