September 29, 2025 • 53 mins
Jerry Ouellette shares his journey from skepticism to obsession with Chaga, a rare medicinal mushroom found on birch trees that has transformed countless lives with its healing properties. After witnessing remarkable health improvements in friends battling serious conditions like cancer and diabetes, Jerry dedicated himself to researching, harvesting, and sharing this extraordinary natural remedy that indigenous peoples have utilized for thousands of years.
• Chaga is a rare conch mushroom that grows on approximately one in 10,000 birch trees in northern cold climates
• Contains extraordinarily high levels of antioxidants - 100g of Chaga has about 385,000 units compared to 2,450 units in 100g of blueberries
• Functions as an immunomodulator that can both stimulate underactive immune systems and calm overactive ones
• Offers significant anti-inflammatory properties that may help with conditions ranging from arthritis to cancer
• Can be easily incorporated into daily routines through tea, coffee, or as a powder
• Research from institutions like Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center supports many traditional uses
• Harvesting should be done sustainably, leaving some on the tree to regrow, and properly drying to prevent mold
• New product lines coming soon include Chaga mint blend and possibly a yerba mate combination
Visit ChagaHealthandWellness.com and use code CANOPY for $1 off all Chaga products at checkout.
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SPEAKER_01 (01:11):
As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons
of our natural world becomeharder and harder to hear, but
they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Oulette, and I washonored to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
(01:34):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced to thebirch-hungry fungus known as
Chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal
applications used by indigenouspeoples all over the globe.
After nearly a decade ofharvest, use, testimonials, and
(01:56):
research, my skepticism hasfaded to obsession.
And I now spend my lifededicated to improving the lives
of others through natural means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of this strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
(02:17):
On Outdoor Journal Radio's Underthe Canopy Podcast, I'm going to
take you along with me to seethe places, meet the people that
will help you find your outdoorpassion and help you live a life
close to nature and under thecanopy.
So join me today for anothergreat episode, and hopefully, we
(02:37):
can inspire a few more people tolive their lives under the
canopy.
Well, as we say, Guten Morgen,Vigates.
I happen to meet some Germantourists, and I spoke a little
(02:57):
bit of German to them, just kindof give them a can uh just uh a
hello, how are you?
And as good morning, how arethings sort of uh uh greeting?
Um once upon a time, I used tobe able to do pleasantries in 13
languages.
But it's like a lot of stuff,you don't use it, uh you lose
it, and I can still say quite afew, so uh there's quite a few.
(03:18):
And anyways, these Germantourists were in talking to me
about Chaga, which is what we'regonna talk about today.
But before we get to that, justsome updates, uh as always.
You know, you got them, askthem.
Yeah, you know, you want to hearsomething about something, let
us know.
We can see what we can do.
And we very much, as always,appreciate all our listeners all
around the world, andespecially, of course, Canada
(03:41):
and Switzerland and Trinidad,Tobago, Ghana.
I mentioned about Dr.
Nick and his hospital in Ghana,and actually uh there were some
students that a friend of mine,uh Elaine, is uh who made
acquaintances and has friendsgoing to school.
I think it's a horticulturalcourses that uh Elaine's taking
(04:02):
up at the local college and metsome people from Ghana and
became very acquainted and quitesurprised, I guess, my podcast
came into the conversationbecause we rank so high in
Ghana.
But we really appreciate that.
And as always, you know, it'sthat time of year.
The colors are changing, andactually they're quite a bit
early.
And what we're seeing now iswhat I normally see about
(04:23):
Thanksgiving weekends, so I'mseeing them now out there, and I
think it's been exceptionallydry, which has added to the
color change that much earlier,although I haven't seen any
specific research that indicatesas to what the causes for color
change potentially are.
But colors are changing.
We're out there.
I'm I'm abusing myself as usualuh in such a way I'm out
(04:44):
cutting, splitting, haulingwood, you know, helping out uh
my sons with uh a lot of thewood stuff and myself.
And right now I've got a a wristbrace and a knee brace on.
Well, the knee brace wasactually from a fall, and what
happens there is it uh the thejoint falls out of place a bit,
so I got it put back in by Dr.
(05:05):
O, he's a chiropractor, greatguy, does uh marvelous work.
And actually, this chiropractor,I have to tell you my son, our
son uh Josh, Diana and I's sonJosh, he's our oldest, he had
scoliosis for five years and wasin to see a specialist on a
regular basis.
Do this, do that, do this, trythis, try that.
Nothing seemed to pan out forhim.
(05:27):
So where my wife used to be, sheused to be the the manager at a
a store until COVID came in andclosed all the stores Canada
wide and lost her job worse thanthan that would be lost her uh
uh anyways, her pension, whichhas a huge impact.
So we didn't lose it, it justdoesn't come to full tuition, so
(05:50):
it's very, very minimal asopposed to what it should have
been had she gone full term.
But anyways, she's in there andshe'd hired a person from a
graduating student from thelocal college.
And they were in talking andtalking about uh she happened to
mention about her sister havingscoliosis and a chiropractor
(06:11):
fixed it.
And I said, What?
Really?
Well, I just happen to know achiropractor that I would take
my son to.
So I made an appointment, andyou remember he'd been dealing
with this for five years.
So we go into the chiropractor,he looks, he checks him out, and
I'm not a chiropractor, I'm nota doctor, can't give medical
advice.
But the chiropractor looks andsays, Well, part of the problem
(06:34):
is is kind of your spine'scaught up on the on your hip
where it goes through, and oneof the vertebrae is caught it,
and that's what the problem is.
And in one visit, fixed hisscoliosis.
For those that don't know whatscoliosis is, it's curvature of
the spine.
So Josh was absolutely uhperfect after that.
No issues, no problems, nocurvature of the spine, no uh
(06:57):
difficulties.
And a year later, Josh says, hesays, Dad, dad, uh, we need to
go to the chiropractor.
I said, Why?
Is it bothering you again?
What's the problem?
He said, No, no, I just gottacheck to make sure everything's
okay.
I said, Okay.
So we go in to see Dr.
O, and he looks at him, he says,Nope, everything's fine here.
You know, you don't have anyproblems now.
Everything's the way it shouldbe.
I said, Oh, well, what do I oweyou?
He said, Well, I didn't do anywork, so you don't owe me
(07:18):
anything.
Which is something you don'treally hear a lot of, but uh we
really appreciate that.
And the same thing with uh nowhe tells me that he he read a
study that showed that 91%,don't ask me why they said 91%,
but 91% of individuals dealingwith carpal tunnel is a small
bone in the wrists that fallsout of place and puts pressure
(07:43):
on that tendon where it goesthrough the carpal and it's
perceived as carpal tunnel, andhe puts that bone back in.
And for me, it works wonders.
So I know when I can't sleep atnight when I'm abusing myself,
just like I am now, was uh twodays ago, and I will be on
Friday and on the weekend again,cutting, splitting, hauling
wood.
And of course I'm running thesaw and splitting and hauling it
(08:06):
and cutting it with a largemaul, which we call Das Clumpit.
It's about a, I don't know, itseems like a 10-pound splitting
maul.
But uh by the time you end updoing that and all the work and
going through the bush andtwisting and turning, I need to
go back and see Dr.
Rowe again and put me back inplace, which he will.
And the other thing he does,which is kind of surprising, is
(08:28):
he actually he checks somethingand I can tell I get this pain.
It's on my right arm near thetop, about three inches down
from the top where the the topof the shoulder where it
connects in.
And he looks and and sureenough, a rib has come out of
place.
And the last time I was in,which was a week and a half ago,
(08:51):
he says, Jerry, I can almostgrab this rib, it's sticking out
so much.
And he puts it back in place,and lo and behold, the pain goes
away almost instantly, likewithin I would say a minute,
it's normalized.
Not only that, but uh mybreathing starts to ease up as
well because it takes thepressure off what's happening as
the rib's out of place on mylungs.
So it worked really good and Ireally appreciate it.
(09:14):
But yeah, so I'm back to normal,but I'm wearing a knee brace
because my my knee is out of uhlike if you make two fists and
join your hands together at theknuckles, you'll see where it
kind of meshes together.
However, if you slide one handanother way, the they're kind of
out of line, and that's whatkind of happens with the knee
(09:36):
when it's not lined up.
And Dr.
O puts it back in place for meand takes away.
Otherwise, uh I'm walking alongand all of a sudden my knee
buckles on me, and that'sbecause it's out of place.
So, uh, I got a uh a wrist guardon and a knee guard on until I
can get in next week to see him.
But those are the things we do.
And I don't know, I just to behonest, I love being in the
bush, love working and cuttingand hauling wood.
(09:59):
But as I mentioned, it's falltime.
The colors are out.
We're winding down in the the uhthe locations and the events
that uh Chaga markets that I do.
And I'm still be doing Tuesday.
Uh there's two more Tuesdays inHalliburton.
You want to come up and see me,or in Lindsay.
Uh there's uh markets onThursdays, two more in in
(10:20):
Lindsay as well.
And I have always Chaga samplesso people can taste it and ask
questions.
And the market's on uhHalliburton, right downtown,
right by uh right on thewaterfront there.
There's a park there inHalliburton, and I provide
samples and I answer all kindsof questions as best I can.
Um there's a lot of stuff.
(10:42):
We get a lot of people coming inwith some knowledge about chaga.
Uh first thing is is it Chaga,Chaga, Chaga?
And I said, well, either way,uh, you know, if you talk to my
German friend Roland, it'sChaga.
Uh if you talk to my mother,it's Chaga.
But I usually say Chaga.
Either way, it's all the same.
But uh Tuesdays uh 10 to 2, uhnext couple of ones.
(11:05):
It ends the Tuesday just beforeThanksgiving in Canada.
And Thursdays 10 till 3 inWilson Fields and Lindsay.
I'm there as well with samples.
And that ends the Thursdaybefore Thanksgiving weekend in
Canada.
And you can come up and and askquestions or taste samples uh
because I've always got it.
(11:25):
And I'm gonna get into some ofthe new lines and things like
that.
And I'll do a rundown on Chagaagain because a lot of people uh
don't really know um detailsabout it.
It's still people they hearabout it, but uh well I know a
little bit, but I don't know allabout it.
So you can come and taste it andsee some of the test ones that
(11:46):
we have.
You know, I thought uh I'd giveuh an update on chaga.
Now, first of all, what ischaga?
Chaga is a um a rare mushroom,it's uh falls in the conch
family, but uh people call it amushroom, and in order to
classify as a mushroom, and thatwhole mushroom kingdom is is
changing completely on a regularbasis.
(12:06):
Some of the names are changing.
Uh so chaga is in Autanusobliquus and is a Latin name.
And so long as it has ummycelium, and that's so we'll
compare it to a an apple tree,say.
So an apple tree has roots.
The roots of a fungus would bethe mycelium.
(12:28):
And the mycelium is what thatfungus uses to extract the
material that it's connected to.
And chaga is a tree fungus thatgrows on a number of different
trees, uh birch, uh, ironwood,poplar, and some others as well.
But we only harvest off birchbecause that's where all the
medicinal studies are that I seeout there.
(12:48):
It it extracts certain thingsfrom the birch bark being
triterpenes, betulin, andbetulinic acid out of the bark
and converts it into things thatare beneficial.
So you've got the mycelium thatuh basically runs in the tree,
it's the roots, same as theapple tree.
And then in apples, the fruitingbody is the apple itself.
Now we had the apple experts on,and apples are actually uh the
(13:13):
fruiting body is an extension ofthe stem in order to protect the
seeds.
So, and the fruiting body of amushroom.
Now, if you take uh like thewhite button mushrooms that you
normally get in the grocerystore, that would be the
fruiting body of a fungus.
Okay?
And then you have your chaga aswell.
And then you have how itspreads.
Now, apples use apple seeds tospread to grow new apples, where
(13:35):
mushrooms or fungus, their theirfruiting bodies actually spread
by spores.
And so long as it has mycelium,a fruiting body, and spores, it
basically falls into a mushroomcategory.
But I'm sure there's lots ofmycologists that would challenge
me, and all I'm doing is tryingto give a best understanding for
those people who don't reallyunderstand and know mushrooms
(13:56):
that well, how to compare andwhat to look at.
But chaga is a rare one.
It grows in northern coldclimates around the world, so it
grows in Ontario.
First nations have been using ituh for thousands of years.
And for those that don't know,uh my family has miti status
through my father and throughhis Mamer, as uh dad used to
(14:18):
say.
And it um First Nations havebeen using it for thousands of
years as uh medicinal tea.
So but one in ten thousand birchtrees will produce one.
Now you can find it in thenorthern states as well, and a
lot of the TV shows uh that dealwith um far north and remote
(14:39):
locations.
Uh I think Moose Meat andMarmalade had it on that show.
Uh there's that one, what is it,uh north of no, what is it, uh
Life Below Zero and stuff likethat, had it on that show.
There's quite a few TV showsthat are starting to show chaga
in it and the benefits of it.
(15:00):
So it's very popular and allthrough Canada, but it also
grows all around the world.
So uh Finland, Poland, Germany,all through Northern Asia as
well, it grows.
And uh actually I I met somepeople from Finland that uh
informed me that uh the thechaga is the only mushroom that
members of the EU are notallowed to pick in Finland
(15:22):
because it would completelydecimate the population.
Now you've got to rememberchaga.
It only grows about my researchand I've got uh well, I've got
about 3,000 hours, uh over athousand studies worldwide on
it.
Um and my indications, becauseI've got about three dozen test
trees as well.
I've tried to inoculate trees,and I monitor and look at growth
(15:43):
on trees, and I check to see howit comes back after it's been
harvested and all that kind ofstuff, because we do a
sustainable harvest, which meansit's going to be there for
future generations.
And once I get this inoculationthing down, I might be able to
inoculate trees, mind you.
Some of the foresters may notappreciate it.
Anyways, so uh it only growsabout, I find in the moist, damp
(16:04):
areas, about half an inch ayear.
But the high, dry areas, wherewe do find some, actually grows
about three-quarters of an incha year is what I'm finding with
my measurements when I'm doingmy testing and checking.
So it's it's interesting.
Now, we've had Pierre on um anumber of times, and he's up
from uh just west of Timmins.
(16:24):
And Pierre is the one thatintroduced me to Chaga in the
first place.
That's how I started.
He he kind of said uh after Iwas done with with uh the
political life and having servedas minister and other
portfolios, he asked me, Jerry,have you found anything yet?
I said, No, I'm so looking.
He said, Look into this chagastuff.
And and like most people, Isaid, What's that?
(16:45):
He said, If I told you youwouldn't believe me.
Well, he knows I'm a littleobsessive, compulsive.
So sure enough, I startedreading about it, and I can't
believe what I'm reading.
Yeah, right.
Cancer, arthritis, diabetes,blood pressure, even MS, snake
oil stuff.
So I collected it for a year anda half and gave it away to
(17:05):
friends.
Now, one of the friends I gaveit to was Bob.
Now, Bob had open brain surgery,open heart surgery, over a dozen
heart attacks.
I drove him to the hospitalduring one, was dealing with
stage four prostate cancer.
Gave it to Bob.
Bob, this is supposed to be goodfor you.
And Bob says, Jerry, every day Iget up is a good day, so I'll be
more than happy to try it.
So Bob tries it and goes in tosee his oncologist, and his
(17:28):
oncologist says, Uh, Bob, uh wewe don't understand what's
happening here.
Something's like, we don't knowhow this is possible, but it
appears that everything's normalnow.
And we don't know how that'spossible because we haven't
begun any therapy with yet.
And you'd have to meet Bob.
He just kind of looks and hesays, Oh, I wonder how that
(17:48):
happened.
Well, he goes in for his nextthree-month uh uh visit to find
out details.
And guess what?
Same results.
So tells the uh oncologist, youknow, I offered him.
I said, I'll give you as much asyou want for free to test on
patients if you want, but neverheard from them.
So and then Doug was anotherfriend of mine.
Now, Doug was dealing with twoforms of cancer, multiple
(18:11):
myeloma, which is a blood bonecancer, bladder cancer, had
arthritis and was diabetic.
Now, both cancers wereneutralized and in remission,
eliminated his arthritis andstabilized his blood sugar.
And when I started gettingresults from this, I realized,
hey, there's something to it.
So Pierre has done quite a bitof work, and he's um he is
(18:34):
logging and has a mill as well.
And Pierre was telling me, andso I've been trying to find more
research, but he was saying thatevery single tree that they log
that has chaga on it, the centercore is rotten.
Well, essentially what it is isthe mycelium, as I just said, is
(18:54):
actually spread through theentire tree.
So we're finding that uh themycelium will actually spread,
it's not localized, butspreading through the entire
tree, and you get yourbreakouts.
And we only harvest off birchbecause of the, as I mentioned,
the chiterpenes.
Um I'm finding that if the treehas been scored or, for example,
a branch breaks off, then thechagas are coming out or
(19:19):
breaking out on those locations.
It's kind of like if you've seenany of those uh people that grow
mushrooms in bags, now what theydo is they they put a growth
media in, a lot of times it'ssawdust of some sort, or straw,
into a bag, and then they'll uhput mycelium in the bag.
(19:40):
And what happens is the myceliumspreads through the entire bag,
and once the entire bag, and youcan see it growing through the
entire bag, is basicallysupersaturated with mycelium,
they make a slit in the bag, andthen the fruiting body or the
mushrooms come out there.
It doesn't work with Chag.
We've tried it with Birch Bark,I've tried a number of different
(20:01):
things, but we're working on it,and we'll see if we can crack
this nut and see if we can movefarther.
SPEAKER_07 (20:13):
Hi everybody, I'm Angelo Viola.
And I'm Pete Bowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
That's right.
Every Thursday, Ang and I willbe right here in your ears,
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Hmm.
Now, what are we gonna talkabout for two hours every week?
Well, you know there's gonna bea lot of fishing.
SPEAKER_09 (20:34):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
SPEAKER_07 (20:39):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors.
SPEAKER_04 (20:45):
From athletes, all the other guys would go golfing,
me and Garcie and Turk, and allthe Russians would go fishing.
SPEAKER_09 (20:53):
And now that we're looking for scene or anything,
it's the perfect transmissionenvironment for my face.
SPEAKER_08 (20:59):
Chefs, if any game isn't cooked properly, they're
needed before you will taste it.
SPEAKER_07 (21:05):
And whoever else would pick up the phone.
Wherever you are, OutdoorJournal Radio seeks to answer
the questions and tell thestories of all those who enjoy
being outside.
Find us on Spotify, ApplePodcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
SPEAKER_01 (21:24):
And now it's time for another testimonial for
Chaga Health and Wellness.
Hi, it's Jerry from Chaga Healthand Wellness.
We're here in Lindsay with Tula,who is actually from Finland and
uses Chaga.
Tula, you've had some goodexperiences with Chaga.
Can you just tell us what thatexperience is?
SPEAKER_00 (21:44):
Yes, I got sick with Fibra, and uh one weekend my
husband came here alone.
I was home.
And uh he brought your um yourleaflet.
SPEAKER_01 (21:54):
Ready?
SPEAKER_00 (21:55):
And I read it, and I said, next weekend when we go to
the market, we're gonna buysome.
And so we started putting it inour morning smoothie.
SPEAKER_01 (22:04):
Ready?
SPEAKER_00 (22:04):
And um the things that I was doing because of the
chakra has been tested.
SPEAKER_01 (22:15):
Ready?
SPEAKER_00 (22:15):
I wouldn't want to live with a blood pressure.
Yeah, so it's been working forme.
SPEAKER_01 (22:20):
Very good.
And you had uh some good luckwith blood pressure as well.
SPEAKER_00 (22:26):
Yeah, thanks for remembering that that's uh Yeah,
I had a little bit of highelevated blood pressure, and
within two weeks of studyingthat every day, every money, uh
eventual.
SPEAKER_01 (22:41):
And you think the chaga was the reason why?
SPEAKER_00 (22:43):
Well, I didn't do anything else in that time.
SPEAKER_01 (22:48):
And so how much jaga did you have and how did you
have it?
SPEAKER_00 (22:51):
Well, we just put that powder in the smoothie and
uh it's about tablespoon.
Yep.
No, it's less than tablespoon.
Teaspoon.
Yeah.
So you don't need that much.
SPEAKER_01 (23:04):
Right.
About a teaspoon, yeah.
Very good.
Well, thanks very much forsharing that.
We really appreciate that.
And wish you all the best withthe janga.
Oh, you're from Finland as well.
And janga's pretty popular inFinland, is it not?
SPEAKER_00 (23:16):
I think it's because it's a professor at the
university.
Teaching it and talking aboutit, and of course it's speaking.
SPEAKER_01 (23:28):
Ready?
SPEAKER_00 (23:30):
You're not a northern police.
And of course Finland has lotsof ready.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
Everything else, but not Chaga.
Oh, very good.
Well, thanks very much forsharing that.
Okay, have a great day.
We interrupt this program tobring you a special offer from
Chaga Health and Wellness.
(24:06):
If you've listened this far andyou're still wondering about
this strange mushroom that Ikeep talking about, and whether
you would benefit from it ornot, I may have something of
interest to you.
To thank you for listening tothe show, I'm going to make
trying Chaga that much easier bygiving you a dollar off all our
Chaga products at checkout.
(24:28):
All you have to do is head overto our website, Chaga Health and
Wellness.com, place a few itemsin the cart, and check out with
the code CANopy, C-A-N-O-P-Y.
If you're new to Chaga, I'dhighly recommend the regular
Chaga tea.
This comes with 15 tea bags perpackage, and each bag gives you
(24:48):
around five or six cups of tea.
Hey, thanks for listening.
Back to the episode.
You know, and talking aboutmycelium, I I just come in into
the recording studio here, andJoe's uh Joe's a techie guy.
So when I have problems, uh it'seither Dean or Joe I go to to
fix the problems.
Anyways, Joe says, he said, Didyou hear what Nassau is saying
(25:11):
about black holes?
I said, No.
He said, Well, they'reapparently that uh they're
looking at black holes andsaying it looks like exactly
like mycelium growing in blackholes in space.
Well, doesn't that open a newkettle of fish?
And I gotta tell you, I tried anumber of times to get NASA on
(25:32):
uh to do a podcast, but uh theydon't even so much as respond to
any of my emails or phone callsor anything.
But we'll keep trying and we'llsee if we can get some
interesting discussions fromNASA, uh North American Space
Agency, anyways.
And one of the things that Iwanted to ask them, which they
probably don't want to answer,is my understanding is that you
(25:53):
can't eliminate all the sporesthat go in, and then on the
space station, there's actuallymold from spores growing in the
space station.
Haven't verified it.
I wanted to ask them, but uhthat's what I've been told.
Can't verify to say it's true ornot, but I hear that.
And uh that's one thing you'llfind with me, is is uh I don't
if it's a rumor, I tell you it'sa rumor, and uh until it's
(26:13):
verified, it's a rumor, andright now the mold is a is a
rumor issue.
And so if that's the actualcase, when we sent material to
the moon or to Mars, was therespore body in those units that
are there?
And are they driving aroundspreading spores on Mars and the
(26:36):
Moon?
Probably more so Mars ratherthan the moon.
But interesting concept andthought of some of the things
that may be happening that wecan't really you know control as
much as we can.
But anyways, those are some ofthe things.
So so yeah, so we're finding thethe mycelium is growing through
the entire tree.
(26:58):
So Chaga is uh, as I mentioned,uh a mushroom.
One in 10,000 birch trees, orI've seen some say one in 15 or
one in 20,000, which could bethe case.
I don't know as anybody'sactually done a study to verify
the number of trees, but I gottatell you, we look at thousands
of trees before we start findingthem.
And the interesting thing is,here's a little hint for those
(27:20):
looking for chaga.
If you look on the leeward sideof hills, and if there's
moisture like a creek, a swamp,a bog, some sort of moisture,
high moisture content in anarea, seems to be some of the
areas that they prefer.
And we find a higher percentageof our chaggas on those areas.
The leeward side of the hill andin bogs, uh moisture, moist
(27:41):
areas seems to be prettyprevalent.
So in all the thousands oftrees, yeah.
If this was if you look at ahundred acres, uh just to use
that as a size, where we look atthousands of acres where we're
looking, if all of a sudden youfind one tree in one acre, you
might find a half a dozen oreight or ten or twelve uh trees
in that one acre plot andnothing in the other 99 acres.
(28:05):
So that's some of the things towatch out for.
I know I was uh we have a spiritwatch up at one of the places
where we do harvesting.
And um I put uh some of myfather's ashes up in the spirit
watch, and I walked down thetrail, which goes deep into the
bush.
It's not it's not even well, itmay have been a logging trail
40, 50 years ago, a skittertrail, uh, but uh you wouldn't
(28:28):
notice that now because of thegrowth is so high.
And I couldn't find any chaga atall, and I thought it was
absolutely perfect.
So I walked all the way down,didn't see a darn bit, and
probably walked oh maybe akilometer or two, and turn
around and come back, and allthe chaga was growing on the
other side of the trees.
And you didn't notice it whenyou're walking one way on the
(28:50):
trail.
But when I came back, lo andbehold, there it was.
So as I mentioned, uh FirstNations, uh I've been using it
for thousands of years.
I actually had an algonquin comein and he says, uh, oh, we
harvest we have this stuff andwe call it buckbuck, which was
new to me, and I pass on thatinformation and take from what
he said.
(29:10):
So a lot of those ones, uh thelocations that I mentioned,
whether it's uh next couple orcoming up uh starting in
sometime in November, I'll be uhdoing regular as much as I can
in Peterborough at the MorrowBuilding, which runs from seven
till one on Lansdowne.
And I have samples there, andpeople can come in and ask
questions and things like that,and you can find all the stuff.
(29:32):
But so the Chaga we initiallyjust started out with was just a
straight tea.
But we found that and what wetry to do is that make it as
easy as possible for people toincorporate in their daily
routine.
And so what I mean by that isthat uh some people is like, you
know, oh well, the taste is soso.
Well, I asked, are you a coffeedrinker or a tea drinker?
(29:53):
And of course, a lot of peopleare coffee drinkers.
And I said, Okay, how do youmake your coffee at home?
What do you mean?
Uh cream and sugar.
I said, No, no, no.
What process do you use to makeit?
So I show people who are, forexample, using a percolator.
Now we have a line of chagacalled grinds, which is about
the ground down to about thesize of a peppercorn.
(30:14):
And I said, now I have a 12-cuppercolator at home.
And what I do is I put a spoon,a tablespoon in with my 12-cup
percolator and slow perk it inthere and get my chaga in my
coffee.
Now, one of the things aboutchaga is not only is it the
highest antioxidant producingmaterial of anything out there,
100 grams of blueberries onaverage produce about 385, or
(30:38):
sorry, 100 grams of blueberriesproduce 2,450 units of
antioxidants, where 100 grams ofchaga, depending on the
extraction type, produce about385,000 units of antioxidants.
So we hear about antioxidants,but a lot of people really don't
know what they do or what theirpurpose is.
(30:59):
So I'll try to put it in termsof easy understanding.
So essentially when we doanything, we're we're talking,
we're moving our hands, we'reexercising, we're burning
molecules.
A lot of the times you don'tburn the complete molecule.
So those unburnt portions ofmolecules will be classified as
free radicals.
And you can get free radicalsthrough the air we breathe, the
(31:20):
food, absorb it through yourskin, a lot of different ways.
And free radicals essentiallyjoin with other molecules, and
what they essentially do isstart to break down your system.
Antioxidants essentially consumeor pair with free radicals and
stop your systems from breakingdown in the first place.
So people use chaga because ofthe antioxidant level to stop
(31:43):
your systems from breaking downin the first place.
Not only that, but uh thethere's a huge component of
anti-inflammatory material init.
Now, June of 2024, I I follow alot of the uh sites, um the
posting sites where um researchstudies get posted, whether it's
called PubMed, P-U-B-M-E-D, orScience Direct, is two of the
(32:08):
sites that I checked.
And there was about a half adozen articles come out that
were indicating thatoverabundance of inflammation
happens to be locations wherecancers appear to be starting
out.
So they're looking at thepotential from what I gathered
from that.
And remember, I'm not a doctor,can't give medical advice, is
(32:30):
that overabundance ofinflammation can potentially
lead to results of uh allowingcancer to take hold in bodies
and spread from there.
And if you look those up, like Isaid, Science Direct and PubMed,
you can see uh inflammation andcancer, and you'll see some of
those articles posted there.
So the um the Chaga itself, as Isaid, you know, it uh grows
(32:54):
about half an inch a year onaverage, and so long as you
leave some on the tree, it'llcontinue to grow.
And I I see a lot of of I do alot of like I look at uh
websites, not only websites, butalso YouTube stuff, and there's
a lot of stuff out there.
I saw one where a guy says, hesays, Oh, chaga only grows on
(33:14):
birch trees, and if you thinkit's chaga on another tree, it's
not, and you don't have to worryabout it.
Well, that's not true.
So this guy doesn't know whathe's talking about.
And then I saw another one thatsaid, oh, it has to be minus 20
for three days before you canharvest harvest it.
Well, that's not true either.
Because I got to tell you, everyone of the powwows that we've
been to, every one of the shamanof the medicine people at those
(33:37):
powwows all harvest it all yearlong.
Now, what I find is thepotential and the reason that
they harvest chaga at certaintimes of the year is that the
moisture content of chaga ishigher when the sap is in the
tree.
So we always harvest ours whenthe sap is out of the tree, or
(33:59):
try to anyways, in order tobecause when the moisture
content is high, the chance forsecondary mold growth is
extremely high.
And so, especially if you'regoing to harvest your own, first
of all, don't put it in plasticbags.
It needs to be a bag thatbreathes.
So we use canvas or even oldleaf bags, for example, paper
(34:20):
will breathe that allows some ofthe uh air to go back and forth
and start to dry it right away.
It'll lose anywhere from 40 to55 percent or even up to 60
percent of its body weight.
But those harvesting it on theirown, if you chunk it up, then um
about walnut-sized pieces within24 hours of taking it off the
tree.
Um you can use it a lot betterafterwards once it's cured.
(34:44):
Um, you need to take all theimpurities like the birch bark
off it and things like that.
And uh and I'll give you anotherpiece of advice is take a
polyester brush.
Don't use a metal brush becauseI've seen metal filings and some
of the stuff that people wereusing to clean the chaga with
from uh a wire brush.
But use a polyester brush andjust clean it with that, and
(35:06):
you'll get rid of all the spiderwebs and the uh the any of the
little bugs that might be inthere and things like that.
It brushes out really nice, andyou can brush them pretty hard.
You might get some of the littlethe dark exterior, which is a
natural protective coatingcoming off at that time, but it
um it cleans it up pretty good.
So, anyway, so back to where Iwas started on this dangion was
(35:30):
uh percolator, uh tablespoon ofthe grinds, put it in with that,
and slow perk it.
I perk it for a little, I put alittle bit less coffee than I
normally would in.
I slow perk it for a longerperiod of time because the
larger the pieces are of chaga,the longer they have to be
exposed to water to get thebenefit out of it.
So that's one of the easiestways with a percolator is slow
(35:52):
perk it for a longer period oftime, and you'll get it in your
coffee.
Now remember, chaga is alkaline.
Coffee's acidic, and itneutralizes a lot of the acid in
coffee and mellows it out verynicely.
So that's one way, and I havepeople who have a French press.
Well, you can do a couple ofthings.
You can either do uh some of thethings the same with uh a uh
(36:14):
people that use uh acoffee-making machine that has a
reservoir, one of two things.
Right now I have a machine athome that I actually put a bag,
because uh all our chaga comesin basically tea bags or coffee
bags, and put that in thereservoir, and so long as the
reservoir is changing color, I'mgetting the chaga benefit in my
coffee.
(36:34):
And to be perfectly honest, oneof the machines that we have, I
put this um, we call it MorningGlory, which is a really special
blend.
And for those that haven't triedit, I've been trying to come up
with a coffee substitute foryears because it what happens is
every time I put a new line onmy website, all my competitors
within a couple of weeks do thesame thing.
(36:55):
So I had a Chaga coffee, whichwas essentially organic coffee
and Chaga mixed with the grindstogether.
But I try to tell people, look,just buy the grinds and mix it
with your own coffee, you'll getmore of it.
And then within a couple weeks,all of a sudden everybody was
selling mushroom coffee.
And I'm like, all right, what ismushroom coffee?
What does that mean?
And nobody can give me ananswer.
(37:16):
So we came up with one that uhessentially is a coffee
substitute, although I'm gonnauh have a new line.
And a lot of the questions thatpeople have about Chaga is
there's no caffeine in it.
And the coffee substitute thatwe have has no caffeine.
It should be posted, it's calledMorning Glory within um the next
couple of weeks.
I had some difficulty ensuring astable quality supply line.
(37:40):
Of course, we supply all thechaga, but the other materials
mixed with it.
Um I need to make sure I can getgood quality supply lines that I
are dependable, and I haven'tbeen able to yet, so I've been
working on that, and I thinkI've got that uh taken care of.
But anyway, so I put that in myreservoir, and I get it directly
(38:00):
in my coffee, and you don't evennotice it, it doesn't change the
taste of coffee, although itmellows it out, takes the
acidity away, and smooths it outvery nicely.
So and the other thing you cando is people who use a French
press, for example, or they havea drip filter.
We have um you can either make abatch of tea, just a regular
chalk tea, and use that as yourwater to make your coffee with,
(38:21):
and you'll get it in your coffeethat way.
Or in a French press, we have apowder that uh people pull with
their coffee and then put it in.
Remember, the larger the piecesare, the longer they have to be
exposed to water to extract thebenefit.
And the powder has the largestbearing surface, which means it
requires the least amount oftime in order to get the benefit
inside your coffee because thepowder is is so fine, so it's
(38:45):
easier to extract it from there.
Then I get a lot of people.
I used to have Dr.
Couture, who uh retired andmoved back to New Brunswick.
Dr.
Couture used to uh promote thepowder, and people just put it
in their coffee and got it inthat way.
It doesn't dissolve, at leastour product doesn't.
And and it's fine to consume aswell, so long as you, according
to Health Canada, not more than3.6 grams per day, I believe, is
(39:10):
the uh Health Canada one.
But there's so many detailsabout it.
Now, some of the nude lines.
So we've got the regular chaga,a chaga chai blend, a chaga
apple cinnamon, a chaga greentea blend, uh, the powder, the
grinds, um, plus uh a couple ofother specialty ones that uh the
(39:30):
the cream, we have huge successwith a topical application that
I invented where we have chagain it, and people use it for
with huge success for eczema,psoriasis, rashes, uh bug bites,
burns, and a number of othertopical applications as well.
But so I have some new linescoming out, and yesterday it
(39:53):
just so happened that uh I haduh people test a chaga mint
line, and it seems to be goingover spectacular, which means
that within the next few weekswe'll have a chaga mint, which
uh I gotta figure out all thedetails.
It's not just a matter of thoughI got the I got the supply lined
up, so there's no problem withsupply.
(40:14):
Good quality mint that uh is uhreliable, no problems there.
But uh, how much mint do you mixwith how much chaga?
And how many cups does itproduce?
And how long is the shelf lifeand all that kind of stuff?
So those are some of the detailsthat we work out with uh with
new lines is coming up.
Now, another new line that we'reworking on, and if anybody
(40:37):
listening can tell me or send mea note on this, but I think it's
called yerba mate.
Uh Josh, my son, says thatthere's this new move with yerba
mate that uh people are movingto.
It's caffeinated, so it's acoffee substitute with caffeine
if that's what people arelooking for for their caffeine
fix.
But I'm looking at I have somesamples of that, but I have not
(40:59):
tried anything with it yet.
But we may be coming out with ayurba mate chaga line as well.
And same thing there, you know,I got the supplier short up, so
there's not a problem withsupply with it so far.
And but how much uh yurba matedo you put in, how much chaga do
you put in, and all the rest ofit, and those are the details
(41:20):
that we're working out.
So those are some of the the uhthe new lines that we're looking
at.
But there's always a lot ofquestions, and people ask, well,
if you're looking at uh YouTubeand things that are not coming
through, uh, what are some ofthe places where we can find
some good information?
So uh one of the ones, and Ihand out information all the
(41:43):
time.
So there's there's uh uhsomething called uh global
healing.
And uh Dr.
Edward Group wrote a goodarticle that I give out.
And he goes into the uh details,and you can just look that up.
But watch out with thatparticular site.
If you if you email them, you'regonna get uh two, three
inquiries a day about buy this,buy that, and usual stuff.
(42:06):
But uh global healing, ChaggaMushroom, the immune-boosting
superfood is the article thatcame out with it.
And it talks about how itsupports the uh the immune
system, about the uh soothing uhproperties, uh, about the uh
supports the integrity of bloodvessels, providing soothing
properties in times ofirritation.
(42:26):
And those suffering from uhneuropathy and even diabetes, he
goes to talks about in thisarticle here.
And you've heard some of thetestimonials.
I know Bill um was uh having uhblood pressure issues.
So in it in this article alsotalks about uh ulcers and
gastritis, uh normalizing bloodpressure and cholesterol levels,
(42:48):
antimicrobial activity, DNAdamage protection, antiviral
properties of chag as well.
And it talks about thepolysaccharides, the
beta-glutins, the the uh the umantioxidants level there and
other things, and then it givescomparisons.
Now, another good article tolook up that deals with uh chaga
(43:12):
is uh it's by the Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center.
And if you were to do uh a um asearch, an online search of best
cancer centers in the world,this one I always found was
listed as one of the top five.
And it goes into details ontheir research.
And in this actual study theydid has been cited by a number
(43:36):
of different articles.
And each one of these, so ittalks about purported uses to
prevent and treat cancer.
And the same thing, if you go onMemorial Sloan Carrying Cancer
Center, uh look up ChegaMushroom, uh the cinder conch,
birch conch, clinker polypore,or some of the other names that
it has listed for it.
It talks about to prevent andtreat cancer.
(43:56):
Um, but all these onesspecifically say that uh studies
in humans are needed, and ittalks about to stimulate the
immune system, to reduceinflammation, uh to protect the
liver as well.
And it talks and if you look atthat, um it has a lot of good
(44:17):
sources of other articles thatyou can look up.
And that's what I do is is whenI was minister of natural
resources, you you quickly learnbefore you even read an article,
I look at the reference materialused to write the article to
determine the validity of it.
And the ones that I'm mentioninghere were very well researched.
(44:37):
So that was one.
So that was uh Dr.
Group, G-R-O-U-P from GlobalHealing, Chaga Mushroom, the
Immune Boosting Superfood.
And it gives comparisons andtalks about a bunch of stuff, as
well as Memorial Sloan KetteringCancer Center, and it's the
Chaga Mushroom.
Now, here's another one here outof Vitality Magazine from uh Dr.
(44:59):
Ralph Moss, cancer, uh Chaga andCancer Research, folklore
medicine.
And it talks about the detailsin there and some of the stuff
in here, it's it's kind ofinteresting.
It says uh on the in the secondpage, uh third paragraph, in
2015 experiment, the anti-cancercompounds were extracted from
chaga powder three times withwater at 60 degrees Celsius,
(45:22):
i.e.
140 degrees Fahrenheit.
And um this is an important leadto anyone thinking of making
their own chaga tea for 140Fahrenheit is hot, but not
boiling.
It is a good rule when preparingchaga tea to extract the
beneficial chemicals, chemicals,without damaging or degrading
(45:42):
them, as boiling water might do.
And the reason it says might,quite frankly, is because a lot
of the articles that uh theresearch studies that I have
from around the world, theirextraction of chaga and the
material and the benefits fromit were at boiling point.
So, and like a lot of stuff,there still needs to be more
(46:03):
research.
And I try to find out as much asI can, but uh uh Dr.
Ralph Moss's uh Vitalitymagazine, Chaga and Cancer
article is a good one as well.
And it has quite a few differentuh references on there which uh
refer, you can look up thereferences as well and see
those.
(46:23):
As I mentioned, you'll find alot of those on PubMed or
Science Direct, or you can justgo on PubMed and Science Direct
and look up Chaga and Cancer.
Now, another one that I usuallygive out, and what I do is
because as I mentioned, I havestudies from all kinds of stuff,
whether it's Crohn's and colitisor different types of cancer.
I met a woman in Coburg who hada her medical doctor got her
(46:46):
some Chaga as a friend oftheirs, and she cured her
ovarian cancer with it,according to her and her doctor.
Uh, and there's studies on thatto focus on that.
But here's another one.
It's called from Brunswick Labs.
And I'm not sure that this oneis still available, but I
happened to save it before, andI tried to find it to when COVID
came in afterwards and couldn'ttrack it down.
(47:08):
And it's done by another doctor,um, and his last name is spelled
Z-E-G-A-R-A-C, and it's magicalmushroom chaga, functional
components, and biologicalactivity.
And it's a great area.
Another article that talks aboutthe antioxidant components about
it, the anti-inflammatory, theimmunology effects as well, and
(47:33):
the anti-cancer effects.
Now, Chaga is um it works as anit works with the immune system
in that uh it's a it's amodifier, as they say.
And natural modifiers are hardto find.
And what that does essentiallyis if your immune system isn't
(47:54):
active enough, it stimulates itto get going.
But if it's overactive, it'llbring it down.
So and the Brunswick lab uhstudy talks about the
polysaccharides that uh um workwith the immune system.
And so it works as animmunomodule modifier,
immunomodifier.
So it helps with the immunesystem in a number of different
(48:16):
ways, and those are some of thebenefits.
So I think I've answered most ofthe questions that come up.
No caffeine, alkaline, one in10,000, uh First Nations,
popular around the world, growsin northern cold climates, and
uh the wide range of uses.
Uh I mentioned uh some of thearticles and what they're they
(48:37):
talk about, whether it's youknow the cancer, arthritis,
diabetes, uh, blood pressure,and even uh I see some stuff
regarding MS.
And I think the uh theanti-inflammatory components of
it may be.
But remember, I'm not a doctor,can't give medical advice.
I am a primary researcher, whichmeans I go out and I find
research all around the worldand then try to bring together
(48:59):
as much research to support eachother's uh specific statements.
Well, I think I've given you apretty good update on Chaga and
what's happening there.
If you come and see us, I'm morethan happy to.
If you want to get in touch withus, you can.
Or you can check out ourproducts at uh Chaga Health and
Wellness at gmail.com.
(49:20):
Or you can uh check out uhChagan Health and Wellness.com.
And uh you can see our websitethere, and and a lot of these uh
details I've given you wereactual studies that have been
around, and those are the onesthat I hand out.
But all we're doing is givingyou an update and other stuff,
and quite frankly, in the nextcouple of weeks, I'm heading to
(49:42):
my Chagga camp to start pickingChaga for the for for our
up-and-coming seasons, andhopefully uh we have a good
harvest.
I don't go back into the sameareas for basically over about a
10-year period, and then we'llstart looking back at the same
spots.
And we always leave some on thetree to make sure that it
continues to grow, although ourindications are that the
(50:04):
mycelium or roots of it aregrowing through the whole tree.
So, but so long as we take careof uh nature, it'll continue to
take care of uh us.
And these things have been outthere for the longest time in
thousands of years and beingutilized as such.
Actually, what's his name?
Otsi.
It was the um the hunter thatthey found frozen in the Alps
(50:26):
that had a pouch.
And in his pouch, he had anothermedicinal mushroom called birch
polypore.
And birch polypore, actually, Ihad a mycologist on that uh used
birch polypore to uh as uh whenhe cut himself shaving, he he
put a little bit of birchpolypore powder on it and
stopped the bleeding right away.
(50:47):
So there's a lot of differentones.
Chaga would be the number onemedicinal mushroom in the world,
rishi would be number two.
After that, then there's itcould be turkey tail, it could
be gnocchi, it could be, itcould be cordyceps, it could be
birch polypore, it could belion's mane, it could be a lot
of different ones, mataki,shiitakis that have medicinal
(51:08):
properties as well.
But uh most of the mushroomexperts uh out there well agree
that uh Chaga is the number onemedicinal mushroom, and that's
what we take do out there iswork with Chaga.
Just uh an update on what'shappening with Chaga and what's
happening out there, out thereunder the canopy.
Thanks for listening.
(51:29):
You got any?
Ask them questions, that is.
You want to hear anything?
Let me know, and we'll see if wecan come up with a show for you.
Thanks.
Thanks for listening.
Bye for now.
SPEAKER_05 (52:15):
But this podcast will be more than that.
Every week on Diaries of a LodgeOwner, I'm going to introduce
you to a ton of great people.
Share their stories of ourtrials, tribulations, and
inspirations.
Learn and have plenty of laughsalong the way.
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Figure out how to get you back.
And we decided we're going to beefficient.
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My hands get sore a little bit when I'm running in a
little bit.
Back in 2016, Frank and I had a vision to amass the
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material anywhere in the world.
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SPEAKER_01 (01:11):
As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons
of our natural world becomeharder and harder to hear, but
they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Oulette, and I washonored to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
(01:34):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced to thebirch-hungry fungus known as
Chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal
applications used by indigenouspeoples all over the globe.
After nearly a decade ofharvest, use, testimonials, and
(01:56):
research, my skepticism hasfaded to obsession.
And I now spend my lifededicated to improving the lives
of others through natural means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of this strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.
(02:17):
On Outdoor Journal Radio's Underthe Canopy Podcast, I'm going to
take you along with me to seethe places, meet the people that
will help you find your outdoorpassion and help you live a life
close to nature and under thecanopy.
So join me today for anothergreat episode, and hopefully, we
(02:37):
can inspire a few more people tolive their lives under the
canopy.
Well, as we say, Guten Morgen,Vigates.
I happen to meet some Germantourists, and I spoke a little
(02:57):
bit of German to them, just kindof give them a can uh just uh a
hello, how are you?
And as good morning, how arethings sort of uh uh greeting?
Um once upon a time, I used tobe able to do pleasantries in 13
languages.
But it's like a lot of stuff,you don't use it, uh you lose
it, and I can still say quite afew, so uh there's quite a few.
(03:18):
And anyways, these Germantourists were in talking to me
about Chaga, which is what we'regonna talk about today.
But before we get to that, justsome updates, uh as always.
You know, you got them, askthem.
Yeah, you know, you want to hearsomething about something, let
us know.
We can see what we can do.
And we very much, as always,appreciate all our listeners all
around the world, andespecially, of course, Canada
(03:41):
and Switzerland and Trinidad,Tobago, Ghana.
I mentioned about Dr.
Nick and his hospital in Ghana,and actually uh there were some
students that a friend of mine,uh Elaine, is uh who made
acquaintances and has friendsgoing to school.
I think it's a horticulturalcourses that uh Elaine's taking
(04:02):
up at the local college and metsome people from Ghana and
became very acquainted and quitesurprised, I guess, my podcast
came into the conversationbecause we rank so high in
Ghana.
But we really appreciate that.
And as always, you know, it'sthat time of year.
The colors are changing, andactually they're quite a bit
early.
And what we're seeing now iswhat I normally see about
(04:23):
Thanksgiving weekends, so I'mseeing them now out there, and I
think it's been exceptionallydry, which has added to the
color change that much earlier,although I haven't seen any
specific research that indicatesas to what the causes for color
change potentially are.
But colors are changing.
We're out there.
I'm I'm abusing myself as usualuh in such a way I'm out
(04:44):
cutting, splitting, haulingwood, you know, helping out uh
my sons with uh a lot of thewood stuff and myself.
And right now I've got a a wristbrace and a knee brace on.
Well, the knee brace wasactually from a fall, and what
happens there is it uh the thejoint falls out of place a bit,
so I got it put back in by Dr.
(05:05):
O, he's a chiropractor, greatguy, does uh marvelous work.
And actually, this chiropractor,I have to tell you my son, our
son uh Josh, Diana and I's sonJosh, he's our oldest, he had
scoliosis for five years and wasin to see a specialist on a
regular basis.
Do this, do that, do this, trythis, try that.
Nothing seemed to pan out forhim.
(05:27):
So where my wife used to be, sheused to be the the manager at a
a store until COVID came in andclosed all the stores Canada
wide and lost her job worse thanthan that would be lost her uh
uh anyways, her pension, whichhas a huge impact.
So we didn't lose it, it justdoesn't come to full tuition, so
(05:50):
it's very, very minimal asopposed to what it should have
been had she gone full term.
But anyways, she's in there andshe'd hired a person from a
graduating student from thelocal college.
And they were in talking andtalking about uh she happened to
mention about her sister havingscoliosis and a chiropractor
(06:11):
fixed it.
And I said, What?
Really?
Well, I just happen to know achiropractor that I would take
my son to.
So I made an appointment, andyou remember he'd been dealing
with this for five years.
So we go into the chiropractor,he looks, he checks him out, and
I'm not a chiropractor, I'm nota doctor, can't give medical
advice.
But the chiropractor looks andsays, Well, part of the problem
(06:34):
is is kind of your spine'scaught up on the on your hip
where it goes through, and oneof the vertebrae is caught it,
and that's what the problem is.
And in one visit, fixed hisscoliosis.
For those that don't know whatscoliosis is, it's curvature of
the spine.
So Josh was absolutely uhperfect after that.
No issues, no problems, nocurvature of the spine, no uh
(06:57):
difficulties.
And a year later, Josh says, hesays, Dad, dad, uh, we need to
go to the chiropractor.
I said, Why?
Is it bothering you again?
What's the problem?
He said, No, no, I just gottacheck to make sure everything's
okay.
I said, Okay.
So we go in to see Dr.
O, and he looks at him, he says,Nope, everything's fine here.
You know, you don't have anyproblems now.
Everything's the way it shouldbe.
I said, Oh, well, what do I oweyou?
He said, Well, I didn't do anywork, so you don't owe me
(07:18):
anything.
Which is something you don'treally hear a lot of, but uh we
really appreciate that.
And the same thing with uh nowhe tells me that he he read a
study that showed that 91%,don't ask me why they said 91%,
but 91% of individuals dealingwith carpal tunnel is a small
bone in the wrists that fallsout of place and puts pressure
(07:43):
on that tendon where it goesthrough the carpal and it's
perceived as carpal tunnel, andhe puts that bone back in.
And for me, it works wonders.
So I know when I can't sleep atnight when I'm abusing myself,
just like I am now, was uh twodays ago, and I will be on
Friday and on the weekend again,cutting, splitting, hauling
wood.
And of course I'm running thesaw and splitting and hauling it
(08:06):
and cutting it with a largemaul, which we call Das Clumpit.
It's about a, I don't know, itseems like a 10-pound splitting
maul.
But uh by the time you end updoing that and all the work and
going through the bush andtwisting and turning, I need to
go back and see Dr.
Rowe again and put me back inplace, which he will.
And the other thing he does,which is kind of surprising, is
(08:28):
he actually he checks somethingand I can tell I get this pain.
It's on my right arm near thetop, about three inches down
from the top where the the topof the shoulder where it
connects in.
And he looks and and sureenough, a rib has come out of
place.
And the last time I was in,which was a week and a half ago,
(08:51):
he says, Jerry, I can almostgrab this rib, it's sticking out
so much.
And he puts it back in place,and lo and behold, the pain goes
away almost instantly, likewithin I would say a minute,
it's normalized.
Not only that, but uh mybreathing starts to ease up as
well because it takes thepressure off what's happening as
the rib's out of place on mylungs.
So it worked really good and Ireally appreciate it.
(09:14):
But yeah, so I'm back to normal,but I'm wearing a knee brace
because my my knee is out of uhlike if you make two fists and
join your hands together at theknuckles, you'll see where it
kind of meshes together.
However, if you slide one handanother way, the they're kind of
out of line, and that's whatkind of happens with the knee
(09:36):
when it's not lined up.
And Dr.
O puts it back in place for meand takes away.
Otherwise, uh I'm walking alongand all of a sudden my knee
buckles on me, and that'sbecause it's out of place.
So, uh, I got a uh a wrist guardon and a knee guard on until I
can get in next week to see him.
But those are the things we do.
And I don't know, I just to behonest, I love being in the
bush, love working and cuttingand hauling wood.
(09:59):
But as I mentioned, it's falltime.
The colors are out.
We're winding down in the the uhthe locations and the events
that uh Chaga markets that I do.
And I'm still be doing Tuesday.
Uh there's two more Tuesdays inHalliburton.
You want to come up and see me,or in Lindsay.
Uh there's uh markets onThursdays, two more in in
(10:20):
Lindsay as well.
And I have always Chaga samplesso people can taste it and ask
questions.
And the market's on uhHalliburton, right downtown,
right by uh right on thewaterfront there.
There's a park there inHalliburton, and I provide
samples and I answer all kindsof questions as best I can.
Um there's a lot of stuff.
(10:42):
We get a lot of people coming inwith some knowledge about chaga.
Uh first thing is is it Chaga,Chaga, Chaga?
And I said, well, either way,uh, you know, if you talk to my
German friend Roland, it'sChaga.
Uh if you talk to my mother,it's Chaga.
But I usually say Chaga.
Either way, it's all the same.
But uh Tuesdays uh 10 to 2, uhnext couple of ones.
(11:05):
It ends the Tuesday just beforeThanksgiving in Canada.
And Thursdays 10 till 3 inWilson Fields and Lindsay.
I'm there as well with samples.
And that ends the Thursdaybefore Thanksgiving weekend in
Canada.
And you can come up and and askquestions or taste samples uh
because I've always got it.
(11:25):
And I'm gonna get into some ofthe new lines and things like
that.
And I'll do a rundown on Chagaagain because a lot of people uh
don't really know um detailsabout it.
It's still people they hearabout it, but uh well I know a
little bit, but I don't know allabout it.
So you can come and taste it andsee some of the test ones that
(11:46):
we have.
You know, I thought uh I'd giveuh an update on chaga.
Now, first of all, what ischaga?
Chaga is a um a rare mushroom,it's uh falls in the conch
family, but uh people call it amushroom, and in order to
classify as a mushroom, and thatwhole mushroom kingdom is is
changing completely on a regularbasis.
(12:06):
Some of the names are changing.
Uh so chaga is in Autanusobliquus and is a Latin name.
And so long as it has ummycelium, and that's so we'll
compare it to a an apple tree,say.
So an apple tree has roots.
The roots of a fungus would bethe mycelium.
(12:28):
And the mycelium is what thatfungus uses to extract the
material that it's connected to.
And chaga is a tree fungus thatgrows on a number of different
trees, uh birch, uh, ironwood,poplar, and some others as well.
But we only harvest off birchbecause that's where all the
medicinal studies are that I seeout there.
(12:48):
It it extracts certain thingsfrom the birch bark being
triterpenes, betulin, andbetulinic acid out of the bark
and converts it into things thatare beneficial.
So you've got the mycelium thatuh basically runs in the tree,
it's the roots, same as theapple tree.
And then in apples, the fruitingbody is the apple itself.
Now we had the apple experts on,and apples are actually uh the
(13:13):
fruiting body is an extension ofthe stem in order to protect the
seeds.
So, and the fruiting body of amushroom.
Now, if you take uh like thewhite button mushrooms that you
normally get in the grocerystore, that would be the
fruiting body of a fungus.
Okay?
And then you have your chaga aswell.
And then you have how itspreads.
Now, apples use apple seeds tospread to grow new apples, where
(13:35):
mushrooms or fungus, their theirfruiting bodies actually spread
by spores.
And so long as it has mycelium,a fruiting body, and spores, it
basically falls into a mushroomcategory.
But I'm sure there's lots ofmycologists that would challenge
me, and all I'm doing is tryingto give a best understanding for
those people who don't reallyunderstand and know mushrooms
(13:56):
that well, how to compare andwhat to look at.
But chaga is a rare one.
It grows in northern coldclimates around the world, so it
grows in Ontario.
First nations have been using ituh for thousands of years.
And for those that don't know,uh my family has miti status
through my father and throughhis Mamer, as uh dad used to
(14:18):
say.
And it um First Nations havebeen using it for thousands of
years as uh medicinal tea.
So but one in ten thousand birchtrees will produce one.
Now you can find it in thenorthern states as well, and a
lot of the TV shows uh that dealwith um far north and remote
(14:39):
locations.
Uh I think Moose Meat andMarmalade had it on that show.
Uh there's that one, what is it,uh north of no, what is it, uh
Life Below Zero and stuff likethat, had it on that show.
There's quite a few TV showsthat are starting to show chaga
in it and the benefits of it.
(15:00):
So it's very popular and allthrough Canada, but it also
grows all around the world.
So uh Finland, Poland, Germany,all through Northern Asia as
well, it grows.
And uh actually I I met somepeople from Finland that uh
informed me that uh the thechaga is the only mushroom that
members of the EU are notallowed to pick in Finland
(15:22):
because it would completelydecimate the population.
Now you've got to rememberchaga.
It only grows about my researchand I've got uh well, I've got
about 3,000 hours, uh over athousand studies worldwide on
it.
Um and my indications, becauseI've got about three dozen test
trees as well.
I've tried to inoculate trees,and I monitor and look at growth
(15:43):
on trees, and I check to see howit comes back after it's been
harvested and all that kind ofstuff, because we do a
sustainable harvest, which meansit's going to be there for
future generations.
And once I get this inoculationthing down, I might be able to
inoculate trees, mind you.
Some of the foresters may notappreciate it.
Anyways, so uh it only growsabout, I find in the moist, damp
(16:04):
areas, about half an inch ayear.
But the high, dry areas, wherewe do find some, actually grows
about three-quarters of an incha year is what I'm finding with
my measurements when I'm doingmy testing and checking.
So it's it's interesting.
Now, we've had Pierre on um anumber of times, and he's up
from uh just west of Timmins.
(16:24):
And Pierre is the one thatintroduced me to Chaga in the
first place.
That's how I started.
He he kind of said uh after Iwas done with with uh the
political life and having servedas minister and other
portfolios, he asked me, Jerry,have you found anything yet?
I said, No, I'm so looking.
He said, Look into this chagastuff.
And and like most people, Isaid, What's that?
(16:45):
He said, If I told you youwouldn't believe me.
Well, he knows I'm a littleobsessive, compulsive.
So sure enough, I startedreading about it, and I can't
believe what I'm reading.
Yeah, right.
Cancer, arthritis, diabetes,blood pressure, even MS, snake
oil stuff.
So I collected it for a year anda half and gave it away to
(17:05):
friends.
Now, one of the friends I gaveit to was Bob.
Now, Bob had open brain surgery,open heart surgery, over a dozen
heart attacks.
I drove him to the hospitalduring one, was dealing with
stage four prostate cancer.
Gave it to Bob.
Bob, this is supposed to be goodfor you.
And Bob says, Jerry, every day Iget up is a good day, so I'll be
more than happy to try it.
So Bob tries it and goes in tosee his oncologist, and his
(17:28):
oncologist says, Uh, Bob, uh wewe don't understand what's
happening here.
Something's like, we don't knowhow this is possible, but it
appears that everything's normalnow.
And we don't know how that'spossible because we haven't
begun any therapy with yet.
And you'd have to meet Bob.
He just kind of looks and hesays, Oh, I wonder how that
(17:48):
happened.
Well, he goes in for his nextthree-month uh uh visit to find
out details.
And guess what?
Same results.
So tells the uh oncologist, youknow, I offered him.
I said, I'll give you as much asyou want for free to test on
patients if you want, but neverheard from them.
So and then Doug was anotherfriend of mine.
Now, Doug was dealing with twoforms of cancer, multiple
(18:11):
myeloma, which is a blood bonecancer, bladder cancer, had
arthritis and was diabetic.
Now, both cancers wereneutralized and in remission,
eliminated his arthritis andstabilized his blood sugar.
And when I started gettingresults from this, I realized,
hey, there's something to it.
So Pierre has done quite a bitof work, and he's um he is
(18:34):
logging and has a mill as well.
And Pierre was telling me, andso I've been trying to find more
research, but he was saying thatevery single tree that they log
that has chaga on it, the centercore is rotten.
Well, essentially what it is isthe mycelium, as I just said, is
(18:54):
actually spread through theentire tree.
So we're finding that uh themycelium will actually spread,
it's not localized, butspreading through the entire
tree, and you get yourbreakouts.
And we only harvest off birchbecause of the, as I mentioned,
the chiterpenes.
Um I'm finding that if the treehas been scored or, for example,
a branch breaks off, then thechagas are coming out or
(19:19):
breaking out on those locations.
It's kind of like if you've seenany of those uh people that grow
mushrooms in bags, now what theydo is they they put a growth
media in, a lot of times it'ssawdust of some sort, or straw,
into a bag, and then they'll uhput mycelium in the bag.
(19:40):
And what happens is the myceliumspreads through the entire bag,
and once the entire bag, and youcan see it growing through the
entire bag, is basicallysupersaturated with mycelium,
they make a slit in the bag, andthen the fruiting body or the
mushrooms come out there.
It doesn't work with Chag.
We've tried it with Birch Bark,I've tried a number of different
(20:01):
things, but we're working on it,and we'll see if we can crack
this nut and see if we can movefarther.
SPEAKER_07 (20:13):
Hi everybody, I'm Angelo Viola.
And I'm Pete Bowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
That's right.
Every Thursday, Ang and I willbe right here in your ears,
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Hmm.
Now, what are we gonna talkabout for two hours every week?
Well, you know there's gonna bea lot of fishing.
SPEAKER_09 (20:34):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
SPEAKER_07 (20:39):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors.
SPEAKER_04 (20:45):
From athletes, all the other guys would go golfing,
me and Garcie and Turk, and allthe Russians would go fishing.
SPEAKER_09 (20:53):
And now that we're looking for scene or anything,
it's the perfect transmissionenvironment for my face.
SPEAKER_08 (20:59):
Chefs, if any game isn't cooked properly, they're
needed before you will taste it.
SPEAKER_07 (21:05):
And whoever else would pick up the phone.
Wherever you are, OutdoorJournal Radio seeks to answer
the questions and tell thestories of all those who enjoy
being outside.
Find us on Spotify, ApplePodcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
SPEAKER_01 (21:24):
And now it's time for another testimonial for
Chaga Health and Wellness.
Hi, it's Jerry from Chaga Healthand Wellness.
We're here in Lindsay with Tula,who is actually from Finland and
uses Chaga.
Tula, you've had some goodexperiences with Chaga.
Can you just tell us what thatexperience is?
SPEAKER_00 (21:44):
Yes, I got sick with Fibra, and uh one weekend my
husband came here alone.
I was home.
And uh he brought your um yourleaflet.
SPEAKER_01 (21:54):
Ready?
SPEAKER_00 (21:55):
And I read it, and I said, next weekend when we go to
the market, we're gonna buysome.
And so we started putting it inour morning smoothie.
SPEAKER_01 (22:04):
Ready?
SPEAKER_00 (22:04):
And um the things that I was doing because of the
chakra has been tested.
SPEAKER_01 (22:15):
Ready?
SPEAKER_00 (22:15):
I wouldn't want to live with a blood pressure.
Yeah, so it's been working forme.
SPEAKER_01 (22:20):
Very good.
And you had uh some good luckwith blood pressure as well.
SPEAKER_00 (22:26):
Yeah, thanks for remembering that that's uh Yeah,
I had a little bit of highelevated blood pressure, and
within two weeks of studyingthat every day, every money, uh
eventual.
SPEAKER_01 (22:41):
And you think the chaga was the reason why?
SPEAKER_00 (22:43):
Well, I didn't do anything else in that time.
SPEAKER_01 (22:48):
And so how much jaga did you have and how did you
have it?
SPEAKER_00 (22:51):
Well, we just put that powder in the smoothie and
uh it's about tablespoon.
Yep.
No, it's less than tablespoon.
Teaspoon.
Yeah.
So you don't need that much.
SPEAKER_01 (23:04):
Right.
About a teaspoon, yeah.
Very good.
Well, thanks very much forsharing that.
We really appreciate that.
And wish you all the best withthe janga.
Oh, you're from Finland as well.
And janga's pretty popular inFinland, is it not?
SPEAKER_00 (23:16):
I think it's because it's a professor at the
university.
Teaching it and talking aboutit, and of course it's speaking.
SPEAKER_01 (23:28):
Ready?
SPEAKER_00 (23:30):
You're not a northern police.
And of course Finland has lotsof ready.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
Everything else, but not Chaga.
Oh, very good.
Well, thanks very much forsharing that.
Okay, have a great day.
We interrupt this program tobring you a special offer from
Chaga Health and Wellness.
(24:06):
If you've listened this far andyou're still wondering about
this strange mushroom that Ikeep talking about, and whether
you would benefit from it ornot, I may have something of
interest to you.
To thank you for listening tothe show, I'm going to make
trying Chaga that much easier bygiving you a dollar off all our
Chaga products at checkout.
(24:28):
All you have to do is head overto our website, Chaga Health and
Wellness.com, place a few itemsin the cart, and check out with
the code CANopy, C-A-N-O-P-Y.
If you're new to Chaga, I'dhighly recommend the regular
Chaga tea.
This comes with 15 tea bags perpackage, and each bag gives you
(24:48):
around five or six cups of tea.
Hey, thanks for listening.
Back to the episode.
You know, and talking aboutmycelium, I I just come in into
the recording studio here, andJoe's uh Joe's a techie guy.
So when I have problems, uh it'seither Dean or Joe I go to to
fix the problems.
Anyways, Joe says, he said, Didyou hear what Nassau is saying
(25:11):
about black holes?
I said, No.
He said, Well, they'reapparently that uh they're
looking at black holes andsaying it looks like exactly
like mycelium growing in blackholes in space.
Well, doesn't that open a newkettle of fish?
And I gotta tell you, I tried anumber of times to get NASA on
(25:32):
uh to do a podcast, but uh theydon't even so much as respond to
any of my emails or phone callsor anything.
But we'll keep trying and we'llsee if we can get some
interesting discussions fromNASA, uh North American Space
Agency, anyways.
And one of the things that Iwanted to ask them, which they
probably don't want to answer,is my understanding is that you
(25:53):
can't eliminate all the sporesthat go in, and then on the
space station, there's actuallymold from spores growing in the
space station.
Haven't verified it.
I wanted to ask them, but uhthat's what I've been told.
Can't verify to say it's true ornot, but I hear that.
And uh that's one thing you'llfind with me, is is uh I don't
if it's a rumor, I tell you it'sa rumor, and uh until it's
(26:13):
verified, it's a rumor, andright now the mold is a is a
rumor issue.
And so if that's the actualcase, when we sent material to
the moon or to Mars, was therespore body in those units that
are there?
And are they driving aroundspreading spores on Mars and the
(26:36):
Moon?
Probably more so Mars ratherthan the moon.
But interesting concept andthought of some of the things
that may be happening that wecan't really you know control as
much as we can.
But anyways, those are some ofthe things.
So so yeah, so we're finding thethe mycelium is growing through
the entire tree.
(26:58):
So Chaga is uh, as I mentioned,uh a mushroom.
One in 10,000 birch trees, orI've seen some say one in 15 or
one in 20,000, which could bethe case.
I don't know as anybody'sactually done a study to verify
the number of trees, but I gottatell you, we look at thousands
of trees before we start findingthem.
And the interesting thing is,here's a little hint for those
(27:20):
looking for chaga.
If you look on the leeward sideof hills, and if there's
moisture like a creek, a swamp,a bog, some sort of moisture,
high moisture content in anarea, seems to be some of the
areas that they prefer.
And we find a higher percentageof our chaggas on those areas.
The leeward side of the hill andin bogs, uh moisture, moist
(27:41):
areas seems to be prettyprevalent.
So in all the thousands oftrees, yeah.
If this was if you look at ahundred acres, uh just to use
that as a size, where we look atthousands of acres where we're
looking, if all of a sudden youfind one tree in one acre, you
might find a half a dozen oreight or ten or twelve uh trees
in that one acre plot andnothing in the other 99 acres.
(28:05):
So that's some of the things towatch out for.
I know I was uh we have a spiritwatch up at one of the places
where we do harvesting.
And um I put uh some of myfather's ashes up in the spirit
watch, and I walked down thetrail, which goes deep into the
bush.
It's not it's not even well, itmay have been a logging trail
40, 50 years ago, a skittertrail, uh, but uh you wouldn't
(28:28):
notice that now because of thegrowth is so high.
And I couldn't find any chaga atall, and I thought it was
absolutely perfect.
So I walked all the way down,didn't see a darn bit, and
probably walked oh maybe akilometer or two, and turn
around and come back, and allthe chaga was growing on the
other side of the trees.
And you didn't notice it whenyou're walking one way on the
(28:50):
trail.
But when I came back, lo andbehold, there it was.
So as I mentioned, uh FirstNations, uh I've been using it
for thousands of years.
I actually had an algonquin comein and he says, uh, oh, we
harvest we have this stuff andwe call it buckbuck, which was
new to me, and I pass on thatinformation and take from what
he said.
(29:10):
So a lot of those ones, uh thelocations that I mentioned,
whether it's uh next couple orcoming up uh starting in
sometime in November, I'll be uhdoing regular as much as I can
in Peterborough at the MorrowBuilding, which runs from seven
till one on Lansdowne.
And I have samples there, andpeople can come in and ask
questions and things like that,and you can find all the stuff.
(29:32):
But so the Chaga we initiallyjust started out with was just a
straight tea.
But we found that and what wetry to do is that make it as
easy as possible for people toincorporate in their daily
routine.
And so what I mean by that isthat uh some people is like, you
know, oh well, the taste is soso.
Well, I asked, are you a coffeedrinker or a tea drinker?
(29:53):
And of course, a lot of peopleare coffee drinkers.
And I said, Okay, how do youmake your coffee at home?
What do you mean?
Uh cream and sugar.
I said, No, no, no.
What process do you use to makeit?
So I show people who are, forexample, using a percolator.
Now we have a line of chagacalled grinds, which is about
the ground down to about thesize of a peppercorn.
(30:14):
And I said, now I have a 12-cuppercolator at home.
And what I do is I put a spoon,a tablespoon in with my 12-cup
percolator and slow perk it inthere and get my chaga in my
coffee.
Now, one of the things aboutchaga is not only is it the
highest antioxidant producingmaterial of anything out there,
100 grams of blueberries onaverage produce about 385, or
(30:38):
sorry, 100 grams of blueberriesproduce 2,450 units of
antioxidants, where 100 grams ofchaga, depending on the
extraction type, produce about385,000 units of antioxidants.
So we hear about antioxidants,but a lot of people really don't
know what they do or what theirpurpose is.
(30:59):
So I'll try to put it in termsof easy understanding.
So essentially when we doanything, we're we're talking,
we're moving our hands, we'reexercising, we're burning
molecules.
A lot of the times you don'tburn the complete molecule.
So those unburnt portions ofmolecules will be classified as
free radicals.
And you can get free radicalsthrough the air we breathe, the
(31:20):
food, absorb it through yourskin, a lot of different ways.
And free radicals essentiallyjoin with other molecules, and
what they essentially do isstart to break down your system.
Antioxidants essentially consumeor pair with free radicals and
stop your systems from breakingdown in the first place.
So people use chaga because ofthe antioxidant level to stop
(31:43):
your systems from breaking downin the first place.
Not only that, but uh thethere's a huge component of
anti-inflammatory material init.
Now, June of 2024, I I follow alot of the uh sites, um the
posting sites where um researchstudies get posted, whether it's
called PubMed, P-U-B-M-E-D, orScience Direct, is two of the
(32:08):
sites that I checked.
And there was about a half adozen articles come out that
were indicating thatoverabundance of inflammation
happens to be locations wherecancers appear to be starting
out.
So they're looking at thepotential from what I gathered
from that.
And remember, I'm not a doctor,can't give medical advice, is
(32:30):
that overabundance ofinflammation can potentially
lead to results of uh allowingcancer to take hold in bodies
and spread from there.
And if you look those up, like Isaid, Science Direct and PubMed,
you can see uh inflammation andcancer, and you'll see some of
those articles posted there.
So the um the Chaga itself, as Isaid, you know, it uh grows
(32:54):
about half an inch a year onaverage, and so long as you
leave some on the tree, it'llcontinue to grow.
And I I see a lot of of I do alot of like I look at uh
websites, not only websites, butalso YouTube stuff, and there's
a lot of stuff out there.
I saw one where a guy says, hesays, Oh, chaga only grows on
(33:14):
birch trees, and if you thinkit's chaga on another tree, it's
not, and you don't have to worryabout it.
Well, that's not true.
So this guy doesn't know whathe's talking about.
And then I saw another one thatsaid, oh, it has to be minus 20
for three days before you canharvest harvest it.
Well, that's not true either.
Because I got to tell you, everyone of the powwows that we've
been to, every one of the shamanof the medicine people at those
(33:37):
powwows all harvest it all yearlong.
Now, what I find is thepotential and the reason that
they harvest chaga at certaintimes of the year is that the
moisture content of chaga ishigher when the sap is in the
tree.
So we always harvest ours whenthe sap is out of the tree, or
(33:59):
try to anyways, in order tobecause when the moisture
content is high, the chance forsecondary mold growth is
extremely high.
And so, especially if you'regoing to harvest your own, first
of all, don't put it in plasticbags.
It needs to be a bag thatbreathes.
So we use canvas or even oldleaf bags, for example, paper
(34:20):
will breathe that allows some ofthe uh air to go back and forth
and start to dry it right away.
It'll lose anywhere from 40 to55 percent or even up to 60
percent of its body weight.
But those harvesting it on theirown, if you chunk it up, then um
about walnut-sized pieces within24 hours of taking it off the
tree.
Um you can use it a lot betterafterwards once it's cured.
(34:44):
Um, you need to take all theimpurities like the birch bark
off it and things like that.
And uh and I'll give you anotherpiece of advice is take a
polyester brush.
Don't use a metal brush becauseI've seen metal filings and some
of the stuff that people wereusing to clean the chaga with
from uh a wire brush.
But use a polyester brush andjust clean it with that, and
(35:06):
you'll get rid of all the spiderwebs and the uh the any of the
little bugs that might be inthere and things like that.
It brushes out really nice, andyou can brush them pretty hard.
You might get some of the littlethe dark exterior, which is a
natural protective coatingcoming off at that time, but it
um it cleans it up pretty good.
So, anyway, so back to where Iwas started on this dangion was
(35:30):
uh percolator, uh tablespoon ofthe grinds, put it in with that,
and slow perk it.
I perk it for a little, I put alittle bit less coffee than I
normally would in.
I slow perk it for a longerperiod of time because the
larger the pieces are of chaga,the longer they have to be
exposed to water to get thebenefit out of it.
So that's one of the easiestways with a percolator is slow
(35:52):
perk it for a longer period oftime, and you'll get it in your
coffee.
Now remember, chaga is alkaline.
Coffee's acidic, and itneutralizes a lot of the acid in
coffee and mellows it out verynicely.
So that's one way, and I havepeople who have a French press.
Well, you can do a couple ofthings.
You can either do uh some of thethings the same with uh a uh
(36:14):
people that use uh acoffee-making machine that has a
reservoir, one of two things.
Right now I have a machine athome that I actually put a bag,
because uh all our chaga comesin basically tea bags or coffee
bags, and put that in thereservoir, and so long as the
reservoir is changing color, I'mgetting the chaga benefit in my
coffee.
(36:34):
And to be perfectly honest, oneof the machines that we have, I
put this um, we call it MorningGlory, which is a really special
blend.
And for those that haven't triedit, I've been trying to come up
with a coffee substitute foryears because it what happens is
every time I put a new line onmy website, all my competitors
within a couple of weeks do thesame thing.
(36:55):
So I had a Chaga coffee, whichwas essentially organic coffee
and Chaga mixed with the grindstogether.
But I try to tell people, look,just buy the grinds and mix it
with your own coffee, you'll getmore of it.
And then within a couple weeks,all of a sudden everybody was
selling mushroom coffee.
And I'm like, all right, what ismushroom coffee?
What does that mean?
And nobody can give me ananswer.
(37:16):
So we came up with one that uhessentially is a coffee
substitute, although I'm gonnauh have a new line.
And a lot of the questions thatpeople have about Chaga is
there's no caffeine in it.
And the coffee substitute thatwe have has no caffeine.
It should be posted, it's calledMorning Glory within um the next
couple of weeks.
I had some difficulty ensuring astable quality supply line.
(37:40):
Of course, we supply all thechaga, but the other materials
mixed with it.
Um I need to make sure I can getgood quality supply lines that I
are dependable, and I haven'tbeen able to yet, so I've been
working on that, and I thinkI've got that uh taken care of.
But anyway, so I put that in myreservoir, and I get it directly
(38:00):
in my coffee, and you don't evennotice it, it doesn't change the
taste of coffee, although itmellows it out, takes the
acidity away, and smooths it outvery nicely.
So and the other thing you cando is people who use a French
press, for example, or they havea drip filter.
We have um you can either make abatch of tea, just a regular
chalk tea, and use that as yourwater to make your coffee with,
(38:21):
and you'll get it in your coffeethat way.
Or in a French press, we have apowder that uh people pull with
their coffee and then put it in.
Remember, the larger the piecesare, the longer they have to be
exposed to water to extract thebenefit.
And the powder has the largestbearing surface, which means it
requires the least amount oftime in order to get the benefit
inside your coffee because thepowder is is so fine, so it's
(38:45):
easier to extract it from there.
Then I get a lot of people.
I used to have Dr.
Couture, who uh retired andmoved back to New Brunswick.
Dr.
Couture used to uh promote thepowder, and people just put it
in their coffee and got it inthat way.
It doesn't dissolve, at leastour product doesn't.
And and it's fine to consume aswell, so long as you, according
to Health Canada, not more than3.6 grams per day, I believe, is
(39:10):
the uh Health Canada one.
But there's so many detailsabout it.
Now, some of the nude lines.
So we've got the regular chaga,a chaga chai blend, a chaga
apple cinnamon, a chaga greentea blend, uh, the powder, the
grinds, um, plus uh a couple ofother specialty ones that uh the
(39:30):
the cream, we have huge successwith a topical application that
I invented where we have chagain it, and people use it for
with huge success for eczema,psoriasis, rashes, uh bug bites,
burns, and a number of othertopical applications as well.
But so I have some new linescoming out, and yesterday it
(39:53):
just so happened that uh I haduh people test a chaga mint
line, and it seems to be goingover spectacular, which means
that within the next few weekswe'll have a chaga mint, which
uh I gotta figure out all thedetails.
It's not just a matter of thoughI got the I got the supply lined
up, so there's no problem withsupply.
(40:14):
Good quality mint that uh is uhreliable, no problems there.
But uh, how much mint do you mixwith how much chaga?
And how many cups does itproduce?
And how long is the shelf lifeand all that kind of stuff?
So those are some of the detailsthat we work out with uh with
new lines is coming up.
Now, another new line that we'reworking on, and if anybody
(40:37):
listening can tell me or send mea note on this, but I think it's
called yerba mate.
Uh Josh, my son, says thatthere's this new move with yerba
mate that uh people are movingto.
It's caffeinated, so it's acoffee substitute with caffeine
if that's what people arelooking for for their caffeine
fix.
But I'm looking at I have somesamples of that, but I have not
(40:59):
tried anything with it yet.
But we may be coming out with ayurba mate chaga line as well.
And same thing there, you know,I got the supplier short up, so
there's not a problem withsupply with it so far.
And but how much uh yurba matedo you put in, how much chaga do
you put in, and all the rest ofit, and those are the details
(41:20):
that we're working out.
So those are some of the the uhthe new lines that we're looking
at.
But there's always a lot ofquestions, and people ask, well,
if you're looking at uh YouTubeand things that are not coming
through, uh, what are some ofthe places where we can find
some good information?
So uh one of the ones, and Ihand out information all the
(41:43):
time.
So there's there's uh uhsomething called uh global
healing.
And uh Dr.
Edward Group wrote a goodarticle that I give out.
And he goes into the uh details,and you can just look that up.
But watch out with thatparticular site.
If you if you email them, you'regonna get uh two, three
inquiries a day about buy this,buy that, and usual stuff.
(42:06):
But uh global healing, ChaggaMushroom, the immune-boosting
superfood is the article thatcame out with it.
And it talks about how itsupports the uh the immune
system, about the uh soothing uhproperties, uh, about the uh
supports the integrity of bloodvessels, providing soothing
properties in times ofirritation.
(42:26):
And those suffering from uhneuropathy and even diabetes, he
goes to talks about in thisarticle here.
And you've heard some of thetestimonials.
I know Bill um was uh having uhblood pressure issues.
So in it in this article alsotalks about uh ulcers and
gastritis, uh normalizing bloodpressure and cholesterol levels,
(42:48):
antimicrobial activity, DNAdamage protection, antiviral
properties of chag as well.
And it talks about thepolysaccharides, the
beta-glutins, the the uh the umantioxidants level there and
other things, and then it givescomparisons.
Now, another good article tolook up that deals with uh chaga
(43:12):
is uh it's by the Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center.
And if you were to do uh a um asearch, an online search of best
cancer centers in the world,this one I always found was
listed as one of the top five.
And it goes into details ontheir research.
And in this actual study theydid has been cited by a number
(43:36):
of different articles.
And each one of these, so ittalks about purported uses to
prevent and treat cancer.
And the same thing, if you go onMemorial Sloan Carrying Cancer
Center, uh look up ChegaMushroom, uh the cinder conch,
birch conch, clinker polypore,or some of the other names that
it has listed for it.
It talks about to prevent andtreat cancer.
(43:56):
Um, but all these onesspecifically say that uh studies
in humans are needed, and ittalks about to stimulate the
immune system, to reduceinflammation, uh to protect the
liver as well.
And it talks and if you look atthat, um it has a lot of good
(44:17):
sources of other articles thatyou can look up.
And that's what I do is is whenI was minister of natural
resources, you you quickly learnbefore you even read an article,
I look at the reference materialused to write the article to
determine the validity of it.
And the ones that I'm mentioninghere were very well researched.
(44:37):
So that was one.
So that was uh Dr.
Group, G-R-O-U-P from GlobalHealing, Chaga Mushroom, the
Immune Boosting Superfood.
And it gives comparisons andtalks about a bunch of stuff, as
well as Memorial Sloan KetteringCancer Center, and it's the
Chaga Mushroom.
Now, here's another one here outof Vitality Magazine from uh Dr.
(44:59):
Ralph Moss, cancer, uh Chaga andCancer Research, folklore
medicine.
And it talks about the detailsin there and some of the stuff
in here, it's it's kind ofinteresting.
It says uh on the in the secondpage, uh third paragraph, in
2015 experiment, the anti-cancercompounds were extracted from
chaga powder three times withwater at 60 degrees Celsius,
(45:22):
i.e.
140 degrees Fahrenheit.
And um this is an important leadto anyone thinking of making
their own chaga tea for 140Fahrenheit is hot, but not
boiling.
It is a good rule when preparingchaga tea to extract the
beneficial chemicals, chemicals,without damaging or degrading
(45:42):
them, as boiling water might do.
And the reason it says might,quite frankly, is because a lot
of the articles that uh theresearch studies that I have
from around the world, theirextraction of chaga and the
material and the benefits fromit were at boiling point.
So, and like a lot of stuff,there still needs to be more
(46:03):
research.
And I try to find out as much asI can, but uh uh Dr.
Ralph Moss's uh Vitalitymagazine, Chaga and Cancer
article is a good one as well.
And it has quite a few differentuh references on there which uh
refer, you can look up thereferences as well and see
those.
(46:23):
As I mentioned, you'll find alot of those on PubMed or
Science Direct, or you can justgo on PubMed and Science Direct
and look up Chaga and Cancer.
Now, another one that I usuallygive out, and what I do is
because as I mentioned, I havestudies from all kinds of stuff,
whether it's Crohn's and colitisor different types of cancer.
I met a woman in Coburg who hada her medical doctor got her
(46:46):
some Chaga as a friend oftheirs, and she cured her
ovarian cancer with it,according to her and her doctor.
Uh, and there's studies on thatto focus on that.
But here's another one.
It's called from Brunswick Labs.
And I'm not sure that this oneis still available, but I
happened to save it before, andI tried to find it to when COVID
came in afterwards and couldn'ttrack it down.
(47:08):
And it's done by another doctor,um, and his last name is spelled
Z-E-G-A-R-A-C, and it's magicalmushroom chaga, functional
components, and biologicalactivity.
And it's a great area.
Another article that talks aboutthe antioxidant components about
it, the anti-inflammatory, theimmunology effects as well, and
(47:33):
the anti-cancer effects.
Now, Chaga is um it works as anit works with the immune system
in that uh it's a it's amodifier, as they say.
And natural modifiers are hardto find.
And what that does essentiallyis if your immune system isn't
(47:54):
active enough, it stimulates itto get going.
But if it's overactive, it'llbring it down.
So and the Brunswick lab uhstudy talks about the
polysaccharides that uh um workwith the immune system.
And so it works as animmunomodule modifier,
immunomodifier.
So it helps with the immunesystem in a number of different
(48:16):
ways, and those are some of thebenefits.
So I think I've answered most ofthe questions that come up.
No caffeine, alkaline, one in10,000, uh First Nations,
popular around the world, growsin northern cold climates, and
uh the wide range of uses.
Uh I mentioned uh some of thearticles and what they're they
(48:37):
talk about, whether it's youknow the cancer, arthritis,
diabetes, uh, blood pressure,and even uh I see some stuff
regarding MS.
And I think the uh theanti-inflammatory components of
it may be.
But remember, I'm not a doctor,can't give medical advice.
I am a primary researcher, whichmeans I go out and I find
research all around the worldand then try to bring together
(48:59):
as much research to support eachother's uh specific statements.
Well, I think I've given you apretty good update on Chaga and
what's happening there.
If you come and see us, I'm morethan happy to.
If you want to get in touch withus, you can.
Or you can check out ourproducts at uh Chaga Health and
Wellness at gmail.com.
(49:20):
Or you can uh check out uhChagan Health and Wellness.com.
And uh you can see our websitethere, and and a lot of these uh
details I've given you wereactual studies that have been
around, and those are the onesthat I hand out.
But all we're doing is givingyou an update and other stuff,
and quite frankly, in the nextcouple of weeks, I'm heading to
(49:42):
my Chagga camp to start pickingChaga for the for for our
up-and-coming seasons, andhopefully uh we have a good
harvest.
I don't go back into the sameareas for basically over about a
10-year period, and then we'llstart looking back at the same
spots.
And we always leave some on thetree to make sure that it
continues to grow, although ourindications are that the
(50:04):
mycelium or roots of it aregrowing through the whole tree.
So, but so long as we take careof uh nature, it'll continue to
take care of uh us.
And these things have been outthere for the longest time in
thousands of years and beingutilized as such.
Actually, what's his name?
Otsi.
It was the um the hunter thatthey found frozen in the Alps
(50:26):
that had a pouch.
And in his pouch, he had anothermedicinal mushroom called birch
polypore.
And birch polypore, actually, Ihad a mycologist on that uh used
birch polypore to uh as uh whenhe cut himself shaving, he he
put a little bit of birchpolypore powder on it and
stopped the bleeding right away.
(50:47):
So there's a lot of differentones.
Chaga would be the number onemedicinal mushroom in the world,
rishi would be number two.
After that, then there's itcould be turkey tail, it could
be gnocchi, it could be, itcould be cordyceps, it could be
birch polypore, it could belion's mane, it could be a lot
of different ones, mataki,shiitakis that have medicinal
(51:08):
properties as well.
But uh most of the mushroomexperts uh out there well agree
that uh Chaga is the number onemedicinal mushroom, and that's
what we take do out there iswork with Chaga.
Just uh an update on what'shappening with Chaga and what's
happening out there, out thereunder the canopy.
Thanks for listening.
(51:29):
You got any?
Ask them questions, that is.
You want to hear anything?
Let me know, and we'll see if wecan come up with a show for you.
Thanks.
Thanks for listening.
Bye for now.
SPEAKER_05 (52:15):
But this podcast will be more than that.
Every week on Diaries of a LodgeOwner, I'm going to introduce
you to a ton of great people.
Share their stories of ourtrials, tribulations, and
inspirations.
Learn and have plenty of laughsalong the way.
SPEAKER_06 (52:34):
Figure out how to get you back.
And we decided we're going to beefficient.
SPEAKER_04 (52:42):
My hands get sore a little bit when I'm running in a
little bit.
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