LOCALadk Magazine

16 Summer 2017 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk Up and Comer I'm a 19-year-old outdoorsman, student, and entrepreneur. I am in my sophomore year at Clarkson University, pursuing a degree in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. My start-up company is called Birch Boys Chaga LLC. We are a manufacturing business based in Tupper Lake and we distribute and add value to a native Adirondack mushroom called chaga. Chaga is a medicinal mushroom that grows on live birch trees in semi-arctic climates with high altitudes. This makes the Adirondack Park a perfect habitat for chaga. Chaga mushrooms are parasitic, and they eventually kill the trees that they host on. Chaga has been harvested and brewed into tea by indigenous cultures for over 2,000 years. I understand that the words "mushroom" and "parasite" aren't ones you'd typically associate with a healthy beverage. But, ironically, it's the chaga's parasitic nature that is the reason it provides so much medicinal value. During chaga's up-to-7-year life cycle, the mushroom is constantly extracting all of the nutrients and beneficial compounds the tree has to offer, and filtering out the bad ones. Essentially, it sucks the life force out of the tree and concentrates it into an earthy mass, called a conk, that busts out of the trunk. This is the reason chaga's antioxidant concentration is higher than any other naturally occurring substance on Earth, and chaga has been dubbed the "Mushroom of Immortality" by the health food community. I learned about chaga from my grandmother, who tried it after finding some growing in her backyard. She knew I spent a lot of time outdoors, so she asked if I would try to find more so she could share it with her friends. I had a lot of fun on these chaga foraging adventures, and eventually accumulated more chaga than I knew what to do with. When I was 15, I started attending local farmers markets and Adirondack festivals to give away and sell chaga and samples of chaga tea, and to educate people about chaga's properties. I did this for a couple years. Being able to make money from hiking in the woods and sharing my findings with people was incredible. Even more incredible was the overwhelming number of email testimonials I got, explaining what chaga was doing for the people I had introduced it to. This was ultimately what inspired me to pursue a business selling chaga full time. After attending my first year of college at Clarkson University, I felt that I possessed the knowledge and resources I needed to turn my dream of a chaga business into a reality. Last autumn, Clarkson's business school allowed me to take a semester off to intern for my own business. This was the first time in my life that I had absolutely no responsibilities other than those I created for myself. So, I went to work. I developed a process to sustainably source, dry, and grind chaga, and produced bags of loose herbal tea. I sold enough chaga to develop real packaging, obtain a liability insurance policy, rent a manufacturing space, and purchase grinding equipment. I was also able to obtain my food processing permit and become a NYS certified mushroom identification expert. This new pool of resources allowed me to expand my product's distribution into 15 retail locations. I used an old fashioned marketing technique: I walked into local shops and health food stores, asked to speak to the manager, and pitched them my product on the spot. Working directly with these buyers and hearing their feedback taught me a lot about the reality of the industry and what it would take to continue to grow my business. By Garrett Kopp Kaitlin Lawless

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