A word on wildcrafting, and why it matters.

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Hey there fellow tea drinkers,


It's Earth Day, which means your email inbox and social media feeds are probably inundated with environmentally-oriented buzzwords. 


It's so common for identifiers like "sustainable," "natural," "eco-friendly," and "organic" to be watered down to trendy marketing terms, meant to convey a curated perception of a company's ethics. But it's important to honor what these labels are actually all about: preserving, restoring, and respecting our wild ecosystems, even (or especially) when that means doing business differently. 


Today seems like a perfect opportunity to tell you about one of the keywords we often reference here at Wild Coast Brew, so you know what we really mean when we use it: "wildcrafted."


Below, our founder Micha explains the process of wildcrafting and the reason we even put the word "wild" in our company name.

“There is a spirit, and energy inherent in wild things, both fauna and flora, that is apparent to anybody who has visited the last remaining wilderness areas of this country. That essence is hard, if not impossible to capture.” 


- Rosemary Gladstar, Planting the Future: Saving Our Medicinal Herbs

A NOTE FROM MICHA...

My background in regenerative farming, botany, and mushroom biology has cultivated within me a deep sensory connection with the herbs and fungi of various ecosystems. This connection requires time — time to observe, time to listen, and time to interact. 


Wildcrafting is interacting with a wild ecosystem and gathering plants and fungi with care for that wildness. With wild curiosity and a passion to decipher nature’s lessons, wildcrafting, for us, is the act of loving wild places through the thoughtful harvest of wild plants and fungi. 


But one’s love of gathering wild ingredients can lead to death if not careful. Over-harvesting and improper harvesting is problematic in public forests, and the ecosystem's health requires there to be balance between the human desire to turn profit from nature, with the deep ecological wisdom and skill born from observation, practice, and empathy.


Wildcrafting is a balance of science and art — a craft. As James Green says so eloquently in his book The Herbal Medicine-Maker’s Handbook, wildcrafting is “an herbal art and a craft that commands respect when performed by a skilled artist and craftsman. Pursued with intelligence and understanding, wildcrafting is a process of harvest pruning, which when practiced knowledgeably never exploits or diminishes wild plant communities, but instead supports and enhances them. What is needed is not condemnation of this ancient, honorable craft, but more well-trained teachers and fervent, plant-loving students.”


We, as humans, are not separate from this wildness; we are a part of it. For the entirety of our existence, we have interacted with these wild places for food, medicine, fiber, ceremony, and more. Let’s continue to support and enhance these wild places full of wild life, and maybe we’ll rekindle the wildness inside of all of us. 


We hope that when you sip on your favorite Wild Coast Brew tea, you feel the wild love and spirit that lives through.


Brew the wild,

Micha Silvius

Founder, Teamaker, and Farmer

OUR WILDCRAFTING STANDARDS

We have established and set in place wildcrafting standards to make sure that we are not only harvesting appropriately but are also enhancing wild places, plants, fungi, animals, and fellow foragers and wildcrafters. These include...


CARE FOR THE WILD ECOLOGY & PLACE: We monitor and seek wild places and wild plant stands that are free from roadways, populated areas, and chemical sprays. Many of our harvest stands are located in the unpopulated regions surrounding our farm in the mountains of Coos County, Oregon, which allows for more protection from certain contaminants. At the same time, this region has heavily farmed tree plantations which are sprayed with herbicides during certain times of the year. Using the FERNS online notification program through the Oregon Department of Forestry program, we monitor the chemical sprays within our region to avoid such areas. 


CARE OF WILD HARVESTED POPULATION: Proper regeneration of herb and fungi stands are of utmost importance, not only for the wild plant and balance of habitat but also for the wildcrafting humans that interact with these stands. We keep track of the percentage of harvested population as well as the date harvested of our stands. We harvest only certain portions of each plant to ensure regeneration while also enhancing plant vitality through effective pruning practices. 


CARE IN PROCESSING METHODS: We ensure that we are collecting the highest quality of wild plants and fungi as well as processing these plants with care including proper methods of sorting, drying, garbling, and storing. 


CARE OF FELLOW WILDCRAFTERS: We deeply care for and tend the relationship with our collaborators and fellow wildcrafters through this shared act of gathering and learning. We discuss these said wildcrafting standards with our fellow foragers and volunteers. 

LEARN ABOUT OUR WILDCRAFTED INGREDIENTS
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