Chaga Mushroom for Tea and Tinder

Description

My property in central Ontario west of Algonquin Park is full of yellow birch trees and many of them have chaga fungus growing on them. In this video, I process some of the chaga into tea and fire tinder.

Tags: bushcraft,camping,self-reliance,survival,log,cabin,off grid,food,nutrition,wild edible,shawn james

Video Transcription

hey guys thanks for tuning in again today I'm processing some Chagga that I found off on the property one thing I do know is that you're not supposed to harvest it during the summer because all of the nutrients are now back into the tree as the trees growing and when it stops growing in the fall when it goes dormant all that stuff starts running out of it all those nutrients flow back into the chaga and that's when it's at its maximum potency turns out there's all kinds of antioxidants in that black part of the hard black outer crust of that jaga that's actually not found in the orange softer interior so you to get the most benefit out of item jaga you need to have both the black the hard black as well as that canna spongy orange stuff in the middle processing is pretty simple just try to get down to fine a powder like anything that you're trying to steep [Music]

a lot of herbal teas you're not supposed to boil it because it actually kills the nutrients in the case of Chagga they're actually boiling it first for let's say a minute and then simmering it for three to four hours you

see it doesn't actually flare up and do a flame it just holds a spark it holds a number for a long time actually so you have to blow on out to get it going it's the magnesium in their first or furrow so you scrape some that it was initially it again you

you

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