Alaska Rhodiola

As a physician, I am always on the lookout for ways to improve human health. As an Alaskan, I also want to support our local farmers. When I learned about Rhodiola rosea's health benefits and its history of use among northern circumpolar Native people, I wanted to see if we could offer our farmers a crop that actually likes to grow in our harsh climate. Since 2009, I have been working with Alaskan farmers to develop best cultivation, harvesting, and root processing methods. At first, I was acting as a broker to connect them with small botanical companies that would purchase the dried roots for manufacturing their own retail products, but I soon realized that most of the value of this precious crop was not staying in Alaska. I therefore decided to become the main buyer myself, and formulated a high quality tincture in my home kitchen. I then built a manufacturing facility nearby and scaled up production. My intent was to vertically integrate everything from farm to store shelf locally, to keep the value-added pieces in Alaska. We now have six employees! This approach has been very successful, as our our annual sales are reaching nearly one million dollars. I am thrilled to have started a company from scratch that helps Alaskan farmers, creates jobs, and makes our customers' and client's lives better and healthier.