Guill the Chagafan

When I look at the picture my place is definetly in the 30-35F... when I zoom in it 25-30F... witch make more sens... there still 3 feets of snow here... the ground wont unfreeze until end of april...

I find a lot of them in my place (northern Québec)... with fir and spruce or in mix wood...

Mushrooms for Health & Longevity by Ken Babel (2011) (less than 10$) a very small book... about 60 pages... including a few ones with recipes... covert the basic and most popular species... a few polypores and many edible species(mainly asian mushrooms)... mainly about ageing disease... a good choice if you are more interest in eating mushrooms than making medicines from them... clear and well written... but pretty short... a good way to motivate some change in your diet... especially for the Babyboomers out there...

I recently buy some new books on medicinal mushrooms: The Fungal Pharmacy: The Complete Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms and Lichens of North America by Robert Rogers (Paperback - Nov 15 2011) ( about 20$) a new version of fungal pharmacy... the last one was autopublishied... now a very professional looking book... a huge book(nearly 4 pounds)... writing still a little confusing... lot of info on various use of medicinal mushrooms and especially about native use... lots of pictures (not all of them of high quality)... covert way more species than any other book... you can find in there result from studies in the '50 in Russia to the one published 2 years ago in India... in the same page you will find the most frequent terpens composition of a particular mushrooms and the spiritualistic qualities of that fungal essence... A big part on the use of lichen... a thing not often covert by other guide... An incredible amount of info to use with care... a lot of the studies report in the book we're not without criticism... So to conclude... a most have for anybody who are really interest in medicinal mushrooms or who looking for different info that those present in most other guide... but absolutely not a good intro to medicinals mushrooms... not always clear... Mushrooms for Health: Medicinal Secrets of Northeastern Fungi by Greg Marley (Paperback - May 30 2010) (About 12$) a great intro to the world of medicinals mushrooms, covert the major species... very clear... well written... if you wish to by only one book on medicinals mushrooms try that one (the last edition of Medicinal Mushrooms by Christopher Hobbs date from 2003)... in fact a must have for most mushrooms lovers...

Félicitation Vlad... and it's nice to know that Fungi will get an article on Chaga...

Ok... now I'll start to take mother earth temperature... well not right now... everything is still frozen... but I should check for what temp... morels pops in witch range???

Good point Vlad... never thing of cutting down one... but I'would try it this weekend... I will try to just girdle one with a chainsaw... so the tree will die but remain standing... here the tree dont begin to run sap before at least 1-2 week... so if chaga fruits the next year I will maybe be lucky and get one this summer...

Hi Vlad... an interesting quest... but the story end abruptly on your page... have you receive confirmation about it... the picture look great... the structure of the fruiting body seem so fragile... I will try to find one to see it with my own eyes... I know a few dead birch still standing with the steril conk...

A short but interesting article in IJMM(2005)about the fungi that Otzi the iceman was carrying with him...and contrary with what was assume before he was probably not carrying those for medicinal purpose... http://dl.begellhouse.com/download/article/30e4e1021c1fecff/IJM%200703%20(357-359).pdf

Cool... thank you very much... even if I still have to wait a lot before I can put mines on the map...

Hi Calvert... I'm in abitibi... I live on a land near Rouyn-Noranda... but right now I'm working in Waswanipi... between Quévillon and Chibaugamau... so nearly as far north as I can go by road... but not so bad... I'm still not to James Bay...

You're so lucky... her there still 3 feet of snow... 0F this morning... still nearly 2 month before the first greens shot poke out... so enjoy your mushrooming... and get a little think about us in the North...

Very good point... here a little article on nuclear accident and food contamination: http://elements.healthspace.com/?p=255 http://elements.healthspace.com/?p=540 and a little pamphlet from Finland on how to reduce radioactive cesium in mushrooms: http://www.evira.fi/uploads/WebShopFiles/1219147520340.pdf

... It can't warm up to fast around here... still 4 month before morels season...

Don't overlook a book because it's date back a little... still a good sources of information for traditionnal medicine ( natives, chinese, folk medicine, herbologist), extraction methods, history of use... and an esay way to get an initiation of medicinals mushrooms... it not all the articles in specialised journals that have been written for a general public... a lot of recent articles focused on eluciding the mecanism of medicinal mushrooms's actions... witch is great if you are use to immunology but not easily understandable if it a new field for you... and we have more and more articles on the effects of whole medicinals mushrooms ( or easily reproducible extraction)in vivo... some on animals and a fews on humans...