Our Story
It's hard to believe we started Alpenglow in 1999. But it all began years before actually. When I, Susan, was a young child, I would often mix potions in the forest behind our home using mud, dandelions, pine needles and puddle water, adding wildflower petals and a little moss for flair. When Patrick and I moved to Alaska in 1995 to become Interpretive Park Rangers in Denali, I was fascinated with Ethnobotany and studied the traditional ways Native Alaskans used plants for food, medicine, bodycare, spiritual rituals, baskets etc. Then we relocated to Anchor Point on the southern Kenai Peninsula to live in a milder climate and be near the ocean. I was ecstatic about the gardening opportunities (relative to interior Alaska), and eager to really dive into sustainable living.
We began by making soap, balm and face cream in our tiny 16'x16' cabin without running water. After our initial sales to neighbors and family, we started selling at the Homer Farmer's Market in 2000 and we vended there, and at other craft/holiday shows for 19 years. My dad designed the initial website in 2004 so we could sell online. By 2019 we had transitioned to entirely online sales and wholesale accounts, wanting to enjoy weekends with the family instead of traveling for shows.
The photos below show the early and middle years of this evolving home business.
The Homer Farmer's Market is where you'd find us almost every Saturday, May through September from 2000 - 2018. Many of our current customers met us and discovered our products there. It's amazing how many customers we still have from those early years. I miss the interactions with these friendly folks, but I am happy weekends are for family recreation now.
We started making Cottonwood Balm while living in Denali, long before creating the business or our family. Liam is too small here to help with harvest but both kids learned early in life that you need to make hay when the sun shines and they spent many hours in baby backpacks and slings while mom and dad wildcrafted. That's a sticky cottonwood bud on my finger and a smile on my face because I love the process.
In our 16' x 16' cabin, we had only one table. So I had to slice soap, make lotion, or pour lip balm between meals, or we would need to eat while sitting on the futon. My first soap mold was an old kitchen drawer. This slicer had a wire to slice towers, and a different box to slice bars from the towers. Behind me is a soap drying rack Patrick made from repurposed plywood. Once we moved into the house Patrick built, adjoining the cabin, he converted the cabin into a manufacturing space and I was so excited for a dedicated work space! But as the business grew, this space was clearly too small so we designed the workshop and soon Patrick started its construction.
By this young age, Liam was definitely harvesting buds from lower branches. He didn't have hours of patience so we'd have to play games and let him self-entertain while mom and dad filled their buckets.
Alana has always been very tactile, just like her mother. She would love to get her hands in my projects and she was always attracted to the scents. I remember thinking a 3 gallon batch was so much cottonwood balm! Now I make it in 25 gallon batch size.
How lucky I am to have a fantastic father (a retired IBM programer), design the first website. A hobby photographer as well, he took all the initial product and people photos for the website. Learning code was never my cup of tea and early in the business I discovered that I would not have time, nor interest to do everything (especially being a mother to two young souls), so I am grateful for the many hours my dad gave our growing business.
Alana like many young girls, loved pink. Here our little princess sits with a bowl of rose petals she helped harvest. This girl grew up into a rugged Alaskan that changed the oil in my car and swapped my winter and summer tires as a teenager before leaving for college. We always thought it very important to teach our kids skills, not just knowledge.
I loved those old blue bottles and jars. To save money on labels I would have one label printed that said 'Massage Oil' for example, and then there would be a check box for the three scent option. Same with all other category of products.
I've never been one to fear 'not knowing'. This business has been a continual ladder of "I don't know how to do this" but digging in and figuring it out. It's important to know when to reach out for help, and Alpenglow has not only provided reason for pride, but lots of opportunities for humilty as well.
Harvesting yarrow on our land. I remember lots of songs and verbal games to increase stamina for my wee ones during wildcrafting or gardening.
'Offical' farmers with their new hats gifted from grandparents.
How young we were. I love this man more every year since we started dating at age 19 and 20! We've been through a lot together. And we've received so much love and support, first through the Homer Farmer's Market, other shows across Alaska, and then through online sales and our wholesale accounts.
Wild Alaskan roses have such a delicate scent. Because the petals are mostly water, they shrink to a fraction of their size. So harvesting rose petals for our soap is a lengthy job, but one I love, like all wildcrafting. We harvest with great respect and honor for our wild places.
Alana broke her tibia downhill skiing at our local rope tow. We still needed to harvest cottonwood buds so we pulled her on a sled and brought her branches that had fallen in the wind. Necessity is the mother of invention.
Before we designed and built garden beds for calendula, we grew many pots on our deck. In the background the workshop was in construction phase and had yet to be sided in cedar.
For many years, the kids took my scrap soap and made shapes like hearts, trees and fish to sell these at the Homer Farmer's Market. Customers LOVED these. Alana and Liam earned this money. They never received allowance for chores, because well, that's just stuff that needs doing. No one pays an adult for doing dishes, weeding or chopping wood. But whenever they helped with the business, they earned money to start learning how to manage it.
Here I am in the cabin, pouring cottonwood balm on our one table. How much smaller our production was then. The business is no less personal now. It's still just our family with the help of a fantastic part time assistant.
How cute! A 4 gallon batch of soap! Our batch size is now 35 gallons.
Installing shelves during the construction of the workshop. Patrick has always been patient teaching the kids so many skills.
We installed a crane on the workshop deck as it's not possible to carry a 55 gallon drum (460 lbs) up a flight of stairs. We also used the crane to lift all these totes to be loaded into our truck for the farmer's market and other craft fairs.
When we moved Alpenglow into the workshop in 2011, production scaled up and my little helpers became my main 'cappers' with larger batch sizes. The soap in the background is now on bakery racks instead of a plywood rack Patrick built in the cabin. I desperately needed and appreciated the efficiency in the larger workshop.
We are off to harvest Fireweed on our property. Summer in Alaska is so short and sweet.
House on the left, workshop on the right, thriving calendula beds in the middle. Happy mom with helpful Liam.
Young children are such a blessing in busy parents' lives. I remember both kids cupping flowers in their hands and gently smelling and savoring such preciousness. They were not fast harvesters, but they slowed down with great intention and connection to the natural world. There's a lot to learn from little people.
Liam's always loved motors and he would enthusiastically unload a pallet IF he got to use wheels for the job.
The many stages and years of it all - from before the kids were born, and now they are both in college, it warms my heart. I feel so blessed for this livelihood and the support we've received from our local community, across Alaska, the US and the globe. Thank you for loving our products since 1999!