Becoming an environmentally conscious shopper can be daunting in a world filled with plastic packaging and single-use products. But at Rosebud in Eureka, owner Tamara Cervenka does the legwork to make eco-friendly products from near and far accessible, so you can shop mindfully, without the hassle.
The previous owner, Rosie Slentz, opened the store in 2021 and called it Rosebud, paying homage to her childhood nickname. Cervenka, the store's first employee, bought the business nine months later and has since cultivated its unique collection of locally made goods, interesting exports and vintage variety. Her goal: to dispel the idea that things "aren't made the way they used to be" and to curate items carefully and conscientiously.
An assemblage of plants and dried flowers greets you at the door, an outward expression of the shop's earth-loving atmosphere. Here you can build your own seasonal flower arrangement for $2 to $6 a stem, with mostly dry flowers in the winter and fresh in the spring.
If you aspire to live a reduced-waste, or zero-waste lifestyle, you'll make good use of Rosebud's impressive "refill bar" dedicated to reusable and refillable home goods ranging from bulk shampoo to refillable toothpaste, deodorant and even French laundry soap. Rosebud wants to make it easy for you to swap your dryer sheets for a wool dryer ball, buy a reusable pot scrubber that you can throw in the compost when the bristles get worn, or ditch your paper towels for the aptly named Unpapertowel roll. (Before you balk at the roll's $68 price, the Rosebud team did the math — that's about two 12 packs of Bounty, so in the long run you can do better for your wallet while reducing the amount of paper in your waste bin.)
If your aim is to reduce waste as well as support local makers, note that Rosebud sells botanical skincare products in bulk from Root Rise, a company based in Petrolia. All you have to do is bring in your existing product container and get it refilled.
Keeping in line with its commitment to combat waste, the shop also has a small handful of vintage items too precious to end up in the landfill, including delicately designed glassware from the 1940s.
Browsing the perimeter, you'll find plenty of high-quality, locally crafted products to choose from, including lush blankets woven from local, hand-spun wool from Romney and Merino Sheep, and doorstops carved from regional redwoods. But Rosebud truly declares its unique niche in Old Town by intertwining these items with upscale imported goods for your home and garden that you might not find elsewhere in the county: a Greek pepper grinder, a Ukrainian leather garden tool belt, textiles from South Wales. Or how about a Japanese pour-over system to level up your morning coffee ritual?
"It makes your life more rich when you fill it with these little things that are special and you stop and enjoy," Cervenka says.
