There’s a word being used more and more in the natural-products world:

Wildcrafted.

It sounds simple enough.

Something grew in the wild. Someone harvested it. Eventually, it became a product.

But after years of wildcrafting across Alberta, we’ve come to believe that the word should mean much more than that.

For us, wildcrafting isn't simply about where an ingredient grew.

It’s about the relationship between the person, the place and the finished product.

And when it comes to our Canadian spruce gum, that relationship begins with us standing in the forest.

Our Spruce Gum Starts With Ron and Me

Every batch of resin used to make Alberta Wildcraft Spruce Gum is personally harvested by us.

We don't hire outside harvesters to collect our resin.

We don't purchase buckets of resin collected by people we've never met.

We travel into the areas where we harvest ourselves.

We find the trees.

We identify what we're working with.

We collect the resin by hand.

We carry it out of the forest.

Then we bring that same resin home and process it into our gum.

For us, that's an important part of calling something wildcrafted.

Finding a Spruce Tree Isn't the Same as Finding Spruce Resin

When people first discover spruce gum, it can be easy to imagine harvesting as simply walking into a forest with a bucket and filling it.

We wish.

Finding the right habitat is only the beginning.

We travel to areas where spruce and pine grow, sometimes spending hours on the road before the actual harvesting begins.

Then comes the walking.

And searching.

And more searching.

A forest can contain thousands of trees while only a fraction of them are producing the type and quantity of resin we're looking for.

Some trees have beautiful deposits.

Some have tiny amounts.

Some have nothing worth collecting at all.

Learning to recognize productive areas, suitable trees, different resins and different stages of resin takes experience.

That's part of wildcrafting too.

The knowledge required to find a wild ingredient has value before anything ever enters the bucket.

Wildcrafting Isn't Always Pretty

You've probably seen some of our harvesting adventures over the years.

Some days are incredible.

Warm weather. Beautiful forest. A good resin area. Full buckets.

Other days?

Not so much.

We've harvested in bitter Alberta winter temperatures.

We've pulled sleds loaded with resin through deep snow.

We've hiked for hours.

We've driven long distances only to discover an area wasn't nearly as productive as we'd hoped.

We've carried heavy buckets back out of the bush.

And sometimes we've spent an entire day harvesting without bringing home nearly as much as we expected.

There is no warehouse shelf waiting for us.

Nature decides what is available.

That naturally limits how much we can produce.

And we're okay with that.

The Harvest Itself Is Part of the Craft

Several months ago, another wildcrafter reached out to us.

They had harvested tree resin and wanted to know whether Alberta Wildcraft would be interested in purchasing it.

Their asking price was approximately $50 per pound.

We kindly declined.

But not because we thought their resin wasn't worth that.

Actually, it was almost the opposite.

We know what harvesting resin requires because we do it ourselves.

We know about the fuel.

The driving.

The searching.

The hiking.

The collecting.

The hauling.

And the hours involved.

We couldn't justify paying a premium for something we're capable of harvesting ourselves.

But we also didn't want to negotiate another wildcrafter down to a price that we felt devalued the work required to collect it.

So we simply continued harvesting our own.

That interaction stayed with us because it illustrates something we believe strongly:

Wild ingredients aren't free simply because nature grew them.

The material might not have an invoice attached to it when you find it, but obtaining it requires time, knowledge, transportation, equipment and physical work.

The person carrying that bucket out of the forest is part of the value of the finished product.

If We Ever Hire Wildcrafters, Fair Pay Will Matter

Right now, Ron and I personally harvest the resin that goes into Alberta Wildcraft Spruce Gum.

But businesses grow.

There may come a day when demand becomes greater than what the two of us can reasonably harvest ourselves.

If that day comes, we won't pretend otherwise.

And if another wildcrafter contributes their labour to our products, we believe they should be fairly compensated for it.

Think about the idea behind fair-trade coffee.

Consumers have learned to ask an important question: if we're willing to pay a premium for a product because of where it came from, how it was grown and the work involved in producing it, what about the person at the beginning of that supply chain?

We believe wildcrafting deserves the same conversation.

If someone spends their day driving into the wilderness, locating productive areas, identifying the right trees, walking through the forest, harvesting resin by hand and hauling that material home, their contribution doesn't suddenly become worth pennies simply because another business will process and package it afterward.

We believe their compensation should reflect that.

And we believe companies selling premium wildcrafted products should think about that too.

A business should absolutely be compensated for the work involved in cleaning, processing, packaging, marketing and selling a finished product.

But the person at the beginning of the chain shouldn't have to be undervalued for everyone farther down that chain to make money.

If Alberta Wildcraft ever reaches the point where we need independent harvesters, our standard will be simple:

Know who harvested it. Know where it came from. Be transparent with our customers. And pay the wildcrafter a price that respects the work they actually did.

To us, that's responsible sourcing.

And it's part of protecting the meaning of the word wildcrafted as this industry grows.

A Pound of Raw Resin Is Not a Pound of Finished Gum

There's another side of this that people don't often see.

The resin we bring home doesn't look like the finished pieces inside one of our tins.

Raw harvested resin can contain bark, needles and other bits of the forest.

It needs to be sorted and processed.

And there can be substantial loss along the way.

One pound carried out of the forest does not automatically become one pound of finished chewing gum.

Once we're home, another stage of work begins.

The resin is sorted.

It's carefully heated and filtered.

Debris is removed.

The characteristics of that particular harvest have to be worked with.

Then the finished resin is prepared, portioned and packaged.

By the time 35 grams of spruce gum reaches one of our tins, there is a much bigger story behind those 35 grams.

Why Wild Resin Isn't a Standardized Ingredient

This is one of our favourite parts of working with nature.

No two harvests are exactly alike.

One batch of resin can produce a firmer gum that initially shatters before becoming chewable.

Another can produce a much softer gum.

Colours vary.

Flavours vary.

Textures vary.

The season matters.

The location matters.

The individual trees matter.

That's not a manufacturing defect.

We aren't purchasing a standardized gum base designed to perform identically every time.

We're working with what the forest gives us.

Traceability Matters

There's another word we think deserves more attention in wildcrafted products:

Traceability.

Where did the ingredient actually come from?

Who harvested it?

What species was collected?

How was it harvested?

What happened to it between the forest and the finished product?

When wild ingredients pass through multiple hands, answering those questions can become more complicated.

Our chain is intentionally very short:

That's it.

There isn't another harvesting company in the middle.

There isn't an unknown collector.

There isn't a bucket arriving at our door with a story we have to take someone else's word for.

We were there.

What Should You Ask When You See “Wildcrafted”?

We'd actually love to see consumers start asking more questions about this word.

Not because there's only one correct way to operate a wildcraft business.

There isn't.

Small makers may eventually need help harvesting as they grow, and independent wildcrafters can absolutely be part of a responsible supply chain.

The question isn't simply whether a company uses independent harvesters. It's how those harvesters are treated, whether the supply chain is traceable and whether customers are being told the truth about where their ingredients come from.

Those questions help preserve the meaning behind the word.

Why Does Our 35 Gram Tin Cost $42?

Once you understand the entire journey, looking only at the number of grams in a tin doesn't tell the whole story.

That 35 gram tin represents:

You're not simply buying 35 grams of resin.

You're buying the end result of the entire process required to bring it from the Canadian forest to your tin.

That's why genuinely wildcrafted products can't always be valued by weight alone.

Personally Harvested. Personally Processed. Traceable From Forest to Tin.

As spruce gum becomes more popular, we want to talk more openly about how ours is made.

Not just the finished gum.

The whole journey.

Because we think the people doing the harvesting matter.

We think knowing where wild ingredients come from matters.

And we think customers deserve to understand what they're actually purchasing when they support a wildcraft business.

Alberta Wildcraft began with a love of the Canadian wilderness.

We don't want growth to separate us from that.

So for as long as we're able to maintain this standard, the resin in our spruce gum will continue to begin the same way:

With Ron and me heading into the forest.

And if the day ever comes when another wildcrafter joins that journey, we'll tell you — and we'll make sure their work is valued too.

When you open an Alberta Wildcraft tin today, we'll know who harvested the resin inside.

We did.

Canadian Spruce Gum

Experience the finished harvest.

Our 35 g Canadian Spruce Gum is personally harvested and processed by Alberta Wildcraft from resin collected by Ron and Maria in the Canadian wilderness.

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