Getting Herbal In San Francisco

Get your herbs in bulk at Rainbow. This is a vegetarian co-op grocery store that you will feel good about supporting. Don’t skip the vegan baked goods and the 20% off coupon days on Wednesdays and Thursdays. They even have everything you need to make soap from scratch!

Check out the cute little plant section at the front of this modest grocery store. They’ve got venus fly traps, cool pots, herb seeds, and even a few herb kits. Create the poor man’s Aerogarden by spending only a few bucks at Big Apple.

Call up that friend with the Costco membership, and pick up your Aerogarden on the cheap here.

Feeling ambitious enough to cultivate your own herbs? This is where the gardener’s gardeners shop.

Eye of newt and toe of frog! Come here for all of your toil and trouble holistic healing ingredients. Even though I might not have taken to the owner’s bright idea of putting a piece of garlic in my ear to calm an ear ache, I’m still not entralled with Western medicine in general, so this place makes the list.

I’m still traumatized from the time my mom made me go to the Chinese tea doctor when I was 6, and I ended up getting prescribed some tea that had dried seahorse in it and tasted like earwax. But if you haven’t had the same experience, Kwok Hong is the place to go for your Chinese herbal remedies.

Come here if you want to pay $30 for a potted basil plant, or if you feel the need to own a lavendar bath tub “tea bag.” A perfect gift shop for the rich old neighbor lady who pays you $50 to water her plants for a weekend. And worth it for the free cheese samples at Cowgirl Creamery across the way.