Chaga historyand folklore

For centuries, across the circumboreal world, Chaga conks have been used as a traditional remedy. There is documentation demonstrating it has been smoked, used for infusions, balms and syrups. The most common use, however, is as a ‘tea’ made by decoction, which produces a dark, woody, rich and slightly bitter drink. This is still the most popular way to consume it today.

Some of the best records of traditional Chaga use in Eurasia are of the Khanty people of Western Siberia who prepared Chaga to treat a wide range of ailments, from teas used for stomach and heart diseases to topical applications of Chaga mixed with charcoal as an antiseptic soap. In Norway the common name for the Chaga conk is kreftkjuke or the ‘cancer polypore’ due to its use in traditional cancer remedies.

There is also significant documentation of historical (as well as contemporary) use of Chaga tea by traditional healers in First Nations groups, such as the Cree people, who call the fungus pōsākan and the Metis people who use it for cancer and diabetes treatment. There is limited knowledge of historic use of Chaga in Asia, although it is commonly used within Traditional Chinese Medicine today. 

Despite its relative abundance in the North East of Scotland there is no evidence of it being used as a traditional medicine on these isles. It is, however, very likely that neolithic and bronze age people in Scotland would have used Chaga and other fungi with similar smouldering properties—like the tinder hoof (Fomes fomentarius) and cramp balls (Daldinia concentrica)—to hold a flame as they lit or transported fire. Indeed in some regions Chaga holds an important folkloric role not as medicine but as tinder. For example, the Potawatomi people cherish and celebrate shkitagen (the firekeeper’s fungus) for its ability to nurture and carry flames.

Unsurprisingly, the internet is also riddled with misinformation about ancient Chaga practices fuelling clickbait and attempting to encourage sales. As the historian of commodities Jonathan Robbins points out, appeals to Indigeneity and tradition can be powerful tools in the hands of a sales person—helping to validate products that are new to consumers. The shallow and sinister nature of this engagement with the indigenous history of Chaga use is demonstrated by the fact that around the world:

“Native American accounts [of Chaga consumption] play little or no role in most chaga marketing materials… for white settler-descended chaga foragers and chaga consumers (myself included), the preference for Eurasian stories…feeds a sense of false familiarity or even entitlement to a natural resource that might not be so eagerly commodified if it was instead identified with Native American cultures. The selective use and misuse of history presents chaga as heritage recovered, rather than appropriated.”

During the 20th century, Chaga consumption spread beyond its traditional and indigenous use as it began to be exploited commercially and scientifically by western cultures. In 1930s Finland, Chaga was harvested in significant quantities, processed into a fine powder and sold as a coffee alternative due to scarcity caused by the global depression. 

In the 1960s and 70s, Chaga was researched and used extensively in the Soviet Union by clinicians treating cancer and other ailments. This modern clinical use, which was inspired by traditional peasant medicine, was made famous by long passages in the novel Cancer Ward, by the Nobel prize winning dissident Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn. His writings are often credited with stirring modern interest in the fungus, and in the following decades more and more medical trials and research were established.

Quote from Cancer Ward, a novel by nobel prize winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn: "I'd also like to ask you, Lev Leonidovich," he said, "whether you've heard about this birch-tree fungus, this chaga?" "Yes, I have," he confirmed quite willingly. "What's your attitude to it?" "It's hard to say. I accept that some particular kinds of tumor react to it, stomach tumors for example. In Moscow they're going crazy about it. They say the forests have been stripped of it for two hundred kilometers round the city."

Foraging and processing Chaga

Foraging Chaga: addressing sustainability concerns

Sustainability concerns when foraging Chaga are likely driven by a few factors: firstly, it takes relatively long to grow, secondly its absence leaves a very obvious scar—few things we forage will show a permanent wound, signalling their absence for many years; thirdly and most importantly Chaga is very scarce in much of the UK.

The point on scarcity requires more attention: unless you live near the cairngorms, Chaga is scarce on these Isles and picking it is often discouraged. The key issue here is that concerns about over-harvesting need to be contextualised because for many species scarcity or abundance are geographically specific. Mass media, from foraging books to internet forums have contracted space and distorted perspectives, making it more common for people to misunderstand what is appropriate to forage or not in their local ecology because they’ve seen or heard of someone else picking or not picking something elsewhere.

Overzealous online attitudes about who should be picking what are also fuelled by a general moral panic about mushroom foraging, which has been shown to be rooted in xenophobic attitudes towards migrant communities with strong cultures of foraging fungi. Some online claims about over-harvesting Chaga conks also misunderstand the basic lifecycle of the fungus and wrongly assume the conk is a fruiting body and that harvesting it undermines its reproductive strategy, which is untrue. 

Ultimately, picking all the Chaga conks in an area is bad craic and will deprive other people of access to it, but it has not been shown to significantly threaten the sustainability of the fungus.

Best practice when foraging fungi

If you do plan to forage Chaga there are some basic guidelines that help make your practice more sustainable. Chaga conks being woody and hard need to be harvested using a small axe or a chisel and mallet. Striking the conk cleanly to avoid creating new wounds in the tree will reduce the chance of other fungal pathogens entering and accelerating tree death. There are also anecdotal reports that leaving behind a small piece of the conk increases the likelihood of conk regeneration.

Basic principles that apply to foraging all fungi also apply to Chaga: avoid harvesting small sclerotia; don’t take everything you find or see; take only what you need and will use; and consider your context and levels of local scarcity.

How to harvest Chaga safely

Harvesting Chaga conks half way up a tree with an axe obviously requires more care than picking mushrooms from the forest floor—wearing eye protection is also not a bad idea as the conks can be brittle and are often above head height meaning debris is likely to fall or fly towards your face as you strike—even small splinters can cause very serious damage to your eyeballs, and as a friend likes to often remind me, they don’t grow back.

How to process and use Chaga:

To store and preserve Chaga, large chunks or whole sclerotia removed from the tree need to be broken down further into smaller chunks, using an axe, chisel or knife. Chunks need to then be dehydrated, although they can seem woody and dry the conks are about 55% water and will go mouldy if not processed and stored in airtight containers. Dehydrating at lower temperatures of 40 °C is best if possible. 

To use and brew Chaga you will want to break it down further into smaller chunks, or ideally grind chunks down into a powder in a coffee or spice grinder. The smaller the particle size, the higher the surface area, the more potent and efficient. Small chunks or powder should ideally be simmered for 30+ minutes to make a decoction, although a less potent quick tea can also be made using a cafetiere and a shorter steeping time. Small chunks can then be frozen and re-used several times until they lose potency. Therefore, according to the UK’s first (and only) trainer of mycotherapy practitioners, Fred Gillam, just 10g/month dried Chaga is enough for a maintenance dose.

If you have the means to, powdered Chaga can be processed into a double extracted alcohol-based tincture for maximum medicinal potency. Chaga’s deep rich flavour also makes it really fun to work with and it can also be used to make syrups, infuse glycerites, or added to chocolates, honey, kombucha and much more. However due to its ‘novel food status’ Chaga food products cannot be sold without a specific license, so to stay on the right side of regulations only extractions should be traded.

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Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

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Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.