A phone post on some of the chaga mushrooms I’m seeing in this new year and also other wintery sights of interest from our Maritime forests. The above photo reminds me of a hidden puzzle game or a piece of art you can’t stop staring at it.
Ice pans or ice disc, first time I witness these around here. I’ve read they can on occasion be quite large, these little ones stayed spinning around this pool for sometime, made for a good rest spot after leaving the birch woods, this was a few days ago and below we get to zone in on how you can usually tell from several hundred feet if a chaga mushroom is a good size for gathering.
If from afar you see a snow cap on a dark hump on a tree trunk in a hardwood forest with lots of birch in the mix then this calls for a closer look, real simple. Here we see one near the center right of above photo.
Ah, this chaga horn appears to be not too high up the tree. I can chop it at eye level, notice the smaller one close by.
Looking down hill into the valley and mountain across, this chaga harvesting is quite pleasant.
I’m surprised this photo is not more blurry as my out stretched arm was trembling from the weight while I was trying to hold and take this phone photo with the other hand. The pains I will go through to show off my 2017 chaga.
Anyway, now back home it is fresh chaga and matsutake, rosehip tea time. Cheers
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Hmm..so they practically just GIVE IT AWAY down there in Moncton, do they?
hehe, only kidding of course. If anything, I’m sure you remember to venture into these sort of things with a sharper axe than I usually do. Maybe someday I’ll be lucky enough to gather another one of these conkers with nothing but a swift kick (or two).
A sound kick is a nice option if the chaga cooperates, especially if you find a good number of them and don’t want to announce gathering one with some noisy chop chops. As for my hatchet which is bit older than my feet, it was sharpened in the 80s though. 🙂