St. John's Wort Harvest

Every year around the first week of July, the OWH crew loads up trucks with camping gear, buckets, ice and boxes, and heads up north to harvest St. John's Wort flowers. This trek to a pristine location in northern Washington has been the site of our annual St. John's Wort harvest for the past ten years. We have developed a close relationship with the Department of Natural Resources, and have secured a harvest permit for the same protected location each year.

According to several studies, the flavonoids are richer in plants that grow in higher altitudes, on north facing slopes. Studies also have shown that many of the naturally occurring compounds within this plant decrease when the light hits the plant. Flavonoid and procyanidin concentrations (as high as 11.71%) are reported highest in the flowers during the budding stages, immediately before flowering.

With this knowledge, we leave camp at 4:00 a.m. and head for the fields. Donning gloves and following strict sanitary techniques, we harvest only those flowers in the budding stage, carefully and quickly making the most of the morning. When the daily harvest is complete by noon, we return to the campsite ready to prepare the flowers. Our next step is twofold - some buds are set directly into alcohol - giving us the freshest extract possible. The other buds are packed with reusable ice packs, boxed up, and shipped on a pallet back to our farm in Oregon. This mini-refrigerator keeps the herb fresh and succulent until it reaches the farm; within 24 hours of harvest, the St. John's Wort goes into our dryers.

By choosing the prime location, optimum time of day for harvest, and harvesting only the plant part with the most active constituents, we can produce the purest, St. John's Wort products available. As always, we won't compromise quality for quantity.

So, when you try our St. John's Wort extract or dried herb, you can appreciate its origin, and picture a remote campground situated high in the mountains - home to elk, moose and black bear. It doesn't get any better.

Life on the Farm

Spring planting is now completed, and the crops are beginning to flourish. New this year is organic licorice, as well as echinacea angustifolia. We have also expanded our goldenseal field, and have planted an abundance of ashwagandha, skullcap, and feverfew.

Bees are alive and thriving at OWH! We had a local beekeeper approach us this year and help us expand our healthy single hive into 6 hives. As an organic farm, we don't treat the bees or their environment, yet they remain healthy and the swarms continually create golden honey. Maybe it's all the Echinacea pollen they collect!