A chaga came to the company of these people

Walking through the forest with an ax and a saw is very interesting, and then describing it all is a great pleasure! So. A chaga came to our life in the village completely unexpectedly.

The first find at the childhood lake

By the lake of my childhood there is a brook. The word raistas means swamp, in Dzūkija we always say raistas, but I explain everything to the townspeople. In that article, we wanted to take a look at the shiitake farm set up by the local people. Yep, turns out we're not the only ones. I thought that Dzūki's shiitake was a terribly big innovation in my remote village, but the village took over and stunned me once again - the neighbors of the lake grow shitiaki, quietly, calmly and very wisely. But let's go back to chaga. As I gaped at the cleverly arranged shiitake garden, my child pointed his nose at a birch tree with a huge chaga!

Until then, I had only seen this legendary mushroom virtually. And this one growing on a birch tree was like a textbook, there was no doubt that this is really CHAGA. It was a lot of fun and work getting it off the tree! Because a person usually does not carry any axes, saws or ladders when going for a walk. 😊

Big, beautiful and heavy. It was dried, chopped, two coffee grinders were broken (I don't practice that anymore and I don't break anything). It was very interesting to discover that the taste of such a dark, hard, scaly mushroom is completely mild and neutral, as if it has no taste at all. I always have a little chaga for my needs and use it as tea in thermoses. I tried to cook in pots following the advice of doctors, that this way the most valuable substances are released. Maybe so, but the game is too much for me. The most convenient way is to pour ground chaga or its pieces with hot water, taste it with a little honey, ginger powder or whatever you want, and sip it little by little. Intuitively, I try to protect my teeth from such dark tea and drink through a metal straw. I didn't read anywhere about the effect on the color of the teeth, I just came up with it myself. If coffee changes neurons in the brain and the color of teeth (research has proven), then chaga can do incomparably, incomparably more. In general, after starting to grow mushrooms, after learning what talented strategists they are, how powerful their chemical properties are, such respectful fear and caution for these organisms appeared. For everything. 😊 There are all kinds of movies and legends, impressive articles in the National Geographic magazine, respectful distance has never hurt anyone 😊

We tried to offer chaga next to these. I know that she is from a clean forest, caressed by the lake breeze, away from roads and urbanization. And it turns out that people are interested! A close relative, who is being treated for oncological disease, also took it to use.

This common chaga disappeared quite quickly, we keep getting questions, and people who want to recover from diseases also apply. Therefore, one evening on August 26, I took a backpack, an ax and a saw (I didn't take a ladder, it was unnecessary) and sat in my jeep. It was only after leaving the homestead that the thought came to me - everything you need is usually nearby. You probably don't need to go anywhere, I could find it if I went to the nearest woods. But it's not that simple, if I'm going, I'm going. After driving, I inspected three nearby forests where birches grow. As I walked, I repeated in my mind - thank the forest for the chaga, thank the forest for the chaga... I found a few lumps, a few objects that I didn't quite appreciate because they were too high to look at.

Then I returned home, parked the jeep and headed to the nearest forest, the paths of which I more or less remember from my childhood. Everything is overgrown, everything has changed, but the old roads and tracks are still there. I looked around the two places, repeating my gratitude to the forest and asking the forest guardians for some chaga to share with people in need. You can believe, you can not believe in such strange things. I believe that thoughts are energy. Is there only what the human eye can see? Can we see thoughts? the wind? Love? Every element or place has its own vague, invisible being that you feel and want to respect - that's how I feel. But here is another interesting topic. We return to the forest. And in the forest, near the house, I find a chaga. I had to sneak around a bit somehow, but it was low enough that I could cut it with a hacksaw. I seem to see the texture of wood in chaga, I doubt it a bit, but I am convinced that it is really her. I thank the tree and go home happily. I ask the relatives to pass on the message to the person who was looking for it - I found it.

Interesting facts

There is a lot of information published about the benefits of chaga. I will not repeat myself, I will only mention that chaga has been used by man for thousands of years. It grows in the northern hemisphere. The most valuable is from clean forests, so the one found in Lithuania is valuable. Unlike most mushrooms, they grow only on living trees - birch trees. Our first shiitake trees grew 17-18 months after planting. If it seems long, chaga grows in 6-8 years. It is a very slow-growing, valuable, wonderful mushroom. The strongest antioxidant on earth. Thanks to the forest for sharing its wealth. In nature, there is both abundance and everything, you just need to look around.

Honorable mention

We do not grow chaga ourselves. When we have, we only have what I found myself. Some collect boletus, lepeschutes (squirrels), goats, while others look for rarer mushrooms. This mushroom is not lunch on a plate. It is a concentrated charge that can help certain functions of the human body. It was grown in nature's own clean forest.

Fates from the secrets of the forest!