Allie Austin with Chaga from the local forest
Allison Austin has been interested in herbs since she was very young. She remembers reading whatever she could find about medicinal plants in middle school. And checking out as many library books as she could find on herbalism in high school. In college, she took herbalism courses and then studied with herbalists in Texas where she lived after college. When she moved to Guatemala, she studied with Mayan elders there. In 2016, she moved back to the Iron Range, a newly-single parent with a 2-year old and a 4-year old. She wanted to find work that allowed her to be at home with her children. So she turned to what she loved best.
She built a website, filled it with photos, and started with just 3-4 products. Today www.birchbarkbotanicals.com offers well over fifty products along with a detailed herbal “index” that Allie keeps adding to. She has written two e-books that are available on the site: “Herbalism for a Strong Immune System” and “DIY Herbal Remedies.” Before Covid, she taught regular classes at places like Natural Harvest Food Coop. And now she is working on an online course that will be ready soon.
The reason I’m writing about Allie’s business is that she forages most of her ingredients right here on the Iron Range. Her family’s property in Orr, the area around her cabin on Lake Vermilion, the Laurentian Divide forests, and the Redhead Mountain Bike Trail are all abundant sites for herbs like St. Johnswort, yarrow, red raspberries, goldenrod, fireweed, lilac, red clover, elderberries, wormwood, and chaga. In her garden, Allie grows lemon balm, echinacea, lavender, chamomile, borage, rose, thyme, oregano and rosemary. What she isn’t able to forage or grow she orders from Mountain Rose Herbs in Eugene, Oregon.
I first met Allie and learned about Birch Botanicals when she joined the Virginia Market Square farmers market in 2017. She sells at the Ely and Cook markets, too, as well as craft fairs and events. Eighty percent of her sales are online, though. She regularly ships to customers all over the U.S., especially California, Texas, South Carolina and Florida. Locally, she sells at Natural Harvest Food Coop, a boutique in the Twin Cities, Dovetail Café at the Duluth Folk School, and the Ren Market in Duluth. I’ve used a number of her products and I’ve been pleased with them. The ingredients are listed right on the container, so you always know what you’re getting. And Allie is just a phone call away.
Foraging on the Range
So…what does this herbalist brew up in her home workshop? Cleaning products, facial serums, bug repellant, sunscreen, face wash, deodorant, lip balm, a wide variety of tinctures, chaga extract, eyebrow and eyelash growth serum, elderberry syrup, loose leaf teas, even alcohol infusion herbs (“add flavor and wellness to your booze” says her website). One of her more unusual products that I’ve used is “Sleepy Time Ointment,” a salve that you put on the bottom of your feet before bed. It really does help you sleep! Here are the ingredients, as an example. “All Organic Ingredients: pure magnesium oil, shea butter, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, beeswax, lavender, rose, chamomile, essential oils of frankincense and cedarwood.”
I’ve also used the Cedarwood and Pine deodorant (no alcohol or aluminum). It comes in Lavender Geranium too. The deodorants are made to be nourishing to skin, but also to promote cleansing—their “unique blend of herbs and essential oils help cleanse the lymphatic system, so you can rub this deodorant stick on each lymphatic area on your body.” Birch Botanicals face and body scrubs contain pure cane sugar as an exfoliant and ingredients like rose petals, sweet almond oil and other essential oils to moisturize. A wide variety of body butters fill the bill for winter skin challenges: cedarwood & frankincense, rosemary & lavender, and pine body butter made with local pine sap!
I asked Allie what have been particularly good sellers since Covid entered our world. Hand sanitizers, of course, have sold well: alcohol based and infused with herbs such as yarrow, oregano, lavender, rose, and chamomile. And something she calls “fire cider,” a traditional recipe with a raw apple cider vinegar base steeped with herbs and spices for six weeks. It contains onion, garlic, lemon, horseradish, ginger root, turmeric root, habanero pepper, and raw honey. It can be taken by the tablespoon as an immune booster or added to salsa or salad dressing. Chaga extract is another very popular product. Allie harvests chaga mushrooms from local woods, breaks them up to dry out, then grinds and tinctures the powder.
Elderberry syrup, made from local elderberries and chaga, is in demand this time of year as a winter health booster. Birch Botanicals website offers already made syrup as well as a DIY elderberry syrup kit and DIY recipes for this and five other syrups, tinctures, and gummies. Allie is all about education. She also offers foraging tours. Each two-hour tour through the Northwoods teaches medicinal plant identification, harvesting and drying techniques, as well as instructions on how to turn foraged harvests into herbal tinctures, teas, syrups and topical products. Every participant receives a foraging manual that Allie has written.
Visitors to www.birchbarkbotanicals.com can sign up for an herbal newsletter too. The Iron Range is a more abundant source of wildcrafted goods than you might have thought! If this piques your interest, check it out and sign up for a tour this coming summer. It’s only four months away now.
Harvesting herbs