The ability to capture a moment in time with the click of a camera button simply amazes me. There are many once-in-a-lifetime memories that I love to reminisce about by looking through old photos, like my husband Michael and I on our wedding day. But there are some day-to-day moments that make my heart happy too, like a successful day harvesting wild Chaga.
Michael is a former Maine forest ranger and he is the one who showed me how to harvest Chaga and most importantly, he is the one who introduced me to it! He truly cares about the health of the tree and has a few rules in place to make sure that we are sustainably harvesting the Chaga we use in our products. For example, we only harvest after the first frost and before the first thaw because the birch trees are dormant. This allows us to extract this powerful, skin-loving ingredient without disturbing or harming the tree. Michael is also careful to never over-harvest a tree and always leave some Chaga behind to promote regrowth. However, we also harvest from cut down trees as well. The forest industry in Maine is huge and we have created partnerships with not only local land owners, but with forestry companies to harvest the Chaga (which is considered waste to them) off the trees they use for production.
A lot of people don’t know the amount of effort and skill it takes to identify and harvest Chaga. That’s why I created this short video to give you a little insight on how we do it and how amazing Michael is! We truly wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for him! Hit play below and let me know how you like the video!
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