Alberta Wildcraft

08/21/2026

We talk about fair-trade coffee — but what about fair-trade wildcrafting? 🌲

When you buy a wildcrafted product, do you know who actually harvested the ingredients?

When you buy from Alberta Wildcraft, you do.

We harvested them.

No anonymous supply chain. No outside resin harvesters. From the forest to the finished product, we're the hands behind it.

I wrote more about why this matters — for wildcrafters, the land, and the people buying these products.

👉 https://albertawildcraft.ca/blogs/news/we-talk-about-fair-trade-coffee-maybe-it-s-time-we-talk-about-fair-trade-wildcrafting

We know who harvested your resin. We did.

Wild ingredients may grow freely, but harvesting them takes labour, knowledge and care. Here's why fair pay and responsible sourcing matter in wildcrafting.

08/20/2026

**When does wildcrafting stop being wildcrafting and start becoming extraction?**

This is something I think our industry needs to talk about.

Wild plants and tree resins may grow freely in nature, but that doesn't make the forest an unlimited warehouse of free raw materials.

When Ron and I head out to harvest spruce and pine resin, our goal isn't to pull as many pounds out of the forest as humanly possible.

We find productive areas.

We pay attention to the trees.

We harvest responsibly.

We take what nature has made available.

Some days we come home with full buckets.

Other days we don't.

And that's okay.

Because wildcrafting isn't farming. We don't control the supply.

**Nature does.**

I also believe the people doing this work deserve to be valued.

Driving into the bush, locating productive areas, identifying trees, walking for hours, collecting resin piece by piece and hauling heavy buckets back out is real labour.

There is knowledge involved.

There is time involved.

There are expenses involved.

And there is value in the hands doing that work.

And as always, every batch of resin used in Alberta Wildcraft Spruce Gum is personally harvested by Ron and me.

**When you open an Alberta Wildcraft tin, we know who harvested your resin. We did.**

And honestly, we don't know if we'll ever change the way we do this.

A huge part of Alberta Wildcraft is simply **Ron and me being together in the forest.**

We love the drives.

We love the hiking.

We love finding new areas.

We love those days when we come home exhausted, covered in resin, with buckets full of what we found together.

The harvesting isn't just a step we have to get through so we can make a product.

**It's one of our favourite parts of what we do.**

Maybe that means Alberta Wildcraft will always be limited by how much the two of us can personally harvest.

We're okay with that.

And if there ever does come a day when we decide to work with other wildcrafters, our values won't change.

Their knowledge and labour would deserve fair compensation. We'd want to know where the resin came from and how it was harvested, and we'd be transparent with our customers about who helped bring it from the forest to their tin.

Because growth should never require us to lose the connection to the forest that made us fall in love with this work in the first place.

Because there's an important difference between saying something came **from the wild** and being able to stand behind **how it was taken from the wild.**

Sustainability isn't just about whether the finished product is natural.

It's about the entire journey that brought it there.

**The forest isn't a cash crop.**

It's the reason we're able to do this in the first place.

And if we're going to build businesses from what it gives us, protecting that relationship should come before maximizing what we can take from it.

That's what wildcrafting means to us.

And I think it's a conversation worth having as wildcrafted products continue to grow in popularity.

**Want to go deeper?**

I just published a new article about what “wildcrafted” really means to us — including traceability, personally harvesting our spruce resin, the value of a wildcrafter's labour, fair sourcing, and the story behind our Canadian spruce gum.

Read the full article here:

https://albertawildcraft.ca/blogs/news/what-does-wildcrafted-really-mean-the-story-behind-our-canadian-spruce-gum

**Personally harvested. Personally processed. Traceable from forest to tin.**

Alberta Wildcraft

Learn how Alberta Wildcraft personally harvests Canadian spruce resin, why traceability matters, and why fair value for wildcrafters is part of the craft.

08/20/2026

Three little purple cabbages, straight out of my absolute chaos of a garden. 💜🥬

Last night, Ava and I turned them into homemade sauerkraut.

And naturally, what started as “come help me squish some cabbage” turned into a whole lesson about her Ukrainian roots, traditional food preservation, the Great Depression, and why growing and preserving your own food once mattered so much.

The best part? Sauerkraut is ridiculously easy to make. You don't even need a recipe.

🥬 Chop or shred your cabbage.
🧂 Sprinkle it generously with salt. You want it noticeably salty, but not holy crap that's salty.
🙌 Get your hands in there and squeeze and massage the cabbage until it softens and starts releasing lots of its own juice.
⏰ Let it sit for a little while if it needs help getting juicy.
🫙 Pack it tightly into a clean jar, pushing it down firmly as you go.
💧 Pour all that beautiful cabbage juice in with it. The cabbage needs to stay submerged beneath the brine.
🌿 Then you let nature do its thing and ferment it!

That's it. Cabbage, salt and time.

My garden isn't neat. It's full of weeds, volunteer plants, ridiculously overgrown tomatoes and whatever else decides to thrive in there.

But it feeds us.

And sometimes three little purple cabbages turn into homemade sauerkraut, a history lesson at the kitchen counter, and a kid who gets to experience a tiny piece of the food traditions that came before her. 💜

Not bad for the chaos garden. What is growing in yours ?

08/18/2026

🌿 Okay gardeners — what volunteered in your garden this year?

One of my favourite surprises this season wasn't something I planted at all.

Marshmallow (Althaea officinalis) just showed up. 😂🌿

And honestly, volunteer plants are half the fun of having a garden. You start the year thinking you know what's growing where... and then nature starts adding things to the plan.

So now I'm curious:

👇 What plants volunteered in YOUR garden this year?

Flowers, herbs, vegetables, medicinal plants, complete mysteries — I want to hear them all.

Bonus points if you decided to let them stay. 😂

I'll be sharing what I plan to do with my surprise marshmallow soon. 👀🌿

08/18/2026

🌿 What Is St. John’s Wort?

Those tiny yellow flowers are hiding something pretty incredible.

St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a flowering herb with a long history of traditional use throughout Europe and other parts of the world. The flowering tops have traditionally been infused into oil and used externally for things like minor wounds, irritated skin, burns, bruising, sore muscles and nerve discomfort.

But one of my favourite things about this plant is something you would never guess from looking at those bright yellow flowers…

❤️ It makes RED oil.

If you crush the little dark glands along the flowers and buds, you can sometimes see a reddish-purple stain appear. St. John’s Wort contains naturally occurring pigments including hypericin and related compounds, which contribute to the characteristic ruby-red colour associated with a good traditional oil infusion.

Yellow flowers → deep red oil.

Plant chemistry is seriously cool.

Traditionally, St. John’s Wort oil has been kept as a topical herbal preparation and massaged onto the skin, particularly for minor skin irritation, bruising, sore or overworked muscles, and areas of nerve-type discomfort.

There’s also modern research investigating several of the plant’s constituents—including hypericin and hyperforin—which makes this an especially fascinating herb to learn about.

This was my first season harvesting and working with St. John’s Wort, and watching those yellow flowers transform an ordinary oil into the deep ruby-red infusion sitting on my shelf now has been absolutely incredible.

Another wild plant I’ll never look at quite the same way again. 🌿❤️

08/17/2026

This one feels a little extra special. 🌿❤️

This was my first time ever working with St. John’s Wort — wild harvested during our time in the Okanagan and brought home with absolutely no idea just how beautiful this experiment was going to become.

I’ve been slowly infusing it into oil, watching it transform little by little…

And then came THIS colour. 😍

That incredible deep ruby red is entirely from the plant. No dyes. No added colour.

There’s something pretty amazing about working with a plant for the first time and getting to watch the whole process unfold in front of you.

I’m keeping one jar of this beautiful oil exactly as it is.

As for the rest?

I have plans. 👀🌿

Something new is brewing at Alberta Wildcraft.

08/14/2026

🎒 BACK TO SCHOOL SALE — 20% OFF SITEWIDE! 🍂

Parents… we know what time it is. 😂

School supplies. New shoes. Clothes they somehow outgrew over the summer. Lunches. Fees. Backpacks.

And then everyone heads back to school and suddenly we're thinking about cold & flu season and stocking the wellness cupboard again.

As a mom myself, I get it. This time of year is EXPENSIVE.

That's exactly why we're running our Back to School Sale.

🌿 20% OFF EVERYTHING at Alberta Wildcraft
🌿 Stock up on wellness teas
🌿 Refill your favourite balms
🌿 Grab your wildcrafted gum
🌿 Get those fall favourites back in the cupboard

And while this sale was inspired by all of us parents watching the back-to-school expenses pile up, you don't have to be a parent to save.

The 20% discount is available to EVERYONE. 💛

Stock up now, save some money, and head into fall prepared.

SALE ENDS MONDAY NIGHT!

🌲 Small batch
🌿 Wildcrafted
🇨🇦 Made right here in Alberta

Alberta Wildcraft

08/07/2026

🇨🇦 CANADA ONLY — 20% OFF FOR 2 DAYS!

A little surprise weekend sale! 🌲

For the next 2 days only, Canadian customers can save 20% OFF their entire order when paying by e-transfer.

Use code ETRANSFER20 at checkout.

✨ Shop through the website as usual
✨ Enter ETRANSFER20 at checkout
✨ Select E-TRANSFER as your payment method
✨ Send your e-transfer using the instructions provided

That's it — 20% OFF!

This one is being offered on the honour system, friends. ❤️ The coupon will technically work with other payment methods, but it's specifically being offered for orders paid by e-transfer.

And YES — that means you can use it on our wildcrafted Spruce & Pine Gum too. 👀🌲

Sale ends Sunday night!

🇨🇦 Canadian orders only.
🌲 Alberta Wildcraft

08/01/2026

We just pulled a fresh, handcrafted batch of natural resin gum off the line—and it is easily our most unique and accessible chew yet.

For this specific batch, we focused heavily on a premium, soft-pine blend. If you love the traditional wildcrafting experience but want a smoother, more comfortable bite, this batch was made exactly for you.

What makes this batch so special?
The Perfect Shatter: It snaps instantly in your mouth, completely free of any sticky, teeth-gluing raw oils.
The Bubble Gum Transition: It quickly binds into a soft, elastic, incredibly satisfying modern-style bubblegum wad.
Zero Jaw Fatigue: It provides a smooth, gentle chew that gradually gets tougher the longer you enjoy it.
This is the ultimate "gateway" tree resin gum. You get 100% pure Boreal forest flavor and zero plastic or petroleum, wrapped up in the most comfortable chew we've ever produced.

07/31/2026

🚗🌲 ALBERTA WILDCRAFT GUM RUN – FREE SATURDAY DELIVERY! 🌲🚗

This Saturday we'll be making FREE local deliveries throughout Leduc, Nisku, Edmonton, Sherwood Park, Beaumont, and surrounding areas—right to your door!

Pricing:
• 1 tin – $42
• 2 tins – $70
🚚 Free local delivery on our Saturday route.

To reserve your order, simply send us a message. When confirming your delivery, we'll need:
• The number of tins you'd like
• Your delivery address

If you won't be home, no problem! With your permission, we'll safely leave your order in your mailbox (where suitable).

About this Summer Batch

This batch was handcrafted from wild Alberta spruce and pine resin harvested during the peak of summer in Alberta's boreal forest.

That's it. No artificial flavours, sweeteners, preservatives, waxes, or other ingredients—just pure wild spruce and pine resin, prepared by hand in small batches.

Every harvest is unique, and this summer batch has a slightly softer chew, a rich forest flavour, and an incredible fresh aroma that reflects the trees it came from.

Spruce and pine gum have been chewed for generations as a traditional natural gum. People enjoy it as a natural alternative to conventional chewing gum and for the simple experience of connecting with Alberta's boreal forest through every chew.

Fresh. Wild. Handcrafted in Alberta.

Reserve your tins now, and we'll deliver them right to your door free of charge this Saturday while we're on our delivery route!