Borealis Backwoods Apothecary

Borealis Backwoods Apothecary Returning to our natural state as one of balance, wholeness and vitality. Hunting - Fishing - Foraging in the UP

When I get back from Marquette this afternoon I’ll be heading to the post office to get goodies shipped and will be cont...
12/15/2025

When I get back from Marquette this afternoon I’ll be heading to the post office to get goodies shipped and will be continuing shipping throughout the week. Thank you all so very much for your support this holiday season. It truly means the world to my little family and this passion project. I hope everyone’s having a fantastic holidays season!!

Peep one of the current lions mane flushes coming in. She’s a beauty!

Meet our newest member of the crew! We have some high hopes for this little girl. She comes from some really solid bird ...
12/14/2025

Meet our newest member of the crew! We have some high hopes for this little girl. She comes from some really solid bird hunters. Everyone is super in love😍🤍

Can you believe its that time of year already! The official start of winter is just around the corner 😍 You would think ...
12/12/2025

Can you believe its that time of year already! The official start of winter is just around the corner 😍 You would think foraging would be at a bit of a stand still above the 45th parallel. However there is an incredible abundance here during these frozen months!

Winter foraging walk ❄️ Schoolcraft County- January 1st @ 11am

Ring in the new year learning a new language 😍

Foraging is so near and dear to my heart. After 15 years of working with herbs in so many different modalities and environments, I've learned there is such a huge gap in the capacity to understand that gets missed when working with plants (and even some menstruums or herbal catalysts like tallow) when you arent involved in the process from start to finish.

Natural clues reveal so much about the synergy they provide us. How they work with our bodies and the type of constituents they have. From growth habitats, anatomy, distribution and using our senses to touch, smell, taste and so much more. This goes for everything- plants, fungi, lichen and so on.

I've learned first hand that when remedy making, especially for other people, ripping open a bag of herbs from some big box type company to find the dried plant material unrecognizable in most cases creates a lack of "clues" in understanding the plant and the human body.

It's amazing that we have the technology and the know how to access plants from across the globe, but understanding the plants that surround me (or that I can grow in this zone😆) has a special place in my heart and offers connectiveness like nothing else I've experienced on this journey and I'm so grateful to be able to call somewhere that is so rich in natural beauty and resources home.

I love doing foraging walks, because in my mind being able to forage is like learning a new language. I always describe it as learning to read. When you're a child (before you learn to read) you see signs and it's just jibberish. Until you learn to read, then without the conscious mind even realizing, you're reading every sign you see. Before you learn the language of plants, you look into the woods and see greenery (or a snow covered deserted baren lol). Once you learn all their names, you start to know their names and how they support the body, the information running through your mind without your conscious even realizing just based on sight. Unlocking that language for folks brings me so much happiness.

I'll be hosting a winter foraging walk on January 1st at 11am. It'll be a walk focused on learning about some prevalent medicinals in the UP during this time of year. We'll discuss how to ID, sustainably harvest and some different preparations and uses. Then we'll finish up our hike with a fire and Chaga lattes. You'll receive a packet to take home with an overview of what we discussed as well.

Here is the link to sign up! I will contact folks with the location to meet at with the provided email 🥰

Just finished up a batch of massage bars so I figured it’s time to do a little recap!Massages are big in this house, and...
12/12/2025

Just finished up a batch of massage bars so I figured it’s time to do a little recap!

Massages are big in this house, and with how hard my guy works he works he comes home sore a lot. We love our lake superior massage stones for hot stone massages (and actually I need to get those out as It’s been a while!), and use the tallow lymphatic magnesium butter quite a bit as a massage butter.

But, I had wanted to make something a little different. I went back and forth on if I should make more for the apothecary line up. Sometimes it's nice just to make something for yourself or your loved ones. In the end, I decided to release them!

Massages are a great way to love on your partner, especially on the rough days. Medicinally, basic intimate massage at home is a great way to stimulate the lymph and support the immune system. It's a practical easy to implement way to ease you or your partners muscle tension and pain, increase circulation, reduce stress, ease anxiety, lower cortisol levels and increase serotonin. There is truly no downside.

This massage bar is decadent and smells like vanilla and chocolate, it's semi hard and provides good pressure during application while also being lubricating and moisturizing once it meets the warmth of the body. I think my favorite part is that is lingers on the skin long enough for a fantastic massage without having to reapply over and over, but then also absorbs incredibly well and without leaving any greasyness.

Made with venison tallow infused with vanilla bean, cocoa butter, and a special blend low PUFA oils (Jojoba and Castor) specifically chosen to nourish sore muscles and tendons infused with muscle relaxing, healing herbs like Arnica and Blue Vervain that I'll delve into soon.

I’ve got a handful of cast iron conditioning bars left! These make such sweet stocking stuffers for the cast iron lovers...
12/11/2025

I’ve got a handful of cast iron conditioning bars left! These make such sweet stocking stuffers for the cast iron lovers in your life 🤍 made with tallow, avocado oil and beeswax. Super high smoke point and seasons a variety of cast iron wares beautifully

Give the gift of wellness! I’ve added a gift card page for this holiday season to the menu on the website! This week I’l...
12/11/2025

Give the gift of wellness! I’ve added a gift card page for this holiday season to the menu on the website! This week I’ll be running a special for 20% off gift cards (for example, a $50 gift card will cost $40, a $150 gift card will cost $120 and so on ). These are E-cards, so you can email the gift to your loved one or print it out and put it in their card! Gift cards allow them to purchase what they need, when they need it. The gift cards do not expire and with this special you can save a little money!

I’m kind of proud of myself for putting this page together because my baby is being a Velcro baby this morning and is a permanent accessory to my chest 😂

Thank you all so much for supporting small this holiday season!!

A couple more mounts done 😍
12/10/2025

A couple more mounts done 😍

All things magnesium restocked yesterday!These are some of our most popular transdermal remedies. Our original magnesium...
12/10/2025

All things magnesium restocked yesterday!

These are some of our most popular transdermal remedies. Our original magnesium body butter, our tallow magnesium body butter and our magnesium spray.

Recap-

Magnesium is an incredibly important mineral through lymphatic decongestive treatments. It has been shown to play one of the most crucial roles in supporting a healthy lymphatic and immune function. Magnesium is able to get into the lymphatic system beneath the dermis. About 80% of Americans are deficient in magnesium, and this sole deficiency cause so many issues and even other deficiencies! From anxiety, headaches, low energy, insomnia, restless legs, sore muscles, growing pains. The list goes on and on. Magnesium also helps us absorb other vitamins and minerals, so if you're deficient in magnesium, chances are you have other deficiencies too. Studies have shown that the most effective way to up your magnesium is through transdermal application, as it has the best and fastest absorption. Magnesium oil works great but tends to have an unpleasant sting to the skin during application. In this body butter, the magnesium oil is paired with Tallow to help soothe and moisturize the skin as well as increase bioavailability. The soothing nature of tallow allows us to avoid the unpleasant sting that the magnesium oil by itself causes (still, avoid application on open cuts and sensitive areas like the face and such).

Tallow Magnesium Body Butter- Lymph mover 🌿

Spring is a great time for lymphatic support, moving and supporting our elimination systems. Just as our liver & lymph nourishment tincture came about, over the years, I've learned just how interconnected the liver and lymphatic system is. You can not have one functioning without the other. They work together to remove waste, bacteria and viruses, dead tissue, toxins, and so on. Let’s call it the liver and lymph connection. If your liver is suffering, your lymphatic system is also suffering and vice versa. The liver is the largest lymph producing organ. Supporting and nourishing these systems internally is incredibly important. However, you can also support these systems transdermally. My goal was to create a massage butter that can be used both in lymphatic massage as well as conventional massage with the added herbal support to really get the lymph flowing. Tallow plays several roles, though, and aside from allowing for better bioavailability, it also stimulates lymph fluid drainage 🥰

This body butter is crafted with wildcrafted Cedar, Juniper Berries, and Wolfs foot. Extracted in avocado oil. Combined with magnesium and tallow to allow for maximum absorbancy and pine resin for a lovely gentle borealis backwoods scent.

Let's meet the plants!

Wolfs foot is incredibly rich and multi supportive. I won't go too much into it here as I just did a while post on Club moss. However, the reason I included it in this lotion is because it's a wonderful lymphatic mover. Club moss encourages the bodies detoxification.

Cedar purges the lymph nodes and removes harmful toxins which aids in a healthy immune response.

Juniper berries are detoxifiers and cleansers. They aid in lymphatic drainage and circulation. It's especially helpful in clearing congestion in the skin and promoting circulation.

Lastly, a little more on tallow for the skin and PUFA. The healing that tallow offers is backed by time-honored traditions. These are the methods our ancestors used. The original care. Most natural products we use on our skin these days are filled with inflammatory PUFAs, which are unstable and can be toxic to the body. Tallow, on the other hand, is far more balanced and offers stability and slows oxidation. Tallow is also loaded with bioavailable nutrients, both for your skin and internally. Let's go down the rabbit hole of polyunsaturated fatty acids - aka PUFAs.

Skin care products that are made with PUFAs and touted to be anything and everything for our skin. I've certainly used plenty of them for myself, for my family, and in products. They have so many great qualities, and I'm not going to sit here and say they're all bad, but moderation is certainly key as with everything. Essentially, the issue with PUFAs is that they are most times unstable and this leads to oxidation (damage and deterioration) when they're exposed to light, heat or air (so, anytime they're on our skin). Their molecules have double bonds, rendering them weak and easily broken. So why does any of this matter? Well, when these oils on your skin oxidize, it creates a free radical cascade, which damages what may have been previously UNdamaged lipids in your skin. PUFAs have now been identified as the main culprit of cellular damage. In fact, there have actually been studies done of internal use of PUFAs vs not, and how quickly the individual consuming PUFAs skin starts to get damaged and deterioration sets in, because what you eat affects your skin too.

The vanilla in the marshmallows is 🤌
12/09/2025

The vanilla in the marshmallows is 🤌

This batch of bone broth came out so incredibly rich and delicious 🤤 the absolute perfect thing to warm my bones on this...
12/09/2025

This batch of bone broth came out so incredibly rich and delicious 🤤 the absolute perfect thing to warm my bones on this 1 degree morning.

2 whole front shoulders fit in to this La Chamba

I’ll be getting most of it into the freeze dryer this morning. Tomorrow whatever I don’t put up for our annual yurt trip to the porkies, I’ll load to the website!

Freeze dried bone broth is the perfect pair for winter camping, snow shoeing and Ice fishing adventures. All you need is hot water and it reconstitutes perfectly. Itll warm you right up and provide you everything you need energy wise to keep having fun ❄️

These take a very long time to make, on top of the 24 hour cook time we need an additional 24 hours for freeze drying, so they are limited availability.

2 quarts of fresh broth equates to a half pint jar of freeze dried powdered broth. Seving size per mug of broth is 2 TBSP. This is shelf stable for 25 years, and you simply add your serving size of 2 tbsp to a mug of hot water and stir! It reconstituets perfectly! We freeze dry our bone broth right after its made and cools down, this retains 97% potency, thats more then if it were to sit in the fridge for a few days! The "super" food of super foods. A traditional "cure all" food. Almost every culture on the planet has utilized bones for healing in some way. This healing food has been shown to help the body rid toxins, heal the gut, strengthen bones and ligaments, improve cognitive function, support the immune system, and provide deep and complete bioavailable nourishment. Ive have spent YEARS perfecting on this recipe. Not only are you receiving the healing food that is bone broth, but when you consume ours you're also receiving the benefits of the herbs. We use Nettles, Burdock Root, Olive Leaf, Astragalus Root, Bay Leaves, Thyme, Rosemary and Chaga. These herbs take the vitamin and mineral content to a whole other level. This blend support the nervous system, the immune system, your digestive tract, Respiratory tract. We are really talking about full body healing here and a full extraction. No short cuts here.. After roasting the bones I add them to the pots with alllllll the veggies and chicken feet for extra collagen and a splash of organic apple cider vinegar and cook them for 24 hours. Then, the last 8 hours I add all of the medicinal herbs. We've had incredible feed back over the years on this broth and have seen such incredible healing in our own lives as well. We've had surgeons encourage their patients to consume our broth as well as family doctors and pediatricians. We've even had doctors on the East and West coast inquire on how they can bring it to their area! When we made our broth before, it was not shelf stable and had to be kept in the fridge. Now with freeze drying it, it takes it to a whole new level! I believe that everyone should have this as a staple a long with nourishing herbal infusions. Imagine the healing that would happen!!

https://www.westonaprice.org/.../food.../broth-is-beautiful/

*sold out* thank you guys!!I have 4 extra vanilla extracts! Organic vanilla beans extracted in small batch Michigan made...
12/08/2025

*sold out* thank you guys!!

I have 4 extra vanilla extracts! Organic vanilla beans extracted in small batch Michigan made vodka (Lake Effect). Comes in 2oz glass flip top bottles.

They’re $10 and loaded on the website 🥰

If you haven’t had real vanilla extract, it is just the absolute best. Vanilla extract to baking is like garlic to cooking. You can never have to much 😂

Tis the season for Chaga! Winters are for adventures, and all of our adventures end up with a beautiful Chaga harvest. I...
12/08/2025

Tis the season for Chaga! Winters are for adventures, and all of our adventures end up with a beautiful Chaga harvest. I’ve been making this tincture for a good 6 years, and ever since North of the 45th parallel became my forever home, this tincture is even more meaningful and has a special place in my heart.

I’m straining a batch of the Fungi Boost today (half gallon!). This is a dual extraction tincture with a solvent of both non gmo vegetable glycerin and organic alcohol to extract both the water soluble and ethanol soluble constituents.

This Fungi boost tincture is crafted with Chaga, Reishi, Marshmallow root, Ceylon Cinnamon

I originally made this tincture to support the immune system, specifically for folks that have issues with immune stimulants. Medicinal mushrooms like Reishi and Chaga are immunomodulators so they support the immune system just when needed. I prepare Chaga in such a way that it allows the break down of the tough chitin cell walls and unlocking all of the powerful benefits of this 'king of mushrooms" (though not an actual mushroom but a fungus). Always sustainably harvested, of course. It's full of powerful antioxidants, and has been shown to have antiviral, anti tumor, and anti-inflammatory properties. It supports your immune system, digestive system, helps balance your nervous system and hormones. It's no wonder they call it king of mushrooms and no wonder our bodies absolutely craved it. Chaga was the first medicinal mushroom I got to know and absolutely fell in love with. Reishi, as I mentioned before is also an immunomodulator but it has a lot of similar benefits as Chaga. It supports the nervous system, it's an adaptogen and is often used for stress and fatigue. Reishi is even helpful for seasonal allergies (we use it in our Allergy blends as well!). Marshmallow root is incredibly supportive to the lungs, and so soothing to inflammed mucus membranes in the body.

Most Fungi are incredibly immunomodulators. They're loaded with proteins and other compounds like terpenoids, polysaccharides, and triterpene.

I hope you enjoy this tincture and just know, a lot of love goes into it!

Address

Cooks, MI

Opening Hours

Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

+19064502317

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