Click on to enlarge and here are a couple videos well worth watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liMo7Q_U-YA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phdMiOAG_jM
Here is a short video on harvesting a chaga in a winter hinterland. 
Chaga mushroom
22 Responses to “Chaga mushroom”
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May 11, 2014
[…] Chaga mushroom […]
1left 
Hello, from a neighbor in Maine.Saw your post on Gilbert’s Seeing-Knowing web site. Its cool you are interested in forest plants. Perhaps we have the same plants here, I live on an island off the coast of Maine, at least in the dream I do, smiles.
If you have an interested in wild mushrooms check out Maine resident David Spahr’s (mushroom-collecting.com) it has great info on local edible & medicinal mushrooms which are common in both New England and Atlantic Canada. An island’s coastline can be a great place to gather seaside salad greens from early June through to mid August, I’ll be entering info and pics on various wild foods as they appear to us. Nice to hear some folks on the east coast are checking out sites like Seeing-Knowing, Gilbert is a natural, a one in a million as far as us illusions appear to go.
Just breathtaking images… Thank you for sharing!
If you click on to enlarge the photos, you can see some interesting activities going on, especially on the image pages, with bees, slugs and patterns on the mushrooms. I’ll continue to add on new image pages as things catch my eye. Thanks for dropping by for a look. I wish you continued success, your blogs a winner.
Those are some nice shots – I especially like that horn on the second pic. I’m hooked on chaga!
Personally I’ve had great results with chaga tea for high blood pressure and a few other ailments, so naturally we want to share the good word on this very healthful fungus which is quite common in my neck of the woods. cheers for now
Chaga to me is very relaxing – and by this I don’t mean anything more than it relaxes me. Prior to starting to use chaga every day, I was having some problems with my colon, somehow this came about by some infection within the microorganisms – probotics – which caused me to have a very slow colon. Basically, I wasn’t “regular”. Within weeks of starting chaga, I found that problem had disappeared.
I believe you are probably right about blood pressure. In my case, I was on lisinopril for over a year and started to have all sorts of side affects. After some research, I found I could use Hawthorn extract 3 times a day, and it lowered my BP to the same level as the med with no side affects.
In my case I’ve always had overly hard stool and my doctor recommended something which I took for six months before I started drinking chaga tea. I noticed shortly into my chaga adventure the medicine was no longer necessary. I also had 2 large brown patches growing on my forehead which were there for approximately 10 years, these faded away around 6 months into drinking chaga tea, I also would apply chaga tea to these patches with a cloth which probably helped as well. I never heard this mentioned as something its good for but it seems to heal cuts incredible fast if you hold a piece of chaga on a cut with some pressure applied. So in my personal case chaga has been all good, blood pressure dropping from 140/90 to my typical writing of 115/72,
forehead patches disappearing and stool softener, plus I haven’t had a cold or flu since starting drinking the tea over 2 years ago.
It seems to lower and raise things as necessary so I see it as a real tonic I enjoy drinking mostly with matsutake mushroom and milk or apple cidar. I’m going to stop now as it probably sounds a little korny, but this is the results I’ve had the pleasure in seeing, it may not be this beneficial for everyone though I think it is worth a try and I recommend it to almost everyone.
how long were u drinking chaga tea , to get your blood pressure to lower ,, I’m using it for 14 days , how much longer till I start seeing results
Hi Phyllis, It was well over a month before I noticed the numbers changing for the better, I was drinking alot of different chaga recipes at that time, drinking it as a tea and cold in fruit juices. My blood pressure has remained very stable these last few years since Chaga regulated my blood pressure and in the last 6 months I usually only drink 2 cups a week. If my blood pressure had of been more extreme back then I probably wouldn’t have been willing to wait for these results to take place, so each situation calls for a different game plan. Chaga seems like a good tonic for overall well being though it takes quite awhile to start kicking in. ciao
Thanks for sharing your success with the mushroom, I just found out about this amazing news on the mushroom, so I ordered some caps from Puritan Pride, I hope for the best. Thanks
Thanks Clara, There is a good chance you will notice some health improvements with this mushroom on your side. cheers
I researched chaga a few years ago when my sister was diagnosed with cancer. I was never able to find any in my neck of the woods although many yellow birch grow here. Which Atlantic province have you found it in? And in what type of setting?
Mature Yellow Birch may produce very large chaga mushrooms, the first 5 chagas I ever collected came from Yellow birch in Cumberland Co NS in an area of mature hardwoods of sugar maple, beech and yellow birch. In that area of hardwoods there are around 10 chagas between 5 to 10 lbs on mature yellow birch and 10 more 1 to 2 lb chaga on white birch on mid-aged trees, this is within a mile of secondary road and in the woods on the opposite side of the road I have found none. On Yellow birch the chaga tend to be low on the trunk, usually a foot to 3 feet above the ground and are big humps.
Most the chaga I find in NB are on white birch on fairly young to mature trees in Westmorland, Kent and Albert Co and the pattern is similar, if you find one there are usually 5 to 10 more withih a mile, the chaga on white birch are often darker in color and higher up the tree. I found a good size chaga on white birch at the NS Mycological Society foray last Oct in Debert, Colchester Co, so I expect they are possibly common throughout the Cobequid mountains and surrounding lowlands. I haven’t looked for chaga south of Truro, though I may have a peek when I go on a family trip to Halifax in August.
Wet, imperfect and dry soils and a variety of understory plants do not make much difference to chaga it seems. I see Flandrumhill appears to have Bridgewater soil which may produce some chaga, I suggest you check mature yellow birch low on the trunk and if you have mid to large white birch walk in amongst them, white birch chaga are what I find the most of, the chaga are small and you will need to be within 30 feet or so to notice them. I’ve found hundreds of chaga mushrooms in the last few years but If I lived in Halifax Co maybe I would not be saying this. Possibly snowfall depth may play a part in this. Chaga in Maine and Vermont are said to be relatively common as well on both Yellow and White birch. I also have a habit of looking up white birch trunks now while gathering other summer and fall mushrooms which has accounted for probably 80% of the chaga I’ve seen, so keep this in mind. I hope you find some soon. ciao
Thanks 1left for all the information. Cow Bay is in Halifax County near Eastern Passage. Being so close to the coast, we receive less snow and more rain over the winter. Perhaps this is a factor. I’m going to keep looking. If I find anything that looks like it might be chaga, I’ll be in touch again for verification. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to give such a thorough explanation of settings where you’ve found it.
Still looking. My youngest grandson is very keen on finding fungi and identifying them. Four eyes are better than two 🙂
Hello, do you know if chaga from a dead tree is still medicinally viable? As well does chaga from a yellow birch have the same chemical makeup as chaga from a white birch? Thank you.
The quality of medicinal properties will start to decrease as soon as the flow from root to branches stops. I’ve seen some old chaga mushrooms on dead trees with the texture of flaky rotten wood which I suspect may introduce more toxins into the body than they would flush out. I have also seen chaga mushrooms which look in most aspects as viable as the ones from living trees which I tend to suspect the flow has very recently stopped probably in the previous growing season, I still choose to not use these chagas when I have a sure thing available. Ideally choose a number of chaga candidates from healthy trees and harvest when you see the tree fading or if a large chaga has developed gather it within a 2 year period even if the tree looks to be producing leaves on all its branches. I have drank chaga tea from yellow birch and white birch each one separately for periods of several months and both seem to be equally good tonic teas, I do suspect there may be slight qty differences in the properties of the 2 chagas from different host trees, but in the end the subtle regulating flow created within my body seemed identical from yellow or white birch.
The NS Mycological Society Foray was held at the Deanery project in Ship Harbour last weekend and one of the campers found a 1 lb chaga on a mid aged white birch near their tent.
This area was real close to the beach and gives you another possible location to find chaga in Halifax county, medium size white birch near the shore.
https://1left.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/dsc04106.jpg That is not chaga
Hi John, The original post this photo appeared in is titled ( Chaga and Shelving Tooth ) Date Mar 22/2012. I chose it as I was pleasantly surprised to first notice the shelving tooth fungus on the large maple and then just to the right at a similar height on another tree trunk is the Chaga mushroom on a birch tree, so not as prominent but definitely in the photo. cheers 1left