Garret Kopp is the 22-year-old founder and CEO of Birch Boys in the Adirondacks, where medicinal mushrooms like chaga, pictured, grow in abundance. Like many mushroom purveyors, 2020 was his best year of sales yet.

Two Clarkson graduates living in Tupper Lake have applied for a patent on their method of extracting melanin from fungi. They are looking to become wholesale providers of the pigment, which is finding increased use in biotechnology.

He suddenly veers off the path mid-stride and heads directly for a white birch tree, its pale bark popping against the greens and browns of hemlocks and white pines.

This week, Birch Boys took another step toward making Chaga a household name by opening a store on Park Street in downtown Tupper Lake

Part of my rationale for attending Clarkson was because of its motto: defy convention. I was already doing that.