Herbalist’s new shop on The Paseo deepens access to natural flavors in east side food desert

Potential customers who were once hesitant to try Rosierra “Rosie” Warren’s sweet Fruity Tutti Tea got free samples of the brew; now it’s one of her bestsellers at Nature Made Me, an apothecary and teahouse on The Paseo.

Nature Made Me Apothecary & Teahouse, 3900 The Paseo; photo by Joyce Smith

More spicy flavors, like the Golden Milk tea (spiced chai with turmeric, ginger and black pepper), also quickly earned a special place on the converted customers’ taste buds, noted the herbalist behind the counter at 39th and The Paseo.

“Some would say, ‘Oh no, that stuff is spicy.’ Now it is ‘Give it to me,’” Warren said. “It is blended so well and it tastes so good.”

After putting together a business plan for her Nature Made Me Apothecary & Teahouse concept in 2022, the entrepreneur secured a $10,000 grant from nonprofit KC G.I.F.T., which provides access to financial and small business support for Black business owners in Kansas City’s historically redlined neighborhoods.

The funds initially helped Warren open a space at 39th Street and Indiana Avenue in 2022. She’d been working as a server, making herbal teas and selling them at pop-ups and on social media.

“I enjoyed being a waitress. But I really decided to leap and move on,” she said.

A year later, she received a $15,000 grant from G.I.F.T. Those funds helped her relocate Nature Made Me to a more prominent and high-traffic corner on The Paseo a few months ago.

The new location not only raises the shop’s profile, it gives Warren more room to hold such classes as “Is there medicine growing in your front yard?”

A growing appetite for natural

Warren was health conscious even as a tween, she said, seeking out fruits and vegetables — including kiwi — amid Kansas City’s east side food desert (where apples and oranges were only slightly more accessible).

At church dinners Warren would pile up salads and clear her plate while other congregants were digging into fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, she recalled.

A sign inside Nature Made Me Apothecary & Teahouse, 3900 The Paseo; photo by Joyce Smith

When she took a physical to join the U.S. Army, a military doctor even commented that she was one of the healthiest recruits he’d seen in his 30 years of practice. (She was discharged in 2015).

When Warren was pregnant with her daughter at 19 and couldn’t afford to have a gum abscess treated, she turned to a holistic solution, essential oils, and the abscess cleared up in a few days.

“I typed into Google ‘alternative medicine’ and it opened up a whole new world,” Warren said. “Seeing that and it actually working it really inspired me. It gave me a fire. People need this.”

She read up on herbs and their medicinal uses, and started growing vegetables in big pots at her east side townhome, sharing surplus with neighbors.

Their appetite spurred plans for a venture with deeper roots.

 

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Opening access to clean foods

Warren describes Nature Made Me as a herbalist-operated herbal apothecary and wellness center.

Rosierra “Rosie” Warren at Nature Made Me Apothecary & Teahouse, 3900 The Paseo; photo by Joyce Smith

It carries more than 50 bulk herbs and herbal remedies. There’s Fresh + Clean Total Body Detox; a cooling pain salve with tea tree oil and turmeric; Wild Cherry cough syrup made with cherry bark and honey; a muscle relaxer with ashwagandha; The OG Butter made with mango butter and turmeric; and Rose Butter to decrease redness and acne; along with a variety of tea blends. Some local makers also sell their jewelry and other products in the shop.

Meanwhile, Warren works with several area community gardens, not only in management, but as a farmer, an instructor leading classes in healthy eating, and even hosting storytelling sessions for young children interested in gardening and fresh food.

“This is why I wanted to stay on the east side. It’s a food desert,” she said. “The way that I grew up I didn’t have access to everything I needed because of financial strain. It’s not that we don’t want the best for ourselves — fresh fruit and veggies. We want it all, we just don’t have access.

“I just wanted to help others in a real way.”

Nature Made Me hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Warren plans a grand opening in May.

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Startland News contributor Joyce Smith covered local restaurants and retail for nearly 40 years with The Kansas City Star. Click here to follower on X (formerly Twitter), here for Facebook, here for Instagram, and by following #joyceinkc on Threads.