Maine is blessed to host one of the most esteemed medicinal mushrooms in the world, Inonotus obliquus, known commonly as Chaga. Considered one of the three 'mushrooms of immortality' (alongside Reishi and Shiitake), Chaga has been used for hundreds of years by people living in the Siberian mountain region of northern Russia. It is known to concentrate health-boosting compounds found in living birch trees and, when turned into a tea, makes a delicious and warming beverage known for its use as a preventative medicine.

Please check out this website on Chaga written by our friend Dr. Kevin Curran, a PhD in molecular biology and professor at the University of San Diego, for more detailed information on the ethnomycology of Chaga, medicinal properties, and identification!