About

Overstory began as a necessity to improve and manage my anxiety, and with that anxiety, gut issues. I spend most of my time outside, growing and tending plants, mushrooms, and working on conservation projects. Having grown up with panic attacks and a constant upset stomach, I found solace in the fields and forests. 

I needed something to help calm my nerves and soothe a sensitive belly, while also providing me with nourishing and immune-boosting herbs. Taking what I've learned over the years working with plants and working with herbalists, I brought that piece of solace with me and packaged it into something I could have daily. No matter the environment I was in. 

Biome Broth is my first offering of many plant and fungi treats in the Overstory..story..

It was made to be enjoyed daily as a hot, savory tea or as an excellent instant base for a soup or stew. Created with shiitake mushrooms, ginger, astragalus, burdock, nettles, digitata kelp, and several tasty spices, it provides water-soluble polysaccharides like lentinans, astragalus polysaccharide (APS), and soluble fibers like pectin from apple fiber to improve digestion. 

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. And remember, food is medicine and medicine can taste good!


 

About Ryan, Overstory's founder and forest farmer

Plant and fungi nerd. Born and raised in Upstate, NY. Forest farmer by day and couch potato by night.

My passion started at a young age. I always loved walking around in the woods, being in the garden, and eating all the tasty treats that came out of them.

I pursued a career in the plant world and completed my bachelors in plant science at SUNY Cobleskill. By that point I had already helped start an herb farm, now called Apis Apotheca.

I took that combined knowledge and started my own business. Taking what I learned from school and combining it with my love for medicinal plants and fungi.

Having always struggled with gut issues and anxiety (the two go hand in hand), my way of managing them is being outside. Creating Biome Broth was an ode to the forest and a tasty tonic for my stomach.

This whole process, from my childhood to the present, has been a lesson in learning how to care for myself. I'm still learning, but starting Overstory has propelled me further along than I could have ever hoped for.