There’s forest here, too, at Hollow Oak Farm, and I’m just starting to learn the nooks and crannies beyond the fields.  The property isn’t huge — a bit over 56 acres — but it’s populated with enough weird and wonderful things that I’m totally infatuated.

I came across this yellow birch with bizarre black protuberances pretty early in my explorations, but I had no idea what I was looking at.  Steve Roberge, the UNH Extension forester for Cheshire County, has been walking the property with me to help me understand what’s here, and he explained that the growths are sterile parts of a fungus called chaga (Inonotus obliquus).  The name is a transliteration from a Russian word which is further transliterated from Komi-Permyak, an indigenous language from central Russia.  Chaga, it turns out, is widely known in northern regions around the world for its medicinal and magical properties, reputedly curing everything from the common cold to pancreatic cancer.  There is a vigorous internet market for all manner of products derived from chaga, and big specimens are particularly prized; hopefully Bravo will deter any would-be chaga thieves.