Preferably meatless, low-carbon diets

[fishermccann]

Mosq. I am growing my own. lol. You just cut a notch part way into a birch tree. the tree will produce a chaga bud to seal off the damage. A couple I started about 5 years ago ,are now about the size of a thimble. Not all damaged birch trees will produce chaga. Yes unless you want to harvest 20 years from now, it's not worth the effort.

[mosquito]

Mosq. I am growing my own. lol. You just cut a notch part way into a birch tree. the tree will produce a chaga bud to seal off the damage. A couple I started about 5 years ago ,are now about the size of a thimble. Not all damaged birch trees will produce chaga. Yes unless you want to harvest 20 years from now, it's not worth the effort.

I have a birch tree at the cottage, there is a Canadian company that sells the cultures and what you need to inoculate trees but I don't remember which one and this came up on the first search. When I glanced at it (probably in spring) they said 3 to 5 years and about 40% success IF I remember correctly.
https://northspore.com/products/chag...2b7b1a75&_ss=r

They said the morels were another "patience" one that could take 2 to 5 years and a low success rate too, but using old ones past eating increased the odds over dried ones but once established seem like they can produce ok every year.

* IF I get bored and go find the Canadian chaga cultures in Canada I will post it here or in a new post on this thread.

[fishermccann]

Mosq. I was told by an 'old' chaga hunter, just to rub a harvested chunk on the cut, that you are trying to 'seed'. Just get some into the cut, and nature will take it's course.

[Gilroy]

Mosq. I was told by an 'old' chaga hunter, just to rub a harvested chunk on the cut, that you are trying to 'seed'. Just get some into the cut, and nature will take it's course.

I had a hard time at first locating some after I read about it here on the forum. Now it turn's out I find it all over the place, I have not heard any bad reports about it.

I wonder if there is an optimal area to harvest in where there was a logging operation x number of year ago. They do plenty of damage logging and I would guess these area's might produce pretty good.

All mine are from Yellow birch but I heard that other birch tree's can produce it?

[JBen]

We predominately use Chaga in tea. And yep, had never heard of it before C came into our lives.
The people I know with easy and abundant supply are all in NE Ont and Que.

Morels I wish I could find a source.
Puffballs which are quite nice when cut into slices and fried.
Fiddle heads thankfully plenty of those around.

[mosquito]

We predominately use Chaga in tea. And yep, had never heard of it before C came into our lives.
The people I know with easy and abundant supply are all in NE Ont and Que.

Morels I wish I could find a source.
Puffballs which are quite nice when cut into slices and fried.
Fiddle heads thankfully plenty of those around.

Take a look here and maybe think of some spots around the garden or ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTFugHA2WaI
https://mygreenerylife.com/how-to-grow-morel-mushrooms/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nprxMr6XfW4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmlmq7CamLY

You can try making the slurry using cultures or if you can get some past ripe etc. ones from someone in the spring or the dried ones are supposed to work.
https://fungisupply.ca/products/fung...iquid_cultures * NOTE CHAGA IS HERE TOO

Some like shiitake and lions mane you can just buy the kit and follow the instructions and get a few flushes, and if you have some fresh cut logs of the right type you can innoculate with wood plugs or liquid , I tried Phoenix Oysters on some pine logs I had and got a few, but I was late in the season and the logs weren't big), might get more next year as logs will produce over a couple years. Not worth the effort this year for sure but hopefully next year there will be more, just drill a hole, stick in the wood plug and cover with some wax, water the logs occasionally. The Turkey tail is good on almost any logs by the sound of it and what I think are Turkeytail are on some pine logs at the cottage and showed up naturally.
https://fungisupply.ca/products/fung...ins/plug_spawn

Which Species of Log is Best?
https://northspore.com/blogs/the-black-trumpet/tree

[line052]

I have lots of mature birch on our property. But the foraging I do is located in the old growths on public lands.

Yes, occasionally with a bit of buckwheat honey (local) or the wildflower honey I got through Levhaolam's store, I just ordered a Turkeytail kit to try it and to make sure I can identify what I am 99.9% are turkeytails on the logs at the cottage.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition...om#bottom-line




Sounds real good, I made some morel slurries (lots of recipes how to do it out there) and put down around the cottage so maybe a chance there but the only mushrooms other than what I think are turkeytails that I see around the cottage when I looked up ... all poisonous. I planted a yellow plum and got black stuff growing all over it and the squirrels have found ways onto the trees (including what I would call sky diving from higher trees) and other than the yellow raspberries rabbits, raccoons and even a coyote (one day sitting eating apples under the tree) get fed better than me... and my wife will spend hours on grass and flowers in the garden but hates the small veggie patch... so much so that when I made it a foot bigger on one side she showed up with 2 rolls of sod to "fix" it. I got some Goji berries from Bambooplants and have been quietly adding them and replacing some of the bushes she won't notice. The hardy kiwi and grapes on the fence just did nothing this year... this year just had nothing.





If you have birch trees and lots of time you can try growing it on your own trees but it sounds like alot of effort to get it started and really really slow to grow.

[line052]

Wow, Morels I have found in every corner of the province. Elms and pines was my lesson learning and spend many days wandering the woods looking for Elms with a very low success rate. Eventually I learned to look at soil conditions to eliminate certain areas (or when hunting in new areas). Pine stands (not cedar), was an accidental discovery of hunting in fall on frozen grounds with no snow and found black chanterelles frozen fully grown that deer (skunks or other critters) had been eating. I went back the next season to check at start of Chanterelles and found older Morels, I went back earlier the following season during morel season and found a motherload of Morels. So I added that possible sites to look for (growing conditions), pine morels tend to be either dark brown of black. Last May I went out with a buddy of mine to teach him and discovered another motherload on a public road (crownland, very little activity) along the cedar and alder bush line beside road. We picked over 9lbs (that is lot of morels to make 9lbs - and still left over 50% in place. All the books state starting areas, for eastern Ontario the difference between, Ottawa, Kemptville and Brockville emergence times is about 7-10 days apart and is really dependant on the spring thaws. During these early morel hunts I am also always on the lookout for aspagus and fiddle heads, as emergence is all roughly the same time.

We predominately use Chaga in tea. And yep, had never heard of it before C came into our lives.
The people I know with easy and abundant supply are all in NE Ont and Que.

Morels I wish I could find a source.
Puffballs which are quite nice when cut into slices and fried.
Fiddle heads thankfully plenty of those around.

[JBen]

Thanks Mosq.
maybe it's time for some more experimenting. Would be great to start my own.

Hey Line0. Long time, hope all is well.
I've looked and looked and looked when foraging for fiddle heads. Have yet to find a single one. Had hopes for the farm I have access to for hunting, but nada. It is a great source for puffballs though.

Friend of mine dove off the deep end a few years ago. Full bore self sufficient off grid living. He's inspiring and a wee bit crazy.
In part, my inspiration to start a decent vegetable garden in the basement.

He's up around Thunder Bay now.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC89...a9IHGy7Mf68mCQ