Mountain Star Herbals and the City of Roanoke’s Economic Development Department will host the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for the first herb, spice, and tea shop in downtown Roanoke (7A Church Ave. SE) on Thursday, June 18 at 3:30.
Roanoke City Council Member, Phazhon Nash, will represent the City in the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the grand opening of Mountain Star Herbals, a new retail shop featuring herbs, spices, teas, and natural body care, and carefully curated books, supplies, art, and gifts. It will soon offer herbal classes and workshops, and regeneratively cultivated herbs, plants, and seeds from the owner’s local herb farm, Mountain Star Farm.
This new business is Roanoke’s first to offer bulk, high quality, and organic herbs, spices, and teas, as well as tea blends and natural body care products made by Alisha Gaskins, the store owner, herbalist, and medical anthropologist. She has been offering her products to the community for the last year at the Salem Farmers and Artisan Markets and other local craft vendor markets, but has been building her herbal knowledge and skills for a lifetime.
This new shop has hundreds of jars of bulk herbs and spices for cooking, teas, remedies, burning, magic, and more. You can purchase a little or a lot of any of them, and Alisha will offer you guidance along the way.
“When I moved here, almost five years ago, I quickly realized there was no herb shop in Roanoke”, said Alisha Gaskins, the new business owner. “So I ordered what I could online, started a small herb farm and an online Etsy shop, and did local farmer and artisan markets, but this shop is really what I needed. I hope to fill a need that our community may not have realized we had”.
She hopes to not only provide the ingredients to make herbal teas, remedies, and body care, but the information and education to empower the community to feel confident in doing so.
Alisha has spent her entire life learning about nutrition, herbs, and systems of medicine. She is a Medical Anthropologist and holds a Masters Degree in Social Science, earned through an interdisciplinary program focused on Environment and Community, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and Studio Art.
She is also a certified doula and has focused her studies, teaching, and service on women’s health, birthing and post-partum support, and the connections between human biology and culture.
She considers herself a “recovering academic” after 20 years of teaching preschool, K-12, and as a lecturer at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, in northern California. She has a passion for sharing her knowledge to help those around her, whether that is while giving one-on-one consultations, leading workshops through Carilion’s Community Health and Outreach Program, or as an invited guest for local community groups.
This budding entrepreneur is looking forward to offering small classes in the Mountain Star Herbals shop space in the next coming weeks to teach the community about herbalism, how to make herbal teas, tinctures, syrups, infused oils, and body care products.
Mountain Star Herbals is located in downtown Roanoke at 7A Church Ave SE, between Market and Jefferson Streets. Find information about how to visit and support this new business at www.mountainstarherbals.com and on Instagram and Facebook.
