Chaga hunting + Hoof fungus + Maple syrup harvesting + marsh walk + photos

Birch trees

I decided to head on out into the bush and see if I could find the magic elixir known as 'chaga'.
At first all the birch I checked was void of this magic fungi and I was wondering if, for some reason, this area just didn't have the spores. I found that somewhat hard to believe, so I kept on my search  and eventually came across a tree that had fallen over and saw what I was looking for.

Hoof fungus

Since it was a rotting tree and upon inspection, the chaga did not look good enough to make anything I wanted to drink. Once I cracked it open I could see little larvae entranced in their winter sleep. I decided this was not the pickings I was going to take back and make into tea. At least this gave me the perseverance to keep on my hunt, knowing now, there must be more of it out there, as, fungi spread quite easily. After trudging deeper into the backwoods I eventually came across another tree with Chaga on it.

Hoof fungi 

The one thing I noticed which I found strange, all the Chaga I found was only on the north side of the property, all the trees on the south end were devoid of this mushroom. I searched high and low on the one side and nothing, but as soon as I went over to the other end of the property, there it was. Many of the pieces I could not reach, as, they were 15 ft up the tree; I saw one piece that must have been 5 or 10 pounds bulging out of the tree. I will come back for these with a ladder. For some dumb reason I realized when I got back to the house, that, all the pictures I took were of the hoof fungus, not one of the Chaga, WHAT WAS I THINKING!
I will go back and take pictures of the big mound of Chaga once all the snow clears.

Hoof fungus

The hoof fungus tends to look like these little hoofs on the side of the tree, they can also look more blackish.

Hoof fungus on birch tree

Chaga and hoof fungas harvest in Ontario

This was the days harvest, not all will go for tea, and I made sure to leave the trees with what I believed to be a sufficient amount of Chaga spores so as to be able to reproduce. The parts I do not use will go to the stove, as, from what I understand, Chaga shavings and hoof fungus is a great fire starter. 

Chaga preparation

The process is really quite simple, scrape off the hardened black exterior until you reach the soft orange-ish inner core. Then, take out your grater and grate away. You will want to leave it out to dry, preferably in the sun for a few days, so as not to let it mold. 

Preparing Chaga

Since were in full swing of spring, the sap is flowing. The temperature had dropped the previous few weeks/days and I had neglected checking the buckets for sap, but now that we've had this turnaround into good spring weather, things are flowing into prime syrup season. We have already made a batch of syrup a few weeks back, but this was of the sap (that I'm told) is more so the anti-freeze of the tree, while it does have sugar, it produces something that just doesn't compare to the next flow of mapley goodness.

 I could tell when I walked up that those buckets were full and I knew, time for some cooking!

Maple sap

Later on it was time to walk the dog, so I brought my camera along to see if I could get some decent shots of the stream and marsh by my place. I decided to take a little macro of everybody's favourite nuisance plant - burdock. I remember the games played with these, it was always fun to whip these threw the air and watch it stick to someones shirt; then, you could see it in their eyes, the game was on!.

Burdock -

The sumac was a plant I've known since a child, thankfully, we don't have the poison ones around here. I remember being very young in my girlfriends backyard sucking on these sour-ish buds. I dont know why we did it, no one told us it was safe, we just kinda ate them without concern. Ahh.. to be a child. lol.

Sumac

I finally reached the marsh and I was glad I brought my camera.

Springbrook Marsh / river

I love all the old barns in my area, I must make a project of capturing as many as I can at some point. Our personal barn ( and house ) goes back to the 1850's, and from what I understand, some of them might go back even further.

Springbrook heritage barn

Citrus from seed ☔☔☔☔ + ☼☼☼☼ = ⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘

Indian sweet lime + palestine sweet lime + sweet citrus

Today We bring you our collection of citrus started from seed, We have recently decided to take the gamble as we could not find these varieties available in bud or tree form, 
( at least in canada that is ). 
While we dont expect fruit for many years, we are more interested in searching for something unique/odd, however much of a long shot that might be. 
We decided to search of all places... EBAY! The only issue was,  you never know if what your getting is the real thing, and heck, you never know if your getting that thing at all ( we were robbed 50 some odd dollars and this was through paypal of all things )
This could all be chalked up to some crazy mix up with paypal, of which we will never know, but alas, it ruined the trust we had and no longer felt safe ordering from this supplier, its a shame too as they had other citrus seeds we wanted to purchase. Besides this unfortunate event we found many interesting varieties that made it through shipping and propagation, everything from red fleshed mikan oranges to red finger limes and giant etrogs + Indian sweet limes,  which we will discuss below.

The palestine sweet lime or indian sweet lime ( pic above ) was another easy citrus from seed, along with its high tolerance of salinity, drought, and concentrated foliar blends, its seems to be able to take anything we through at it. It has been getting fair sun but currently resides under the canopy of our moro blood orange tree. We are presently on a mission to acquire as many of the sweet limes and lemons as we can, as we find there taste absolutely dynamic, the sambo lemon being one of our favorites.

Red Finger lime (australiasica sanguinea )

Our finger limes that grew from seed are really taking off, what really plays with our head is that We hear of people in the states who's plants grow an inch in a year, while ours grew 10+ inches in 1 growing season, in Canada!, keep in mind its in a greenhouse at 20c+ year-round. With growing these from seed in all honesty were hoping for mutation/variation, 
Like Maria Anne Smith, (original cultivator of the granny smith apple), we're rolling the dice  .....⚁⚄ 
come on sweetheart daddy needs a new pair of genetics! 

Giant etrog

Here we have our giant etrog's, while these will not grow true from seed, we wanted a traditional celebration etrog, no collection is complete with out it 
( and there are many to choose ).
While we are not jewish, we tried to stick within all the boundaries  involved, ( why not right, when in rome Israel! ) We ended up ordering again off ebay becuase we stumbled across the most perfect link, this seller had a good rep, good feedback, and to add authentic flavour, they came from Israel!, even claim to be kosher non transgenic seeds. Can we get more authentic then that?, other then picking a seed from a rabi's hand this is pretty good. These trees have been the fastest growers of all the ones started from seed, and the most adaptable ( not to mention the most viable from seed ) the salty fish water that caused an issue with the mikan oranges seemed to only spur on vegetation with the etrog, ( go figure, tilapia water working with an etrog, next you'll hear us say Egyptian sand boosts citron production, lol who knows... lets try! )  We have also noticed that during experimental foliar applications they did not burn when others did.

This seller can be found at the following link - http://myworld.ebay.ca/jerushop

Etrog + citron

I will provide progress reports on health, fertilizer applications, pests, disease ( if any ), growth and hiccups of each variety listed