How we Harvest, Process, Cure and make Chaga Tea
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- Опубліковано 16 бер 2022
- How we Harvest, Process, Cure and make Chaga Tea
Hey everyone, a highschool friend of ours asked what Chaga is and for more info. So we went on a Chaga hunt and put together this video. We are not experts on Flora and Fungi, so please make sure to do your own research. Below are a couple of links to get you started. We would also like to mention that we only harvest Chaga in the winter when the trees are dormant. Think about it like this... I would rather wake up with a broken leg in a cast and wonder what happened instead of being awake while my leg was breaking.
Hope you've been enjoying your March break and hope you enjoy the video.
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The birch was part of the celebration during the festival of Samhain (what is now Halloween) held from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November, which marked the culmination of summer and the harvest period with the onset of winter. During this period, ‘besoms’, or brooms made of birch twigs, were used to drive out the spirits of the old year in anticipation of the return of spring and a new awakening.
The birch tree, or ‘Lady of the Woods’ represented fertility and new birth, and in this way, echoed Norse mythology where the birch is dedicated to Thor, and also to the goddess Frigga, the goddess of marriage, childbirth and motherhood. A ‘besom wedding’ was a marriage ceremony also referred to as ‘jumping the broom’, where the besom would be held over the doorway of the couple’s home, and the couple would jump over it and then be married. It is still possible to ‘jump the broom’ as part of a traditional Highland wedding ceremony today. Birch was also featured prominently in the May Day festival of Beltane. The fires of Beltane were kindled with birch twigs and fertility dances would be performed around an often living birch maypole to ensure health and abundant crops. There are a variety of medicinal and even beautifying properties attributed to different parts of the birch tree by folklore and herbalism. The astringent leaves have diuretic and antiseptic properties. Consumed as a tea, the leaves were, and still are, used as a remedy for cystitis and other urinary tract infections. They were also used to dissolve kidney stones and relieve rheumatism and gout. The sap as discussed in an earlier article was given for kidney and gall-bladder stones, and also for rheumatism and gout. Women in the Highlands were known to use birch sap as a hair shampoo and even to rinse their hair with an infusion of spring birch twigs. Both birch tea and sap contain significant amounts of vitamin C.
The bark, when soaked in hot water, was applied to the body to ease muscle pain. The ancient practice of dry distilling birch bark also produces an oil or ‘birch tar’ which contains antiseptic compounds or phenols (which are highly concentrated in chaga, oups, I just gave the clue…), making it useful for the treatment of skin wounds or infections. There is evidence of birch tar chewing gum being used thousands of years ago to treat gum infections. Birch tar is still regarded as an effective treatment for acne, eczema, psoriasis and dandruff. Birch tar soap certainly has a very pungent, though not unpleasant, antiseptic smell. The tender inner layer of birch bark, known as the cambium, can also be made into a surprisingly delicious and refreshing tea, or even ground down into a flour for baking. But historically, it has been used mostly when the crops were bad.
So the birch tree has great importance in Celtic folklore and medicine, and can even be consumed as a food. No wonder chaga mushroom, the sacred mushroom, which concentrates within it the therapeutic phytonutrients of the birch, whilst adding a myriad of its own, is such a powerful medicinal mushroom. What we call ‘Chaga’ is the dense black mass (25-40 cm large) that can be seen on the outside of trees (almost exclusively birches) infected with the fungus Inonotus obliquus. It is not a fruiting body (meant for spreading spores, the final stage in the life of many mushrooms) but a dense sterile mass of mycelia, with decayed bits of birch tissue incorporated. When chopped from the tree the interior has a rusty yellow-brown color, somewhat granular in appearance, and is often mottled with whitish or cream-colored veins. The hard, deeply cracked black outside of the Chaga is called the sclerotium. This is important, because this sclerotium contains a massive amount of a specific fungi-melanin, giving a very high level of anti-oxidants and turning Chaga into powerful anti-aging tool. Typically, well-developed Chaga sclerotia are found on trees over 40 years of age, but the infection starts earlier. The period from initial infection to tree death varies with the number of infection sites and tree resistance, but is typically around 20 years. After about 3-5 years the Chaga can be harvested. After harvesting, chaga can regrow to harvestable size again in three to ten years, and this can be repeated until the tree dies. Chopping off the Chaga does not stop the infection.
Chaga tea’ was used for the treatment of an upset stomach and intestinal pains. Such a decoction was (and still is) especially popular among hunters and foresters, since this drink alleviates hunger, removes tiredness, refreshes, and increases work capacity. Chaga tea is also used as a means of improving the general tone. Patients were (and still are) frequently recommended to use chaga extracts when it was necessary to reduce the arterial or venous blood pressure. Chaga infusions were (and still are)also used for the treatment of periodontitis, eczema, dermatitis, and psoriasis. Inhalations of chaga with other herbs are until today being used to reduce inflammations in the nasopharynx and to facilitate breathing. Chaga was also used in agriculture, in particular in animal breeding: adding chaga to the ration of pigs stimulates the growth of piglets and accelerates the weight gain of fatteners. Chaga has also been used as a plant growth stimulator, like fertilizer.
Chaga develops best in very cold regions and it appears that the more harsh the climate and the swings in temperature, the better the therapeutic quality of the Chaga. Harsh climate + birch forest = high Chaga potential!
Chaga was and is still used for general well-being, internal cleaning (we would call it ‘detoxing’) and curing and preventing disease in general, but in particular for liver problems, heart problems, tuberculosis and to get rid of parasitic worms. It was prepared as a tea. (method of preparation: cut up dried Chaga, put it into boiling water, boil for several minutes.)Three cm3 were used for 2.5 l of tea, and the tea was drunk until the ailment was cured. The Chaga was also used to make ‘soap water‘. To make ‘soap water‘ the fungus was first put into the fire.
When it turned red (like smoldering charcoal) it was put into a bucket of hot water and then stirred until it broke into small pieces. The black water thus obtained has a strong cleaning and disinfecting ability. This ‘soap water‘ was used to wash the genitals of women during menstruation and after birth; sometimes new-born babies were also washed. It can be compared to the effect of a KMnO4 solution (potassium permanganate; a disinfectant used in Russia to wash new-borns the first three months after their birth) and stated that women who washed themselves with such water, never took ill. In older times it had been used instead of soap to wash the hands, feet and sometimes also the whole body. Chaga was also burned and the smoke was inhaled; its purpose was ritual cleaning. As you can see, the Chaga was an essential for survival in the northern regions. It’s multitude of purposes and benefits and the hunt linked to it’s harvest clearly justify his sacred status. About the hunt, I guess the fact that 1 birch tree out of 10000 bears chaga justify calling the harvest a “hunt”. For our ancestors, to have found a chaga was likely to have been a greater discovery than that of finding gold. Thus the chaga beholder was probably seen as some kind of savior and must have been honored by the whole tribe. For the survival and wealth of their tribe was secured by the chaga. I highly recommend you to use it on a daily basis if you manage achieve a successful hunt…
Thank you very much that! There is a lot of information there that we did not know and it is greatly appreciated. Rob & Sabrina
Would you harvest and use the birch tree leaves as you would other tea greens?
@Carol-lz6dd The inner bark, twigs and leaves can all be used for medicine. Any of these parts can be used fresh or dried, made into a tea or tincture, ground into powder, or even applied in a poultice. All preparations of Birch are an amazing ally to relieve tissues that are hot, swollen, red and inflamed.
Great information!
I lived where birch trees are extremely plentiful in New Brunswick Ca. Good video, I got lots of chaga and enjoy the taste along with whatever you like, a squeeze of lemon, cinamon a shot of brandy....
That is awesome. Cinnimon sounds like it would be a reat combo, never thought of that! fthank you for watching.
good stuff, I use to collect them when i hunting in crown land. Cheers!
Brand new for me, I had never heard of Chaga. Thank you!
Our pleasure. We've learned a lot more since we made this video. We're going to follow up with more detailed video. Thanks for watching and thank you for the comment. Rob & Sabrina
Excellent demonstration on where to find Chaga🙌 Thanks for sharing!
Thank you :) Canoehounds episode on Chaga taught us so much more about Chaga and we are hoping to make another one having a better understanding on what we are doing.
Sustainable harvesting. Excellent! 😊
Thank you 😊 it's the only way our kids and their kids will be able to enjoy all that we do! Thank you for watching. Rob & Sabrina
Thank you 💕🍵🌳🍄
Great Video on finding and harvesting Chaga. Chaga is actually the topic on Canoehound's Outdoor Adventure show on March 29th
We're excited for this episode. Thank you for all you do!
Never heard of Chaga until just now
But , I remember seeing big grows of it before
Had I only known !
So strange that you didn't think to cut off those festering sores and drink their excreta. Myself, whenever I see an infection, I scoop it up. Nine times out of ten it's a miracle cure that They don't want you to know about.
@@amarissimus29
Classic !
When i lived in alaska ,when mosquitoes were bad wed put a bunch of coals in a can and put the chaga on it and it would drive away all mosquitoes
We knew it was a great source for starting fires but did not know that! Thank you for that bit of info, it will do us well in the late spring on our trips!
Thank you so much for this. Great video! I learned so much from you. One problem I did have - when a friend gave me some Chaga - I kept it in a plastic bag bag and ended up losing about six really nice chunks to mold, of course… The mold was on the most valuable part of the Chaga, the black part. 😢, have you ever had that problem? 🥲 someone suggested I stored it in a paper bag. Do you think that would work? Or is it just down to not drawing it enough - obviously that would be the problem?
Thank you so much for the kind words and watching the video. We haven't had a mold problem. If you harvest or receive wet Chaga the best way to dry it is at room temperature out in the open on brown paper towel underneath and covered with brown paper towel for 7-10 days. BEFORE it dries pull or scrape any foreign things like insect, debris and bark from your pieces. Last winter we harvested a piece that weighed almost 10lbs wet off the tree. We brought it home and sat it on the kitchen counter (with the beige side exposed) on brown paper towel for several weeks. We then cut off a small piece to use and then put the remainder in a glass container with a silica pack to keep dust, moisture and anything else off of it and stored it in a cupboard until we needed it again. I would suggest NOT putting it in any bags as they will keep the moisture in the bag creating the perfect environment for mold to grow. If you have any other questions feel free to email us and we would gladly help you as best as we can.
What sort of flavor does it have? I live where it grows and might just try this!
that's a great question. The wife and I have been talking about it and it does have a very distinct flavor. the only thing we could come up to discribe it is it has a "woodsy" kind of flavor that is quite palatable and enjoyable. It's not aweful though, the longer you let it simmer the thicker and stronger the flavor. We usually put a small teaspoon of Maple Butter in our chaga tea. It compliments it really really well. We have been trying many different methods and doing more research on how to extract the medicinal properties without ruining them. We will be putting out an updated version soon of how we make the tea and how to make tinctures as well. We will also include links of where we found our research as well as listinng the different ways we tried on our own. Thank you for the question and thank you for watching! Rob & Sabrina
Some say a vanilla flavor. Personally I don't get that. I'd say woodsy sums it up really well. I did notice that chaga that I found on white birch seemed sweeter than what I've picked off yellow birch. Maple is a great sweetner too. Whats even better is strong chaga tea in cranberry juice , searved cold. one to five or so. Less if it's a dual extract.
@@timothylongmore7325 Agree with te white birch, we have tried it off a beech tree and found it to be bitter. And we hear a lot of prople refernce vanilla. I think the flavor may depend on the process, not sure. Chaga tea with cranberry served cold ... we will absolutely try that!!! Thank you.
Birch are a lot like Aspen aren't they. That stuff grows on Aspen too.
Never heard of it on aspen. I've only seen it on hornbeam and beech. Usually small , usually dead. It can't be used more medicine unless on birch.
Chaga only Grows on birch
No
Hello, im wondering how are you sure that boiling water will not destroy some compounds ?
Very glad you brought that up. The belief is that boiling it does not deplete any of the medicinal properties. There are so many studies that contradict each other that we aren't sure. But since making this video we have done a lot of research that has left us to believe that it could possibly degrade some of the medicinal properties. So we are in the process of making a new video with what we've learned. Which is we believe a cold extract before simmering is best practice to maximize the benefits of Chaga.
Bring to a boil then turn down and simmer. It will destroy water soluble compounds.
@@timothylongmore7325 we have learned that. We now cold press it for 24hrs then let it simmer. Once we've made our tea we will put it back in the fridge and use it until it starts to lose its color. Then we dry it out and leave it in an alcohol for tincures.
I boil the water from the tap, let it cool for about 10 minutes then add Chaga and simmer on low for about 2 hours. I use small chunks. From all I've read and seen, this gives the best results
@@chrispierce2942 I've heard bring to a boil then simmer but don't remember were I heard this. For tea I use a double boiler system. Chunks in a mason jar, bring to boil , simmer 10 minutes or so , let steep until cool enough to drink. Store un-used ( with chunks) in fridge , repeat when empty until chunks are spent. Then they get dried and put in alcohol soak for 6 months or more. For hwe to add to that alcohol extract I simmer in crock pot for 6-8 hours. Those spent chunks get the same treatment.
Don't suppose we have it in New Zealand.
I had to look that up. Unfortunately no and in NZ it is illegal to grow or purchase it. Both NZ and Austrailas eco systems (for lack of a better word) have a delicate balance specific to the islands and introducing new fungi/flora would create a cross pollenation that would be considered invasive to native species. I did some reading and found a decent article, here is the link - mycobio.co.nz/mushroom-growing-lions-mane-king-oyster-reshi-chaga ... Thank you for the question, it was enjoyable learning something new.
@@robintheoutside thank you for taking the trouble to check that for me. Guess I can forget about gazing hopefully up into every Birch I see.
@@meatavoreNana you're welcome and thank you for watching as well. Happy New Year!
I'd bet you have some mushrooms that are almost as good though. Artist conks , turkeytail maybe , reishi.
@@timothylongmore7325 I'll keep my eyes open
Try to adapt to sustainable harvesting. Don’t cut into the tree, leave at least 50% of the chaga left. Do this, and you might harvest from the same tree and chaga year after year.
We really appreciate you watching and commenting. We do practice sustainable harvesting and we've never cut into any tree that we have harvested from. The reason we harvest in the late fall or early winter is because the trees are dormant and it causes minimal trauma to the tree. And returning to the same tree every year wouldn't be sustainable as it takes anywhere from 5 to 20 years for the chaga to start growing back to a sustainable harvesting size. There is a really great interview on the CanoehoundAdventureShow channel with a man who operates a chaga business and has been for many years. You should check it out. Thank you for watching.
problem is all these who pluck it and sell online. Will be nothing left in the end.
We fully agree. We've noticed a surge in that over the last 3-4yrs. And the worst part is that when you purchase it from those people you never know exactly what it is you are getting. We only know of one company that is reputable and grow and harvest Chaga on a "farm" like property.
You do see a lot of sellers on ebay. I'm one of them. I've been harvesting ( sustainably) for about five years. The only evidence of harvesting in my area was on the drivable trails. I don't charge very much and don't sell very much. I think many see all the ads and figure it's a get rich quick thing , cut a bunch then find out it's not so easy to get rid of. I agree that the future of chaga is complicated and as with all natural resources it will be exployted but right now I'm that guy. I have had some big player ask if I could supply 250 pounds per week! I said no thanks. Chaga piggys
We have no argument with sustainable practices. We've just noticed that in the Muskoka area on Crown Land people are digging out of the trees causing major damage and some are sneaking on to private property to get it.
@@robintheoutside Much of our land near where i live is private land and posted. Between that a where chaga grows I feel that , for now , chagas not to threatened here. If price goes way up that could change. Someone commented that Paul Stamets has developed a technique to grow chaga mycilium and extract desirable medicine from same. That'd be great. Where I forage , on yellow birch , 2/3 of the pickable chaga is way out of reach and I harvest to about 25' high! I hunt on empire land mostly. I do have to travel a bit but ,for now, seems untouched. I am near where "birch boys" forage. He says he's sustainable and forages on a private track of paper company land but some of his foragers have reached out , covertly , and inquired about my prices. I haven't sold to them but I'd imagine as his business grows they will require more raw supply. My feeling is if one is sustainable and business stay small then the supply will remain stable. If more get in to it on an industrial scale then who knows. I am sure our state government will smell money and try to regulate like they do with ginseng.
@@timothylongmore7325 if Paul has found a way to grow and replicate the medicinal propertys in a natural way that is a game changer. And I agree about the government, like weed, once they can figure out a way to regulate the profits ... they'll take it over and regulate the shit out of it pushing the Moms and Pops out and will probably make it illegal to harvest on a personal level.