Sustainability

 

We’re committed to transparency with you, our customer, and want to share with you how we harvest some of the food types we offer here on our website. At anytime, feel free to reach out to us with any other questions or concerns you have. We’d be happy to answer them for you.

Our business is in supplying wild food to you, and to ensure a stable and consistent source of product year after year, we need to harvest these foods in a sustainable manner. Some products we offer on our website are a food source for wildlife. Items such as huckleberries and blueberries may not be available in bulk quantities due to them being a food source for bears and other animals.

In addition to the information below, when harvesting mushrooms, we use food grade baskets which allow spores to spread throughout the forest as we hike through. We also ensure to bring out whatever it is we bring in, including all garbage.

Any time we are taking from mother Earth, we leave an offering of tobacco in return as it is customary in our traditions.

  • While we do forage in some of the same locations each season, we never take 100% of the fiddleheads from the pod. This ensures that the pod regenerates again the following year.

    Each season, our patches continue to flourish and regenerate proving how careful we are with our foraging practices.

    We don’t exaggerate when we tell you in 2019 a team of 4 of us could not harvest 30% of one of our fiddlehead patches over the course of 7 days.

    We’ve been foraging for fiddleheads in the same patches since 2015.

  • We harvest fire morels. These morels generate in forest fire burn areas for one to two seasons.

    We are not too concerned here with morels as they generally are not a food for wildlife and only flourish for one season (two if we’re lucky) before the forest floor regenerates itself after a burn.

    Natural morels are a different story. They should be cut at stem level and carried in baskets or bags that promote the spread of their spores.

  • We are thankful for the bounty of devil’s club that nature provides (and sometimes not if it hurts us) and are diligent at not over harvesting it due to its slow regrowth.

    On an average year, we may spend only a few hours harvesting devil’s club which gives us just enough to continue to use it as an ingredient in our salves.

  • We understand that chaga is a powerful medicinal fungus that has been used by our ancestors for generations. Our future generations also need to rely on its incredible properties!

    It has a very slow regrowth rate so we continue to not take more than 70% of the visible fungus from the birch tree. This ensures that the chaga continues to grow even after it’s been partially harvested.

  • If pine mushrooms are not harvested in a sustainable manner, they will not regenerate the following years.

    We gently remove the top layer of moss and slowly rock the pine mushroom back and forth to loosen it. After it has been pulled from the ground, we ensure to sprinkle the gray sand from the stem back in to the hole before covering it again with the moss that was just previously removed.

  • Our berries are harvested from one of the largest wild berry patches in the world.

    We are gentle with the bushes and always ensure to leave some berries for the bears to eat.

    If we see a bear in one of our patches, we immediately leave to a different patch giving the bear their opportunity to eat in peace.

    Thankfully most bears are down in the valleys enjoying the bounty of fish swimming up the river when huckleberries are at their prime.

  • Diamond willow fungus is a slow growing fungus, but not as slow to grow as Chaga. We harvest only mature pieces of the fungus and leave smaller pieces to mature. Any small pieces in your packages were broken off larger pieces to speed up drying processes.

  • Stinging Nettle:

    We harvest stinging nettle in the early Spring and only use the top half of the plant. We cut the plant at the midway mark of the stock which ensures it continues to grow throughout the remainder of the season.

    Labrador:

    Although this plant grows in abundance here in the Peace region, we only take 2 to 3 leaves from each plant.

    Fireweed:

    Entire valleys are covered in fireweed at the onset of Spring so we are not concerned with overharvesting Fireweed.

  • Spruce tips that have already branched out are not harvested which ensures the healthy growth of the tree branch. We are not harvesting spruce tips with the intention of stunting the tree’s growth. We typically take 5 to 10 tip per tree.