Granola has long been something I've loved to make to take on adventures, as cliche as that is 😆 it fills the house with such an intoxicating scent as it's drying and is so versatile it's bound to stimulate your imagination as you're creating it. It's something I used to make regularly, but it's been a while. 
I've had it on my mind to make a UP inspired granola for a while. Going back and forth on mix ins. We have sooo many wild berries here and the options are endless. Thimble berries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, red blackberries and sooo many more. Seeing as I have an upcoming fishing and foraging trip, I figured nows as good a time as any! 
I ended up opting to use wild blueberries and avoid any heavily seeded berries (because no one wants to deal with stuck seeds in the mouth while trekking around 😜), and added wildcrafted birch bark and chicory root, roasted and powdered. This lends such a decadent chocolate flavor in my opinion. Birch bark almost has a flavor similar to root beer, and chicory root to coffee. The combination is delicious 😋😋 If you've ever had a chocolate blueberry muffin, that's what the flavor combination reminds me of 😍
These three add ins are powerhouse medicinals. Chicory root lending a hand as a digestive aid, appetite regulation, is a great anti inflammatory for muscle pain and fatigue and is incredibly cleansing to almost all of our systems. Definitely something I want on adventures. Birch bark (the inner bark) is one of my favorite bitter herbs to support the digestive tract. The Birch tree was actually dubbed “White Gold in the Boreal Forest" and has been taughted in TCM as the Russian Ginseng, relieving fatigue and aiding with the bodies stress response. It's been shown study after study that the betulin compound that birch provides relieves a host of gastric disorders and has powerful immune regulatory effects. Another must have plant ally on your up north adventures! Then we have the wild blueberries, far superior than their cultivated counterparts (as I feel so many wild foods are). Wild blueberries add an impressive range of micronutrients and are wonderful for moving contaminants out of the body. 
The other day I came across wild hazelnuts. Which was unfamiliar to me at the time. I was so excited and have been watching and waiting until harvest time. So, I decided in the mean time to use some hazelnuts I had stored away. Such a wonderful medicinal food loaded with vitamins, minerals and fats. 
Lastly, I added Nettle seeds. This is my favorite herbal add in to so many meals. It's so versatile and subtle, but packs all the benefits of Nettle leaves and more! Nettles! I came across some nettles on a hike the other day that had seeded, so they've been on the forefront of my mind. Nettles are delicious, nourishing tonic food and one of my favorites. Traditional uses for Nettles include; supporting the kidneys and bladder, as a blood purifier, providing relief from allergies, supporting respiratory health, modulating the bodies inflammatory pathways, supporting a healthy prostate, increasing energy and circulation. It's a diuretic-which allows the body to eliminate the toxins that are being neutralized. There have even been studies showing that Nettles may improve the nutrient uptake efficiency of the gut, keeping the digestive process running and preventing toxin accumulation.
To bind it all together, I used Tallow, honey and Maple Syrup that we made this past Spring, with a dash of cinnamon, vanilla, hemp hearts and a pinch of celtic salt. I won't dive to deep on these, especially after my tallow post yesterday. However, I felt it was a perfect binding mixture to increase bioavailability for this blend.