Speaker 1: 0:32

And so we left that last doctor's appointment just like really perplexed, like hold on, we can't like, we have a two-month-old, you're 32. We cannot take that as an answer. And so he was a chef at the time and I was working in the wellness industry and we just both. We decided we need to find something, find something you can take every day that will help to heal the brain. And so we went on our personal journey during that time of just reading research, reading as much as we could about healing of the brain and what you can do and there's a lot you can do but what we were so impressed with was all the research behind lion's mane mushroom.

Speaker 1: 1:18

There's 100 billion nerves in our brain, but our brain uses 20% of our daily energy, but it only takes up 2% of our body weight. So, to just give you an idea, like the brain, is this powerhouse for our body, right? So I often will ask people you know, a lot of people think about what they're doing every day for their body. They might work out, they might take certain supplements for strength or for health, but it's like what are you doing every day for your brain? Let's ask yourself that question.

Speaker 2: 1:43

Just for people. That's all we were Trying to make a living out of Blackland dirt. We grew together in a family circle, Singing loud.

Speaker 3: 2:02

Based in Bend, oregon. Manuka Mana is a family-owned startup that combines Manuka honey from New Zealand with wild harvested mushrooms grown in the Pacific Northwest, creating a unique and high-quality functional supplement that stands alone as a result of the quality of ingredients and an innovative approach to mushroom extraction. Courtney Rebel and her husband, josiah, began Manuka Mana in an effort to optimize Josiah's recovery after a brain injury that occurred in 2017. When the couple felt that they had exhausted the options presented by Western medicine. Developed with evidence-based research on the benefits of lion's mane mushroom for cognitive function, the two began to combine lion's mane extract with the natural sweetness and powerful medicinal properties of manuka honey. Many years later, both Josiah and many others have experienced the cognitive benefits that are associated with regular use of their popular think tincture. The Manuka mana line continues to evolve and Courtney and Josiah continue to build their business and educate and share the added healing benefits of combining wild functional mushrooms with the highest quality Manuka honey straight from New Zealand.

Speaker 3: 3:21

With every purchase of their products, courtney includes a unique inspirational card that is just a small token of appreciation to her customers and is designed to add to the overall experience one has with the purchase of any Manuka Mana product. When Courtney and I finished recording, we each picked a card from a stack she brought to the studio Trust. The timing of your life was printed on the back of Courtney's card. Well, courtney, after getting to know you, I'd say that your life experience and your general outlook have allowed you to see the truth in that statement. Thanks for sharing your story and thanks to both you and Josiah for what you do and what you make.

Speaker 3: 4:04

The Circling Podcast can be found on Patreon. Visit our page and learn how a percentage of your financial support will support local nonprofits and the continued growth of local community podcasting. Become a member and learn about this unique opportunity at patreoncom. Forward slash the circling podcast. Lastly, remember to stay tuned after the show credits to hear from Courtney as she contributes to our blank canvas community art project that explores the magic found in art embedded with meaning.

Speaker 1: 4:39

We have two kids. We have an eight-year-old and a four-year-old.

Speaker 3: 4:42

Nice.

Speaker 1: 4:44

And they're so fun. And it's funny because our daughter she doesn't know anything about Manuka Mana. We've had our business now launch for two and a half years but we spent a year. So basically when she was six months old we started working on it and she's funny because she'll even tell her preschool teacher. She came home the other day and was like I told Miss Heather about Manuka Mana and I was like, oh yeah, she's like yeah, she said she was tired and I said, well, you should try some Manuka Mana. So you know, that said she was tired and I said, well, you should try some manuka vada.

Speaker 1: 5:18

So you know, that's the beauty of having kids on the journey, like they just absorb everything, and we'll meet someone who has a headache or and she's like let's help them. You know, she just knows that that we provide medicine for people and I love that.

Speaker 3: 5:29

Yeah, I love that. It sounds like you and Josiah do a lot with your kids we do, yeah, we're you guys are mountain family, river family coast family. Did you guys have a good winter?

Speaker 1: 5:42

We did. This winter was huge for our family because our daughter, who's four, she's been on the magic carpet for a long time, and this winter she went up Sunrise Lift for the first time, so that means we were all riding together for the first time ever.

Speaker 1: 5:58

You know we've always done switch off with our kids and one person's on the magic carpet, but to all ride down together and I just remember our son isn't the most like I love you to my, to our daughter, but she is to him. And we were halfway down the run and we're on dilly dally alley and he, he pulls over to the side and just gives her this massive hug and he just goes. I love you, lily, you're doing the best and it was like, oh, that is just, he was so proud of her, you know, being four years old and going down dilly dally alley the power of dilly dally alley right, it's a rite of passage it is a rite of passage, yeah, whether you're a parent or a kid or even an adult learning.

Speaker 3: 6:38

Oh yeah, man, I still rally through that thing.

Speaker 1: 6:42

Yeah, and I mean he we recently brought, took up wing foiling.

Speaker 3: 6:46

That's what I saw, that.

Speaker 1: 6:47

Yeah, and that has been, you know, because for years we would go on these epic adventures together. And you know, back country, we on these epic adventures together, and you know, back country, we lived at the base of Beaver Creek Mountain for a long time. So we, yeah, and we would go, you know, every well, almost every day up there, even if it's like an hour or two, and we would be just in these, on the top of a mountain peak together, about to ride down some place that we hiked to for an hour and you just have this like peace with nature yourselves. Totally man.

Speaker 1: 7:18

And when you have kids, I mean it does kind of you know, it gets in a business right. It all kind of like it's all takes up a certain amount of time and so you lose a little bit of that long, the ability to go on very long adventures. So we discovered wing foiling, because we once went to Hood River and we saw all these people. Just like we were playing at the playground with our kids on the river and we saw all these people going out and they literally would just walk out there, put it straight up, come back out, take it down and we're like maybe that's our new sport. Like there's adrenaline, there's a physical ability, we're riding a board, we love riding boards, but there's also like a quickness to it right.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Like you could. Your kids could be playing at the playground. You could switch. We're all about. We're the ultimate switchers in Josiah.

Speaker 5: 8:03

You have to be.

Speaker 1: 8:03

You have to be yeah, and so, yeah, we took that sport up and it is great If you if you haven't tried it, you should come out with us sometime.

Speaker 3: 8:11

We we do this downwinder paddleboard race in the gorge every July or not. Every the last two years I've done it. But it starts eight miles down river, which is a oxy. It's a. It doesn't make sense because you're paddling up river but down wind, so. But when you get in around Hood River, man, you got to keep your head on a swivel because there is a lot. You're on a, there's a lot of people on foils or kites, you know, but the foil thing's interesting to me. It looks really fun. What are we drinking? Talk a little bit about what you brought.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Yeah, so this is our Reishi Defend tonic poured over sparkling water we use. I sparkled a little bit of Oregon spring water, which is what we use in our tinctures as well. Um so sparkling water, um, the reishi to fen tonic has a base of apple cider vinegar and manuka honey. Then it has reishi mushroom elderberry propolis and a little bit of vanilla. So this is an awesome one, for we're talking about kids and families like families love this one because you can make mocktails at night and the kids love it.

Speaker 1: 9:26

They're getting a little treat, but they're also getting an amazing daily immunity building. You can drink it also just straight as like a little sipping shot which is really great if you feel like you're coming down with something, or, in the winter, like on today, it's snowing outside.

Speaker 1: 9:35

You could pour it over warm water and have a tea. So this is a great one for just having in your fridge. People ask like, oh, do I need to take it every day this product? I think of more as like as needed, as wanted. Probably not. As you know, I say with the tinctures, like the lion's mane thing, for example, like take it every day. But this one's more. Just cycle it into your routine and your ritual and it'll bring you joy.

Speaker 3: 9:58

Yeah, it tastes super good.

Speaker 1: 10:00

Thanks for bringing it. You're welcome they were stoked upstairs. Yeah, awesome.

Speaker 3: 10:04

It's super fun.

Speaker 1: 10:05

We love sharing, you know, all kinds of products and, like it's an education piece too, right, totally.

Speaker 3: 10:10

Yeah, absolutely, at this point in kind of the Manuka Mana journey, how much time do you spend kind of thinking toward product diversity Like other? Are you like? Because you guys and correct me if I'm wrong but you have elixirs, is that what you would call? Yeah, and you have tinctures, and then you have your honeys. We have our honey blends, the honey blends, yeah, so, yeah, that's a good question.

Speaker 1: 10:37

I think, josiah being our alchemist, he's always thinking of product development. If I just told him like go, I'm never going to say stop, we would probably have 50 to 100 products right now. But you know, there is the element of also refining products, and so we're always looking at refining our, even our current lineup, which consists of 12 products yeah, I, I was gonna say, I think right now you offer 12 to 13 yep, we offer.

Speaker 1: 11:03

Yeah, and each one has its own place totally and so we often will talk about like uh, for example, recently, this is like six months ago we were like, oh, the cacao power blend, the chocolate, it's our chocolate blend with cordyceps extract and cacao powder. It's really great, like before snowboarding or surfing, you just take a spoonful.

Speaker 1: 11:23

But it was our, our least sold out of the three honey blends, and josiah said like let's maybe take it off, like let's take it out yeah and that week we had all of a sudden this influx of like 10 times as many sales and I'm like, all right, this is the universe telling us not to take away that product. So we just reformulated it.

Speaker 1: 11:42

We were like all right, we just got to, we got to refine it. We need to figure out why it needs to be more, it needs to be stay that drizzly consistency, and so so also, refining is, I think, an important piece, and we're continually trying to educate ourselves on how to refine, how to make more potent, because, really, what sets us apart is we're all about combining ingredients that are good for a similar thing, from both the hive and the fungi, and combining them together. So it's like the way I think of it is like if you're going to take a spoonful of that honey, it's like this superfood spoonful, it is so different than just taking a spoonful of regular honey, because you have all these ingredients that synergize with each other and help to tackle that one or two specific things that we're going for in that product.

Speaker 3: 13:05

So real quick, just so listeners know, because we're not just talking about honey, it's Manuka honey. So talk a little bit about what Manuka honey is and kind of some of the unique properties of it.

Speaker 1: 13:16

That hive, which is Manuka honey from New Zealand with the fungi, which is the wild harvested functional mushrooms grown in the Pacific Northwest. It's a fusion of the two of those and all of our products, so our entire range. You will find no sweeteners other than Manuka honey Manuka honey. Josiah grew up with Manuka honey. Everyone in New Zealand has it in their medicine cabinet, uses it for everything from just eating straight off the spoon to putting it on a cut. It's really good for healing the skin and wounds. In all the hospitals in New Zealand and Australia it's on all the Band-Aids.

Speaker 4: 14:01

No way.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Because it's such amazing antibacterial, antifungal, great healing components to manuka honey. So what defines manuka honey and what makes it so different than any other honey? It's from the bees pollinate the manuka bush and the manuka bush. Then they make the honey and it has this factor called methylglyoxal, so MGO is the abbreviation of it. Methylglyoxal is a similar compound to what's found in hydrogen peroxide, so it's a natural antibacterial, antifungal. It just has this amazing digestive component because it can kill bad bacteria in your gut. It has a healing component and it is the world's most powerful honey. Manuka honey is the only honey in the world that has a grading system. If you ever buy Manuka honey in the store, you'll see 5+, 10+. That's all based on how much methylglyoxal is in that honey.

Speaker 1: 14:53

So we, josiah, grew up with Manuka honey and when we started playing around with creating a supplement, we wanted this, you know, like I said, like a superfood, spoonful, and it was really. The question came like what is the most powerful thing that we could put in there? So Manuka honey became the thing and we would go to the store back in the early days. We'd go to the store and literally spend like $300 on just jars of Manuka honey so we can play around with it. And unfortunately many of those jars got like thrown away because you make something and you're like, oh, this doesn't taste so good or it separates. But we really wanted to use that foundation and it kind of it bridges New Zealand. That's a big part of our brand, josiah and I. He's from New Zealand. He was raised in New Zealand. When we met he had never left New Zealand. He was 21, 22 years old at the time and so you know it's a real big part of his foundation. And even now today, our kids, you know they're half New Zealand. So we had this dream of like really fusing the two countries. That's right and so, yeah, that's why we use Manuka honey.

Speaker 1: 15:56

And the other thing about Manuka honey that a lot of people don't realize that I love about it it's extremely clean honey. We buy it in 300-kg barrels direct from the farm and with each barrel we get seven pages of testing with the barrel on the farm. And with each barrel we get seven pages of testing with the barrel it shows not only the methylglyoxal content in the honey but also that it's pesticide, herbicide free, it's mold free, it's heavy metal free. It has this rigorous testing that's done by the New Zealand government because there is such a name behind Manuka honey and they want to protect that name. So there's a lot of testing that's required by the government before it can even leave the country with the name Manuka honey.

Speaker 1: 16:33

So we always tell people like it's an extremely clean honey. You know, if you are one of those people that like to eat organic and you're very conscious about what you put in your body, this is an amazing honey for you. You can't even always say that about local honey. You know not all local honey. Most honeys aren't tested. So to have that ability to know if it says Manuka honey, that it is just going to be a cleaner honey, and that's something that, as a consumer, is a great piece Heck yeah, have you guys.

Speaker 3: 17:02

I bet you've developed some cool relationships with where your product suppliers from New Zealand with honey.

Speaker 1: 17:08

Yeah, it's been fun. It's been a fun journey. We haven't been back to New Zealand in five years, so we are really excited to go back. I think we're going to go back over Christmas time.

Speaker 1: 17:19

That's our plan, because now that we have grown so much and we, as you know, with business you're always taking different twists and turns and we're at a space now that we have a real clear vision of what we want in the next future, short-term future, and so we would love to source additional ingredients. We'd love to get some filming of the countryside out there.

Speaker 3: 17:41

Yeah, that's awesome, and do some of that for the brand as well.

Speaker 1: 17:44

So yeah.

Speaker 3: 17:45

That'll be fun.

Speaker 1: 17:46

It'll be so fun. Our daughter's never been to New Zealand, yep, and Josiah's whole family lives there.

Speaker 3: 17:52

So she hasn't met that side of the family?

Speaker 1: 17:54

Yeah, so it's going to be huge Wow.

Speaker 3: 17:55

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:57

She pretends that we've been talking about it the last month or so, that we've decided, and she sits on the couch and puts up the cushions and is like we're flying to New Zealand. Who's coming? So I think she even understands what that means.

Speaker 3: 18:11

That's going to be cool. Yeah, it's going to be really fun. And surfing in New Zealand, I mean that is unlike any other place I've ever surfed. Because you have this, have you been in New? Zealand?

Speaker 1: 18:23

No, oh man, you've got to make a trip, I know so you go to these beaches and they're just. You know, it could even be a famous surf beach and it's just empty. I mean there's no one. And then you see this barrel breaking and you just it's just the beauty of New Zealand combined with the just not a lot of people. There's more sheep than people in.

Speaker 3: 18:44

New.

Speaker 1: 18:44

Zealand. So there's just this real pristine nature of New Zealand. And so there's just this real pristine nature of New Zealand.

Speaker 3: 18:48

Yeah, I was telling Isaac when we were talking I've never met anyone from New Zealand that I didn't want to spend more time with.

Speaker 1: 18:55

Honestly.

Speaker 3: 18:56

Like I can honestly say that Now, how many people have I met from New Zealand? Well, probably a couple dozen in my life, but everyone all the way back from high school, you know. We had a friend that moved up. She was backpacking around the Northwest and ended up sticking around our town for a while. And Joe, she was amazing you know, and it was just my first exposure of like a different culture and just a different general positivity. It's unique. That's been my experience.

Speaker 1: 19:26

So helpful People, I mean most Kiwis that I meet are just like good hearted kind people Totally yeah. That's why I fell in love with one.

Speaker 3: 19:35

Yeah, it sounds like it. Yeah, and it sounds like yeah. We can nevermind Cause. Isaac said something along the lines of like him and all of his buddies all married American girls.

Speaker 1: 19:47

Yeah, I know it's. It is funny because he came out to visit Josiah and on that trip he ended up meeting his wife and it just kind of goes to show there's some combo there.

Speaker 3: 20:00

So then the mana part, so that's kind of more kind of the. You know mana, I was like you think a lot of different things when I hear that word. But you know it word, but you know it's kind of. It's defined as kind of the power of elemental forces of nature embodied in an object or person yeah is that kind of from like the adapted genetic effect of the mushrooms?

Speaker 1: 20:21

yeah, I do have a funny story on the mana if you want me to tell you that story, yeah so we so we were building the brand and we we spent one were building the brand and we we spent one year building the brand before we actually launched it. It was COVID time and it was a challenging year in itself because you're like, built, you're, you know we're getting no direct feedback. You're building something that is a vision and you don't really even know if it's going to go. But you can't think about that. You got to think about just the positive things and listen to the signs and you know, just really follow that.

Speaker 1: 20:51

So we're doing that and the name that we determined was going to be was Manuka Medicinals, and we were. You know, everything was Manuka Medicinals. Our website was Manuka Medicinals. We applied for a trademark with the USPTO for Manuka Medicinals and we applied for that in like October. So it comes to we've decided we're going to launch in August the following year and we had gotten all these branded boxes like for shipping, because we're all about the brand. You know that the person has an experience from the very moment they open the package Smart yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:23

And so the packaging was very important to us, so we got these boxes that had the Manuka Medicinals logo. Packaging was very important to us, so we got these boxes that had the Manuka Medicinals logo and we spent you know, at the time it was like $1,500 on these boxes and we're like, oh, this is a big purchase for boxes. You know there's so many things to spend money on and we got this letter from the USPTO in July we were about to launch about a month later and it said that we were denied the trademark and the reason was there's a brand called Manuka Med.

Speaker 1: 21:53

It's a brand in America that actually makes band-aids with Manuka honey on them, and that we were too close to the names, they denied our trademark. So that kind of sent us on this trajectory of like, oh no, what are we going to do? Are we going to fight? Are we going to fight the trademark? Are we going to give up? And so I talked to my sister, who's a trademark patent paralegal and she's like Courtney, I don't know, I don't think, even if you fought it, and that's not really either one of our natures me or Josiah- we always take that as like oh, it's probably a sign.

Speaker 1: 22:22

Fighting just never felt like a good idea, so it was probably a sign that that wasn't the right name. So we wanted another M name and we started brainstorming M names to go with the Manuka and mana. Josiah at one point was like what about mana?

Speaker 1: 22:36

And mana is actually also a Maori word, it's also a Hawaiian word from the Hawaiian indigenous people, but it means in the Maori context, it means like an energy that flows from the earth and can be passed on from one to another. Usually the elder in the tribe has a lot of mana and can pass along to people who, you know, need a booster or need some inspiration. And so for us, that checked all boxes, because essentially what we're taking is we're taking these mushrooms and amazing ingredients from the earth, we're formulating them into something and then we're passing them along, so they don't belong to us. They actually are being passed along to the person who's consuming them. So it was like wow, mana is it? And mana was what it was always meant to be Manuka medicinals. Even when I say that now it's like that just isn't right. No, totally.

Speaker 1: 23:26

So it's manuka mana, and now you know it fits everything.

Speaker 3: 23:31

It's the bill, it's been fun to watch you guys grow since we met at that downtown summer market a couple years ago and you know these last. I mean I guess the current state of the brand and Manuka Mana is you presented at Pub Talk a couple weeks ago and that sounds like that was an opportunity that presented itself after you guys joined the Cultivate Bend kind of network Talk a little bit about. That is kind of a local entrepreneur in the consumer package good network of like well-established brands all the way to startups.

Speaker 1: 24:15

Exactly, yeah, cultivate Ben Josiah and I, for the last, you know, starting at the end of 2023, as we were thinking about growth of the business. We've always been so not isolated. But entrepreneurship in general can feel kind of like a little bit lonely sometimes because you're working every day on your own and or at least we were and so we always had each other, which I think helped at the beginning to bounce ideas off of. But sometimes you get these in these situations that you're like gosh, I just need to call another entrepreneur, I need to call someone who can, who gets it and maybe could like redirect. So we decided that we wanted to network more. Need to call another entrepreneur, I need to call someone who gets it and maybe could redirect. So we decided that we wanted to network more. And then people kept saying to us started at the Christmas markets.

Speaker 1: 24:57

Other vendors would be like you remember Cultivate Bend, right, and we were like, oh, not yet, not yet. And then we went to an event in Ashland, oregon, and this lady came up to us and she was like oh, I love your brand, you must be a part of Cultivate Bend. And so then that was like. I was like all right, this is the fourth person that said that to us, and you're not even in our town. So I went home that night and I bought, you know, joined Cultivate Bend and it has been great and, you know, I would definitely recommend it for any entrepreneur or anyone who's even interested. I've met people who have said like, oh, I've always wanted to start a business, I don't know where to go. Like join Cultivate Bent.

Speaker 3: 25:59

You will go to one of those meetings and you'll be so inspired to just like start taking steps to start a business and I don't even think that's necessarily unique to just kind of the consumer packaged good sector in this town. I mean, the more I kind of dip my toe and talk to people in different areas of entrepreneurship, whether it's tech, outdoor products, you know, consumer goods and even into like some of the different, like, for instance, I'm starting a little side business that's in the wedding space and like the whole Central Oregon kind of wedding association and community. It's this very much community over competition mentality. That from what I hear and I wouldn't be able to compare it to anywhere else, but it seems unique to where we live.

Speaker 1: 26:46

I agree, I think there's an amazing entrepreneur community and everyone embraces each other and they I mean, when I was walking here to do the podcast, someone's walking by with her yoga mat underarm and she looks at me and she said I know you and she was a yoga instructor and she's like I'm going to do this event, are you doing it? And you know she wanted to chat and give a hug.

Speaker 1: 27:19

And I think that's one thing that makes Bend so unique from the element of like. There's a lot of entrepreneurs that support each other, but also the community in Bend. The community in Bend supports entrepreneurs Like. I feel like it's a it's a two way relationship. You know, you go to a market and people want to support the small businesses in Bend.

Speaker 1: 27:27

So I was recently in Seattle and I I love the city but I was I was saying to the, my friend who was with me, I feel so lucky that we ended up in Bend and started our business in Bend, because I just feel like it's really allowed us to grow and be embraced of our brand.

Speaker 4: 27:45

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 27:45

Because I'm not sure you know. It all depends on kind of where you are, sometimes, especially with a consumer package.

Speaker 3: 27:52

Good, yeah, especially with a consumer package. Good, yeah, I mean, who you can lean into in your community for advice or reassurances or just to listen is massively important with a startup man. Yeah, it is, and you guys are growing. I mean you were sharing that one of your goals for 2024 is to get a commercial space.

Speaker 1: 28:10

Yeah, we have started to look for commercial space.

Speaker 3: 28:12

That's a big deal.

Speaker 1: 28:14

It is a big deal and we're all about the experience for people. I mean, you would know, you've seen us at markets, but we're the type we would love to have events out of a space as well to really create more community. Or a soft serve mushroom ice cream event, you know, because we love the soft serve mushroom ice cream or elixirs, mushroom elixirs. So, yeah, we're excited to have more of a space. We've definitely outgrown our situation that we are at the moment.

Speaker 3: 28:46

So, yeah, we're excited to look for that episode with my friend Dominique Taylor, who, um owns a product, a company called Consciously Curly um, oh my gosh, I'm totally botching the name of it. Consciously Curly Company. Yeah, consciously Curly Company. And she's African American and developed. You should listen to the just moved into a commercial space because her business is starting to grow and I love seeing it, man.

Speaker 1: 29:32

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 29:32

It's just rad to see people hustle and it just starts working, you know.

Speaker 1: 29:40

Exactly to you know what you're being, the signs of what, the direction you should go, and not as much like external oh, I'm going for money or I'm going, yes, that's an important piece, but that is not what should drive your everyday at all. Because I believe that, like, if you're following your soul and the mission that you are here to do and that you feel inspired to do, then everything else will fall into place.

Speaker 3: 30:06

I agree.

Speaker 1: 30:07

And whether you need to start up out of your garage or bedroom, you can grow into your bigger space when you're ready.

Speaker 3: 30:15

Absolutely, and how many employees do you have now?

Speaker 1: 30:19

We only have two people that help us part-time. We obviously both are full-time, but we have two part-time we we have Jen who helps us at markets, and then we are bringing we've we've had someone to help us with marketing part time, and so we we have those two pieces there.

Speaker 3: 30:38

Yeah, but it's growing. So I got in touch with Jen and she she's really cool, so thanks for putting me in touch with her.

Speaker 4: 30:46

And so she had this to say Our kids are in the same outdoor school here in Bend and they clicked. So there's like an open house and they had a teepee and our sons clicked right away, and so I sat down, introduced myself and vice versa, and we kind of geeked out about mushrooms. I like to go mushroom hunting and I had worked at Natural Grocers. Being in the health food industry, I missed it kind of keeps you on your toes and then just lots of good access to good things. So we started talking about various things and they told me what they created, which was their own organic mushroom extracts with the Manuka honey, and so I thought I had known about honey until I talked to them, obviously, and then Josiah is from New Zealand, so he's like a plethora of information, and so when they told me basically what their product was, I was like, wow, this is amazing. No one's made this and I know because I've been in the health food and the supplements industry. If I need new formulations, they're like Jen, what do you think? Because I love food I'm a super foodie, but I also love functional food where you get things like the adaptogenic mushrooms.

Speaker 4: 31:48

I think Oregon is known for mushrooms, but I think people are still understanding just how beneficial they are, because there was kind of like this scary persona about them. But I think scary things are just unknown. So I love obviously probably you can pick up from this how much I love to talk about mushrooms and health and good stuff so it was like a perfect fit. I'm like their cheerleader. But I just want to say to let her know how honored I am to work with them. It's so rare to find people you align with, that you respect so much and vice versa. So I just feel honored that I'm part of their journey and what they deliver to people, that they asked me to do it, that they trust in me. So if you just could relay that to them. I love them so much. They're very cool people, good spirits. Hi, I'm Jen Travers. I work for Manuka Mana. I am their market specialist.

Speaker 1: 32:39

I help kind of deliver all the good information to the people that come out to the markets as well, as I am a local conservation artist here in bend yeah, man, that sounds like you got a good one yeah, I mean, I think, like she said, that it's a mutual, mutual gratitude, that relationship, because as we built the brand, you know it's like as you put out your little offshoots, and you know that you need to bring people on, because that's key as you grow, you just have to bring on the right people right that you align with that.

Speaker 1: 33:12

believe in the brand, believe in the product, understand the product. That's a big we. There's a big education piece to our product and it runs very deep on many levels. So jen knows her stuff with with supplementation and supplements and mushrooms and she's just a very positive energy and spirit. So when we met her it was like, oh, this is going to go somewhere. So it was a nice little natural meeting because of kids and she gets it right, she has a kid, she understands the brand and so, yeah, it's a mutual love there.

Speaker 3: 33:48

It sounds like a good relationship. Yeah, she was saying how Josiah's going to the mushroom summit in Monterey and I was. I did a little.

Speaker 1: 33:57

That sounds fun yeah, we're really excited this year. I'm not going because we have kids right so.

Speaker 1: 34:02

I'm staying behind with our kids, but we both, you know we're at a point where we're growing, but we want to always continue to learn, expand and refine, like I said, continue to refine our products. And so the Mushroom Summit is one that he looked at the lineup, you know, and it's like extraction and let's talk about the chemistry behind it and he got real excited just even looking at the different things that he talks, not to mention like, I mean like.

Speaker 3: 34:30

the keynote speaker is Paul Stamets right?

Speaker 1: 34:33

Is that how you say his last name? Yep, yep.

Speaker 3: 34:34

And I mean I don't know a lot, but I know that guy's been in the game for a while and has like a lot of insight and expertise, you know.

Speaker 1: 34:43

Yeah, exactly yeah.

Speaker 3: 34:46

And it looks like there's a lot of, there's a lot of value in this for what you guys are doing. It's that'll be cool. Has he been to this before?

Speaker 1: 34:53

He hasn't been to this one we you know, the first two years of our business were like hit the ground running and trying to figure it out. And now we're just kind of taking a breath and reassessing of like what we, what we need to continue to do as we grow. And so, yeah, we both decided that every year we need to take at least one yeah um continuing ed like kind of uh conference of some sort, just to continue to and also for inspiration totally because you know, like we, we you can get inspiration from within yourself.

Speaker 1: 35:23

But if you can meet someone that's gonna just flow the inspiration, then that's just really gonna. It's like when two great people speak right, like even this conversation. I might say something that makes you think of something that you would have never thought of if it hadn't been said to you right Totally. And that's really the power of like networking.

Speaker 3: 35:43

It's cool. You guys see the value in that. Um, because there's some in like in health care. You know, I'm required to get 100 hours of continuing medication every two years. Right, because someone at the board level realized that there is so much value in maintaining and continuing to learn. Obviously, the quite not everybody acts on that, though, right. So like when it's a requirement is one thing, but when you see the value in it and you have the discipline to pursue it on your own to me says a lot. I would imagine the information you guys learn there keeps, as the market expands, continues to encourage you to stay true to the sector of it that you're passionate about, which is quality, exactly.

Speaker 1: 36:28

Yeah, yeah, exactly, and I agree there's a lot out there that I think, once again, it goes back to like what's driving you as an entrepreneur or if you're a large business. Are they being driven by money or are they be driven by their soul of what they're meant to do and the mission that they're on? And for us, we definitely are driven by a greater mission than ourselves, and it's not money, you know. It is bigger than that. It's like okay, we're here to do this and I, we're honored to do what we do, I mean, every day. It's like that fulfillment piece, right, like in life.

Speaker 1: 37:05

I really think fulfillment is what a lot of people are striving for.

Speaker 1: 37:09

You might not even know that word, but I know when I did lots of jobs and things I loved I was a director and loved managing people and inspiring people but it wasn't until Manuka Mana that I really felt that level of fulfillment of like, wow, this is what I'm meant to do and it benefits a lot of people, and like we're making other people's lives better because we're doing what we're doing. We're showing our kids that we can help other people and be true to ourselves and, you know, make it happen Right. And so I think like that fulfillment piece and it goes along with the education and pushing yourself and being inspired, because we don't want to get sucked in the rat race, if you will Like. We're on this path of we're so grateful for what we do every day. When we hear from people like the testimonials we hear them all the time now and every day I'm like, wow, that just made my week. You know that their lives have gotten better because of a product that we create.

Speaker 3: 38:09

So, yeah, it's amazing. I mean it's genius really. I mean, by definition, when you, when you create something that's inspired by a thought and then you bring it into reality and then it positively affects people's life, that otherwise, you know, I mean, that's to me, that's the definition, that's. It's really cool. You guys, I'm proud of you guys. It's awesome.

Speaker 3: 38:30

It's really cool to watch. You know and you, you guys aren't unique to that around here. I mean, there's a lot of people that are doing. I mean that's why this is so fun, because you get to just sit down all the time and talk with people that are doing cool shit.

Speaker 1: 38:43

Right, you know them. It's super fun. Yeah, you have one of the best jobs in the world.

Speaker 3: 38:47

Yeah, I love it, man. So I wanna get into the story of Manuka Mana, because it's more than just kind of a good idea. There was a why behind it. You know, and I said it earlier, you know, I think and I rip off this quote from this guy, simon Sinek, but it resonates with me which is people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And you guys built this brand behind a big why, and that was you and Josiah and you guys, the life that you had built together, and then some of the life events, early and well, not early but at the beginning of that kind of life. But you guys met when you were traveling in New Zealand.

Speaker 1: 39:28

Yeah, so I was finishing up my degree at the University of Colorado and I found out from my advisor that I was three credits short from graduating on time, and so it was quite a sad thing to hear. But I thought I had always wanted to study abroad and I just took it as a sign of like this is my opportunity, I'm going to go get those three credits abroad, and so I did that. I studied abroad in New Zealand, went to the University of Otago, and Josiah and I going back to our story of how we met I was walking down the street with two of my American girlfriends that were also studying abroad. We were trying to go on a hike, and so we're walking down the street and we're like we should take the bus because there's a bus stop there, and I didn't know this. But him and two of his friends are walking ahead of us. They had already spotted oh, there's three of them, there's three of us. They got on the bus and then we got on the bus of them there's three of us.

Speaker 1: 40:29

they got on the bus. And then we got on the bus and, uh, then we, you know we're yeah, they're, they're chatting away at the front, we're the back of the bus and and the bus stops and they stand up to get off and one of his friends says, hey, do you girls want to go ice skating? And we all look at each other and it's one of those times, like your parents always tell you, like don't go with the random people that do you to go somewhere. But we're, like we're in New Zealand, why not? Like let's just do it. And so we got off the bus and we followed these guys to a random house in the middle of a neighborhood we had never been. And that's when Josiah and I actually we were walking down the street and I remember the first thing we talked about was snowboarding.

Speaker 3: 41:04

No way.

Speaker 1: 41:04

And we connected on snowboarding. You know he loved, he grew up snowboarding, he loved snowboarding and I used to go on family trips once a year to go snowboarding and so we had that connection, went to University of Colorado and snowboarded some more and so we went ice skating and that was kind of the start of this just like beautiful, beautiful relationship that really developed over the course of many months. And then I was supposed to leave.

Speaker 3: 41:33

That's what you were saying. I love this.

Speaker 1: 41:35

Yeah, I was supposed to leave to go home to get my degree and I was supposed to go walk in graduation. And I said to Josiah, you know, we're 22. We're in love and we don't have much money and it's expensive to fly to New Zealand and back and forth. And so I said to him I really don't want to go home. And he's like, then don't. And this is like pure Josiah, he just will live by what he thinks is right and it doesn't matter. Like just don't go if you don't want to go. And so I was like, all right, I won't get on the plane. And I called my parents and I was like I'm not going to get on the plane tomorrow. And of course they weren't so happy with me, but that was like we figured it out and we ended up flying to Australia picking fruit, living in a tent, picking fruit to just make money to stay together, and lived there for three months with Isaac. Isaac came.

Speaker 1: 42:25

Josiah's best friend came over and lived with us in the tent and picked fruit and then we traveled to Fiji and after Fiji we kind of set our separate ways. That was like five months later and we thought, okay, well, we will continue this, it's just a question of when. So that was how we met and then we ended up. He moved to Colorado. We lived at the base of Beaver Creek Mountain for several years and started up various things out there, snowboarding a lot and playing and having multiple businesses. We've always kind of been entrepreneurs at heart.

Speaker 3: 42:59

Like you talk a little bit about your whole history and kind of the health I want to say health club, but that's not the right word Weren't you doing like resort and spa kind of? Renovation and looking at it through a different lens sort of.

Speaker 1: 43:17

Yeah. So I fell my way into the private club industry, country clubs. I started like as a teenager. I even was a swim coach for country clubs. No way. And so that's where I started in that industry, and then I got my degree in kinesiology became a personal trainer.

Speaker 1: 43:33

And then I stumbled back into the country club world. When in California a club was doing a renovation and they needed a youth director, they hired me on as a youth director. They hired me on as a youth director. I went into this building and it was a $12 million renovation of spa, fitness, youth programming. And about a month after being there they're like, can you just run the whole thing? And I was like, yeah, I'll just run this whole. Sure, let's do this. And so kind of got thrown into it. But then that was my first time of really transforming this facility for them, setting up foundational spa fitness programming, aquatics any sort of aquatics programming too and youth. And so I did that for two years when we were living in the Bay Area and then I kind of became known for it in the industry. So then I would fly to different clubs and we'd live there for about a year.

Speaker 1: 44:59

I transformed the facility for them find a new director and then go on in the next one. So I was really immersed in the wellness industry and it was a blast.

Speaker 1: 45:08

I mean it was so fun but I was working 70 hour weeks and we were living in DC, of all places, in Bethesda, maryland, and Josiah and I were just working a lot and we kind of lost that like wait, what are we doing? We're just in the grind. So we decided to sell everything we owned and move to Hawaii onto a permaculture farm, and so we basically were, like we're moving to Hawaii, let's do it, sold everything that we owned. We moved to Hawaii with 12 boxes, slash bags, including two of cookbooks, because those are Josiah's cookbooks he could not live without. And so, yeah, we went and moved into a little cabin on a permaculture farm in Hawaii.

Speaker 3: 45:55

He's always enjoyed the culinary arts. It sounds like. I mean wasn't he like a professional baker or pastry chef?

Speaker 1: 46:05

Yeah, so Josiah. Interesting enough, he left school at 16. And he wanted because he knew he did not want. He was not traditional education focused person.

Speaker 3: 46:16

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 46:17

It kind of drained him. Right, he was. He's a creative spirit Anyone who knows him knows alchemist, creative spirit and it just didn't meld with him. So he left school and his mom said to him when he left she said if you want to leave school, I'm okay with it, but you have to have a plan. And so he was like I'm going to be a baker and I'm going to be a chef. And she's like, all right.

Speaker 1: 46:38

So he left school and he started baking and then he worked in various cafes, a wedding cake shop and when we lived in California he was an executive pastry chef for amazing restaurants out there in California, including a Michelin star restaurant. So he got all this amazing pastry skills like how to make cakes, how to make these desserts, how to bake, and really you look back on your life, right, and you look at all these different jobs that you've had and now I can see each one of those jobs has helped him, because when we make our products and we do the blends jobs has helped him, because when we make our products and we do the blends, there's a lot of science behind that and there's a lot that if he didn't have that whole history of working in various areas of the field, he just would not be able to create what he can create with our products.

Speaker 3: 47:28

It's fun to look back, especially when people fall into vocations that are very founded on passion, the stepping stone approach through life that allow you to get there. You know, and I was gonna ask you about that, because so much of what you guys do now, especially when it comes to extracting and I wanna talk to you more about that in a minute but is very scientific process and understanding, you know food sciences, especially at that level when you're at a Michelin star restaurant. I mean food sciences, especially at that level when you're at a Michelin star restaurant. I mean that's there's a lot of intention that goes into how everything is done with that.

Speaker 1: 48:03

Exactly and like the presentation, the taste, the smoothness of that, you know, cream, yeah, it's. There's a food science behind it, definitely, and you, you hope you're passionate about it, because it takes a lot, you know, to really refine things to the point of you know the expertise that goes into this mission. Start, and it's intentional man. So, intentional.

Speaker 3: 48:28

Yeah. So you guys, when did you guys kind of you moved from? You were in Washington DC and then is that when you went to California.

Speaker 1: 48:36

No, we went to Hawaii.

Speaker 1: 48:37

Or Hawaii, I'm sorry, hawaii, yeah, we were in Hawaii and like two weeks after moving there, we found out that I was pregnant. So then it was like whoa, what does that mean? So we kind of went on a mission to figure out. You know, basically our whole world was turned around from that because it's like OK, our whole, all the plans. Now we have different plans because we have a child coming and a baby coming. So we we ended up at, after about six months, moving back to the mainland, and we decided that we were going to move somewhere, that we wanted to raise our family, and so we just we picked Northern California. We had lived in the Bay area and we used to always drive up and go surfing and just explore Northern California, and so we thought, well, let's just base ourselves in Sonoma County and we'll, you know, raise our family, start, start our family there. And there was some private clubs out there and they wanted me to do some consulting.

Speaker 1: 49:37

And so it kind of just worked out and so we moved to California and, yeah, we started out there.

Speaker 3: 49:44

Yeah, so talk about, I mean, and you share the story on your guys' website. But it was on the drive to California where what yes, yeah.

Speaker 1: 49:54

So we were driving to California and we had U-Haul in the back. You know, we're full on cross country travel and we're on the highway and Josiah says a sentence to me and all of his words are jumbled in the sentence. So we pull over and we found out later he was having a mini stroke and he was 32 years old at the time, so for us that was like a. I was also eight months pregnant at this time, Right, so there was a lot a lot to take in with that, yeah, um.

Speaker 1: 50:25

So we he went to all kinds of neurologists, doctors testing Um and after about three months they they told us that they discovered that he thinks the mini. They thought the mini stroke was connected to concussions he had had as a teenager in New Zealand surfing and mountain biking. He had had a total of three concussions when he was a teenager. And they said you know, there's brain damage that was caused from those concussions. It's why you had the mini stroke. And they said there's really not much you can do to heal the brain, but you can take a baby aspirin thin the blood. One neurologist recommended he drink coffee and caffeine can also help to reduce the risk.

Speaker 1: 51:07

And so we left that that last doctor's appointment just like really perplexed, like hold on, we can't like. We have a two month old, you're 32. We cannot take that as an answer. And so we he was a chef at the time and I was working in the wellness industry and we just both we decided we need to find something, find something you can take every day that will help to heal the brain. And so we went on our personal journey during that time of just reading research, reading as much as we could about healing of the brain and what you can do and there's a lot you can do. But what we were so impressed with was all the research behind lion's mane mushroom. We found that National Institute of Health alone has over 1,000 published research studies on the benefits of lion's mane to regrow the neurons, strengthen the myelin sheath, which, when you hit your head a concussion or even whiplash, even hitting your tailbone, can cause degradation of the myelin sheath, and so that needs to be repaired because that can cause misfiring of the neurons, for sure.

Speaker 3: 52:10

I almost let me pause just so listeners understand what if they don't know what the myelin sheath is. It's I, I in medical school, I would think about it like the housing around a wire. It's kind of. It's kind of what helps the neurological signal rapidly um communicate with the neuron that it's going to. So when your myelin myelin sheath is damaged, you're uh, and I am not a neurologist and this is like 18 year old information I'm trying to explain right now, but I still remember. You know it's like when the housing of a wire is cut, you know that signal is delayed.

Speaker 1: 52:46

Would you agree? I would definitely agree. Is that kind of how you think about it? We explain it to people as like the covering of a wire.

Speaker 3: 52:50

Yeah, Exactly, so that's exactly what you said.

Speaker 1: 52:54

Yeah, and it also degrades over time, like as you age Right.

Speaker 1: 52:59

So Second law, through my dynamics, is like where is the product? And that was kind of where we went from there. Okay, where is? We really have always been focused on health and wellness, and through food especially, and so kind of analyzing all what was out there and what did we want. And for us we really wanted, you know, at least organic grown mushroom, because we ate organic but preferably from the wild because that's how it's grown and we believe in the power of the forest, and so we were looking for wild harvested. We had read a lot of research on the ability of the fruiting body of the mushroom, so we wanted that and also extraction, and we read about you want at least dual extraction, and that was to get access to those compounds that can actually help with what the research is showing.

Speaker 1: 54:04

So that's kind of what started our whole journey of just creating from our kitchen it's.

Speaker 3: 54:10

so there's not that many people that take those steps to kind of create something that doesn't exist. It's just again, it's, it's. It's really cool. I mean, I was reading about, I think, what do they call it? It's the law of diffusion of innovation and it's this bell curve and it's this study that a guy did that in any population, only two and a half percent of people have the personalities to innovate, and it's been. That's pretty interesting because that's, you know, that's two and a half people out of every 100, right and like so to act on that is rad, you know.

Speaker 1: 54:51

I do think it helps that we both were inspired and that we had each other.

Speaker 3: 54:56

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 54:57

Because I can't you know, there are days, throughout this whole journey, that one of us will be like, oh, I'm just done.

Speaker 1: 55:05

Heck, yeah, it's like it's a grind or like I'm not feeling inspired, right. But if you have the other one, like the other one of us would be like, well, come on, like we're so close, we got this, or or even even today in our business, right, you'll have one of us will be super inspired and the other one won't be feeling it as much, and so we would lean a lot on each other, I think. And I mean, the interesting thing is like we had lots of dreams for this company and we had. We had a whiteboard in our garage that literally took up this entire wall, which is 20 feet wide and 10 feet tall, and we had all kinds of pictures on it and we didn't quite have our name yet, but we had pictures of extraction and mushrooms, and we actually had Bend on the wall as well, because we had visited Bend and we always loved it. So we're like, oh, let's move to Bend. And we had this beautiful, like brainstorming wall and we had this situation in California where we ended up.

Speaker 3: 56:06

Homeless.

Speaker 1: 56:07

Exactly, and our whole entire wall. We had a fire in California.

Speaker 3: 56:12

Well, not just a fire. It was the Tubbs Hill wildfire. Not Tubbs Hill that's a place where I grew up but the Tubbs wildfire, october of 2017. That's right, Yep we which, at the time, I think was one of the biggest wildfires in the California state history.

Speaker 1: 56:28

That's right. It was the first one of its kind. I mean unfortunately. Now we've heard of several others, but it was hadn't happened't happened. No one really knew of this kind of fire tornado, essentially, yeah. So I can tell you that story if you want me to walk you down that path.

Speaker 3: 56:47

I do, but let's just paint the scene for context. Are in California with a young child, a husband who has a transient ischemic attack, a TIA, a mini stroke, and you're in the process of trying to innovate an alternative treatment source.

Speaker 1: 57:20

And then there was a fire. Yeah, so our son was a year and a half old and we. It was right around midnight that night and I always turn my phone on airplane mode, but that night for some reason I didn't. It was in the other room. Someone kept calling us over and over again and finally I was like, all right, I'm just going to check who that is, cause it's like the fifth time they've called me and it was our friend who also had a year and a half old. So I was like, well, that's weird, they wouldn't be calling us at midnight unless it's serious. So she, I picked up and she's like we just went outside our door and there's a blazing fire. And I just want to tell you, since they live five minutes from us and I just wanted to give you guys a heads up, maybe get ready. I don't know what's going on. No one knows what's going on, but we're going to leave and you know just wanted you guys to know.

Speaker 1: 57:59

So we looked on the internet. I mean, there was nothing. We didn't have anything coming in on our phones. We lived on the same plot as our landlord at the time, so we called him. He'd lived there for 40 years and he's like oh no, like we don't get fires out here, it's OK, but we just packed a couple of bags just in case.

Speaker 1: 58:18

And then, like 15 minutes later, a police officer shows up at our door, knocks on the door and says there's fire at the end of your road. You need to get out now. So it went from like nothing to something immediate. So we just got in our car with our one and a half year old son and and put a couple bags in the car and drove out. And when we were driving out there was one road, mark West Springs Road. In case anyone knows, santa Rosa connects to Calistoga on this one windy, beautiful, foresty road and that's the road we lived on. And as we're going out, the officer was like you have to go left, right's closed. So we went left and that was at 1227. And we later found out that that road closed at 1231.

Speaker 3: 59:02

So we were like four minutes away because a tree fell over the road. So where would you have gone?

Speaker 1: 59:06

Well, people were stuck on that road until that was at 1230. So eventually at 530m, someone escorted them all out. There was about 30 people stuck in the parking lot.

Speaker 3: 59:19

That's scary man.

Speaker 1: 59:21

You know, we drove down the road and there was like nothing at first, and then a couple turns in, there's just fire blazing. All the houses are on fire, all the power poles, all the trees. It was a very surreal moment, like you've never seen anything like it. And it was crazy. We didn't know if we had lost our home for a week because they can't go into the burn areas, and so we didn't really know. And then what? We found out? That ours was considered a total loss, so there was literally nothing remaining.

Speaker 1: 59:55

And that was a defining moment for us because it was like, okay, life is precious, so precious. We're all safe, thank God. But we got to do what we want to do. We should move where we want to move. And, of course, we had, like anyone who's been through challenging times we all have but you have this moment of like. You go through these waves of like inspiration. But you know, what was really like amazing during that time was to have one and a half year old, our, our son koa, because kids live in the moment. I mean, you're at the playground and he's not thinking about the toys he lost, he's like mama, let's go on the swings, like so to have him to kind of keep us a little bit grounded throughout. That was amazing, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:00:38

Yeah, that is amazing so that's our fire story Took us to Bend ultimately.

Speaker 3: 1:00:44

Yeah, and that's how you landed here.

Speaker 1: 1:00:45

That's why we landed in Bend. We got to pick. You know, there's very few times in your life where you're like free of no possessions and you get to kind of start fresh. And so we got to start fresh.

Speaker 3: 1:00:58

Yes, you did.

Speaker 1: 1:00:59

Cleansing through fire. Many people have told us through along the way and that was 2018 that you moved here, right, that was yeah, 2018. We went and traveled for eight months. We went overseas with our son and did some like amazing just journey, journeying the world, like traveling along the world and so we did that. So, yeah, we didn't end up here until 2018.

Speaker 3: 1:01:25

Yeah, I love it. Yeah, so because Josiah is not here, I got in touch with his best friend for a little insight his best friend for a little insight.

Speaker 5: 1:01:42

Never seen anyone, any couple, just persevere and bounce back from something like that.

Speaker 5: 1:01:44

He was talking about the fire. I really haven't, and you know the story is that just shot off to help the landlord load horses, and the fires like raging within meters, you know, and like it sounded absolutely horrendous, to be honest. But Joss is just, he's a hard man to face, you know, and Courtney is just her, his loyal sidekick, that's just. You know the brains of the situation, but also just as so willing to support him and stand by him. And they just powered through that with, with just, they're amazing. They really just was like well, you know, there's nothing we can do about it. Let's start a new life and be positive about it. And they, it was an incredible. I was very impressed. You just don't know what it's like. They just lost everything. You know like Courtney could throw a few things, but Joss had all these beautiful guitars. Like I say, he's a very talented musician, he's so humble, but he had all these gifts from people and beautiful guitars and slide guitars and just sort of lost all of that stuff, A lot of special stuff that they'd been collecting over here. It was, it was pretty full-on. Like I said, they bounced back and they're like they don't look back and it's great. That's what more can you do.

Speaker 5: 1:03:09

You know, I've had epilepsy since I was like 12 years old. It's's a pretty. I have grand mal seizures, but it's a pretty mild. My case was pretty mild. I might have, you know, one to two seizures a year. They're often usually at night or you know, or early in the morning at home. They started getting a little bit more frequent sort of shortly after I moved here, so I went and sort of started seeing a specialist and they just like tripled my medication dosage and a lot of people would say I'm on a way low, lower scale of what a lot of people were taking. But um, and then about three and three years ago, I started taking his think tincture and I take it morning and night, um, maybe just morning actually, and I am now currently sort of up to like two years without a seizure, which is um, the only thing I've really changed is taking that on a regular basis. So I'm reasonably, you know, convinced that it's helping substantially.

Speaker 5: 1:04:14

And that's just what I would say about joss is. He's such a dedicated man and um is so into researching every little factor about it and then trying to do the best job that he can possibly do regardless, realistically, of what he's doing. But this he's really jumped on and it's just, I think, just doing such a great job. Their brand is so great, their product is really great and you just know the energy that that's going into it, the love and the care that's going into it as well, behind it, is so intentional and I, I just you know, I think that's so critical for things nowadays, especially with the market.

Speaker 5: 1:04:59

There's so much availability of stuff out there that you know it's nice to be able to say go, oh well, I know I trust this brand because, one, I've taken it and I agree that it's helping. But two, obviously, my best friend's doing it and I know him, I've known him all my life and so I can trust that he is doing the best job that he can and sourcing the best products that he can. He doesn't half-ass anything and just does it to the best of his ability. Hello, my name is Isaac Newbery. I've been a close friend of Josiah for 30 plus years. Everything's great.

Speaker 3: 1:05:48

I told you, man, I want to hang out more with him. He's a great guy yeah you can tell he's a great guy. Yeah, you can tell. You know, I had been reading a little bit about the role of especially Lion's Mane for like epilepsy, and there's one of the keynote speakers at that summit that Josiah is going to has this nonprofit called Lily's Lighthouse.

Speaker 1: 1:06:11

Have you ever heard of this? I've seen a little bit about it, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:06:13

It's cool, people should look into it. Ever heard of this? Seen a little bit about it? Yeah, it's cool, people should look into it. It's the mother of a daughter who was born with epilepsy. Epilepsy kind of did similar story right Like a deep dive into not taking kind of Western medicine's options as the final be all end. All Doesn't mean there's not value in some of it, but doesn't mean that you can't supplement it with a more naturopathic approach in some of it. But doesn't mean that you can't supplement it with a more naturopathic approach. And her I mean not only her daughter's story, and I am not an expert on this by any means, I'm just kind of regurgitating what I've learned and read. But it seems like there's a pretty large population of people that have found a lot of value in integrating especially lion's mane into their medical regimen and see improvement Doesn't mean perfection, but improvement. So it's really cool.

Speaker 1: 1:07:02

Yeah, the Lion's Mane and the CBD have some amazing research and just like and case studies on people having great effects.

Speaker 3: 1:07:12

So, yeah, there are definitely two products to look into, yeah no doubt, yeah, so, yeah, there are definitely two products to look into. Yeah, no doubt. So when we were talking about kind of the purpose behind this, you were really adamant that you were and you're passionate about educating others who are shopping for mushroom supplements and you encourage people to ask a few questions during that process. So I thought we could kind of go through that and we've touched on a little bit. But the first would be how you extract out of the mushroom. And so just for listeners to and most people might know this, but I reminded myself that you know the, the mushroom, what we see when we're out, you know, I just totally went blank.

Speaker 3: 1:07:58

What is it when you're mushroom hunting? That's foraging. What you're looking for is the organ. The fruit is the organ of the mycelium, which is the network underneath ground. And you know, and you know again, just, mushrooms are unique. You know they reproduce with spores, they don't have seeds. And what you guys are doing in terms of educating people how the functional aspects of the fruiting body are extracted people how the functional aspects of the fruiting body are extracted. You encourage people to educate themselves and learn about how that's done, because there's several different ways of doing it. You guys have taken it kind of a step further with the ultrasound. Yeah, talk about that.

Speaker 1: 1:08:37

Yeah, so always look and make sure any product that has mushrooms in it is extracted. That's kind of the take home number one. There are a lot of products on the market that are just a ground-up dehydrated mushroom and the reality of that is that the mushrooms have in their cell wall a chitin, a compound called chitin, and it's a similar compound or is the same compound that's in lobster shells. It's indigestible. It can cause even digestive upset. You can't absorb the beneficial compounds within the mushroom if you try to consume it raw. Now, keep in mind this is also true with culinary mushrooms. Like there's sometimes the little button mushrooms on your salad that are raw. You shouldn't eat those. You should always cook mushrooms because of that compound in their cell wall. So there are products that are being advertised to you on Instagram that are not extractive mushrooms. So my number one thing with people is always check the back of the packaging, turn it around. If it says dehydrated lion's mane, or if it just says chaga, or if it just says reishi, you need to ask further questions, because it should say reishi extract or dehydrated reishi extract. You know, someone sent me a product the other day that had lion's mane extract, but then it just said chaga right after that and I'm like, well, no, I would be questioning that. That chaga needs to be extracted. So, yeah, just keep that in mind the standard in the industry.

Speaker 1: 1:09:59

What you should be looking for is a dual extraction. Dual extraction means a hot, pressurized, heated water extraction which releases the water-soluble compounds of the mushroom, and then an alcohol extraction releases the non-water-soluble compounds of the mushroom. So once you do that, you have that dual extraction. We take it one step further and we do ultrasonic extraction, like you were talking about, which is sound waves. So we have an ultrasonic extraction machine that pulsates sound waves into the substrate.

Speaker 1: 1:10:27

We actually use Oregon spring water as well, because we wanted to use the highest quality water. We could use Oregon spring water, heat and pressurized. We use organic cane alcohol from Ashland Organ. So highest quality alcohol we could use also gluten-free. Combine those and then do the ultrasonic extraction. So we've had a lot of people that have told us they were taking mushroom products in the past and then they switched or they started taking ours and they felt it for the first time. And that's really what. One thing that sets us apart is that extraction process and making sure we're making it super bioavailable, so you can feel the products, because that is our mission.

Speaker 1: 1:11:05

Our mission is that you know that this product is bringing value to your life, and the way that we do that is making sure that it's very potent and bioavailable.

Speaker 3: 1:11:16

Where did Josiah get the idea of using ultrasound technology for extraction?

Speaker 1: 1:11:20

Yeah, so he's the type of person that like researches at night. You know other people are scrolling social media or whatever.

Speaker 1: 1:11:25

He's like reading about extraction yeah, so he's the type of person that, like researchers at night, you know, other people are scrolling social media or whatever. He's like reading about extraction. So he found a company that was using it in Europe, Okay, and then he just started the deep dive on, like, what is ultrasonic extraction? How does it work? It's a very clean extraction because it just uses sound and we literally wear headphones, like we're wearing right now, and it's very loud. But what it looks like is it just looks like bubbles being pulsated into the water and there's a lot of science behind it, because it all happens through a titanium rod and you can control. You know the length that it's extracting, you can control the pitch, you can control all these elements that you need to dial in.

Speaker 3: 1:12:06

Are there different ideal settings for different species of mushrooms?

Speaker 1: 1:12:13

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:12:14

That's cool man it is true, yeah, not even just mushrooms. For example, we have black pepper extract in our superfood honey blend. So we extract that using mostly ultrasonic, and this is how he really showed me how it worked. He took the black pepper and just put it in I think it was water and he put it in the jug and then did the ultrasonic extraction for four minutes and then took a little dropper, put this dropper full of the liquid that he had just extracted, put it in a whole glass of water and I drank it and it was like drinking pure black pepper and it was insane. It only took four minutes. So, yeah, it's a very strong, but in a very clean way. It just breaks down all those molecules to the same size and, yeah, it's something unique that we do.

Speaker 3: 1:13:01

Yeah, I mean, and no one else that you're aware of is doing that in the functional mushroom space.

Speaker 1: 1:13:08

Mushrooms no but CBD. Some people have started to use it in CBD and then in Europe. It's more common in Europe than it is in the United States, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:13:16

I felt like there was something else I wanted to follow up on, but maybe it'll come back to me. But the second thing that you question, you ask or encourage people to ask, is you know, knowing where the mushrooms are sourced from.

Speaker 1: 1:13:28

Yeah, definitely. This is a huge question and this one goes kind of a few factors here. So 70% of all mushrooms come from China. So if it's important to you to have a US-based product, then I would definitely ask the question is it from the US? And then also, is it grown on a conventional substrate? If it's not grown wild, which is the one question, is it wild? Okay, maybe not, then it's grown in a lab. Labs.

Speaker 1: 1:13:55

Mushrooms are grown on substrate. It's usually brown rice or oat. So is it grown on an organic rice or oat? Because if it's grown in a conventional setting, then mushrooms are amazingly porous and they suck up everything from the soil. So if you're using a conventional substrate that's been sprayed with pesticides, you are literally sucking up all those pesticides and then when they're extracting it, they are concentrating it.

Speaker 1: 1:14:25

So you really want to make sure it's organic. I mean, even if you're not the type of person that buys organic in the grocery store, this is like one of those dirty dozen you know they say with like raspberries on there, but bananas are okay, mushroom extracts. You should buy organic or wild harvested. So we want to make sure the source. Is it the USA? Is it grown in a lab? If so, is it conventional or is it organic? And then you know also I encourage people to just like do you know anything about the company, like we were talking about earlier? Are they conscious on how they're producing this product? So the source of the company as well. So, yeah, that's the question number two is where's the source?

Speaker 3: 1:15:06

Yeah, and then, lastly, if the supplements extracted 100% from fruiting bodies and not any of the mycelium.

Speaker 1: 1:15:15

Right. So the tricky thing with the mycelium? They have shown that there's some benefits to the mycelium. Not as much research has been done on the mycelium versus the fruiting body. Most of the research is on the fruiting body. But the tricky thing in the mycelium is it's grown on the substrate and it's the roots of the mushroom right, and the mycelium is very thin, thin root system. You cannot separate it from that substrate, the rice or the oat. So when they go through the extraction of that mycelium they also extract that rice or oat. So in a tincture it could be up to 30% of that becomes rice or oat.

Speaker 1: 1:15:51

So, it's just not going to be as potent. It's not going to be as medicinal for you and it's going to be a lot of substrate, so rice or oat tincture essentially.

Speaker 3: 1:16:02

Is it quite a bit difference in production cost the way you guys do it, versus maybe your average kind of company?

Speaker 1: 1:16:13

Yeah, I would say the wild harvested element does add an element of an increased cost, I mean, but so does the manuka honey right, yeah totally, and we that's the thing that goes back to like we want to believe 110% in what we're making.

Speaker 1: 1:16:29

We want to be making something that we would give our children every day and that we would take ourselves every day, and so for us, the quality is really the number one question, it's not the cost. So, yeah, yeah, I think there is an additional cost associated with it, and you know, I mean, I think Manuka honey it's like a 10x on any other honey right so in terms of cost, but it's just part of what it is and people that buy our products, I think they understand. You know the quality.

Speaker 3: 1:16:59

You get what you pay for Exactly.

Speaker 1: 1:17:01

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:17:01

And if you're taking something every day you better make sure that there's quality there, right? Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 3: 1:17:06

You don't want to be going and trying to find the cheapest supplement, right, and all of your guys' mushrooms are from Oregon or Northwest. Most of them, most of them, are from the Pacific Northwest.

Speaker 1: 1:17:16

The only exception to that is maitake, because it doesn't grow wild in the Pacific Northwest. But yeah, and maitake was our last mushroom to kind of join the family. But yeah, our lion's mane comes mostly outside of Eugene the turkey tail comes from Oregon and the chaga comes from Alaska, grown on birch trees in Alaska, and the reishi comes from Washington. So yeah, all Pacific Northwest.

Speaker 3: 1:17:44

That's awesome and your website has a really good, digestible explanation of the value in each of those different mushroom species. I like your website. It's like enough to feel like you walk away from it understanding more, but it's not overwhelming.

Speaker 1: 1:18:00

Okay, great, it's good website. Thank you for that feedback.

Speaker 3: 1:18:04

Is that Josiah surfing on there?

Speaker 1: 1:18:07

Yeah, it probably is Some guy catching air.

Speaker 3: 1:18:09

He's a good surfer.

Speaker 1: 1:18:11

Yeah, he loves it, that's what matters, right?

Speaker 3: 1:18:14

Yes?

Speaker 1: 1:18:15

He grew up surfing, so he was the kid skipping school to go catch some waves, the thing that people love about the Lion's Mane.

Speaker 1: 1:18:24

to come back to Lion's Mane because it is like the Lion's Mane is our. That think tincture is our bestseller and a lot of people resonate with that and what you know. We talked a lot about just that. The reason why we started it was to heal Josiah's brain. But I will say there isn't. There is not a day that I do not take that thing for sure. Like before this podcast, I was like I better get a second dose. I took one in the morning, but I took it also before coming here, because it's just great for mental clarity.

Speaker 1: 1:18:52

It's great for focus and I wanted to share with everyone. There's 100 billion nerves in our brain, but our brain uses 20% of our daily energy, but it only takes up 2% of our body weight. So to just give you an idea, like the brain, is this powerhouse for our body, right? So I often will ask people you know, a lot of people think about what they're doing every day for their body. They might work out, they might take certain supplements for strength or for health, but it's like what are you doing every day for your brain? Let's ask yourself that question, because we all need to make sure we're well. We want to make sure we're optimizing our life right and mental focus and clarity and the brain is just a huge part of that to really get the best out of life.

Speaker 4: 1:19:40

So that's really a great thing.

Speaker 1: 1:19:41

So that's really a great thing. And then, if anyone did want to talk about which mushrooms are right for them, if you are listening and you are local, we're at Farmer's Markets. You can come to our entire tasting. We love to talk about mushrooms, we love to let you touch and feel the mushrooms, to give you that tactile experience and teach you about which mushroom is good for different things, because each mushroom is good for a different output. So it depends on what you need. If you want brain power, lion's Mane is for you, but if you want energy, go for cordyceps.

Speaker 3: 1:20:14

Well, I bought your guys' combo pack. It's got all four of them and the turkey tail is new. Since the last time I bought it and I had listened to a podcast on the synergistic benefit of turkey tail with medication like in terms of bioavailability and efficacy. It's pretty cool, man. They don't teach you that in medical school.

Speaker 1: 1:20:36

No, and turkey tail is amazing. It has two compounds PSK and PSP are the two that really are researched. A lot, a lot of the research is coming out of Japan for turkey tail and it's amazing if you know of anyone who's going through cancer as like a supplementation with all mushrooms it's not like a hundred percent mushroom. You know, don't follow traditional medical, it's more, it's like add this as well right.

Speaker 1: 1:21:03

Totally. And the turkey tail is, they've shown, helps people increase natural killer cells, helps them. They've even shown less side effects from like chemo and radiation from it. So it's just a great thing to add in. You know, if that is an area that someone needs support. Absolutely yeah, is an area that someone needs support.

Speaker 3: 1:21:22

Absolutely. Yeah, the last audio clip I got is from your guys' family friend, david Lutz, who's also a doctor of chiropractic medicine, and he was really fun to talk to and this will be fun for you guys to hear.

Speaker 6: 1:21:39

I met Josiah and Courtney a number of years ago at Tumalo State Park. They were new to Central Oregon and their young children were running around in the grass and playing in the river and at that point my daughter was a toddler as well. So we interacted with them and played with them and got to know them and really enjoyed their presence and their energy. And our children got along and it was great. At some point, as we continued to interact, um, they gave us insight on their venture with Manuka mana and the time that, when which we spoke about it the most was we went over to their their home for some dinner and Josiah is just.

Speaker 6: 1:22:24

If you've ever met Josiah, he's just this mad scientist, brilliant human being that just has so many talents and skills and is very, very meticulous, in particular, when it comes to food and creating things.

Speaker 6: 1:22:40

So he's got this amazing garden in his backyard that he was showing us and he cooked us this outstanding five course meal with these, with a dessert that was just a level in which you would get at, you know, a five-star restaurant. It was blown away, because that's that's what he did. He worked at this really, really high end restaurant for a while and was a pastry chef and it really showed. And then they started to talk to us that evening more in depth about their venture with Manuka Mana and they were getting ready to really launch it at that point. So they were preparing and we got to know them on a deeper level that evening and see their hearts and their intentions behind Manuka Mana, deeper level that evening and see their hearts and their intentions behind Manuka Mana and it really blew us away of how specific and particular they were about every single ingredient that goes into their supplement line Just blew us away.

Speaker 6: 1:23:43

I've never heard of a supplement company utilizing the finest ingredients that are hand-picked down to how they're composed, how they're harvested, how they're utilized, how they feel, how they taste everything. And then Josiah, as his mad scientist, goes into his little, his lab and he creates these outstanding products that not only are extremely tasty and have amazing branding, but you notice a difference when you consume them in your body and how you feel and how you function. And it's almost every single product that we utilize it feels that way. We don't. We don't sell all their products in our practice, uh, we sell specific ones, um, but I'm an advocate for for all the things that they do, every single piece of it.

Speaker 6: 1:24:37

How they extract the adaptogens, um, using the sound wave technology to increase the potency and utilization by your body, from where they extract it's amazing. But I think the biggest piece is a provider right Is that? I know that their supplementation. People are going to feel and experience the difference once they start utilizing the product, because there's a lot of supplements that you can take that you're like. People are like yeah, this is really good for you, and somebody who's into their health and I am yeah, I'm going to take it. Do I feel a difference when I take vitamin D? No. Do I feel a difference when I take vitamin C? Usually.

Speaker 5: 1:25:16

No.

Speaker 6: 1:25:17

But am I going to continue to take both of them? Yes, because I know they're foundational building blocks that my body needs to utilize in order to function well in the world. When you get into more of these adaptogenic supplements, like additional things on top of nutrients and vitamins and minerals, etc. And somebody tells you that you should experience something from it, but you don't, it wears off a little bit because you're like why am I taking this? I don't feel a difference. It's not a foundational building block, but when you do take their supplements, you do feel a difference and you do know experience. The difference and I think a big piece of that is what we were hitting on before is how they extract, how they source, like all the love and care and intention that they put into it, versus just riding the wave of the, you know riding the wave of how adaptogens are exploding in the supplementation world right like, however, it's like it seems like almost every brand is starting to come out, that health food line is coming out with adaptogens. It's like, well, now you're just doing that because that is the market trend in which it's going, versus them having this true passion regarding all of their, all of their ingredients and how they're extracted and how it's utilized and how they're combined and their whole, their overall experience that you have with their product is is very unique and it shines through from the way their brand looks to the moment that you put it in your body and the experience that you have with their product. And they're just amazing people. They just have such big hearts and they're in it just to spread these amazing products that they've cultivated and how it can help the human being function at a higher level and experience a better life. It's awesome.

Speaker 6: 1:27:17

I'm David Lutz. I'm a doctor of chiropractic. In Bend, oregon, we have an office called Pure Light Family Chiropractic. We serve families, lots of young families. Our specialty is pediatrics. We see a lot of babies and toddlers and kids. We specialize in seeing kiddos on the spectrum, whether it comes to autism or sensory processing things or ADHD, add, and then we have also a specialty in the perinatal period, which is pregnancy, birth and postpartum.

Speaker 3: 1:27:53

I wanted to give his practice a little plug because that's a cool niche of healthcare, or at least it seems like it. I don't know much about it, but being in healthcare and just he seems like a really cool guy.

Speaker 1: 1:28:10

Yeah, I mean our son goes to them and so it's been amazing.

Speaker 1: 1:28:14

And and he. You know that that audio made me want to cry, cause that's like that is what we, what our intention is. But it's interesting because him and his wife run that practice and I could say the exact same thing back at them, like the intention behind what they're doing and they're really passionate about pediatric health and just helping families. It can be difficult or just having a baby, that whole process. There's so much change and so much that goes into it and they just are like this epic support system for the family and for the parents, for the mother going through the birth, and so they are a dynamic duo too.

Speaker 3: 1:28:56

Those two, they're a power couple. Yeah, that's what I told him. I said, man, it sounds like we could record a podcast on what you're doing. Yeah it sounds like we could record a podcast and what you're doing. Yeah, I love that he commented on the overall experience, because I let like like when I got my last order in the mail you have these cards, you have these cards and you brought one with you and, uh, you know, I mean it just kind of shows how you I got to clean this water up real quick.

Speaker 1: 1:29:21

I'm good.

Speaker 3: 1:29:21

It's not going to go anywhere, but talk a little bit, cause that's, that's just. You know the, the sprinkling on top, you know.

Speaker 1: 1:29:28

Yeah, yeah, I'd love to have you pick a card.

Speaker 1: 1:29:31

So, these cards everyone gets, whether they buy a product. If you get in the mail, you get it on the top of your package. If you meet us at a market and you buy your product that way, we put them out for you and you pick your card. But we really believe that health and wellness is, yes, it's the body, but it's also the mind. So this is like our little tidbit for the mind and to spread a little inspiration. I mean, we've had people start crying at events after picking a card.

Speaker 1: 1:29:58

You know a lot of people say that they get the message they need to hear. So let's see what message you get All right.

Speaker 3: 1:30:03

This is fun, this is super fun.

Speaker 1: 1:30:13

All right, you get in life what you have the courage to ask for. There you go.

Speaker 3: 1:30:16

Little tidbits of just insight and wisdom.

Speaker 1: 1:30:18

Exactly Each one's different.

Speaker 3: 1:30:22

There's 40 different cards. Where do you?

Speaker 1: 1:30:23

get these, I make them.

Speaker 3: 1:30:24

So these all are original. You come up with the.

Speaker 1: 1:30:26

Well, the quotes, they're not all original quotes.

Speaker 3: 1:30:29

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:30:29

But then I, you know, I just like handpick the quotes and then find the picture. Some of the pictures are our own, some of them I buy off the internet, yeah, so I just picked one, and this one is this is the beginning of anything you want.

Speaker 3: 1:30:45

I love it. Yeah, yeah, dude. So yeah, whenever you guys are rad Courtney, what you're doing is super cool.

Speaker 1: 1:30:52

Thank you yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:30:53

Thanks for coming on.

Speaker 1: 1:30:54

And thank you for having this platform for people and small businesses to do, totally yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:31:00

Well, maybe the next one of these we record will be in your warehouse at an event.

Speaker 1: 1:31:07

Yeah, that would be super fun.

Speaker 3: 1:31:08

I'd love that.

Speaker 1: 1:31:10

Yeah, we'll have some mushroom soft serve ice cream flowing.

Speaker 3: 1:31:13

I'm excited to watch you guys continue to grow and positively affect people's lives, because clearly you're doing it and that's just going to continue.

Speaker 1: 1:31:22

Well, thank you. Thank you for having me on the show Totally. I look forward to continue Well thank you, thank you for having me on the show. Totally. I look forward to sharing some more stuff with you All, right, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:31:30

Well, that's what you'll write up there.

Speaker 1: 1:31:31

Yeah, just time of your life and I have another gift for you? No way, yeah, because you're a podcaster. Oh, this is fun. So this you spray directly in your mouth. I'm a podcaster, that's so funny. Well, I thought you were talking, you know you talk a lot in terms of like this is a good one. No, I do, I just don't. It's so funny that.

Speaker 3: 1:31:51

I do this. If you asked me if I would do this, be doing this like whatever four or five years ago. It was so far outside of my like personality and kind of comfort zone.

Speaker 4: 1:32:02

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:32:02

You know, but I've fallen quite in love with it. I've just learned so much.

Speaker 1: 1:32:07

Oh yeah, you get to talk to people that are just like passionate about something In your community, right?

Speaker 3: 1:32:11

And the whole thing is kind of very and it's starting to have a ripple effect. Like I meet people that meet people through, you know, like my hope is that a large part of people, both locally and nationally, will be directed towards what you guys are doing. Yeah, and learn about it. Yeah, and you know that's badass. So thank you for bringing me this Spray a couple sprays in your mouth.

Speaker 1: 1:32:34

It'll take a little bit to get going, but this one is an awesome one when you travel. It's awesome for smoke. You can spray it before you go in the smoke and it'll create a lining on your throat to protect from smoke. Because the propolis is what the bees line their hive with to protect from microbes and bacteria, so it's doing that in your throat. It also has the manuka honey, which is really soothing for coughs, sore throat, anything respiratory allergies.

Speaker 1: 1:33:01

Propolis is a natural antihistamine, and then it has a little bit of peppermint extract to give it that peppermint flavor.

Speaker 3: 1:33:07

Yeah, I'm going to my next order with you guys. I'm going to try some of the honey blends.

Speaker 1: 1:33:12

Yeah, I almost brought them for you to taste, test them.

Speaker 3: 1:33:15

Yeah, I can imagine I tried them at the market.

Speaker 1: 1:33:17

Yeah, they're delicious, yeah, cool.

Speaker 2: 1:33:35

All right, well, we did it. That was fun, that was super fun. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3: 1:33:45

Yeah, hey. Thanks for listening to Ben Magazine's the Circling Podcast. Make sure to visit benmagazinecom and learn all about the outdoor adventures in our area, as well as upcoming featured community events, local artist profiles, our dining guide and more. Remember to enter promo code PODCAST at checkout for your $5 annual subscription. Our theme song was written by Carl Perkins and performed by Aaron Colbaker and Aaron Zerflu of the Aarons. We love mail, so please send us comments, questions or art to thecirclingpodcast at binmagazinecom or art to the Circling Podcast at binmagazinecom. Support the Circling Podcast by becoming a member on Patreon at patreoncom. Slash thecirclingpodcast and learn how your financial contribution will help support local nonprofits while also supporting local podcasting. Follow us on Instagram at the Circling Podcast to learn more about past, current and upcoming episodes. Please subscribe to the Circling Podcast on all major podcast platforms and leave us a review. It really does help.

Speaker 3: 1:34:54

I'd like to say a special thank you to all of those who participated in the making of this episode, as it wouldn't be the same without your contribution, and I appreciate your trust. Wouldn't be the same without your contribution and I appreciate your trust. Learn more about all the products offered by Manuka Mana at manukamanacom and don't forget to stay tuned after the show credits for Courtney's contribution to the Circling Podcast Community Art Project and visit markjamnettcom to learn more about subliminal story art embedded with meaning. Lastly, if you know someone who you think would enjoy today's episode to learn more about subliminal story art embedded with meaning. Lastly, if you know someone who you think would enjoy today's episode, please share it with them today. Hey, thanks for your time. Central Oregon, get outside. We'll see you out there and remember the health of our community relies on us.

Speaker 1: 1:35:46

Well, yeah, I mean I love these too, and so I was thinking of doing one of these because I love this is the beginning of anything you want, because it is a reminder. But also trust the timing of your life. This has been kind of something that I try to embrace a lot, because we've had, you know, in general, like you have these ebbs and flows of life, right, and like you were saying, you said before we came in here, well, yeah, we've been trying to connect, like when the time is right, it will happen, right, and there is an element of like you need to let go right, like that's.