When it comes to shipping aromatic herbs there are two rules. Don’t be cheap, and don’t be stupid. Welcome to The Hippie Geeks, let’s dig into what that means with this video brought to you by our lovely patrons over on Patreon, but more on that later.
I am not sure if you are aware, but the government is very interested in your aromatic herbs, especially when you are trying to ship them. You might have something like this cardinal basil that needs to be harvested, and you just need to get it somewhere else, but you don’t want the snoopy government man to smell it and decide that it is time to open your package and keep it for himself. I mentioned in the intro that there are only two rules to shipping aromatic herbs, and that is to not be cheap or stupid. What I mean by don’t be cheap is that you absolutely under no circumstances want to put your aromatic lavender harvest into zip lock baggies, then throw it into a flat rate box and hope that it makes it to the destination. Sandwich baggies suck, and they will not only let the smell of the lavender out, they will let oxygen in and before you know it your beautiful lavender flowers are going to be a dried out crunchy mess. Mason jars are a possibility, but anything glass is prone to being broken in shipping, don’t ask me or the honey that I shipped in one how I know that.
So, we have already determined that we are not going to be cheap and use sandwich bags or mason jars, so what do we recommend when you have a dried harvest of something like this rosemary that needs to get shipped? After trying out several different products, what we have found that works the best for our first layer of defense are these Heavy Duty Smelly Proof bags, and we like the quart size. As a side note, I will leave an Amazon Associates link to everything mentioned in the description down below if you want to check them out. We do not want to overfill them, and what we will typically do is split up a pound of aromatic herbs across the five bags that come in a package, or around three ounces in each one. These work incredibly well, and could almost be used as the only layer of defense, but if we tried that we would be breaking the other rule, and that is to not be stupid.
If you need to ship aromatic herbs you definitely need to go a little further. Much like our Patrons that have gone a little further themselves over on Patreon. By becoming a Patron, they are helping to keep these videos coming all tiers get to see all of our videos early and ad free. There are other perks as well, so if you are interested in checking it out click on the link in the video description down below.
What we need to do next is to get another layer of protection, and that is where the next product comes in and this one is not exactly cheap. This is the Skunk Face off smell proof backpack, and it is actually a really solid daily use backpack. It is currently around $120 on amazon, and comes with several different possible faces. In the main pocket you can easily fit all of the baggies of aromatic herbs that we put together already, and you can almost smell how aromatic this lavender is thru the screen so you know we are going to need some extra protection. Once you have your herbs loaded up, we need to follow up by being smart, and that means that we are going to put other things into this backpack as well. We love shipping it with a bag of coffee, as it tastes delicious and if there is a mishap the smell can help to cover up the herbs as well. We will also typically throw in some candy, and a small stuffed animal. The thing you are trying to avoid if your package gets scanned, is to look like you are only shipping aromatic herbs. Pack several fun things in there, and then box it up securely for the shipping part. Put some stickers on the box, things like Happy Birthday, as again you do not want it to look like a box full or aromatic herbs. Now, the most important part of all of this, is that you need to ship it USPS, not Fed-Ex and not UPS.
None of the shipping services are fond of you mailing something like a harvest of this beautiful rosemary, as they are all in the pockets of the spice kings of the south, but USPS is by far the most lenient if they do end up opening your package of herbs. Fed-Ex and UPS will usually get the authorities involved, where as the postal service will usually just send you a letter saying that they are confiscating your herbs, and that if law enforcement comes looking, they will let them know what they have found. We had this happen to a friend that was shipping some aromatic herbs back east, and they opened his package because he didn’t follow two simple rules. All that he did was put his herbs into some zip lock bags in a box and tried shipping three pounds of our finest cardinal basil to the east coast.
That brings us to a bonus rule, and that is simply to not be greedy. The more that you try to ship in one go, the more likely you are to be caught. The backpack that we recommend can be shipped back to you to be reused again and again, and with how much a pound of harvested lavender like this would cost you to buy, you are much better off making the investment in a good backpack, some smell proof bags and a few treats to make sure that your package arrives safely.
This video is a little different than the ones that we usually put out, so if you enjoyed it let us know in the comments down below. A big shoutout goes to our Patrons over on Patreon that have pledged at the Supervisor level. While all of our patrons help keep the channel going, you folks have gone above and beyond, and we really appreciate it.
Amazon Associates links to the products used in this video:
Smelly Proof Heavy Duty Bags: https://amzn.to/3SBCf2R
Skunk Backpack: https://amzn.to/3UriX1g
Lion Coffee: https://amzn.to/3uc4pYO
Twix Candy: https://amzn.to/3OmDBfm
Sea Turtle Stuffie: https://amzn.to/47TNVCC
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