Chaga Tincture

I've started the first batch of chaga double extraction process.   Let me illustrate the process.

This is a whopping huge chunk we found on a piece of wood we were chopping up for the woodpile.  Good thing we didn't burn this stuff - its the best tinder ever known and a prized product.   I don't know how many pounds this would be, but I'm est. 3 lb?  If so, it would sell on the Northern market here on kijiji for $75-90.  This will last me and my friends a long time as I plan to make a double extraction tincture out of it.  Let me explain - read on.  
Actually, I should mention -- this is not what it originally looked like.  I hacked off the black stuff (which is okay to consume but has betulinic acids in it which gives it a bitter taste).

I then chopped it up in a box to keep the pieces from flying across the floor.  This took a long time to chop up that whole block. 

Ground up all of the block into an espresso grind.  Almost destroyed the first grinder.  Going to get these from a yard sale to continue the process before I do break the device.  Actually a lot easier to fix then though -- tough as nails. 

This is the whole block.  When it was all chopped up, I filled 7 of these mason jars. 

Will use this slow cooker device later to to the boiling part of the decoction.

This is how dark the extraction got after nearly 2 weeks of extraction.  I'm going to stick to the method I read, which mentioned to leave the chaga grinds in the vodka solution for 2 months.  Should be using a 50 proof, but this 40 because that's all I could find.

 

Another note: I read up somewhere online that mold spores can grow on chaga even thought it is a fungus.  This stuff is stable, but I advise to dry it out as much as possible before storing it in a bag or anything.  

Well, pictures say more then words.  I'd rather save them. Will update you on the progress as in 2 months. I will take the grinds out of the alcohol (I used not only vodka, but rum, brandy, whiskey for other jars) and use the grinds to boil out any remaining nutrients, vitamins and minerals that the alcohol cannot extract.  This method is common enough - termed double extraction.   

Thanks for reading the chaga-blog!  Please refer to my last post for more info on the benefits of chaga - king of medicinal mushrooms. 

Ghillie Kettle

Chances are you never heard of this - but today is the day my friend.  Today is the day.

The tradition of the Ghillie heating up water on the shore for their client's tea dates back to the late 1800's in western Ireland. These handmade kettles were made mostly of tin and had very short lives.

This current model is made from anodized aluminum. There are other metal varieties.  It is light, compact and durable.  I haven't given it a go for its money yet, but I am thoroughly impressed with the basic concept and practicality of this compact design.  Even for cooking a small meal in the bush, it would be a handy thing.  Has the dual function of cooking and boiling at the same time.

Air feed holes for stoking the fire with oxygen

Comes with wire stand so it doesn't burn your table.

Little pan / grill set that comes with the package

Handle is removable. Comes with holder for cooking apparatus.

Comes with a funky carrying bag

My 4 cups, Gillie Kettle and thermos fit in the bag comfortably

Ta-da! The pot and pan, grill and all flips over and fits in the base of the kettle for compact storage. 

 Yup - That's all part of the part and parcel.
Tea on the go.  Can't beat that.  I couldn't have tea in a blackout till now.  :)

Thanks for reading!

p.s. This model is called the Maverick - smallest version. 

Desbarates Climbing Trip!

Rock climbing in Northern Ontario is something else.  When you have professionals (who scuba dive, pilot and skydive .. etc) to guide you, and provide equipment, that's something else entirely.  :)

This is a break from the tea talk - but this has to go up, and the blog is the spot.  Enjoy the vid guys!  Thanks again!



Video Link -- Try this is video does note show up.  Embedding issue.

Hint on getting there : Richardson Dr. - Left on Government - onto puddingstone something - and left onto cave rd.  lol  Then hike by gps when the trail ends.  Don't step near the puddles, whatever you do.    N 46 24.882 W 83 56.515


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Wintergreen ---- or 'Canada Tea'

Hello tea lovers! Since the last posting was on a naturally occurring tonic of the forest (chaga), I wanted to follow up with another wild plant - one my favorites.  Maybe I haven't had enough time to explore the forest floor... but none the less, this is an extraordinary little tea leaf which is often overlooked.  Wintergreen.  I can say that this low growing shrub is named so, because it seems to stay alive under the pressure of our great snow season, and thrives in the spring.  Its quick to regain its colour from a deep purple to a fresh green in a matter or weeks after the snow has gone. 

Of course its berry is a edible 'mini apple' like fruit.

Its always a joy to pick and eat the tender berries, which seem to be common enough in the summer and fall.  The plant must be of the mint family, since it is comparable to a spearmint or peppermint in flavor, but still aromatically of its own kind.  It has a beautiful aroma sold in extracts of essential oils.  Of course, I encourage to take it as a tea... although it has many uses. 

The Native Americans were among the first to utilize the leaves of Wintergreen for a warming, minty brew that was also renowned for unique healing virtues. Wintergreen tea was the tea of choice during the American Revolution and the boycott of traditional tea imported by British traders.

I wasn't able to find any in depth research on that last note -- but powerful!  Our green tea leaf, 'camellia sinensis', consists of a untold variety of names such as green tea, black tea, white tea, oolong tea, orange pekoe, assam tea, earl grey, darjeeling... gunpowder tea ... basically serves as the base for any tea which doesn't explicitly say it is anything else. It fills the shelves, and to think that in North America, it could have replaced with wintergreen!  In fact, of its other known names, one of the most popular is 'Canada Tea'! 

Other Names:

Boxberry, Canada Tea, Checkerberry, Deerberry, Essence de Gaulthérie, Gaulteria, Gaultheria Oil, Gaultheria procumbens, Gaulthérie Couchée, Ground Berry, Hilberry, Huile de Thé des Bois, Mountain Tea, Oil of Wintergreen, Partridge Berry, Petit Thé, Petit Thé des Bois, Spiceberry, Teaberry, Thé de Montagne, Thé de Terre-Neuve, Thé du Canada, Thé Rouge, Thé des Bois, Wax Cluster. Wintergreen leaf is used for painful conditions including headache, nerve pain (particularly sciatica), arthritis, ovarian pain, and menstrual cramps. It is also used for digestion problems including stomachache and gas (flatulence); lung conditions including asthma and pleurisy; pain and swelling (inflammation); fever; and kidney problems. Some people use small doses of wintergreen oil to increase stomach juices and improve digestion.

Now I know I can be a shallow dude, but this is something else!  It is basically the minor equivalent of aspirin... the willow tree of the forest ground.  The other lovely fact, is it is often paired with our great white pines, another amazing tree (which also has a component that can be used for tea) 

Now, since it is common enough, you may be able to find some on the forest bed.  It is the most common ground cover I find, esp for the Northern Shield.  Heck, when I get a house, I'm going to plan a million of these seeds in the back yard with a few white pine so I don't have to mow a lawn. 

Now for the prep.  Please pick one leaf per plant for courtesy sake; these are hardy plants.  Wash the batch in the kitchen sink.  Let the leaves dry in a window, or even on the kitchen table till they feel almost brittle.  Save them away in a tin of sorts.  When steeping, place them whole in your cup or break them up (being brittle to crush after dried).  I prefer 6-7 leaves in the cup.  You will most likely have to submerse the tea leaves in a tea infuser of choice, as they will tend to stay to the top.  The leaves are highly resistant to being soaked, so pre-soaking them for a day or so will also make them steep better.  They will also soak better for the next 2 steeps. 

I hope you try this out guys ad gals!  Boycott those tea stores damn it!  Just kidding; they always have cute ladies in there -- but start getting creative with what is safe and good to have for your own tea preparations.  Here is a dude doing it the woodsman way in a YouTube vid:  Cheers!

Chaga Tea

I could phonetically spell this out for you, but here is a link to the pronunciation on this word: Chaga.  I know everyone (including me) cannot say rooibus right yet. Not even my computer knows, since the spell-checker just came up underlining the word. So I'm making it easy for you. YOU will be the only one in the growing populous of people who will spell and say this word correctly. CHAGA. Now what the heck is this funky tonic?

Chaga has been used for thousands of years in Asia and Eastern Europe. It is only now gaining more awareness in the West, and we're sure that as more time passes, you will be hearing about Chaga more and more. Just recently, it was named the "Anti-Cancer Herb of the Year" in Russia, and its popularity is slowly beginning to grow all over the world.

See -- I told you people are hearing of this! Now wait a minute -- a FUNGUS? Considering we eat mushrooms, yogurt, and prize products that naturally have probiotics in them... I really don't need to explain further unless you do your own research. Lets cut to the chase.

The chaga fungus grows from the birch tree and has the highest ORAC value of any substance ever tested on the planet. ORAC = Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, measured in units of antioxidants, developed by the National Institute on Aging in the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The ORAC value of Chaga is 35,000 compared to spinach which is 1,260 or blueberries which are 9,160. Goji Berries are 25,000 on the ORAC scale.

Benefits of drinking Chaga Tonic include:
boosting the immune system
treating stomach diseases
treating Intestinal worms & parasites
liver and heart ailments
cancers
increases metabolism
hypertension
diabetes
inhibits the growth of tumors
stimulates the central nervous system
increases the resistibility of organism to infectious diseases

Chaga also contains Sterols and Triterpenes including lanosterol (a tetracyclic triterpene derivative), inotodiol (triterpene alcohol), and ergosterol (a Vitamin D precursor). These help support digestion, help detoxification, and may help maintain respiratory health. Germanium, which helps support the health of your blood. Melanin, which enhances the appearance of hair, skin and eyes, and helps maintain a more youthful appearance. Important Nucleosides, minerals and amino acids, Saponin, Magnesium, Chromium, Iron, Kalium, Beta-glucan, Inotodiol, Isoprenoid and others, all offering tremendous health benefits. WOW!

This is my latest bunch I found here in Northern Ontario, Canada.

I hope you understand why it is so good now. Best part, is it is freaking great for you, expensive, and free at the same time. Also a survivalist tool, since it is a remarkable fire-starter! It's also known as 'tinder-fungus' for that reason. I have yet to try out some chaga in my fire piston. So this stuff was not as hard to find as I once thought. I tripped across it by accident by going into the swamp behind the house, and there was a healthy amount on a yellow birch (doesn't have to white birch to be chaga apparently). Also .. of the few things that give birch a short life, chaga is one of the rare things which decay a birch tree inside out within approximately 5 to 7 years of infection. Second time I ventured out on bike, I found 6 or 7 trees, many of which I didn't harvest the chaga from; want to see their progress along the seasons. I have enough for 6 months already of daily usage! 

This is a closer look at the fresh looking dried color. 

The wood tray was a lovely second hand addition. Makes it easier to take a controlled quantity.

I made up a chopping box as shown in the youtube video (at the bottom of this blog) to get the raw chaga down to size.

Used a coffee grinder for processing (hard on the grinder, but it worked).

Sifted it into different grades for experimentation!

Use your steeper of choice!

It definitely has the appearance of a light coffee, but it is said that you can brew (and is recommended) for 10-12 hours! This extracts out the full potential it has. I am only steeping it with boiling water and letting it cool naturally over 15 minutes till it's a drinkable temperature.

The verdict : Success! I have yet to notice the benefits, but I'm not necessarily fighting a tumor in my brain; you never know these days. It's also just an overall well-being sort of tea judging by the benefits. As I said, it's a tonic -- which means it will not mess up your system if your taking your 2 teaspoons or so daily.  That's what I'm sticking with right now, but 3 teaspoons of the dried grinds is normal too.  I brewed the same batch 3 times today in my new fancy tea steeper from Canadian Tire, and believe me... this is the best I've had when it comes to modern tea infusers.  Perhaps I'll show you my collection, and give reviews of tea related paraphernalia.

This will link you to the youtube video instructions on processing of chaga into a fine grade for tea. 

I hope to blog more about tea in the future - will let you know whenever something comes up that is fantastic to say. I hope you get the time to look for chaga, or just get out for a long walk. As I said.. when it's great for you, and free, it hard to resist - but please harvest with discretion. Worst thing is having a hunk of beef hanging around your home to stink when your not going to eat it. In this case though, it has a pleasing aroma when steeped, since it has vanillic acid.  This is the same sort of constituent in vanilla. Besides that, the taste is almost undetectable (yet still vanilla like), so it will make for a great additive to your favorite tea brew. :)

 Thanks for reading -- now make a fresh cup-a-chaga.

 p.s. There is no caffeine in chaga!

Set: Laying on my bed; head hanging over the top. I lay there in contemplation for a moment. The blue hue of both of the lights shifted into a lonely hue, and anxiety crept over me... and slowly intensified. I knew this feeling, but I wondered why it was there until it hadn't mattered anymore. Confused, I solidified myself by laying upright a bit and breathed more consciously, and remembered my state prior of peace and comfort. The problem was neither, but that I was alone.

The blue hue of the room slowly shifted to magenta (as my low-light shifting LED light-bulbs do) and I started to regain my senses. Perhaps this shift came about for many reasons other then the low-light intense blue hue, or the half-pot of coffee I had earlier in the day (which is most likely still in my system) most likely to speed up brainwave patterns and perhaps anxiety attacks from affecting hormone balances, or the fact that my head was awkwardly bent over the side of the bed causing a kink in my long hose of a neck. All in all, the feeling was what it was .. and I've been thinking about it ever since. The feeling of being alone.

Since I was young, I had this fear suddenly approach me when falling asleep. I was alone, and there was nothing to speed up the process of falling asleep. This only intensified the feeling of wanting sleep, which only propelled it further away. I grew up learning how to forsake the feeling, but it still rarely creeps up I guess. I grew up in a family of four other siblings and parents. Through childhood, I had many of my siblings slip away to education and marriage until in my last years of highschool, even my close brother disappeared to college. Of course I am not complaining about anything, since of course I was raised very well, and my family is closest to me. Now I realize something though -- that through certain years, I tried to be independent -- to be my own person as most teens do.. and now the feeling is reversing.

I learned in my last years that we all we're never were alone, and we never wanted to be alone. We just want to feel like we have things under control, but a man left to his own ship really is alone. There is no way, no matter how skilled he is at maintaining the sails, the storms will crush a mans confidence under the waves pressure.

I think that summarizes the feeling that washed over me. I think it is the strangest battle man faces in a lifetime. The name of the piece below is called "You will never walk alone" -- a drawing I made back when I was 16 or something.

Journey (not the song... silly)

Today I felt lethargic upon awaking; especially upon the fact that I had slept in, as usual. After morning preparations to nurture the body a little, I thought it best to get outside for a long belated journey through the small forest down the street.

Now that I am inside, I realize what a problem a house has. Stuffy recycled air, almost completely black conditions compared to the magnificent light outside, and stillness. I stepped into the silence … the air rich and full yet not still, but filling my lungs effortlessly, as if I had not needed realize the notion that I were breathing at all. The forest floor is still layered with a thick crust of snow. In one place, the ground had shown through -- and green foliage there. It's hard to imagine if it had been frozen there since the fall, or was still alive. The afternoon sun made all things so clear; my eyes seemed obsolete to think I could not focus on things 100 meters away. Perhaps when I were a child I could, but not without a pair of binoculars I purchased for 20 dollars. Unbelievable though that such a small price could bring things so close. I could only hear things scattering so silently amongst the trees, and had a hard time spotting them. Of the many things were chickadees, a bluejay, a bird I have yet to look up, and a woodpecker, ravens protecting their territory by attacking some sort of hawk -- all of these things within a short 45 mins! I even spotted a full hare by accident far off. How could he be so silent I wonder, when I can't even hold a spectacle without breaking the snow… but I seen his tracks and anothers all around where I had been just that afternoon.

I could stand there in silence forever if there were no other calling a human has. It seems the problem with us, is that we take all that we can home and keep it preserved for as long as possible. Even though I open my window everyday, and gaze out at the squirrels and the brighter half… I can't seem to find that peace, or health which can be attained my attending the forest floor. I find comfort that the body does not need preservation at the passing of the spirit, and that it can be delivered to the earth again. I hope that I don't have too much salt, sugar and everything else I cannot name to make it indigestible. If anyone I know were to caretake of my body after death, I'd request that it were without coffin or embalming… but placed in the ground like a seed before blooming into form, because isn't that the hope of death?

The point of this note though is not about passing, but about keeping. Is it possible to gain anything under the sun? If Solomon, in all his years had left that one precious piece of wisdom, why do we expect more everyday? I remember the capstone to his qualm was this; "Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot." (Ecc 5:18) Probably my favourite verse right now.

Even though I could mimic nature and bring it into the house, that will never be the same as enjoying the Earth's natural state. Isn't that life's paradox? This is but a dim distorted illusion of the infinite reality beyond, and we cannot see it anywhere here in its true spiritual form. Even though this is true, we can see through these cheap binoculars well enough to learn about what lies beyond!

Peace in, peace out.