April 28, 2025 • 48 mins
The world awakens in layers. As winter reluctantly loosens its grip, a fascinating transition period emerges where maple trees release their sweet sap, wild edibles push through the forest floor, and outdoor enthusiasts must balance excitement for new opportunities with awareness of emerging challenges.
Jerry and Garrett Ouellette expertly guide listeners through this seasonal transformation, sharing both scientific knowledge and generations of practical woodland wisdom. Their conversation reveals the hidden rhythms that govern nature's calendar – from the precise moment maple sap becomes syrup (exactly seven degrees above water's boiling point) to the unexpected relationship between trilliums and wild leeks growing in the same soil conditions.
Beyond mere observation, this episode offers practical insights for anyone venturing outdoors during this transitional time. Learn why birch syrup requires twice the sap as maple (an astounding 80:1 ratio), how tap holes create fascinating growth patterns in trees that resemble topographical maps, and essential safety protocols as tick season begins. The father-son dynamic brings warmth to discussions ranging from chiropractor visits for wilderness-related injuries to traditional methods for preparing foraged delicacies like fiddleheads and wild leeks.
Whether you're a dedicated forager, firewood harvester, or simply someone who appreciates nature's intricate systems, this episode captures that magical moment when the natural world pivots from dormancy to vibrant life. Subscribe now to join our growing community of outdoor enthusiasts learning to live in harmony with nature's cycles.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.
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 will be right here in
your ears bringing you a brandnew episode of Outdoor Journal
Radio.
Now, what are?
We going to talk about for twohours every week.
Well, you know there's going tobe a lot of fishing.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
From athletes.
All the other guys would gogolfing Me and Garth and Turk
and all the Russians would gofishing To scientists.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
But now that we're reforesting- and all that, it's
the perfect transmissionenvironment for life.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you
are.
Outdoor Journal Radio seeks toanswer the questions and tell
the stories of all those whoenjoy being outside.
Find us on Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
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 Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
(01:36):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-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
(01:59):
research, my skepticism hasfaded to obsession and I now
spend my life dedicated toimproving the lives of others
through natural means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld world.
(02:26):
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.
So join me today for anothergreat episode and hopefully we
can inspire a few more people tolive their lives under the
canopy.
We can inspire a few morepeople to live their lives under
(02:53):
the canopy, all right?
Well, we're back at it againand, as always, we want to thank
all our listeners across Canadaand all through the States, as
well as Switzerland, trinidad,Tobago, ghana, all around the
world.
We really appreciate that and,as normal, if you have any
questions or you want to hearany podcasts, let us know.
We can see what we can do.
Now, here it is.
It's still minus three out thismorning and I was out with my
(03:16):
chocolate lab and some gunnertaking them out, which was kind
of nice.
Here we are in late April andthe temperature was cold enough
to keep the bugs down, because Idon't like to take them out
when there's chances of himgetting a tick, or myself or
anybody else for that matter,but it was kind of cool.
(03:37):
So it was brisk and nice andnice to be out, nice and clear
and crisp and all that kind ofstuff.
But it's time to start warmingup a bit, which think is going
to happen and things are movingalong.
So there's more for today'srecording.
We've got our our regular guest, my son garrett.
Speaker 6 (03:55):
Welcome to the program, garrett hi, uh, thanks
for having me again.
Really appreciate being here onthe show and always able to
lend a hand and help out when Ican well, garrett flew in from
calgary where britney is, andhe's here for for a bit.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
Then he'll be flying back.
He's well, what do you gotgoing tomorrow, garrett?
Speaker 6 (04:16):
I got a hockey tournament playing in for
through my union, through mywork.
Um, we're looking forward tothat because it's always nice
lacing up the skates again, beable to play.
I'm also back to see achiropractor because we recently
moved out in calgary uh, we'reout in the house now, which is
nice, gives a little bit morespace, a little bit more
abilities to prep for fishingand hunting and all the outdoor
(04:40):
stuff I enjoy.
Um, having a garage.
That makes a big difference forthat.
And so when I was moving Ilocked my pelvis up.
So my right leg's about an inchand a half to two inches longer
than my left leg.
So I'm a little bit hurtingright now, but hopefully later
today I'll get my pelvisreadjusted there.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
Yeah, we had Dr Fenella on before.
We talked about petchiropractor, but we haven't
really had a chiropractor thattalks about people and the
things they do.
And I know we have this greatchiropractor, dr Oroshekham, and
he's a Ukrainian guy and hedoes a great job and one of the
things the first thing he doesis he'll lie you flat on the
(05:24):
what do they call it?
An adjusting table.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
Yeah, adjusting table pretty much what they use there
.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
And then they measure your leg length to see if
there's any issues with that.
Well, now Josh Garrett'sbrother, who we had on the
program a couple of times aswell.
Now Josh had scoliosis for overfive years and that's a
curvature of the spine andJosh's scoliosis.
We had years and that's acurvature of the spine and
Josh's scoliosis.
We had seen a specialist Go inand see the specialist.
Oh, you need to do this, youneed to do that, you do
(05:51):
everything else.
And then my wife Garrett's mom,diane, up at the store that she
was managing one of the peopleshe had there.
They were into a conversationwhere the university student she
just hired her sister had beenin and got her scoliosis fixed.
And I said, oh, how'd you dothat?
(06:12):
And they said, well, actuallywe went in and saw a
chiropractor and thechiropractor straightened it up
and I thought, geez, I happen toknow a guy, so, sure enough, we
set up an appointment.
Take Josh in and remember he'dbeen going to a specialist, a
Western trained medicinespecialist, for over five years.
(06:33):
And you need to do this, youneed to do that.
And I got to tell you he putshim on and he says well, the
problem here is your one leg isway longer than the other, your
one leg is way longer than theother, which usually means
there's a hip problem and yourhip seized up and your spine's
kind of caught inside there.
And he said and in one visit,fixed his scoliosis.
(06:54):
It was just like what Fiveyears with a specialist, one
visit to this chiropractor andhe fixed his scoliosis, which
was phenomenal.
So a year goes by and Josh saysDad, dad, you know, we got to
make another chiropracticappointment.
I said, well, you got problems.
He said, no, I just want tomake sure everything's okay.
Well, sure enough, we go in andhe says, no, everything's fine.
(07:17):
And his back was fine, hisscoliosis was fixed, no problems
at all.
And it just goes to show youyou got to think outside the box
sometimes to get these fixed.
So what do you?
Got hooked up here, what areyou looking to get fixed,
garrett?
Speaker 6 (07:32):
So I was moving all those awkward boxes and heavy
positionings and all that stuffthere, my pelvis, my right
pelvis, is locked in an openposition.
So if you think of like youwere to cup your hands together
kind of thing, and you were totake your right one, you had it
flipped open.
The other one's kind of sittingthere.
It's kind of flipped in an openposition, so it's a lot more
(07:53):
exposed and a little bit morevertical there.
So it's causing my right leg tobe longer than my left leg,
which is putting a lot morepressure on my right foot than
my left foot.
So I just need to get my pelvisreadjusted there because it
looks like I'm pinching a nerve,because I get a little flare-up
every once in a while when Iwalk a certain way or sit down
at a certain angle, kind ofthing.
So I just got to get my pelvisjust popped back in place, kind
(08:16):
of thing.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Oh, that's good.
I know that Baba, which wouldbe my mother, my Garrett's
grandmother, she's Ukrainian,she had the same thing.
She was locked up and you couldtell Now one of the ways to do
it.
You know, kind of feet shoulderwidth apart and hands on your
hips and you swing your hip outto the left or swing it to the
(08:39):
right and you kind of tell bythe distance of your swing.
And I'm not a doctor, we can'tgive medical advice.
This is just some of the stuffthat we see, anyway.
So the same thing with Baba.
Her hip was all locked up andso he freed that up.
And she says to me the next dayshe says, you know, I couldn't
(08:59):
figure out why.
I was always kind of when I wastrying to walk straight,
straight, I was always going toone way, to the right a bit, and
that's because her hip waslocked up.
So it was all back to normal.
Now fixed her up, good, butit's like anything, and you
tried somebody out in Calgaryand it was not so well.
It wasn't what you wereexpecting, right, garrett?
Speaker 6 (09:17):
No, it was a very half-asset thing, kind of like
instantly they didn't even askme like what was wrong, just
assumed what was wrong.
And then I tried to fix mywhole back.
Like he started with my centerof my back kind of thing,
cracked that, which I'm like youknow, great, it feels nice, but
it didn't really do me anything.
And then went up to my neck,tweaked my neck and then tried
doing my pelvis and then, whenhe was done, trying to wrap up,
(09:39):
I stood up and just did mylittle test there that orders,
uh, showed me and I said to himlike hey, I only got four inches
of movement on my left side andI got eight or nine on my right
, so I'm still locked up.
Can you release me?
And he kind of took a step back,being like, oh, like, and kind
of was almost like offended thatI called him out for not fixing
(09:59):
me right there in the firstplace and trying to wrap up.
So I got him to release itbetter, but obviously didn't
quite get it quite right.
So now I'm looking to get fixedup better.
But yeah, it was just a veryhalf-asset effort.
Didn't even tell me, didn'teven show me what was wrong,
just assumed the whole back wasmessed up.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Yeah, it's like anything.
You got to find the rightperson to do the right job and
we very much appreciate it.
I actually have quite a fewpeople come in from all over Now
.
They're coming in from Calgary.
I have them driving down fromPeterborough.
I actually have them coming infrom Kingston to come in and see
them to fix them up as well,and there's actually somebody
flying in from the Bahamas to gosee this guy, but I couldn't
(10:39):
get them in anyways to fix themup.
But it's like anything you'vegot to around.
You got to find somebody thatworks with you and somebody that
works with you may not work forsomebody else, and the same
thing goes vice versa.
So you find some people thatare good, but what else is
happening out west?
What's the temperature like outCalgary?
Speaker 6 (10:58):
way.
It's odd, but it was plus 16.
Brittany was telling me therejust plus 16 when I left, which
was amazing.
So I was like, oh, plus 16.
I'm going to get back tosouthern Ontario here and it's
going to be nice and warm, and Iget out of the plane and it's
like one degree and thenovernight it's minus five.
(11:19):
So I'm like, well, that's veryunexpected.
But the funny thing was, though,in Calgary it was like four
days before that we had it wason like a Sunday there and all
of a sudden we had a snowstormand I was surprised the snow was
sticking to the ground, becausetwo days before that it was
like plus 12.
And then before that, we had anice hot stretch.
I think it even reached likeplus 16 the one day.
(11:39):
But yeah, it came back and nowit's nice and warm, and so I
mean looking forward to thespring now, or the warmer
weather for sure, because onceit hits, I'm definitely like all
right, winter, I'm over, eventhough I love it, but I'm like,
yeah, I'm ready for warm weatheragain.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Yeah, we had a good winter.
It was the way I like it.
You know I don't like thefreezing rain.
Three saw, three saw it wascold, it was winter.
Okay, we're done that.
Let's move into the spring, inwhich we're having a bit now.
Today's a great day here.
I think it was plus 13, whereyesterday was well, this morning
, like I said, when I took thechocolate lab gunner out, it was
(12:15):
minus three this morning, so itwas a bit brisk, but it was
very nice and refreshing, whichis great, and yeah, so that was
nice to be able to get out andthe temperature's starting to
warm up.
So I'll be swinging the golfclubs fairly soon.
Speaker 6 (12:30):
Yeah, which you know.
Golfing's always nice, butother than I know the seasons
are not quite ready for it.
I know some courses are open,but how are things going down
here?
Anything I've missed or need toknow about?
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Well, it's that time of the year.
We could have used you a whileago when we were hauling sap
pails out, and yesterday Ichecked and it wasn't running
yesterday.
But after that cold weather wehad the past couple of nights.
We may get one more day of run,but we'll see.
It's hard to tell, but it lookslike it's near enough over.
So the maple sap appears to bedone, and I'm not sure about
(13:07):
birch sap because I didn't tapany birch trees to see if it was
running or how things weregoing there.
But there could be thepossibility that birch sap was
start to run, which is adifferent environment or process
completely.
Speaker 6 (13:22):
Yeah, that's interesting.
I mean, I know I'm always likebeing around for maple syrup
season because you know what.
It's just something fun to do.
It's nice to get out andcollect the sap, but at the same
time it's also a lot of work.
And yeah, I'm surprised to hearthat with the cold weather here
that it's not running as much.
I know the birch trees alwaysrun, usually right after the
maple syrup stops, kind of thing.
(13:43):
But yeah, like you know how'dthe maple syrup go this year
though?
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Well, it was a really late season because February
was so cold.
Last year I talked to somemaple syrup people that were
actually doing boil their firstboils in January last year,
because it was so the weatherwas so conducive for sap to run.
But this year nothing reallystarted until well into March.
So it was kind of surprising,and I spoke to a number of
(14:11):
producers in the past while thatwere just finishing up their
final boils here at the middleof April, which is a bit
different, but it's the samething.
I haven't tapped any.
I should probably throw acouple of taps in some of the
birch trees to see if that's saprunning.
But there's a big differencethere, because birch sap, maple
(14:31):
sap okay, you need 40 liters ofsap to make one liter of syrup.
And most people know and wetalked about this, I got a
couple of podcasts with thatwhere what we do is we boil
water with a special maple syrupthermometer and then you adjust
the, because most people don'trealize this, but different
pressures will actually havewater boil slightly different,
(14:56):
believe it or not.
So they have a gauge that youcan set.
So, at the pressure of the timewhen you're boiling your water,
we'll set it to zero.
And then what you do is youcheck your sap, and maple sap
turns to maple syrup at plusseven.
But you got to make sure you'reat your actual plus seven.
(15:16):
So what happens then is you setyour gauge and then you go
check your maple sap boil tofind out what it's boiling at,
and once it hits plus seven iswhen it's actually one of the
ways to tell that it's actuallyturned to syrup now.
And now the birch syrup isquite a bit different, because
(15:39):
you're running birch syrup.
It's like I said, 40 to 1, 40liters of sap from maple to 1
liter of syrup, and birch isactually quite a bit different.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
And by different, what do you mean?
Because I mean I've beenfamiliar with tapping birch
trees, but I don't know theexact numbers or science behind
it.
What do you mean there?
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Well it's 80 to 1.
So you've got to have 80 litersof sap to produce one liter of
birch syrup.
So it takes twice as muchenergy to take it down to that
next level.
So it can be quite costly.
Speaker 6 (16:13):
So you're saying 80 liters to 1.
So I guess, as a person, if Iwas asked a question about this,
it's like does that mean yougot to have have more taps?
Can birch trees produce more?
Or is it kind of a situation ofyou're just going to get less
of a yield of the birch treesbecause they're not flowing more
than the maple trees?
Like, are you tapping the treesmore or less kind of thing to
(16:36):
get this 80 to 1?
Are you just still at the samepace as a maple syrup tree would
produce its sap at?
Speaker 5 (16:42):
well, I don't know.
I haven't done enough researchon birch syrup and I probably
should try and see if we can getsomebody on.
But I know because usually youget about a liter of syrup per
tap with maple.
So if we tap 200 trees weusually get about 200 liters of
syrup.
(17:02):
But I don't know, because ofthat ratio, if it's with birch,
if you need to tap 400 trees toget 200 liters because it's
double, or whether that tap andthere's more syrup in the tree,
and I just don't know about that.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
That's good to know, like definitely something to
look into or be interesting tofind out, just because I'm sure
people are out there curious'recurious about you know different
things in the world, anddifferent things about maple
syrup, for that matter, here incanada right, yeah, well, I know
that.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Uh, some of the things that I see is in eastern
canada the maple is veryprominent where in western
canada they don't get a lot ofmaple trees, so they do a lot of
more birch syrup.
But it's like I said, and ofcourse, ours, especially because
we control the temperature, sowe use propane, which can be
very expensive this time of theyear.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
Well, I've got another question for you then
here if you've got any expertiseor information on it.
But so there's maple syrup andthere's birch syrup.
Is there any other trees thatyou could tap for syrups and
stuff like that?
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Actually, the only other one that I've heard of is
walnut and I don't even know.
I've talked to some of themaple syrup producers that were
telling me that there wasindividuals that make walnut
syrup, but I don't know any ofthe properties of it.
I have no idea whether it's 40to 1, 20 to 1, 80 to 1, 60 to 1.
(18:25):
I have no idea about walnutsyrup at all.
But you know, one of the thingsthat Garrett was it was kind of
interesting is when, way back,oh, quite a few decades ago, in
the early 90s, when I wasknee-high to a grasshopper, I
used to bring out for cuts, forharvests, I would bring out
(18:48):
companies to look at forests, tobuy the trees once they were
cut and hauled out, and at theroadside, and one of the ones
was a company called Birchlandand they wanted to know if any
of the trees, whether they werethe birch trees and the maple
trees, were tapped.
Because what happens is is itchanges the way your veneer
(19:13):
comes off.
The growth rings in it actuallygrow towards the tap holes and
put specific lines in it.
So when it starts, when they vveneer, shear off the veneer, it
actually looks very differentand and the quality of your
veneer is degraded quite a bit,and a lot of them actually did
not want any of the trees thatwere tapped for maple syrup or
(19:37):
for a birch.
Now, mind you, if, if the tapholes were low enough and the
tree was big enough, you couldgo above the tap holes and you
won't get these growth ringlines that kind of gravitate
towards the maple syrup holesthat give you a very different
looking veneer.
So it's almost like it'sbasically set up or intentional
(20:00):
that they have these growthrings that grow towards these
holes, and it's very prominent.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
That's something I never heard of and I'm kind of
curious about this walnut sapbecause I mean in my downtime,
when I get very little of it,but when I do get my downtime I
watch a couple of cooking showshere and there and walnut seems
to be a very unique item,especially in the Italianian uh
cooking, uh mentality out thereand I'm curious to how that
(20:26):
would taste.
But obviously we haven't hadany samples, so something I have
to look into and find out howthat would go over.
But I guess another questionwould be is so when you said it
tap, when you these tap marks inthe tree affects the veneer of
the wood?
Yeah, do you think that wouldactually be more beneficial in
today's society?
Because there's always you, yousee flooring now in the stores
(20:48):
and it's got these uniquepatterns and colors and unique
waves and grooves of the woodand the growth marks and
everything like that.
Do you think that'd be morebeneficial nowadays to have
those marks in the tree, Likethat'd be more of a prize to
have?
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Well, that I couldn't tell you.
It's tree, like that'd be moreof a prize to have.
Well, that I couldn't tell you.
Um, it's.
It's surprising what peoplewant and what, what.
What you know, like you said,it's unique.
So some things are very, verydifferent and it's hard to say
whether people would want thator not.
I know that the industry waslooking for very consistency and
didn't want any of these taptrees for that reason, or at
least around the taps okay.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Well, my question would be is then like well, I
guess not a question, more orless like a thought here, is
that burrows on the tree?
They always go for thosebecause they're very like unique
grooves and like edging andmarking and everything else is
very, very unique.
Once you process that down, youmake it into wherever they want
to make it, whether it be forbowls or wooden spoons or
utensils, or you know if Rollywas here for tobacco pipes and
(21:45):
stuff like that.
But do you think like nowadaysthat'd be more interesting
though.
Like like especially cause Imean I was never a knee high to
a grasshopper back in the nine1900s here, but I was, you know,
maybe a late knee grasshopperthere, cause I was born in the
1900s, in the very last fewyears of the 1900s.
But my question would be likeisn't that more of a target now
(22:07):
is having those unique aspectsthere?
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Well, you never know.
You never know what people likeand it's hard to determine or
to explain on a podcast whatthese groove lines or growth
lines would look like as theygravitate towards the whole, and
you know.
But that's what industry wantsat that time and things change
and it's like a lot of stuffSome people want to.
(22:31):
I mean, live edge stuff wasnever something of the past.
You know the live edge woodthat they use, the making tables
and everything now, but liveedge is a huge demand so I'm
just thinking here to kind ofgive people a better example.
Speaker 6 (22:46):
What if people know what a topographical map looks
like?
Yeah, right, so you have likethe depths and those rings that
show you as the elevationchanges, say, you have the
deepest spot would be like whereyour tap hole would be.
Would that be kind of theimitation there that people
would expect to kind of get thisrough idea of how it affects a
tree?
Speaker 5 (23:03):
yeah, your, your, your growth rings.
Now they have these kind ofexactly.
I was trying to think ofsomething that would be and I
think you kind of coined itexactly right if you look at
topographical mac and you havethese, these, um, the, the lines
that show you the elevationlines and how they get smaller
and smaller and smaller as youget a hill, and it would be the
(23:25):
same thing towards a taphole.
They would kind of look likeelevation lines on a
topographical map towards ataphole and there's a very
consistent as opposed to the wayit normally with growth rings,
and when they do their veneerthey're very different.
Speaker 6 (23:42):
Oh well, it's a very different.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Oh well, it's good thought there have been back in
2016, frank and I had a visionto amass the single largest
database of muskie anglingeducation material anywhere in
the world our dream was toharness the knowledge of this
amazing community and share itwith passionate anglers just
(24:04):
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Speaker 2 (24:13):
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Speaker 5 (24:59):
And now it's time for another testimonial for Chaga
Health and Wellness.
Hi, it's Jerry from ChagaHealth and 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 7 (25:18):
Yes, I got sick with fibro and one weekend my husband
came here alone I was doing.
Because of that, the chaga hasbeen the steady one Right.
(25:49):
I would not want to livewithout it, oh good.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
Yeah, so it's been working for me Very good, lots
of ways, and you had some goodluck with blood pressure as well
.
Speaker 7 (25:59):
Oh right, yeah, Thanks for remembering that.
That's.
Yeah, I had a little bit ofhigh elevated blood pressure and
within the two weeks ofstarting that every day, every
morning, it went to normal.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
And you think the chaga was the reason why.
Well, I didn't do anything elsein that time frame Very good,
and so how much chaga did youhave and how did you have it?
Speaker 7 (26:25):
Well, we just put that powder in the smoothie,
right?
Yeah, and it's about tablespoon.
Yeah, no, it's less thantablespoon for two of us.
Yeah, so you don't need thatmuch.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Right, but a teaspoon , yeah, yeah, very good.
Well, thanks very much forsharing that.
We really appreciate that andwish you all the best with the
Chaga.
Speaker 7 (26:49):
Oh, you're from Finland as well, and Chaga is
pretty popular in Finland, is itnot?
I think it probably is, becausethere's some professors in a
university that that's teachingit and talking about it, and, of
course, it's big in Russiaussiaright because that's where you
know the northern woods thatcame comes from.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, yeah, and of course, finland has lots of
perch trees right yeah, and it'sthe only mushroom that you
can't forage in finlandeverything else, but not in
Chaga.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
Oh, very good.
Well, thanks very much forsharing that.
Okay, have a great day you too.
We interrupt this program tobring you a special offer from
Chaga Health and Wellness.
If you've listened this far andyou're still wondering about
(27:44):
this strange mushroom that Ikeep talking about and whether
you would benefit from it or not, 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.
All you have to do is head overto our website,
(28:05):
chagahealthandwellnesscom, placea few items in the cart and
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If you're new to Chaga, I'dhighly recommend the regular
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This comes with 15 tea bags perpackage, and each bag gives you
around five or six cupsaga tea.
This comes with 15 tea bags perpackage and each bag gives you
around five or six cups of tea.
(28:25):
Hey, thanks for listening.
Back to the episode.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
So I guess another question I would not a question.
I guess I don't know why I keepsaying questions here.
I know it's a season, so I likewild leeks and I know wild
leeks are always around thistime of year.
I know it's not quite becauseit's been cold, but like or wild
leeks coming in season here orpretty soon, because I know
turkey hunting and trout openersaround the corner and I always
(28:53):
remember being when I was ableto go to those things if I had
the time for it, it was alsowild leek season.
So the wild leeks growing upyet have you been not eyeing
those at all, or not?
Speaker 5 (29:03):
Well, it's great you mentioned that because I'm
starting to see the patches justcoming up now.
So I picked a leaf two days agoand tried it and it still
didn't have that kind ofgarlicky kind of taste to it.
But wild leeks, I'll probablygive them another two, three
weeks.
It'll be the end of April,beginning of May, when the leeks
in our area will be ready to beharvested.
(29:26):
And for those that don't know,if you're looking for wild leeks
or ramps, they're actuallygreat.
It kind of looks like a greenonion bulb with leaves and the
leaves go spectacular in saladsand we actually supply a couple
of butcher shops with wild leeksand they make a wild leek
sausage.
That is hugely demanding andthey use the leaves and the
(29:46):
bulbs in order to give that aspecial flavor.
But they're just starting tocome up.
I just saw it two days agowhere the leaves were still.
They're still a couple inchesoff the ground, just breaking
through the fall leaves from thetrees and if you're looking for
them, the place to look is ifyou find trilliums growing in an
area.
(30:07):
That's the same kind of growthmedian that wild leeks like and
do very well there.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Mike, as I'm sitting here listening kind of thing.
So because I'm out in Calgaryand also Saskatchewan and I was
in BC before and I've beenpretty much across Canada, Does
it grow in other areas acrossCanada or is it just kind of
like an Ontario thing?
Speaker 5 (30:28):
No, I don't think it's Ontario thing.
I think it chances are it growsCanada wide and but I, to be
honest, I've never looked forthem in other jurisdictions and
of course it's very specific tothe time of the year.
It's kind of it's one of thoseground areas, just like the
trillium is, before the leavesstart coming out on the trees,
(30:48):
and that's one of the key signsfor maple sap as well is when
the maple trees start to bud outis basically when the sap
season is done, because you'regoing to get a really bad taste
and you may get some sap goingup and down, but once the leaves
start to bud out you get that.
And once that canopy comes inand covers it so there's no
(31:08):
sunlight to get into the ground,things like the leeks die off.
But for the next month or soyou're going to find that you're
going to be in the leek season,which are great for potato and
leek soup.
We put the leaves in salads Plus.
Quite quite frankly, it's likeour buddy doug bless his soul.
He used to have a jar of leekbulbs in the fridge and all he
(31:28):
would do would change the waterall the time and they would last
for two, three years in thefridge and they were just great
to eat yeah, because, like whenyou said, the butcher there that
makes wild leek sausages, I'mlike that would be really good,
especially in a I wonder, in allthese processed preserved food
or cured meats and stuff likethat.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
I wonder if that would be a good thing to do or
something like that, or evenlike moose or deer or venison
sausages there.
So definitely something to have, because I like garlic as much
as anyone else, and especiallyonion, but they always I don't
know, the wild leaks are justsomething different, but I guess
I'll go ahead there.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
Yeah, I recall one thing when I was elected at
Queen's Park I brought in a loadof cleaned wild leaks to caucus
meeting and everybody in caucuswas there.
It was like, oh, you got to trythis.
And I had a couple of guys Iremember Bill Murdoch, bless his
soul, bill was telling people,oh, you got to try this, these
are great, these are great.
(32:27):
But what people didn't know wasis all of a sudden you eat
these leeks and you have thiskind of garlic breath but you
don't notice it with everybodyelse.
When everybody eats them,everybody has it.
So everybody in caucus,unbeknown to them, was coming
out reeking of garlic, actuallywild leeks.
And I recall Bill Murdoch and Iwere walking by the caucus
(32:49):
office and somebody walked outand there was a reporter walking
by and she said, oh my God,what is that smell?
It was the wild leeks thateverybody was having.
And Bill conned her into thewhole thing.
He says, oh, they're wild leeks.
Have you never tried them?
No, never.
She said, oh, do you like akind of garlic onion?
She said, oh, yeah.
(33:10):
So he gave it to her and, sureenough, in the press gallery
there was one reporter up therewho just reeked of wild leeks,
so it's kind of fun, but theyhave a lot of good beneficial
aspects to them as well, youknow, with blood pressure and
things like that.
But there's, you know, a lot ofthings happening and the Wild
Leaks season is just abouthappening now and then, like I
said, the same place that you'refinding Trilliums is the place
(33:32):
you're going to find Wild Leaks.
Speaker 6 (33:34):
That's good to know.
Like I said, maybe when I goback out to Calgary there and
have some free time I free timeI'll go out and see if I can
find something or take a look,because you never know, like you
said, if it grows across Canada.
I know it's not here Ontario,but I've seen, I guess, the odd
show here and there that showswild leeks being elsewhere as
well.
But I guess it also leads me toask you about what's going on
(33:54):
with the firewood season then,like is the ground dry enough?
Can I start cutting yet?
Or is it kind of like give itanother week or month or so?
Because I know that it's been aslow thaw out here and it's
been a little bit colder and wet, so the ground hasn't quite
dried up yet.
So firewood season ready tostart yet, or a little bit
longer?
Speaker 5 (34:10):
no, nothing yet for firewood.
You got to remember the saying.
You know, April showers bringMay flowers.
And I got to tell you we had somuch rain this this April that
the ground is pretty wet andit's tough to get to, at least
to drive into the places we go.
I mean we can walk into quite afew of them and fall some trees
and then, you know, block themup and split them and have them
(34:32):
ready to go, but not ready todrive in and do any pickups yet.
So it'll be a few weeks beforethat all dries up, probably like
another month, and hopefully,like they say you know, April
showers bring May flowers thatthe May flowers will do well and
that the rain has kind of heldoff now for a bit.
But firewood season's juststarting.
Well, I've been out a lot ofthe winter stuff that we fell
(34:55):
and had down and I've beenpicking up and still doing a
burn.
I had a good fireplace firelast night just to kind of take
the dampness out of the house.
So it's still burning.
But firewood is going to be alittle bit of time before you
can actually get in to where weare.
Mind you, I'm seeing a lot offirewood piles where people are
cutting and splitting theirstuff already for next year.
Speaker 6 (35:17):
Yeah, that's true, because you got to give it a
season to dry out, andespecially from the spring,
summer there and summer to fall.
That gives it enough time foryour firewood to dry out.
So that's why I was asking ifthe ground's dry enough to start
operating yet, because you wantto start getting and splitting
your wood now.
So that way, when it comes tofall and wintertime, your wood's
good and dry by then.
But unless you're cuttingstanding deadwood though I know,
(35:39):
that's pretty much almost dryas soon as you split it depends
if it's gone punky or not.
It also depends on what type oftree as well there.
But I know if you're cuttingwood now it'll be good to go for
the fall there.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
So that's why I was asking yeah, no, and the longer
it sits it reeks the pointswhere it's kind of you're going
to get as dry as possible.
But and the sooner you get itdown and the sooner you split it
, the faster it's going to dryout and be good burning wood and
that's the big thing iscreosote up your fireplace
chimney is unburnt gases, thatkind of condense on the walls of
(36:13):
the chimney and that's whereyou get a lot of wood fires and
the higher the moisture content,the more smoke that you get in
those, the more likely you areto get creosote burning up in
the chimney and you need thatcleaned on a regular basis.
Now we took out some beechyesterday when we were checking
the pails right and we burnedsome of that last night and it
(36:33):
burned great.
But we cut that and split that.
That had been sitting all yearlong.
Speaker 6 (36:39):
Yeah, I know that one .
I was sitting so long I almostforgot about it, remember.
I still don't quite rememberwhen I cut that, but, knowing uh
me, I probably was like, yeah,I'll split it while I'm standing
there waiting for someone orwhatever the case was.
I was waiting for my brother ornot, but yeah, I didn't
remember that one.
But yeah, it was definitelythere for a long time, because I
don't remember it.
Speaker 5 (37:00):
Yeah so firewood is just about to get into that
season shortly and I likecutting firewood.
But I found a secret.
How shall I say this?
The more experience I get inlife, the easier I find to make
decisions on how to do things.
So when I'm out cuttingfirewood now, I don't take the
(37:23):
gas and the oil.
I'll fill up the saw and take afile and the axes and stuff
like that.
But once the saw is done, onefull fill up of the oil and the
gas.
That's enough to know that I'vedone enough for the day.
Otherwise I push myself toohard and I'm going to see the
chiropractor afterwards.
Otherwise I push myself toohard and I'm going to see the
(37:44):
chiropractor afterwards.
Speaker 6 (37:44):
Yeah, fair enough, I mean, yeah, there's.
Then there's me, where I can goall day still, cause I got that
full of piss and vinegar, as Iwas told as a kid.
Um, but I guess, like youmentioned at the start of this
conversation here about ticks,because it's still cold enough,
so is tick season starting upright now, or what's going on
there?
Because I know I've been bittentwice and it's been like pretty
(38:07):
much like a year.
The anniversary now has turnedinto where it's like you know,
go for a shower and you lift upmy shirt, I'm like, oh, there's
a tick in my arm.
Like, do I got to go to thedoctors again?
So then the last one was on theside of my stomach.
There, when I lifted up myshirt, it was raking leaves and
I was like, yeah, I figured timeof the year.
So has tick season started upthen?
Speaker 5 (38:28):
Well, yeah, that's one of the big things is you got
to protect yourselves and youranimals against ticks and
everything that's out there.
Once morning I said, you know,we were out to seven-ish this
morning with Gunnar thechocolate lab and it's cold
enough, it was minus three, soticks aren't moving.
They're not active that time,but I still.
We give them medication to makesure, which I don't really like
doing.
But I tried a number of otherthings.
(38:50):
There's this thing calledpermethrin that a couple of the
stores sell and it I have afriend, john.
We had John on the SportingDogs Association.
He did a podcast with us wherehe would put this line of
permethrin down the back of hisdogs and been doing it for 20
years that he doesn't have anytick issues at all.
But I tried it last year andGunnar had a number of ticks on
(39:11):
him, which really causes meconcern.
You don't want the dogs to getLyme disease, because I've met a
number of individuals that havedogs have died because their
organs have shut down from Lymedisease.
So you want to make sure.
And then the other thing thatwe always do is most of the time
when I take out, when I'm outdoing firewood or doing the sap
and it's warm enough out there,I'll take some bug spray and
(39:33):
spray the dog down.
Even though he's taken andeaten a medication, he still
could pick up a tick and untilthe tick bites him and gets that
poison into it and kills thetick, it's still transporting
ticks around.
So I give him a quick spray ofthe stuff with the DEET in it
and I spray my pants and stufflike that.
And it's getting to that seasonright now.
(39:54):
But I see a number of storesthat they're selling a
permethrin.
Actually, in one of the storesI was in, it had two forms.
One was a mild one which had0.25% permethrin, and if you
look up permethrin it's actuallycome from an African.
I think it's a chrysanthemumthat they found that kept ticks
(40:15):
and bugs away.
But the shelf life, or when youput it on it, only lasted for a
very short period of time, andso with modern science they
changed it now and so it'll lastfor quite a period of time.
And then they had a heavier one, which is a 0.35 percentage per
mithrin.
So what I'll do is I'll spraymy clothes with that, which will
(40:36):
stay in the clothes and killoff any ticks and stuff like
that, so they climb on it andthings like that.
But yeah, you got to watch outbecause that's the time of the
year that ticks are coming outand you or your pets don't want
to be having to deal with Lymedisease.
Speaker 6 (40:51):
Yeah, and just for people that are worried about
Lyme disease, because I've beenbitten a couple times now, about
Lyme disease, because I've beenbitten a couple times now, when
I went in and saw the doctorsthere, they said you can't
necessarily get Lyme diseaseright away from a tick bite.
It's still a possibility.
But they said the odds for youto actually fully get Lyme
disease or to get thetransmission of the disease, the
(41:11):
tick has to be on you for 24hours or over 24 hours there.
So if you're out in the forestkind of thing, make sure at the
end of the day that you checkyourself, make sure that you're
clean, because if you are, youfind yourself you got a tick
that day.
It's not overly concerning yet,but you should still obviously
get checked out, cause then,like I said, we're not doctors,
can't give medical advice.
But I'm just letting peopleknow that just so they can
(41:32):
breathe a bit easier.
It's just like at the end ofthe day, you the bit easier is
just like at the end of the dayyou find yourself getting a tick
.
Just go and see them becauseyou just want to make sure it's
cleaned up, because you can'tnecessarily get lyme disease
until it reaches that you knowone day mark.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
It's been actually been biting you for that long
yeah, and the reason I started,uh, started spraying, gunner and
myself was we were out theother day and I was doing some
pails and there was a tick ontop of one of the pale lids and
you could see it clear as day.
So I thought, oh great, Iforgot.
Uh, it was a little reminderand so just a little spray down
(42:02):
to to keep to keep um, the, the,the ticks off us in the first
place, and an ounce ofprevention is worth a pound of
cure and anyways.
So, yeah, so you got to watchout and you know it's.
It's uh, uh, that end of theseason or end of the, the um
(42:23):
april where fishing season willstart here in ontario and I
imagine it's different in allthe jurisdictions around the
world and turkey season as well.
So those people wrote you knowthat was one of the times that
we used to pick a lot of stuffand actually in the fishing
season, when it opened, we usedto do a couple that we used to
pick a lot of stuff and actuallyin the fishing season when it
opened, we used to do a coupleof things.
We used to pick fiddleheads aswell.
Would be something that wasvery enjoyable, but I found with
(42:45):
the fiddleheads that if youdidn't clean them properly and
get that kind of brown oldmaterial out, it kind of turned
the flavor a bit.
But once you clean them, justsoak them in salt water and then
take that brown out, they havea very nice flavor when you
saute them.
Speaker 6 (42:59):
Yeah, fiddleheads, I always forget about those, but
those are really prized,especially at the farmers
markets I've been to andeverything else.
You see them or someone sellingthem on the side of the road,
kind of thing.
You got any fiddlehead recipes?
Because I know that's somethingthat I know Brittany would love
to try because she's reallystarting to get into the old,
trying things that are naturallygrown, because, especially in
(43:19):
the world today where there's somuch artificial preservatives
and everything else into it,like we recently went to a
farmer's market out there and webought bread and it was just
like, oh, like I was saying toyou at dinner the other day,
it's like, oh, it's actual bread.
And it's like I kind of gotpuzzled Like what do you mean
actual bread?
I was like, oh, it's just breadwithout preservatives in it
because it doesn't last as longbut it just tastes way better.
So you got a fiddlehead recipeout there off the top of your
(43:42):
head or just kind of like agarlic butter kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (43:44):
Yeah, the only thing that we used to do would we
saute them in a pan with garlicand butter in a frying pan, Just
slow saute them.
Actually we soaked themovernight in salt water and that
helps clean them out and thenwash that all off very
thoroughly and that gets rid ofif there's any bugs or anything
in the fiddleheads.
But I see them in the grocerystores now.
(44:04):
I think they're coming from theEast Coast, New Brunswick's
doing a harvest of theirfiddleheads, which is ostrich
fern, before they open up andpeople can pick them up at some
of the grocery stores.
But yeah, it's another nicething that is very seasonal and
fiddleheads and wild leeks aresome of the things at this time
of the year that you can get outand enjoy.
Speaker 6 (44:24):
Good to know and you were talking about the fishing
season there.
I know trout opens up prettymuch in just well, just over a
week technically here, but Petewas saying on the way in that he
was trying to go out fishingearlier.
I know below the tracks wasalways the old school rule when
that's open season based aroundLake Ontario.
But was he talking aboutfishing for something else or
(44:45):
fishing in a different areathat's open already closer by?
Speaker 5 (44:49):
No, pete from Outdoor Radio Journal podcast and the
Fishing Canada TV show.
He'll be out, I think,belleville down fishing on Lake
Ontario, as I imagine where he'sgoing, and they hit it out in
Lake Ontario and the seasons arepretty different there.
But it's like anything you know.
You got to check your seasonswherever you are because, well,
in Ontario it's quite theencyclopedia to try and figure
(45:10):
out what's open where which it'smore specific, because that way
you can regulate your harvest alot better when you know the
amount of species or the type ofspecies and the amount of
sustainable harvest in a lot ofareas.
So it makes it more difficultto get out.
It's not like it used to be.
Okay, it opened up, go to it.
You're allowed five, seven,whatever the case may be,
(45:30):
depending on what you're fishingfor, pretty much in the entire
district.
But it's not so much thatanymore.
Speaker 6 (45:36):
Okay, good to know.
I was just curious there ifthere was an area that was
opened up that might be only anhour or two-hour drive kind of
thing, because that might besomething that would pique my
interest.
But that's okay, good to know.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
Well, Pete's just around the corner and I'm sure
if you ask him, he'd be morethan happy to tell you.
Anyways, I think that's a wrapfor this podcast.
Garrett, you'll be heading backnext week and back to Calgary
and then you'll be back outworking again shortly, probably
in Saskatchewan, doing thatpotash mine, mind you.
I think potash is one of thethings that have been exempt in
(46:09):
all these tariff issues that aregoing on right now because of
the need for that aspect offertilizer, and the farmers
really need that.
But so you should be back at itshortly.
But it's always great to haveyou on the podcast and always
great to see you anytime.
Speaker 6 (46:23):
Yeah, it's always a pleasure and it's always nice to
be able to come home and seethe family, of course, and
always able to get on a podcastand let people know that I still
exist and that some things aregoing on in the world.
Like I said, saskatchewan'sprobably where I'll end up, but
my name's on the list for a jobin the Yukon.
That I'm not too sure thedetails yet, but that might be a
month-on job kind of thing, amonth on, a couple weeks off,
(46:45):
but we'll see.
And there's a course out inNewfoundland Way that I'm still
waiting to hear about what'sgoing on there, about that
project, the bigger one, the damgoing up in Churchill.
There will be, I'd say, acouple of years out for sure.
Speaker 5 (47:02):
All right, Garrett.
Well, just a little update onwhat's going on out there.
We're talking about ticks andmaple sap and wild leeks and
fiddleheads and firewood and allthe other things that go on out
there.
But it's always interesting andit's a little something
different and we always learn alittle bit more about what's
happening out there under thecanopy.
Thanks again, Garrett.
Speaker 4 (47:35):
How did a small town sheet metal mechanic come to
build one of Canada's mosticonic fishing lodges?
I'm your host, steveNiedzwiecki, and you'll find out
about that and a whole lot moreon the Outdoor Journal Radio
Network's newest podcast,diaries of a Lodge Owner.
But this podcast will be morethan that.
Every week on Diaries of aLodge Owner, I'm going to
(47:58):
introduce you to a ton of greatpeople, share their stories of
our trials, tribulations andinspirations, learn and have
plenty of laughs along the way.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Meanwhile we're sitting there bobbing along
trying to figure out how tocatch a bass and we both decided
one day we were going to be ontelevision doing a fishing show.
Speaker 6 (48:19):
My hands get sore a little bit when I'm reeling in
all those bass in the summertime, but that might be for more
fishing than it was punching.
Speaker 4 (48:26):
You so confidently you said hey, pat, have you ever
eaten a trout?
Find Diaries of a Lodge Ownernow on Spotify, apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcast.
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.
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 will be right here in
your ears bringing you a brandnew episode of Outdoor Journal
Radio.
Now, what are?
We going to talk about for twohours every week.
Well, you know there's going tobe a lot of fishing.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
From athletes.
All the other guys would gogolfing Me and Garth and Turk
and all the Russians would gofishing To scientists.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
But now that we're reforesting- and all that, it's
the perfect transmissionenvironment for life.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you
are.
Outdoor Journal Radio seeks toanswer the questions and tell
the stories of all those whoenjoy being outside.
Find us on Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
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 Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.
(01:36):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-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
(01:59):
research, my skepticism hasfaded to obsession and I now
spend my life dedicated toimproving the lives of others
through natural means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of the strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld world.
(02:26):
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.
So join me today for anothergreat episode and hopefully we
can inspire a few more people tolive their lives under the
canopy.
We can inspire a few morepeople to live their lives under
(02:53):
the canopy, all right?
Well, we're back at it againand, as always, we want to thank
all our listeners across Canadaand all through the States, as
well as Switzerland, trinidad,Tobago, ghana, all around the
world.
We really appreciate that and,as normal, if you have any
questions or you want to hearany podcasts, let us know.
We can see what we can do.
Now, here it is.
It's still minus three out thismorning and I was out with my
(03:16):
chocolate lab and some gunnertaking them out, which was kind
of nice.
Here we are in late April andthe temperature was cold enough
to keep the bugs down, because Idon't like to take them out
when there's chances of himgetting a tick, or myself or
anybody else for that matter,but it was kind of cool.
(03:37):
So it was brisk and nice andnice to be out, nice and clear
and crisp and all that kind ofstuff.
But it's time to start warmingup a bit, which think is going
to happen and things are movingalong.
So there's more for today'srecording.
We've got our our regular guest, my son garrett.
Speaker 6 (03:55):
Welcome to the program, garrett hi, uh, thanks
for having me again.
Really appreciate being here onthe show and always able to
lend a hand and help out when Ican well, garrett flew in from
calgary where britney is, andhe's here for for a bit.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
Then he'll be flying back.
He's well, what do you gotgoing tomorrow, garrett?
Speaker 6 (04:16):
I got a hockey tournament playing in for
through my union, through mywork.
Um, we're looking forward tothat because it's always nice
lacing up the skates again, beable to play.
I'm also back to see achiropractor because we recently
moved out in calgary uh, we'reout in the house now, which is
nice, gives a little bit morespace, a little bit more
abilities to prep for fishingand hunting and all the outdoor
(04:40):
stuff I enjoy.
Um, having a garage.
That makes a big difference forthat.
And so when I was moving Ilocked my pelvis up.
So my right leg's about an inchand a half to two inches longer
than my left leg.
So I'm a little bit hurtingright now, but hopefully later
today I'll get my pelvisreadjusted there.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
Yeah, we had Dr Fenella on before.
We talked about petchiropractor, but we haven't
really had a chiropractor thattalks about people and the
things they do.
And I know we have this greatchiropractor, dr Oroshekham, and
he's a Ukrainian guy and hedoes a great job and one of the
things the first thing he doesis he'll lie you flat on the
(05:24):
what do they call it?
An adjusting table.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
Yeah, adjusting table pretty much what they use there
.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
And then they measure your leg length to see if
there's any issues with that.
Well, now Josh Garrett'sbrother, who we had on the
program a couple of times aswell.
Now Josh had scoliosis for overfive years and that's a
curvature of the spine andJosh's scoliosis.
We had years and that's acurvature of the spine and
Josh's scoliosis.
We had seen a specialist Go inand see the specialist.
Oh, you need to do this, youneed to do that, you do
(05:51):
everything else.
And then my wife Garrett's mom,diane, up at the store that she
was managing one of the peopleshe had there.
They were into a conversationwhere the university student she
just hired her sister had beenin and got her scoliosis fixed.
And I said, oh, how'd you dothat?
(06:12):
And they said, well, actuallywe went in and saw a
chiropractor and thechiropractor straightened it up
and I thought, geez, I happen toknow a guy, so, sure enough, we
set up an appointment.
Take Josh in and remember he'dbeen going to a specialist, a
Western trained medicinespecialist, for over five years.
(06:33):
And you need to do this, youneed to do that.
And I got to tell you he putshim on and he says well, the
problem here is your one leg isway longer than the other, your
one leg is way longer than theother, which usually means
there's a hip problem and yourhip seized up and your spine's
kind of caught inside there.
And he said and in one visit,fixed his scoliosis.
(06:54):
It was just like what Fiveyears with a specialist, one
visit to this chiropractor andhe fixed his scoliosis, which
was phenomenal.
So a year goes by and Josh saysDad, dad, you know, we got to
make another chiropracticappointment.
I said, well, you got problems.
He said, no, I just want tomake sure everything's okay.
Well, sure enough, we go in andhe says, no, everything's fine.
(07:17):
And his back was fine, hisscoliosis was fixed, no problems
at all.
And it just goes to show youyou got to think outside the box
sometimes to get these fixed.
So what do you?
Got hooked up here, what areyou looking to get fixed,
garrett?
Speaker 6 (07:32):
So I was moving all those awkward boxes and heavy
positionings and all that stuffthere, my pelvis, my right
pelvis, is locked in an openposition.
So if you think of like youwere to cup your hands together
kind of thing, and you were totake your right one, you had it
flipped open.
The other one's kind of sittingthere.
It's kind of flipped in an openposition, so it's a lot more
(07:53):
exposed and a little bit morevertical there.
So it's causing my right leg tobe longer than my left leg,
which is putting a lot morepressure on my right foot than
my left foot.
So I just need to get my pelvisreadjusted there because it
looks like I'm pinching a nerve,because I get a little flare-up
every once in a while when Iwalk a certain way or sit down
at a certain angle, kind ofthing.
So I just got to get my pelvisjust popped back in place, kind
(08:16):
of thing.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Oh, that's good.
I know that Baba, which wouldbe my mother, my Garrett's
grandmother, she's Ukrainian,she had the same thing.
She was locked up and you couldtell Now one of the ways to do
it.
You know, kind of feet shoulderwidth apart and hands on your
hips and you swing your hip outto the left or swing it to the
(08:39):
right and you kind of tell bythe distance of your swing.
And I'm not a doctor, we can'tgive medical advice.
This is just some of the stuffthat we see, anyway.
So the same thing with Baba.
Her hip was all locked up andso he freed that up.
And she says to me the next dayshe says, you know, I couldn't
(08:59):
figure out why.
I was always kind of when I wastrying to walk straight,
straight, I was always going toone way, to the right a bit, and
that's because her hip waslocked up.
So it was all back to normal.
Now fixed her up, good, butit's like anything, and you
tried somebody out in Calgaryand it was not so well.
It wasn't what you wereexpecting, right, garrett?
Speaker 6 (09:17):
No, it was a very half-asset thing, kind of like
instantly they didn't even askme like what was wrong, just
assumed what was wrong.
And then I tried to fix mywhole back.
Like he started with my centerof my back kind of thing,
cracked that, which I'm like youknow, great, it feels nice, but
it didn't really do me anything.
And then went up to my neck,tweaked my neck and then tried
doing my pelvis and then, whenhe was done, trying to wrap up,
(09:39):
I stood up and just did mylittle test there that orders,
uh, showed me and I said to himlike hey, I only got four inches
of movement on my left side andI got eight or nine on my right
, so I'm still locked up.
Can you release me?
And he kind of took a step back,being like, oh, like, and kind
of was almost like offended thatI called him out for not fixing
(09:59):
me right there in the firstplace and trying to wrap up.
So I got him to release itbetter, but obviously didn't
quite get it quite right.
So now I'm looking to get fixedup better.
But yeah, it was just a veryhalf-asset effort.
Didn't even tell me, didn'teven show me what was wrong,
just assumed the whole back wasmessed up.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Yeah, it's like anything.
You got to find the rightperson to do the right job and
we very much appreciate it.
I actually have quite a fewpeople come in from all over Now
.
They're coming in from Calgary.
I have them driving down fromPeterborough.
I actually have them coming infrom Kingston to come in and see
them to fix them up as well,and there's actually somebody
flying in from the Bahamas to gosee this guy, but I couldn't
(10:39):
get them in anyways to fix themup.
But it's like anything you'vegot to around.
You got to find somebody thatworks with you and somebody that
works with you may not work forsomebody else, and the same
thing goes vice versa.
So you find some people thatare good, but what else is
happening out west?
What's the temperature like outCalgary?
Speaker 6 (10:58):
way.
It's odd, but it was plus 16.
Brittany was telling me therejust plus 16 when I left, which
was amazing.
So I was like, oh, plus 16.
I'm going to get back tosouthern Ontario here and it's
going to be nice and warm, and Iget out of the plane and it's
like one degree and thenovernight it's minus five.
(11:19):
So I'm like, well, that's veryunexpected.
But the funny thing was, though,in Calgary it was like four
days before that we had it wason like a Sunday there and all
of a sudden we had a snowstormand I was surprised the snow was
sticking to the ground, becausetwo days before that it was
like plus 12.
And then before that, we had anice hot stretch.
I think it even reached likeplus 16 the one day.
(11:39):
But yeah, it came back and nowit's nice and warm, and so I
mean looking forward to thespring now, or the warmer
weather for sure, because onceit hits, I'm definitely like all
right, winter, I'm over, eventhough I love it, but I'm like,
yeah, I'm ready for warm weatheragain.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Yeah, we had a good winter.
It was the way I like it.
You know I don't like thefreezing rain.
Three saw, three saw it wascold, it was winter.
Okay, we're done that.
Let's move into the spring, inwhich we're having a bit now.
Today's a great day here.
I think it was plus 13, whereyesterday was well, this morning
, like I said, when I took thechocolate lab gunner out, it was
(12:15):
minus three this morning, so itwas a bit brisk, but it was
very nice and refreshing, whichis great, and yeah, so that was
nice to be able to get out andthe temperature's starting to
warm up.
So I'll be swinging the golfclubs fairly soon.
Speaker 6 (12:30):
Yeah, which you know.
Golfing's always nice, butother than I know the seasons
are not quite ready for it.
I know some courses are open,but how are things going down
here?
Anything I've missed or need toknow about?
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Well, it's that time of the year.
We could have used you a whileago when we were hauling sap
pails out, and yesterday Ichecked and it wasn't running
yesterday.
But after that cold weather wehad the past couple of nights.
We may get one more day of run,but we'll see.
It's hard to tell, but it lookslike it's near enough over.
So the maple sap appears to bedone, and I'm not sure about
(13:07):
birch sap because I didn't tapany birch trees to see if it was
running or how things weregoing there.
But there could be thepossibility that birch sap was
start to run, which is adifferent environment or process
completely.
Speaker 6 (13:22):
Yeah, that's interesting.
I mean, I know I'm always likebeing around for maple syrup
season because you know what.
It's just something fun to do.
It's nice to get out andcollect the sap, but at the same
time it's also a lot of work.
And yeah, I'm surprised to hearthat with the cold weather here
that it's not running as much.
I know the birch trees alwaysrun, usually right after the
maple syrup stops, kind of thing.
(13:43):
But yeah, like you know how'dthe maple syrup go this year
though?
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Well, it was a really late season because February
was so cold.
Last year I talked to somemaple syrup people that were
actually doing boil their firstboils in January last year,
because it was so the weatherwas so conducive for sap to run.
But this year nothing reallystarted until well into March.
So it was kind of surprising,and I spoke to a number of
(14:11):
producers in the past while thatwere just finishing up their
final boils here at the middleof April, which is a bit
different, but it's the samething.
I haven't tapped any.
I should probably throw acouple of taps in some of the
birch trees to see if that's saprunning.
But there's a big differencethere, because birch sap, maple
(14:31):
sap okay, you need 40 liters ofsap to make one liter of syrup.
And most people know and wetalked about this, I got a
couple of podcasts with thatwhere what we do is we boil
water with a special maple syrupthermometer and then you adjust
the, because most people don'trealize this, but different
pressures will actually havewater boil slightly different,
(14:56):
believe it or not.
So they have a gauge that youcan set.
So, at the pressure of the timewhen you're boiling your water,
we'll set it to zero.
And then what you do is youcheck your sap, and maple sap
turns to maple syrup at plusseven.
But you got to make sure you'reat your actual plus seven.
(15:16):
So what happens then is you setyour gauge and then you go
check your maple sap boil tofind out what it's boiling at,
and once it hits plus seven iswhen it's actually one of the
ways to tell that it's actuallyturned to syrup now.
And now the birch syrup isquite a bit different, because
(15:39):
you're running birch syrup.
It's like I said, 40 to 1, 40liters of sap from maple to 1
liter of syrup, and birch isactually quite a bit different.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
And by different, what do you mean?
Because I mean I've beenfamiliar with tapping birch
trees, but I don't know theexact numbers or science behind
it.
What do you mean there?
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Well it's 80 to 1.
So you've got to have 80 litersof sap to produce one liter of
birch syrup.
So it takes twice as muchenergy to take it down to that
next level.
So it can be quite costly.
Speaker 6 (16:13):
So you're saying 80 liters to 1.
So I guess, as a person, if Iwas asked a question about this,
it's like does that mean yougot to have have more taps?
Can birch trees produce more?
Or is it kind of a situation ofyou're just going to get less
of a yield of the birch treesbecause they're not flowing more
than the maple trees?
Like, are you tapping the treesmore or less kind of thing to
(16:36):
get this 80 to 1?
Are you just still at the samepace as a maple syrup tree would
produce its sap at?
Speaker 5 (16:42):
well, I don't know.
I haven't done enough researchon birch syrup and I probably
should try and see if we can getsomebody on.
But I know because usually youget about a liter of syrup per
tap with maple.
So if we tap 200 trees weusually get about 200 liters of
syrup.
(17:02):
But I don't know, because ofthat ratio, if it's with birch,
if you need to tap 400 trees toget 200 liters because it's
double, or whether that tap andthere's more syrup in the tree,
and I just don't know about that.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
That's good to know, like definitely something to
look into or be interesting tofind out, just because I'm sure
people are out there curious'recurious about you know different
things in the world, anddifferent things about maple
syrup, for that matter, here incanada right, yeah, well, I know
that.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Uh, some of the things that I see is in eastern
canada the maple is veryprominent where in western
canada they don't get a lot ofmaple trees, so they do a lot of
more birch syrup.
But it's like I said, and ofcourse, ours, especially because
we control the temperature, sowe use propane, which can be
very expensive this time of theyear.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
Well, I've got another question for you then
here if you've got any expertiseor information on it.
But so there's maple syrup andthere's birch syrup.
Is there any other trees thatyou could tap for syrups and
stuff like that?
Speaker 5 (18:05):
Actually, the only other one that I've heard of is
walnut and I don't even know.
I've talked to some of themaple syrup producers that were
telling me that there wasindividuals that make walnut
syrup, but I don't know any ofthe properties of it.
I have no idea whether it's 40to 1, 20 to 1, 80 to 1, 60 to 1.
(18:25):
I have no idea about walnutsyrup at all.
But you know, one of the thingsthat Garrett was it was kind of
interesting is when, way back,oh, quite a few decades ago, in
the early 90s, when I wasknee-high to a grasshopper, I
used to bring out for cuts, forharvests, I would bring out
(18:48):
companies to look at forests, tobuy the trees once they were
cut and hauled out, and at theroadside, and one of the ones
was a company called Birchlandand they wanted to know if any
of the trees, whether they werethe birch trees and the maple
trees, were tapped.
Because what happens is is itchanges the way your veneer
(19:13):
comes off.
The growth rings in it actuallygrow towards the tap holes and
put specific lines in it.
So when it starts, when they vveneer, shear off the veneer, it
actually looks very differentand and the quality of your
veneer is degraded quite a bit,and a lot of them actually did
not want any of the trees thatwere tapped for maple syrup or
(19:37):
for a birch.
Now, mind you, if, if the tapholes were low enough and the
tree was big enough, you couldgo above the tap holes and you
won't get these growth ringlines that kind of gravitate
towards the maple syrup holesthat give you a very different
looking veneer.
So it's almost like it'sbasically set up or intentional
(20:00):
that they have these growthrings that grow towards these
holes, and it's very prominent.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
That's something I never heard of and I'm kind of
curious about this walnut sapbecause I mean in my downtime,
when I get very little of it,but when I do get my downtime I
watch a couple of cooking showshere and there and walnut seems
to be a very unique item,especially in the Italianian uh
cooking, uh mentality out thereand I'm curious to how that
(20:26):
would taste.
But obviously we haven't hadany samples, so something I have
to look into and find out howthat would go over.
But I guess another questionwould be is so when you said it
tap, when you these tap marks inthe tree affects the veneer of
the wood?
Yeah, do you think that wouldactually be more beneficial in
today's society?
Because there's always you, yousee flooring now in the stores
(20:48):
and it's got these uniquepatterns and colors and unique
waves and grooves of the woodand the growth marks and
everything like that.
Do you think that'd be morebeneficial nowadays to have
those marks in the tree, Likethat'd be more of a prize to
have?
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Well, that I couldn't tell you.
It's tree, like that'd be moreof a prize to have.
Well, that I couldn't tell you.
Um, it's.
It's surprising what peoplewant and what, what.
What you know, like you said,it's unique.
So some things are very, verydifferent and it's hard to say
whether people would want thator not.
I know that the industry waslooking for very consistency and
didn't want any of these taptrees for that reason, or at
least around the taps okay.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Well, my question would be is then like well, I
guess not a question, more orless like a thought here, is
that burrows on the tree?
They always go for thosebecause they're very like unique
grooves and like edging andmarking and everything else is
very, very unique.
Once you process that down, youmake it into wherever they want
to make it, whether it be forbowls or wooden spoons or
utensils, or you know if Rollywas here for tobacco pipes and
(21:45):
stuff like that.
But do you think like nowadaysthat'd be more interesting
though.
Like like especially cause Imean I was never a knee high to
a grasshopper back in the nine1900s here, but I was, you know,
maybe a late knee grasshopperthere, cause I was born in the
1900s, in the very last fewyears of the 1900s.
But my question would be likeisn't that more of a target now
(22:07):
is having those unique aspectsthere?
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Well, you never know.
You never know what people likeand it's hard to determine or
to explain on a podcast whatthese groove lines or growth
lines would look like as theygravitate towards the whole, and
you know.
But that's what industry wantsat that time and things change
and it's like a lot of stuffSome people want to.
(22:31):
I mean, live edge stuff wasnever something of the past.
You know the live edge woodthat they use, the making tables
and everything now, but liveedge is a huge demand so I'm
just thinking here to kind ofgive people a better example.
Speaker 6 (22:46):
What if people know what a topographical map looks
like?
Yeah, right, so you have likethe depths and those rings that
show you as the elevationchanges, say, you have the
deepest spot would be like whereyour tap hole would be.
Would that be kind of theimitation there that people
would expect to kind of get thisrough idea of how it affects a
tree?
Speaker 5 (23:03):
yeah, your, your, your growth rings.
Now they have these kind ofexactly.
I was trying to think ofsomething that would be and I
think you kind of coined itexactly right if you look at
topographical mac and you havethese, these, um, the, the lines
that show you the elevationlines and how they get smaller
and smaller and smaller as youget a hill, and it would be the
(23:25):
same thing towards a taphole.
They would kind of look likeelevation lines on a
topographical map towards ataphole and there's a very
consistent as opposed to the wayit normally with growth rings,
and when they do their veneerthey're very different.
Speaker 6 (23:42):
Oh well, it's a very different.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
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Speaker 7 (25:18):
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Hey, thanks for listening.
Back to the episode.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
So I guess another question I would not a question.
I guess I don't know why I keepsaying questions here.
I know it's a season, so I likewild leeks and I know wild
leeks are always around thistime of year.
I know it's not quite becauseit's been cold, but like or wild
leeks coming in season here orpretty soon, because I know
turkey hunting and trout openersaround the corner and I always
(28:53):
remember being when I was ableto go to those things if I had
the time for it, it was alsowild leek season.
So the wild leeks growing upyet have you been not eyeing
those at all, or not?
Speaker 5 (29:03):
Well, it's great you mentioned that because I'm
starting to see the patches justcoming up now.
So I picked a leaf two days agoand tried it and it still
didn't have that kind ofgarlicky kind of taste to it.
But wild leeks, I'll probablygive them another two, three
weeks.
It'll be the end of April,beginning of May, when the leeks
in our area will be ready to beharvested.
(29:26):
And for those that don't know,if you're looking for wild leeks
or ramps, they're actuallygreat.
It kind of looks like a greenonion bulb with leaves and the
leaves go spectacular in saladsand we actually supply a couple
of butcher shops with wild leeksand they make a wild leek
sausage.
That is hugely demanding andthey use the leaves and the
(29:46):
bulbs in order to give that aspecial flavor.
But they're just starting tocome up.
I just saw it two days agowhere the leaves were still.
They're still a couple inchesoff the ground, just breaking
through the fall leaves from thetrees and if you're looking for
them, the place to look is ifyou find trilliums growing in an
area.
(30:07):
That's the same kind of growthmedian that wild leeks like and
do very well there.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Mike, as I'm sitting here listening kind of thing.
So because I'm out in Calgaryand also Saskatchewan and I was
in BC before and I've beenpretty much across Canada, Does
it grow in other areas acrossCanada or is it just kind of
like an Ontario thing?
Speaker 5 (30:28):
No, I don't think it's Ontario thing.
I think it chances are it growsCanada wide and but I, to be
honest, I've never looked forthem in other jurisdictions and
of course it's very specific tothe time of the year.
It's kind of it's one of thoseground areas, just like the
trillium is, before the leavesstart coming out on the trees,
(30:48):
and that's one of the key signsfor maple sap as well is when
the maple trees start to bud outis basically when the sap
season is done, because you'regoing to get a really bad taste
and you may get some sap goingup and down, but once the leaves
start to bud out you get that.
And once that canopy comes inand covers it so there's no
(31:08):
sunlight to get into the ground,things like the leeks die off.
But for the next month or soyou're going to find that you're
going to be in the leek season,which are great for potato and
leek soup.
We put the leaves in salads Plus.
Quite quite frankly, it's likeour buddy doug bless his soul.
He used to have a jar of leekbulbs in the fridge and all he
(31:28):
would do would change the waterall the time and they would last
for two, three years in thefridge and they were just great
to eat yeah, because, like whenyou said, the butcher there that
makes wild leek sausages, I'mlike that would be really good,
especially in a I wonder, in allthese processed preserved food
or cured meats and stuff likethat.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
I wonder if that would be a good thing to do or
something like that, or evenlike moose or deer or venison
sausages there.
So definitely something to have, because I like garlic as much
as anyone else, and especiallyonion, but they always I don't
know, the wild leaks are justsomething different, but I guess
I'll go ahead there.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
Yeah, I recall one thing when I was elected at
Queen's Park I brought in a loadof cleaned wild leaks to caucus
meeting and everybody in caucuswas there.
It was like, oh, you got to trythis.
And I had a couple of guys Iremember Bill Murdoch, bless his
soul, bill was telling people,oh, you got to try this, these
are great, these are great.
(32:27):
But what people didn't know wasis all of a sudden you eat
these leeks and you have thiskind of garlic breath but you
don't notice it with everybodyelse.
When everybody eats them,everybody has it.
So everybody in caucus,unbeknown to them, was coming
out reeking of garlic, actuallywild leeks.
And I recall Bill Murdoch and Iwere walking by the caucus
(32:49):
office and somebody walked outand there was a reporter walking
by and she said, oh my God,what is that smell?
It was the wild leeks thateverybody was having.
And Bill conned her into thewhole thing.
He says, oh, they're wild leeks.
Have you never tried them?
No, never.
She said, oh, do you like akind of garlic onion?
She said, oh, yeah.
(33:10):
So he gave it to her and, sureenough, in the press gallery
there was one reporter up therewho just reeked of wild leeks,
so it's kind of fun, but theyhave a lot of good beneficial
aspects to them as well, youknow, with blood pressure and
things like that.
But there's, you know, a lot ofthings happening and the Wild
Leaks season is just abouthappening now and then, like I
said, the same place that you'refinding Trilliums is the place
(33:32):
you're going to find Wild Leaks.
Speaker 6 (33:34):
That's good to know.
Like I said, maybe when I goback out to Calgary there and
have some free time I free timeI'll go out and see if I can
find something or take a look,because you never know, like you
said, if it grows across Canada.
I know it's not here Ontario,but I've seen, I guess, the odd
show here and there that showswild leeks being elsewhere as
well.
But I guess it also leads me toask you about what's going on
(33:54):
with the firewood season then,like is the ground dry enough?
Can I start cutting yet?
Or is it kind of like give itanother week or month or so?
Because I know that it's been aslow thaw out here and it's
been a little bit colder and wet, so the ground hasn't quite
dried up yet.
So firewood season ready tostart yet, or a little bit
longer?
Speaker 5 (34:10):
no, nothing yet for firewood.
You got to remember the saying.
You know, April showers bringMay flowers.
And I got to tell you we had somuch rain this this April that
the ground is pretty wet andit's tough to get to, at least
to drive into the places we go.
I mean we can walk into quite afew of them and fall some trees
and then, you know, block themup and split them and have them
(34:32):
ready to go, but not ready todrive in and do any pickups yet.
So it'll be a few weeks beforethat all dries up, probably like
another month, and hopefully,like they say you know, April
showers bring May flowers thatthe May flowers will do well and
that the rain has kind of heldoff now for a bit.
But firewood season's juststarting.
Well, I've been out a lot ofthe winter stuff that we fell
(34:55):
and had down and I've beenpicking up and still doing a
burn.
I had a good fireplace firelast night just to kind of take
the dampness out of the house.
So it's still burning.
But firewood is going to be alittle bit of time before you
can actually get in to where weare.
Mind you, I'm seeing a lot offirewood piles where people are
cutting and splitting theirstuff already for next year.
Speaker 6 (35:17):
Yeah, that's true, because you got to give it a
season to dry out, andespecially from the spring,
summer there and summer to fall.
That gives it enough time foryour firewood to dry out.
So that's why I was asking ifthe ground's dry enough to start
operating yet, because you wantto start getting and splitting
your wood now.
So that way, when it comes tofall and wintertime, your wood's
good and dry by then.
But unless you're cuttingstanding deadwood though I know,
(35:39):
that's pretty much almost dryas soon as you split it depends
if it's gone punky or not.
It also depends on what type oftree as well there.
But I know if you're cuttingwood now it'll be good to go for
the fall there.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
So that's why I was asking yeah, no, and the longer
it sits it reeks the pointswhere it's kind of you're going
to get as dry as possible.
But and the sooner you get itdown and the sooner you split it
, the faster it's going to dryout and be good burning wood and
that's the big thing iscreosote up your fireplace
chimney is unburnt gases, thatkind of condense on the walls of
(36:13):
the chimney and that's whereyou get a lot of wood fires and
the higher the moisture content,the more smoke that you get in
those, the more likely you areto get creosote burning up in
the chimney and you need thatcleaned on a regular basis.
Now we took out some beechyesterday when we were checking
the pails right and we burnedsome of that last night and it
(36:33):
burned great.
But we cut that and split that.
That had been sitting all yearlong.
Speaker 6 (36:39):
Yeah, I know that one .
I was sitting so long I almostforgot about it, remember.
I still don't quite rememberwhen I cut that, but, knowing uh
me, I probably was like, yeah,I'll split it while I'm standing
there waiting for someone orwhatever the case was.
I was waiting for my brother ornot, but yeah, I didn't
remember that one.
But yeah, it was definitelythere for a long time, because I
don't remember it.
Speaker 5 (37:00):
Yeah so firewood is just about to get into that
season shortly and I likecutting firewood.
But I found a secret.
How shall I say this?
The more experience I get inlife, the easier I find to make
decisions on how to do things.
So when I'm out cuttingfirewood now, I don't take the
(37:23):
gas and the oil.
I'll fill up the saw and take afile and the axes and stuff
like that.
But once the saw is done, onefull fill up of the oil and the
gas.
That's enough to know that I'vedone enough for the day.
Otherwise I push myself toohard and I'm going to see the
chiropractor afterwards.
Otherwise I push myself toohard and I'm going to see the
(37:44):
chiropractor afterwards.
Speaker 6 (37:44):
Yeah, fair enough, I mean, yeah, there's.
Then there's me, where I can goall day still, cause I got that
full of piss and vinegar, as Iwas told as a kid.
Um, but I guess, like youmentioned at the start of this
conversation here about ticks,because it's still cold enough,
so is tick season starting upright now, or what's going on
there?
Because I know I've been bittentwice and it's been like pretty
(38:07):
much like a year.
The anniversary now has turnedinto where it's like you know,
go for a shower and you lift upmy shirt, I'm like, oh, there's
a tick in my arm.
Like, do I got to go to thedoctors again?
So then the last one was on theside of my stomach.
There, when I lifted up myshirt, it was raking leaves and
I was like, yeah, I figured timeof the year.
So has tick season started upthen?
Speaker 5 (38:28):
Well, yeah, that's one of the big things is you got
to protect yourselves and youranimals against ticks and
everything that's out there.
Once morning I said, you know,we were out to seven-ish this
morning with Gunnar thechocolate lab and it's cold
enough, it was minus three, soticks aren't moving.
They're not active that time,but I still.
We give them medication to makesure, which I don't really like
doing.
But I tried a number of otherthings.
(38:50):
There's this thing calledpermethrin that a couple of the
stores sell and it I have afriend, john.
We had John on the SportingDogs Association.
He did a podcast with us wherehe would put this line of
permethrin down the back of hisdogs and been doing it for 20
years that he doesn't have anytick issues at all.
But I tried it last year andGunnar had a number of ticks on
(39:11):
him, which really causes meconcern.
You don't want the dogs to getLyme disease, because I've met a
number of individuals that havedogs have died because their
organs have shut down from Lymedisease.
So you want to make sure.
And then the other thing thatwe always do is most of the time
when I take out, when I'm outdoing firewood or doing the sap
and it's warm enough out there,I'll take some bug spray and
(39:33):
spray the dog down.
Even though he's taken andeaten a medication, he still
could pick up a tick and untilthe tick bites him and gets that
poison into it and kills thetick, it's still transporting
ticks around.
So I give him a quick spray ofthe stuff with the DEET in it
and I spray my pants and stufflike that.
And it's getting to that seasonright now.
(39:54):
But I see a number of storesthat they're selling a
permethrin.
Actually, in one of the storesI was in, it had two forms.
One was a mild one which had0.25% permethrin, and if you
look up permethrin it's actuallycome from an African.
I think it's a chrysanthemumthat they found that kept ticks
(40:15):
and bugs away.
But the shelf life, or when youput it on it, only lasted for a
very short period of time, andso with modern science they
changed it now and so it'll lastfor quite a period of time.
And then they had a heavier one, which is a 0.35 percentage per
mithrin.
So what I'll do is I'll spraymy clothes with that, which will
(40:36):
stay in the clothes and killoff any ticks and stuff like
that, so they climb on it andthings like that.
But yeah, you got to watch outbecause that's the time of the
year that ticks are coming outand you or your pets don't want
to be having to deal with Lymedisease.
Speaker 6 (40:51):
Yeah, and just for people that are worried about
Lyme disease, because I've beenbitten a couple times now, about
Lyme disease, because I've beenbitten a couple times now, when
I went in and saw the doctorsthere, they said you can't
necessarily get Lyme diseaseright away from a tick bite.
It's still a possibility.
But they said the odds for youto actually fully get Lyme
disease or to get thetransmission of the disease, the
(41:11):
tick has to be on you for 24hours or over 24 hours there.
So if you're out in the forestkind of thing, make sure at the
end of the day that you checkyourself, make sure that you're
clean, because if you are, youfind yourself you got a tick
that day.
It's not overly concerning yet,but you should still obviously
get checked out, cause then,like I said, we're not doctors,
can't give medical advice.
But I'm just letting peopleknow that just so they can
(41:32):
breathe a bit easier.
It's just like at the end ofthe day, you the bit easier is
just like at the end of the dayyou find yourself getting a tick
.
Just go and see them becauseyou just want to make sure it's
cleaned up, because you can'tnecessarily get lyme disease
until it reaches that you knowone day mark.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
It's been actually been biting you for that long
yeah, and the reason I started,uh, started spraying, gunner and
myself was we were out theother day and I was doing some
pails and there was a tick ontop of one of the pale lids and
you could see it clear as day.
So I thought, oh great, Iforgot.
Uh, it was a little reminderand so just a little spray down
(42:02):
to to keep to keep um, the, the,the ticks off us in the first
place, and an ounce ofprevention is worth a pound of
cure and anyways.
So, yeah, so you got to watchout and you know it's.
It's uh, uh, that end of theseason or end of the, the um
(42:23):
april where fishing season willstart here in ontario and I
imagine it's different in allthe jurisdictions around the
world and turkey season as well.
So those people wrote you knowthat was one of the times that
we used to pick a lot of stuffand actually in the fishing
season, when it opened, we usedto do a couple that we used to
pick a lot of stuff and actuallyin the fishing season when it
opened, we used to do a coupleof things.
We used to pick fiddleheads aswell.
Would be something that wasvery enjoyable, but I found with
(42:45):
the fiddleheads that if youdidn't clean them properly and
get that kind of brown oldmaterial out, it kind of turned
the flavor a bit.
But once you clean them, justsoak them in salt water and then
take that brown out, they havea very nice flavor when you
saute them.
Speaker 6 (42:59):
Yeah, fiddleheads, I always forget about those, but
those are really prized,especially at the farmers
markets I've been to andeverything else.
You see them or someone sellingthem on the side of the road,
kind of thing.
You got any fiddlehead recipes?
Because I know that's somethingthat I know Brittany would love
to try because she's reallystarting to get into the old,
trying things that are naturallygrown, because, especially in
(43:19):
the world today where there's somuch artificial preservatives
and everything else into it,like we recently went to a
farmer's market out there and webought bread and it was just
like, oh, like I was saying toyou at dinner the other day,
it's like, oh, it's actual bread.
And it's like I kind of gotpuzzled Like what do you mean
actual bread?
I was like, oh, it's just breadwithout preservatives in it
because it doesn't last as longbut it just tastes way better.
So you got a fiddlehead recipeout there off the top of your
(43:42):
head or just kind of like agarlic butter kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (43:44):
Yeah, the only thing that we used to do would we
saute them in a pan with garlicand butter in a frying pan, Just
slow saute them.
Actually we soaked themovernight in salt water and that
helps clean them out and thenwash that all off very
thoroughly and that gets rid ofif there's any bugs or anything
in the fiddleheads.
But I see them in the grocerystores now.
(44:04):
I think they're coming from theEast Coast, New Brunswick's
doing a harvest of theirfiddleheads, which is ostrich
fern, before they open up andpeople can pick them up at some
of the grocery stores.
But yeah, it's another nicething that is very seasonal and
fiddleheads and wild leeks aresome of the things at this time
of the year that you can get outand enjoy.
Speaker 6 (44:24):
Good to know and you were talking about the fishing
season there.
I know trout opens up prettymuch in just well, just over a
week technically here, but Petewas saying on the way in that he
was trying to go out fishingearlier.
I know below the tracks wasalways the old school rule when
that's open season based aroundLake Ontario.
But was he talking aboutfishing for something else or
(44:45):
fishing in a different areathat's open already closer by?
Speaker 5 (44:49):
No, pete from Outdoor Radio Journal podcast and the
Fishing Canada TV show.
He'll be out, I think,belleville down fishing on Lake
Ontario, as I imagine where he'sgoing, and they hit it out in
Lake Ontario and the seasons arepretty different there.
But it's like anything you know.
You got to check your seasonswherever you are because, well,
in Ontario it's quite theencyclopedia to try and figure
(45:10):
out what's open where which it'smore specific, because that way
you can regulate your harvest alot better when you know the
amount of species or the type ofspecies and the amount of
sustainable harvest in a lot ofareas.
So it makes it more difficultto get out.
It's not like it used to be.
Okay, it opened up, go to it.
You're allowed five, seven,whatever the case may be,
(45:30):
depending on what you're fishingfor, pretty much in the entire
district.
But it's not so much thatanymore.
Speaker 6 (45:36):
Okay, good to know.
I was just curious there ifthere was an area that was
opened up that might be only anhour or two-hour drive kind of
thing, because that might besomething that would pique my
interest.
But that's okay, good to know.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
Well, Pete's just around the corner and I'm sure
if you ask him, he'd be morethan happy to tell you.
Anyways, I think that's a wrapfor this podcast.
Garrett, you'll be heading backnext week and back to Calgary
and then you'll be back outworking again shortly, probably
in Saskatchewan, doing thatpotash mine, mind you.
I think potash is one of thethings that have been exempt in
(46:09):
all these tariff issues that aregoing on right now because of
the need for that aspect offertilizer, and the farmers
really need that.
But so you should be back at itshortly.
But it's always great to haveyou on the podcast and always
great to see you anytime.
Speaker 6 (46:23):
Yeah, it's always a pleasure and it's always nice to
be able to come home and seethe family, of course, and
always able to get on a podcastand let people know that I still
exist and that some things aregoing on in the world.
Like I said, saskatchewan'sprobably where I'll end up, but
my name's on the list for a jobin the Yukon.
That I'm not too sure thedetails yet, but that might be a
month-on job kind of thing, amonth on, a couple weeks off,
(46:45):
but we'll see.
And there's a course out inNewfoundland Way that I'm still
waiting to hear about what'sgoing on there, about that
project, the bigger one, the damgoing up in Churchill.
There will be, I'd say, acouple of years out for sure.
Speaker 5 (47:02):
All right, Garrett.
Well, just a little update onwhat's going on out there.
We're talking about ticks andmaple sap and wild leeks and
fiddleheads and firewood and allthe other things that go on out
there.
But it's always interesting andit's a little something
different and we always learn alittle bit more about what's
happening out there under thecanopy.
Thanks again, Garrett.
Speaker 4 (47:35):
How did a small town sheet metal mechanic come to
build one of Canada's mosticonic fishing lodges?
I'm your host, steveNiedzwiecki, and you'll find out
about that and a whole lot moreon the Outdoor Journal Radio
Network's newest podcast,diaries of a Lodge Owner.
But this podcast will be morethan that.
Every week on Diaries of aLodge Owner, I'm going to
(47:58):
introduce you to a ton of greatpeople, share their stories of
our trials, tribulations andinspirations, learn and have
plenty of laughs along the way.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Meanwhile we're sitting there bobbing along
trying to figure out how tocatch a bass and we both decided
one day we were going to be ontelevision doing a fishing show.
Speaker 6 (48:19):
My hands get sore a little bit when I'm reeling in
all those bass in the summertime, but that might be for more
fishing than it was punching.
Speaker 4 (48:26):
You so confidently you said hey, pat, have you ever
eaten a trout?
Find Diaries of a Lodge Ownernow on Spotify, apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcast.
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