Business Monday: Find your herbal remedies at new Moonlit Merchant wagon in Kona

Since 2021, Sheena Rasler has been bottling up her homemade herbal remedies and treats and selling them at Kona farmers’ markets and pop-up artisan events.

Rasler said she was having success selling a variety of products, including fire cider, elderberry syrup, teas, cordials and medicinal salves for aches and pains. But she also was getting burnt out with the constant setup and breakdown after each event.

One day it dawned on her she needed a mobile storefront.

In October, the 38-year-old came up with the concept of a Victorian-style merchant general store after perusing a collection of photos she had gathered on Pinterest. Then she constructed it on a 5-foot-by-8-foot trailer she purchased for $1,200 from the Kona Lowes.

“I had no pattern or anything,” Rasler said. “I just built it from the ground up with my imagination.”

This past week, Rasler has been hitching her antique-burgundy-colored wagon to her jeep and taking the “Moonlight Merchant” out for test drives around Ali‘i Drive and Kuakini Highway. She was making sure it was ready for her debut event on Valentine’s Day at the Kona Commons Shopping Center for the Second Saturday artisan market.

She hopes to participate in Food Truck Friday at Old Kona Airport Park, as well as find different places around Kona that will allow her to park and set up.

“Now I feel like I can share all the goods that I like to make without all that crazy setup,” Rasler said.

To add to the vibe, she will dress in period costume when selling goods from the wagon. They include her herbal remedies and farmstead products, including sourdough, canned foods and even a batch of papaya pickles recently made by her mom.

What she makes will fluctuate with the seasons, depending on what is available and what the community needs.

Rasler has been a stay-at-home mom since moving back to the island, homeschooling her three kids, who are now aged 3 to 19.

Rasler’s husband Kyle said when his wife presented him with the idea to build a mobile storefront, he was supportive.

“One day we were just lounging out by the pool, and the next day, it was buying a trailer, buying the wood, putting it up,” he said. “It was a whirlwind.”

Kyle Rasler said when his family moved back to the Big Island in 2021, his wife didn’t know how to use power tools. But over the past few years, she has learned, making shelves and some tables for their home.

The wagon was her first big project.

Kyle Rasler, who has worked as an accountant for the past four tax seasons, said it was important to Sheena that she build the cart herself: “She wanted it to be hers.”

He said he guided her with a few tips and tricks of how to make it easier, “but she did all of it,” with the exception of his needed help with the roof. She designed, framed and hand-painted the wagon.

“This was a big feat for her,” Kyle Rassler said of his wife. “I’m beyond impressed and proud of everything that she’s done with it.”

Sheena Rasler estimates spending about $5,000 for the lumber and other supplies to get the wagon built, as well as for creating new products to stock it.

She said she loves her sign and awning, adding that when people come up to the front window, it’s like they’re stepping into another time in history.

Sheena Rasler grew up in a household where natural remedies were always the first option to treat an ailment. As an adult, she became a certified herbalist, saying she prefers to make things from scratch rather than buy at a big-box store.

She built an apothecary in her house, with “walls and halls of different herbs.”

Kyle Rasler grew up in a family of doctors and nurses, saying Western medicine was always the way he was taught to address any ailments. Herbalism wasn’t looked at the same way, but his wife taught him about natural remedies.

“She’s done countless hours of like training and has several books, some as thick as my fist, on remedies,” he said. “I always call it her witchcraft. She’s always got some tea or something that works; it actually works.”

For cuts, Kyle Rasler said his wife treats them with cayenne pepper to stop the bleeding. For burns, she uses mustard, and when he’s sick, he has tea for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“She’s always got something,” he said.

That’s why he thinks his wife’s wagon, stocked with herbal remedies and wares, is perfect for the Kona community.

“On the islands, our health care system … falls short,” Kyle Rasler said. “I think having other ways to ease pain, ease the mind, ease the heart, ease the soul — whatever it is — I think it’s always good to have that.”