(and how I accidentally invented Sawdust Soup)

We recently had what can only be described as a spirited lunch conversation, the kind where everyone has an opinion, and no one is particularly shy about sharing it. The star of the show? My brand-new creation: Upgraded Cream of Mushroom Soup. 

I love trying new recipes and/or recreating old recipes. As I sat looking at a small package of Chaga mushrooms from my local organic store, I decided that a pot of healthy, organic cream of mushroom soup would be a great and healthy lunch for my family. I gathered an assortment of fresh mushrooms: shiitake, oyster, trumpet, and cremini, my favorite food blogger’s Cream of Mushroom Soup recipe, and put together my new and healthier version of medicinal mushroom soup, adding, of course, the little package of beadlike balls of rock hard Chaga (like other dehydrated mushrooms, they would reconstitute themselves in the savory broth). 

Several hours later, with four bowls of soup in front of us, I was dramatically unimpressed, and I spared no words expressing my huge disappointment. The flavor? Questionable. The texture? Suspicious, at best, and filled with “little pebbles”. The appearance? Somewhere between swamp experiment and science fair tragedy. The color was off, a dark brown, almost black, and the tiny, round black beads of Chaga were as hard as rocks, just like they had come from the package.

My sister Jo and my daughter Karen, however, kept smiling and spooning it in, like nothing was wrong. I was convinced they were just being kind. Very, very kind. My husband quietly built a little pile of unchewable bits on the side of his plate and left most of his soup in the bowl.

“What mushrooms did you use?” Karen finally asked. 

I proudly listed them, ending with what I assumed would be the pièce de résistance. “And Chaga.”

Karen blinked, “Chaga? In the soup? That’s all these little hard pieces of bark!”

And then she laughed, gently, but with the unmistakable delight of someone who knows a lesson is coming. And great teacher that she is, I proceeded to learn a whole lot about Chaga. She explained that Chaga is a medicinal fungus that forms dense, rock-hard masses on birch trees in the cold northern forests of Alaska, Canada, Siberia, Scandinavia, and the northeastern United States. It never softens, no matter how long you soak, simmer or threaten it. You treat it like a tea: steep, simmer, strain. Or you grind it into powder and put it into capsules. But chewing it? Never (unless you have a dentist in the family, she joked. And we don’t.).

Chaga, growing back after being harvested.

So yes, I had made mushroom soup...with tiny pieces of bark that felt like gravel.

Rodney, Karen’s partner and proud Nova Scotian Chaga enthusiast, got wind of my misadventure and immediately christened it “Sawdust Soup. Your mom made you sawdust soup!” He laughed loudly.

And here’s the twist: Chaga and I go back a few years. I battled with squamous cell carcinoma on my leg during the Covid epidemic. Karen had brought home hefty chunks of wild foraged Chaga from Nova Scotia. We steeped them into a rich, earthy tea, and she made medicinal poultices with ground Chaga and other herbs, wrapping my leg daily. Alongside major dietary changes, IV curcumin, red-light therapy, ozone limb therapy, hyperbaric oxygen, and a lot of emotional work, my body healed, and I’ve been cancer-free for several years.

Chaga already had my respect, I’d simply forgotten, courtesy of a little TIA a while back. Forgetfulness is now officially part of my résumé, but pictures bring it all back, in an instant. The year they discussed amputation. 

Squamous cell cancer, almost gone! (left), and when it was winning (right).

One of Karen’s Daily Chaga Cancer Masks

Chaga-soaked turmeric slices as topical anti-cancer therapy. 

Because the therapeutic masks flaked, we spent a lot of time outside, flaking around the yard and not inside. 

Wanting to reconnect with the deeper story behind Chaga, I reached out to Mandie, a dear family friend in Nova Scotia. She first discovered Chaga while searching for natural ways to support her mother through cancer. Mandie and her partner Sean harvest it on forest walks with their dogs, turning hikes into a kind of ritual of hope and gratitude. They grind it, they brew it, they create tinctures, they sprinkle the benefits everywhere… but they do not chew it. 

Sean and Mandie

Sean is a seasoned woodsman and knows where to go for chaga.

Rodney, Sean and Cooper take chaga pictures

Chaga truly is an extraordinary fungus, I’ve learned, while researching this blog. Instead of forming a soft, classic mushroom cap, it grows as a dense, charcoal-black sclerotium on birch trees. It takes decades to mature and pulls powerful compounds from its birch host, including botulin and betulinic acid. This unique chemical fingerprint gives Chaga its remarkable antioxidant capacity and centuries-old reputation for supporting immunity, resilience, inflammation balance, and cellular defense. Deep medicine, but not dinner, I’ve learned.

I needed a layman’s definition of sclerotium and here’s what I learned: A sclerotium is simply a hard, dense survival form that certain fungi create so they can live through harsh weather and time. Instead of forming a soft mushroom cap, the fungus packs itself into a solid, wood-like lump that stores nutrients and protects its medicinal compounds. In Chaga’s case, this is why it feels rock-hard, takes decades to grow, and must be simmered and strained rather than eaten.

And quite frankly, this definition simply deepened my awe of this amazing mushroom!

The Amazing Bea Adams harvesting wild chaga! 

Today I use Chaga as it was meant to be used, simmered in water and enjoyed as a tea, plus I pour a bit over Homer’s dinner, or mix a little in his water bowl. A single chunk can be reused many times. It also sits on my kitchen counter like a small, wise guest. 

I add it to many dishes that are cooking on my stove, as a medicinal boost, to be removed, rinsed off and used again.

What I take from this whole adventure is much more than a badly textured soup. It’s gratitude... for Mandie’s journey with her mother and with us, for Karen’s instinctive wisdom and loving care, for the privilege of healing, for the ancient medicine growing quietly on birch trees in Nova Scotia, and for the laughter and humility that weave families together. Thanksgiving, Christmas and even New Year’s celebrations may have passed, but the act of daily gratitude never needs to pass and is its own kind of ceremony.

Thank you, Rodney, for sharing your great info with us. 

If you’re curious about the soup that inspired this learning opportunity, you can find the original (Chaga-free) version by searching Once Upon A Chef by Jenn Segal. Her Cream of Mushroom Soup is delicious (just remember, if you add any Chaga, to remove the fungal lumberyard before your soup turns black). 

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