At Birch Boys, we pride ourselves on a few key characteristics about our Chaga.
Sustainable, Adirondack, and Wild Harvested- Chaga has a lot going for it!
Let's examine why these aspects of our practice are so important!
Sustainability
Chaga is abundant in birch forests with harsh, rapidly changing climates. This is why the Adirondacks are such an amazing place to harvest it.
We follow 8 key principles to ensure that our Chaga harvesting is sustainable. These principles cover every aspect of our harvesting practices.
- Location - The Adirondacks are a prime location for Chaga because it is home to Betula alleghaniensis, the Golden Birch tree (Chaga's favorite host.)
- Scouting - We scout the area and assess the number of birch trees to Chaga poroids.
- Land Management - We lease over 200,000 acres of private land, allowing us to GPS tag our trees and plan for the long term health of the harvesting area.
- Timely Harvest - We harvest our Chaga immediately after it produces a poroid to ensure the Chaga has reproduced.
- Harvesters - Birch Boys' small team of harvesters are highly trained individuals with career paths including forestry, logging, and DEC-licensed guiding.
- Waste-less Handling - Our Chaga is immediately chopped and dried post-harvest to prevent unnecessary mold and waste.
- Emergency Preparedness - Birch Boys is actively working on methods to wild-cultivate and/or reintroduce Chaga to areas that have been over-harvested by people outside of our network.
- Consent - The Number One rule of any honorable harvest. Ask permission and abide by the answer.
To read our detailed, unabridged sustainability protocol and information,
Read More: IS WILD CHAGA HARVESTING SUSTAINABLE?
The Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York
Chaga grows well because of the cold climate- in an area abundant in birch trees with harsh, rapidly changing climates. Birch trees grow in extreme climates like in the Northern United States, Canada and Siberia. Temperatures can get very cold in these places, as low as -94 degrees Fahrenheit. The birch tree needs to be strong and resilient to live through these harsh winters. These trees survive extreme temperatures by producing sterols to buffer the cold. These sterols are powerful components that get absorbed by the Chaga as it grows. Inotodiol, Betulin, and Betulinic acid are among these components, that help give Chaga it's health benefits. Wild Harvested Adirondack Chaga is grown in extreme negative temps... it was -17 degrees Fahrenheit here last night.
Because of the vastly varying temperatures in the Adirondacks, Chaga that grows in this region goes through a lot more 'stress' during the growing cycle than Chaga found elsewhere, particularly from foreign sources. We survive long, harsh winters which transition into moderate, short summers. Although humans may not enjoy this all of the time, the Chaga sclerotia thrives (did you know that Chaga isn't a mushroom? Click here to learn more.
The more stress put on a birch tree and the Chaga conk growing from it, the more beneficial sterols it will produce to combat that stress. More sterols in the tree equals more sterols absorbed by the Chaga. Research has shown that only Chaga harvested from birch trees going through these harsh conditions contains Betulin, Betulinic Acid, and Melanin.
Wild Harvested
You may ask, isn't all Chaga wild harvested? The answer is no. Some Chaga is cultivated in a lab, grown on various substrates such as brown rice. Some sources of Chaga may report you are getting the Chaga conk itself, however you are really consuming ground and dried mycelium that has colonized the substrate, not real chaga "mushroom." This sort of growing method creates Chaga that doesn't contain the sterols mentioned above. Only Chaga that grows in extremely cold, harsh climates and on REAL birch trees contains all of the beneficial components. Click here to learn more.
Chaga can need as long as five years before it's ready to harvest; in some cases, this means the Chaga has gone through five cycles of seasons and absorbed all of those beneficial ingredients. Chaga grown for only a few weeks in a lab doesn't have nearly the healing potential that Wild Chaga has.
Interested in giving Chaga a try? Or perhaps you are a veteran Chaga user.
Harness the power of the Adirondacks. Drink a cup of Adirondack Chaga Tea by Birch Boys!
About The Author
Garrett Kopp is the 25 year old Chaga visionary and founder of Birch Boys, Inc., a company well-known for its assortment of teas, tinctures, and extracts from healing wild fungi. Kopp grew up in the Adirondack Mountains, where he naturally developed a broad passion for the wild northern forests of New York. He began to specialize and narrow this passion toward Chaga after a freak accident where he helped himself to a cup of what appeared to be iced tea in his Grandmother’s refrigerator, who had started harvesting Chaga and brewing it on her own amidst a battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Soon thereafter, Kopp and his grandmother expanded their Chaga harvesting activities to local farmer's markets, where they discovered significant demand for the fungus and its powerful ability to help everyday people.
These entrepreneurial efforts landed Kopp acceptance into Clarkson University’s early entrance program, the Clarkson School, where he studied Engineering & Management and Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Several years and hundreds of research hours later, Kopp returned to his hometown. Having shipped to over 20,0000 individuals throughout all 50 states, Birch Boys has organically grown into a nationally recognized online brand . Kopp is proud to have built a vertically integrated supply chain, sustainably sourcing the fruits of tree-borne fungi from over 220,000 leased acres of leased private land in the Adirondack park, where it is carefully harvested by hand before being dried, processed, and extracted with love, at his fungi factory in none other than Tupper Lake, NY.
Recommended Reading
A History of Healing in the Adirondacks
Top 10 Misconceptions About Chaga
Chaga: Benefits, History, Warnings and More!
Comments (1)
Do ya’ll still sell chaga?