Beargrass products infused with local flowers

SEELEY LAKE – Catherine Schuck, Potomac, offers her Beargrass products of salves, lotions, knit and crocheted hats at the Seeley Lake Market. She has been a mainstay of the market for the past four years. Schuck can also be seen weekly at the Missoula Farmers Market on Saturdays over the summer.

Schuck offers salves and lotions infused with products such as arnica found on her own property. She dries the flowers at home and then infuses them into organic olive oil along with mango and shea butter. Almond and avocado oil can also be found in products along with Emu oil from the Bitterroot. She also offers some cannabis infused products.

Her Sunshine Salve for cuts and bites or joint and muscle pain is also available at 50 dispensaries and stores in Montana.

"I love harvesting things to use in my products," Schuck said. "It is just a passion, to create."

Schuck added she offers products for health and wellbeing for people. "I know how it helps me," Schuck said. "It is exciting to see others get relief."

Schuck started selling her products five years ago but has been making and gifting them for 15 years. She started using flowers to make dyes for fiber products. This has grown into the salve and lotion products

Schuck taught children for 36 years in the Missoula area. Her first teaching position was in Potomac. She retired from Rattlesnake Elementary School. She taught students to make dyes, lotions and salves as part of the First People curriculum.

"[The Seeley Lake Market] is so warm, the vendors work together," Schuck said. "I love being on the grass and the mountains. It is very comfortable."

The Seeley Lake Market is held on the lawn behind the Seeley Lake Foundation Building on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Labor Day.