Over the years people have shown me specimens of chaga; about 40% bring either burls (all wood) or the birch shelf mushroom. It is important to make sure of identification - chaga is quite distinctive. Once you have identified chaga you can gather the fresh conk from autumn till spring. I know of a variety of methods, but sawing it off is the easiest. This is also a good way of keeping the conk whole to protect the integrity of the medicine residing in the inner layers. It is important during this process to treat chaga as you would yeast, keep it as close to the temperature you gathered it in.
If you are using chaga for medicinal purposes this is an important consideration. The temperature of the environment when you gathered the chaga should give you the baseline for keeping it stable - if it was winter keep the fungus cool and dry in a cool place and store in the fridge or freezer. If gathered in the spring when it is a little warmer let this be your guide. Never dry it above 50 degrees C and when dry, store in air tight containers in a cool dark place.
Any foraged medicine can lose much of its potency unless thought is given to its gathering and processing. If you are storing chaga for later use, store it whole and do not process it. When you want to use it take baseball size pieces to break down to marble size as you need them.This method as well as keeping chaga at a constant temperature is paramount to maintaining your medicinal fungus at peak potency. If you are using chaga as a daily preventative medicine it is sufficient to soak a piece in cold, preboiled water for 4 hours, strain and drink cold or gently warm.
For a course of treatment for acute and chronic disease soften the dried, shredded, inner part of the conk by soaking in cold, but previously boiled water for 4 hours.Filter and save both the liquid portion as well as the softened fungus. An infusion is prepared by pouring sterilized boiled water, cooled to 50C or less, over the fungus (use a weight ratio of about 1:5 fungus to water).Let stand at room temperature for 48 hours.The mixture is then filtered and the water in which the fungus was originally soaked is added to the filtrate. This chaga infusion can be used for up to four days.Three glasses should be taken per 24 hour period approximately thirty minutes before meals.It takes some 7 kg a month of the fungus for a course of treatment. Treatment lasts 4-7 months, with short breaks if necessary.
