Around the Corner: Local store of herbs, teas and other home remedies

As soon as you enter the store, you are encompassed in the scent of incenses, teas and herbs.

The Tucson Herb Store, located at 228 N. Fourth Avenue, has been providing herbs and herbal medicine to the Tucson community since 2003.

According to the Tucson Herb Store website, the store offers “a large variety of herbs, both staples and natives, teas, tinctures, incense, and products for the home, body, and mind.”

Amanda Brown, herbalist, acupuncturist and owner of the Tucson Herb Store, has been studying herbal medicine for about 18 years.

Herbs being displayed in Tucson Herb Store on Fourth Avenue in Downtown Tucson. The Tucson Herb store also has an in house clinic, and hosts classes on herb usage.

“I feel that it’s really important for our community to have a relationship with herbs,” Brown said. “We have grown up and evolved with plants, so it is an intrinsic part of our nature to have that connection.”

According to Brown, she feels that a relationship to plants is a healing one and brings the community together.

“I have always felt that an herb store is something that a community really needs,” Brown said. “Healing and health should be more accessible.”

Brown expressed the importance for shopping locally and how online shopping has become “deadly.”

“It’s important to have human connection and quality products, not mass-marketed,” she said.

Herbalist and employee of the store Ash Ritter has been studying plants for 17 years. She makes bulk medicinal and culinary herbs as well as formulas for health and wellness sold at the store.

Ash Ritter, one of the employees at Tucson Herb Store on Fourth Avenue in Downtown Tucson during her shift. Tucson Herb Store has been open since 2003.

Ritter said she also believes that the herb store is a beneficial and easy way for the Tucson community to receive healing.

“A big reason why I love this space and herbs in general is that it’s a traditional and accessible form of healthcare,” Ritter said.

Ritter says that herbal medicine allows people to be more intimate with their own health, rather than relying on others.

“It is truly an art form,” Ritter said. “It is a lifelong passion and a journey that will never end.”

Inside the herb store, there is an onsite clinic that offers healing through acupuncture, herbal consultations and more.

Brown offers acupuncture and herbal consults through the onsite clinic. She is also trained in somatic experiencing, which according to the Tucson Herb Store website, is “a form of trauma therapy aimed at relieving and resolving symptoms of PTSD and other mental and physical health problems.”

Bradford Trojan also works at the onsite clinic and offers somatic experiencing therapy as well as craniosacral therapy. Trojan explained that craniosacral therapy is aimed at healing trauma in the muscles through gentle touch.

Herbal teas in store at Tucson Herb Store on Fourth Avenue in Downtown Tucson. The store sells teas for boosting metabolism, helping allergies, and other health-related remedies.

“I think that it’s really nice that there’s that work going on in the herb store,” Trojan said. “Kind of like a little healing center for people to come and feel safe and feel like they’re getting support on whatever they’re working on.”

The store offers classes for people in the Tucson community looking to further their knowledge on herbs.

The first Saturday of every month, the store hosts a “Community Herb Circle” from 10-11 a.m. Then, on the third Saturday of every month they host an “Herb Salon” from 10-11 a.m. Their monthly “Watercolors Plant Study Group” class, as well as a “Botanical Cooking Class,” are taught by Ritter.

For more information on the Tucson Herb Store, visit their website or their Instagram page.

The Tucson Herb Store is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Sundays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

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