Surprising Source for Unusual Herbs and EO's

[psychgirl]

On New Years, I went snooping in e Russian market here in our town (it's tiny and I never really noticed it before, but been there quite a while I guess) and was SO surprised to find essentail oils and herbs I have NEVER seen at other places like Whole Foods or Earth Fare. For example, and I can't remember them all, I found Meadowfoam Seed Oil in a large bottle for around $6....never seen that before and so good for the skin and hair!....tons of the antiseptic type oils, such as Camphor, Eucalyptus, etc all for less than $5. Some of them were only $1.87! The row of dried, boxed herbs was also some of the most hard to find I've ever seen and NEVER at any other store. All kinds of flowering herbs, medicinals, PURE, RAW, IMPORTED HONEY was $10!....you name it! I didn't price check those but I doubt if they were expensive judging by the other prics in the store. I just thought if any of you enjoy obscure markets, you might be surprised what they sell.

The same goes for the very large Indian market. Herbs, oils, HONEY, spices, medicinals,....the selection there is more extansive at least in the one I was at. And NOT expensive!

The only trick is, tolerating the language barrier and less than welcoming staff. They weren't rude, just not overly excited to help out the "white girl" and in the Indian market some sort of scary, Pakistani type jibberish news station was on their radio, so I just "minded my own", lol, got what I needed and politely thanked them.

 

[Cardinal]

The 'Russians' weren't white?

 

[psychgirl]

The 'Russians' weren't white?

No, lol, I was referring to the Indian store. The Russian market wasn't overly anxious to answer my questions either. (They were the "friendliest" to the customers with their wallets out at the register)...I was just an annoyance, not PURCHASING at that time. But I plan on it next time

 

[summerthyme]

Ummm... please be careful. A "large bottle" of ANY real essential oil isn't going to be "cheap". If the prices were *significantly* less than any price you can find online, I'd probably pass on them...

Also, remember- many cultures have NO issue with mislabeling or "lying" to their customers- it's simply considered "good business". That "pure, imported honey" MAY be just raw honey... or it may be half sugar, or corn syrup, or from Chinese bees which have been fed chloramphenicol (a very dangerous antibiotic).

Note that I'm not saying that American companies don't occasionally pull stuff like that, but it's frowned upon...

Just be careful, ok?

Summerthyme

 

[psychgirl]

Well, dang, Summer.. The bottle of Meadowfoam seed oil was about three times the size of reg EO's, Not massive, lol, just bigger than normal. I guess you're right and usually I'm very cynical of foreign stuff...
Bummer.

But the other thing I found there that I DID come back to mention, is a box of Dried Marshmallow, like the kind I've read that is good for coughing, as well as hair.

 

[summerthyme]

I know, it stinks! But one of the ways you can tell if oils are "pure essential oils" or simply "scent or flavoring" knockoffs is price- if every oil in a particular bottle size is the same price, they are NOT essential oils.

Check out the prices at some of the reliable internet sources, especially the commercial sized bottles (I buy essential oils in quart bottles!) If the price per ounce in the store are less than the price per ounce in the commercial bottles from a good source, I would *not* buy them. Now, if you just wanted them for scenting candles or soap (that's what the vast majority of people buy them for), then it doesn't matter, unless there are allergies in your household.

Herbs are another problem... a few years ago, a bunch of people got very sick taking Virginia Skullcap... liver problems. It turned out, (after warnings were put out to not take Skullcap, etc, because it will cause liver issues) that it wasn't skullcap at all- the folks who were harvesting and selling the stuff mistook another common herb for skullcap, and it was mixed into the bulk skullcap supplies. This is definitely a market where "buyer beware" applies. And while that sucks, in some ways, I still would rather have it this way than have the FDA "regulating" all of it- if you think prices are bad now, think about what they'd be like if they require every batch of herb sold to be tested using NIR to guarantee it's what they say it is...

Summerthyme

 

[psychgirl]

By the quart?? I can't imagine how pricey THAT is!!

 

[summerthyme]

Yeah, you really dont' want to know!! Now that we don't have the dairy cows, I won't need to be making up the large quantities of fly spray, etc that I used to use a LOT of EO's in... And, of course, there were some that were simply so pricey that I had to buy smaller quantities- check out Rose Geranium oil sometime... ouch! (but it's a potent anti-inflammatory, and a very valuable addition to udder salves as well as healing salves and creams).

Summerthyme

 

[moldy]

Summerthyme - could you please post your recipe for fly spray? I used one last summer that was effective after about a week (I think it had to get into the cow's system to work). I really dislike using chemicals on things I eat and avoid it as much as possible.

Psychgirls - try growing marshmallow. I had one small plant - now it and horehound have taken over a 3x8 foot bed!