 Today's episode of the Anthony Anderson show is brought to you by mountgox.com that's mtgox.com and mezzegrill.com and carpevm.com that's c-a-r-p-e-v-m.com. Greetings everyone, Anthony Anderson coming at you live from New York City, here with an honored guest today my good friend Kurt Cummins of Keystone Herbs. Hey Kurt how's it going buddy? Good how you doing Anthony? Very good to have you on the show my brother. Thanks for having me. So you're definitely a wild mushroom hunter, wild food forager, spring water enthusiast but let's get into how you got onto this path for those that don't know you for those out there give us a little intro about what's going on. Well I guess I kind of got on the the natural health path when I was I was living in Europe I was fortunate enough to go to school over there for a semester and you know I was traveling and I was having a good time and I was doing everything that I wanted to be doing I was just loving life and then I got I got kind of sick okay and oh you can't enjoy anything when you're sick right so I was thinking I'm doing everything I want to be doing but I don't feel up to doing anything at all yeah so I kind of started to look into it and I kind of I kind of started to look around and kind of get an outside perspective what's going on in the US okay when you're in it you don't see it when you're outside of it things start to think things change and you really do see things from a different perspective so I started seeing all the sickness and man I don't want to be a victim of that you know yeah yeah so I started looking into the raw foods okay start up the smoothies started up the juicing I got the the Jack the lane you know and I the black and Decker and I still have both of them like I don't even have a Vitamix yet but I've been in this lifestyle for like four or five years okay four or five years so um it's I don't know it just sends you on a journey once you start you really can't stop you know you're always you're always looking to get better and better and better yeah which country were you in when everything started up I was in the Netherlands okay okay and you find that it was pretty easy to get into the natural food like do they have farmers markets over there oh yeah well Holland's not a great great country for produce everything shipped in everything I'm up but they did have a lot of farmers markets I mean I guess everything shipped in anyways but they did have farmers markets there's the Albert Cup market which is one of the most popular stretches in Europe as far as you know markets you know fresh fish fresh vegetables but it was interesting that when I was there too like you would be at the university cafeteria and you wouldn't see people getting like mac and cheese and like all this other junk they were they had a roll and soup you know they had a bread roll and soup or they had something simple they weren't eating Doritos yeah I thought that was really interesting and people were trim over there you know like sure people just look trim and fit I mean they had they do have their obesity issues like it's it's definitely rising and they have the most amazing french fries with mayonnaise but yeah so that just propelled into looking into look raw living foods I was vegetarian for a year okay um got off that for no particular reason I just started I just started eating meat again mm-hmm but I try not to do too crazy with my food choices sure sure growing up so you're you're from Pennsylvania right yes Northwestern Pennsylvania right right northern Appalachia okay Northern Appalachia right outside of the Allegheny National Forest wonderful very nice it's a it's a it's an incredible it's an incredible area and was it growing up was it pretty standard diet or where your parents did this okay standard American diet no doubt yeah all the way it's funny because my mom is the first one to she kind of she kind of started doing this stuff like getting like organic milk and stuff like that back in the day or at least or at least not getting vitamin D that's not I'm sorry D milk oh sure sure like like the like the real deal like it has all the fat in it all of everything it's it's then you have 2% then you have skim well she started with like going down to 2% and then doing skim and then later on she found organic you know so it takes those little baby steps some people think they got to make the huge jump but you know just taking those little baby steps good matter yeah really good point so and then I just kept rolling with the lifestyle and then started looking into herbalism and that's when things got really cool and really interesting especially when you find out you can find these herbs in your own environment yes free yes yes so coming from coming from like the the standard living you know just living middle you know middle America all that was it kind of a stretch like do your friends back home and your family do they think it's strange that you've become like a mushroom hunter and a wild food forager is are you kind of like the black sheep in the family yes and no people are curious okay cool they don't ask they don't ask a lot about it but they don't they certainly don't put me down for it either oh great you know but it does strike people strange when they hear mushrooms like the heck you doing these mushrooms man yeah it's really weird because everyone gets nervous when you hear mushroom I don't know why people get scared it's really a strange notion to think why that is but I don't always bring it up in conversation that I hunt mushrooms but it's been a big part of my life for the past like two or three years and where did the like in particular like hunting the mushrooms was there a certain person or some books that inspired you on that path yeah a guy by the name Daniel Vitalis Daniel Vitalis yeah he's he's pretty cool I I got into watching him like I think three years ago ever since the beginning ever since he started putting videos out watching his talks on water and it's funny throughout this whole raw food journey and like this natural mystic lifestyle I've really held on to spring water the most and mushrooms the most yeah you know yeah I mean of course the raw foods I mean I usually have at least a smoothie a day or some juice sure just aware of I'm more aware of what I'm what I'm putting into me of course but the spring water and the wild mushrooms have been huge yeah and not just not just using them going out to find them and seeking them out I mean once you once you get out in the woods and you you know how to start using your environment out there it changes everything and it's it's a really cool experience because you're not you're as cool as to go out and lollygag in the woods and just have no particular reason for being there that's fine too but to have to have a mission in mind when you're out in the woods like that and to keep an eye out for something it's pretty it's a neat feeling very cool very cool as far as the spring water goes what I'm where did you I mean I know it was Daniel by Talas so find a spring comms what you used to yeah well I do use fine well I haven't really forged water anywhere else than Pennsylvania New York okay okay when I travel I'm not I'm not gone for that long and I haven't really needed to use it yet but it's an awesome tool my I always recommend it to my friends either way they've really grown haven't they tons of springs yeah I remember when it started maybe three years ago and you know the blue the blue stick pins are like all over the map now it's crazy yeah yeah but isn't it great though you forage your own spring water and it's like it's an it's another event for you to do for the day that's it's kind of like an adventure yeah I'm pretty big on adventuring more than anything it's I think it's really important like when you're out in those woods you know you're just like you know you're like you're just that is the rewilding it's you know that's the rewilding that Daniel by Talas is talking about that needs to happen but I appreciate because I've noticed it myself like you kind of you kind of get more aggressive the most time you spend out in the woods not in a bad way but like you get a little bit more you get a little bit more juice pumping through your veins you know what I mean I see what you mean because you spent a lot of time in your food forest and you I'm sure you walk around the woods yeah have you ever felt that way yeah there it's I think like the energy from the from the space starts to come in your body and things start to happen like like you have primal you you have some some primal fears get spiked here and there because you're put you're out in the woods by yourself I usually am and you know you might hear something over the distance you don't know if it's a bear or not you don't you really don't know what's going on over there it could be anything you get a little nervous in your stomach and you know you might look for a stick or you might take cover and hide you know like these little things come up and you have emotions that you otherwise might not have had throughout the day you know it's it's it's a really neat experience yeah so we're we're in we're in mid August right now what is the what's the season for mushrooms I mean I know different mushrooms have different seasons so what have you been looking for lately well lately I've been looking for Rishi and Rishi is actually it seems to be like a second wave is coming of them because lately I've been out and I've been finding a lot of rotted ones it's so sad to see because you see these beautiful mushrooms but they're just like the undersides all black and all little critters have gotten to it the bugs love these mushrooms man but um yeah Rishi it seems like it's having its second wave of of bloomings and I actually found I was out before this interview today and I got a big wow one here and that's like that's in prime condition you'd say yeah this is I mean this is exceptional this is you usually usually you're gonna find something like this but a little bit bigger okay sure sure sure that looks like a moose horn man yeah that's not great moose antlers wow but yeah man it's it's the Rishi mushroom it's every time you find it you're never you know you're never just like oh there's a Rishi you're just like oh man yeah check this out you know you're so excited every time it never gets old and especially especially when you find some chaga okay that's chaga oh man yeah this is this is a pretty substantial that's probably the biggest chaga I've ever seen yeah and where are there certain trees that that produce certain mushrooms well for folks that don't know what these mushrooms are these are these are just medicinal mushrooms they are of their type of mushroom called the polypore polypore they're the polypore mushroom or the tree mushrooms they grow out of trees and they're non-toxic some you know some people might be slightly allergic I guess that's the only that's one thing we've got for but otherwise they're completely non-toxic and they can't hurt you all right so this is a Rishi this has been revered in Chinese history for thousands and thousands of years they've they've created they've they've pretty much ingrained it into a lot of their artwork uh-huh you can see oh yeah see here he's got Rishi at the end of his staff I'm sorry there you go yeah yeah okay cool look you can see but here's a sage right here he's got Rishi at his staff also yeah it's just there's a lot of folklore around it and it can be romantic and kind of airy-fairy but I like it it's neat you know it's it's it's a cool thing to it's cool to be able to seek out something like this in the forest and to be able to drink it and really benefit from it in a lot of ways this is called the mushroom of the herb of spiritual potency and medical wonder hmm I mean I mean there's real science behind this I mean there's a ton of science behind it I mean I'm really big on Paul statements he's the leading he's the leading man right now in mycology and the study of mushrooms on what it can do for health benefits and benefits of the ecosystems it's just I mean mushroom mycelium eating oil yeah and like digesting it and just it's unreal breaking it down it's we're just touching the surface with what we can do with mushrooms you know like it's still not well known by mycologists mm-hmm yeah oh for anyone out there who's not familiar it's Paul Stamets S-T-A-M-E-N-T-S and that book is called mycelium running and it's it's like so much it's expansive it's it's probably one of the best books you could read right now highly recommended very cool it's I have another one by him called myco-medicinals okay an informational tree ties on mushrooms very cool so in in my area up here in northwestern Pennsylvania we have an array of mushrooms I'm just gonna show you what we got going on here we've got some chaga here can you see that all right yeah I can see that yeah okay that's chaga C-A-C-H-A-G-A chaga chaga we got the turkey tail turkey tail now this this has a special compound called polysaccharide K okay in it and it is huge for inhibiting tumors oh okay yes I mean there's been more there's been more research done on the turkey tail mushroom than any other than any other one so it's a it's a multi-multi-billion dollar industry in Asia mm-hmm so we have foamy's fomentarius right here Iceman fungus yes sir so like is it some 5,000 years ago there was there was an Iceman who was well in 1991 they found an Iceman who had foamy's fomentarius and birch polypore okay on his body you know he had it on his satchel yeah and they I'm sorry about the camera here that's okay they presume that he was using one of them for like a fire spunk to let to let a fire okay this this holds a flame for miles and miles like if you get a if you get a little bit growing its embers will burn for a long time and people could carry fires that way oh so it was it was really beneficial this was also used like I said to to create that spark and it actually fueled some wars it's there's a lot there's a lot around this mushroom itself really yeah and what else we have here do you get any my talkie or she talkie up there I haven't found any of that yeah I'm funny that at all yeah around here I never see it I think it's almost like you people have to specifically grow it they're never gonna find it wild which that's I'd like to get my own going did you put any of those in it your yeah yeah and I'm just kind of waiting I don't know if they took or not I've seen oyster mushrooms pop out and turkey tail pop out oh yeah that's I've got a lot of wild turkey tail on the property I just went when I'm out in the woods I like to just peel off a little bit and chew it like gum it's great oh cool yeah it's pretty good let's see here as are there different types of reishi mushroom oh yeah there's different types of reishi mushroom I'm sorry this one here is a reishi suge tts g u a e okay this group that grows in this this region northeast I think these also grew up in Maine pretty much the whole entire northeast sure there's not many lucidums in this area it's it's gano derma is the family gano derma as long as it's gano derma it's awesome because we also have artists comic right here oh that's cool this is gano derma apple and apanada and it has more it has it has pretty much the same constituents that reishi does but reishi is just a little bit more special because of its you know there's supposed you know there's spiritual effects and there's there's a lot more than some of these books you know they talk about how how reishi builds your will and your spirit and your and it's a pretty it's a shen builder I believe I think it actually I think it builds all three the shen jing and g is that all three I'm not sure but um yeah man it's with um so how do you like okay Kurt I got this from Kurt actually about two weeks ago and this is this is the reishi and then he gave me a chunk of this chaga so Kurt how do I take this and convert it into medicine that I can put into my body okay I like to do it a couple of different ways cool I and it depends on what I got going on if I want to have a some some tea quickly in an hour and if I don't have anything in the crock pot then I'll just I will see if I can make this work here you see this yeah we can see that yeah I'll cut up you know maybe a maybe a tablespoon worth okay and it's you can see you don't need much you can use you can use this much for just a liter of tea okay see that yeah everything's backwards on my on my webcam so it's tough to but you just you would just boil that in water for anywhere from a half hour to two hours I mean it's ideal to it's ideal to boil it for at least two hours but take baby steps you don't have to you know wash yourself and you do a full-on boil or is it just like a low sum like a crock pot well that's enough I'm sorry about that you should have been in here okay cool here's a crock pot right here I'll just I'll just toss them in a crock pot and just keep it's really simple guys there there's there's water soluble there's water soluble constituents in the herbs and you're just trying to pull them out so don't get lost in the details of trying to make the perfect cup of tea or perfect anything you just want to make sure you get it in water it's hot and it's there for a while because it's going to continue to break down and break down yeah so my favorite way is the crock pot because it's always hot it's always breaking down getting stronger and stronger you toss a couple more herbs in there a couple more mushrooms and you add some more water and you're good to go well it's pretty much set it and forget it you don't have to worry you don't have to worry about coming back and having like your mushrooms caramelized on your you know caramelized on your pot you know sure because it boiled all the water down sure so that that's that's the best way but I'm gonna create a couple tutorial videos to show exactly how I do it and we'll see how those turn out it should be good but hmm but also we got here as far as wild food foraging I I got my own time palm this year I still haven't used it all nice do you have a lot left just maybe a half a cup yeah you got a lot man it took me a long time to even get yeah that much I think because you were dealing with white pines up there and I was I was dealing with these um I think it's called the cheer pine CHIR and then there's these afghan pines and they just put out really big pine cones pine flowers pine catkins and so I was able to really get a lot from there but in Minnesota it's just the white pines and they're very small yeah so I know I know you're I feel you man it's tough you don't even want to go for it as much it's you get kind of spoiled it's like I mean it was it was humbling I mean it just takes so long it's a really tedious process but well if you can if you can head down to Southern California like in late February or even me you know Valentine's Day towards the end of February and you'd be amazed at you just be feeling like I would say if you're really on it you could feel like a garbage bag full of pine pollen in maybe in a day or two it would be intense but you'd be able to get that much yeah um and freeze it and yeah yeah I mean we just put it in water now or we'll dump some in the smoothie with raw milk and we do like a chelajit and then raw milk and pine yeah and just drink it it's so good oh it's amazing I love I love getting I'll just take spring water in the morning sometimes spring water a little bit of pine pollen and some spirulina nice and a little bit of soley salt in there and that's a that's a heck of a morning drink yeah yeah it is great and then it's funny because a spirulina fills you up does it fill you up pretty good it does yeah it's pretty dense it's dense you know if on a on the spirulina side note I was talking about that the other day and NASA said that it's 1,000 times more nutritionally dense than leafy green vegetables really I don't know because they're trying to get like really condensed nutrition into the astronauts so they started bringing spirulina up there and you know it's whatever who knows but that's what they tell us so what are you drinking I'm drinking a chaga reishi turkey tail and honey tea wow cool it's it's really cool like these tree mushrooms most of them are all medicinal mostly all of them are medicinal they have something in them it's gonna benefit you some way I guess we haven't even really talked about why you want to even be dealing with these mushrooms in the first place but yes exactly they have nutrients in them that we just haven't been exposed to ever pretty much and there's so concentrated with them mm-hmm they have long long chain polysaccharides yeah polysaccharides that educate your immune system and modulate it and beta-glucans and triterpenes there's just yeah there's so many things that just I have to read you a few things from this book sure just I'm like reishi alone just what what it does for you and now that okay you're ready you got it okay cool what's up I wasn't sure if you were if you had to page through it for a little bit but you found it you're there reishi contributes to pain relief has a common effect it's awesome with insomnia okay it inhibits platelet aggregation I guess you know it doesn't allow blood coagulation and you know blood clots reishi alleviates bad blood or key to cheat efficient blood hmm contains over 100 triterpenes it's just triterpenes seem to be the component responsible for blood pressure and blood lipid improvements well triterpenes give reishi an adept genetic quality providing the person with protection from a wide range of biological environmental and social stresses and it's no joke too when you and when you take reishi it's just things that you would have been stressed out about before they don't bother you and you figure them out without getting all worried yeah you make better decisions it's I don't know I would I would have suggest anyone to well I don't really want to suggest anyone anything anyone but you're a fan I'm a fan I'm a fan of reishi chaga I mean all the mushrooms are incredible and you do any alcohol extractions yes alcohol and water I have oh and like would there be certain okay cool I've got a wild this one's been going for a long time and this is just chaga soaked in brandy in brandy yeah so why brandy I'm just a great it tastes better you know it's really funny like this this community this online community this health community is so it's so very thorough with everything you know like I asked I asked a well thorough I really meant to say anal about everything yeah yeah because I asked an herbalist and you know he'll make a tincture with a cheap brandy you know and and it seems like we go above and beyond and get like organic brandy or something it's not well you don't want things GMO and that's that's a good part about going for the great brandy but and what is but what is brandy derived from just grapes it's grape alcohol mostly grapes yeah well it's it pardon me that see I don't think many people know what brandy comes from I know it's an awesome alcohol so it's a great alcohol to pull from yeah so you're using more brandy instead of let's say vodka or rum or I actually have I have I'll tell you what vodka is not bad either at least like spedka spedka is pretty good it's five times distilled okay and it's really really really clean so I mean I wouldn't get too hung up on the alcohol I mean you know it's just get them in the alcohol and pull the good stuff out anything that anything that's bad in the alcohol the rich is gonna overcome you know mm-hmm as far as how clean the alcohol is from what I heard from Daniel Vitalis it was sounding like once you get to that point where you're really like distilling the alcohol and there's nothing else left there there are no toxins left it's impossible because of that process it's it's alcohol it's gone you know yeah yeah there can't be anything in there okay cool so an upcoming now we're in mid-August what kind of mushrooms are you gonna be hunting for in the fall well some of the mushrooms that are growing right now will last until almost almost nearly November okay but but right like I said like right now turkey tails out in full bloom we got some beautiful rains up here things are just flourishing hard hardcore and the reaches out so after that goes away the the mushrooms you can harvest in the winter time the colder climates are the artist conch because this stuff this stuff is exposed to the elements you know like this is always dealing with something harsh so it's it's just you know it's it's genes are tough yeah so I'll be looking for artist conchs red-belted polypores which are awesome red-belted polypore yeah fascinating they are homeotopsis pinnacola believe very cool and they have you know they have polysaccharides vary so Paul Stamets mentions it's best to get a variety of different polysaccharides from different types of mushrooms because they'll fill in the slots where one didn't where one didn't check something the other one will you know sure it's one of those games so and I'll also be looking for chaga in our time which is the best time to hunt for it because it sticks out like a sore thumb if you're just walking along and it's it's snowy outside and you see this coming off the side of a tree I mean it just sticks out like a sore thumb it's it's a lot better way to find chaga doing this doing it one time sorry and okay so you've started due to your passion of the mushroom hunting you have established a company called Keystone herbs yeah I was I was out in the woods and I was I was just out on the hunt and I was like well I feel really spoiled to have all these awesome mushrooms everywhere and I get to I get to reap the benefits of them and I thought well how can I get these mushrooms to other people as far as as far as I know there's no other place where you can go to a website and order mushrooms that were just picked not too long ago they were picked sustainably like cuz like chaga you know you don't know it's a delicate mushroom because as far as it's it's growth cycle ten to ten to twenty years you know to reach full maturity and they're rare as it is so I mean I don't think they're going away anytime soon but I don't think you know who knows if companies are taking pieces like this pieces like this big off of trees that haven't fully developed yet and like people taking the smaller runts and not letting them go to full size because it's the next generation you want to nourish the next generation of chagas yeah but so yeah where was it was a company that gets fresh mushrooms picks them sustainably and I don't know it just made sense to me to start this up right right cuz I've heard a lot of it comes from Russia and they might not be they might be over harvesting and yeah yeah I mean you don't you don't know what's going on in Siberia you know you don't know their practices and dealing with these big companies some don't care you know some people think oh we're in the natural they're in the natural health business so they're they're ethical it doesn't always work that way yeah yeah so it's kind of a naive assumption probably it's something to look out for you know some getting mushrooms that were just picked in good ecosystems and handled well and with care and prepared for you yeah I'm excited for it's gonna be it's gonna be enjoyable cool so I don't know if you can see the you remember that the big the nice Rishi that you gave me the really shiny one yeah so if I wanted to make a tea from that tonight how much would I shave off and or would you recommend that I just put maybe half of it in and just continue to add water or yeah if you're if you're gonna you could just put half of it in and continue to add water and give yourself a good Rishi regimen for like a week and a half okay you know okay like get yourself on it every day like if you just wanted to make see how this one has just a chunk like that oh sure that's a serving yeah I mean oh cool take a couple of chunks like that okay and just and beautiful and break them up and just break them down with some water you know I I like to keep I like to keep a dial on about six like five or six and keep a keep a cover over top so the goodies don't fly out in the steam oh huh so and and sometimes I really don't have a set way to do it I really don't sometimes I sometimes I simmer it for a long time sometimes I give it a hard boil right it really just depends on what's going on but you're not gonna hurt it either way okay let's remember that all you all you want to do is get it hot get get soaked in water pull the goodies out wow cool and could I throw in some vanilla beans on top of that yeah throwing all kinds of stuff throwing anything you want I got some sometimes I put in some turkey tail oh yeah it's awesome sent this stuff out and sometimes I will put mint in there to make it taste nice like I'm a weirdo I don't mind the taste of it now like I'm acclimated to it to the I kind of like the musty mushroom taste it's pretty good to me yeah but if you're gonna give this to somebody else and they were a little leery of it I'd put some like mint leaves in there and like steep it for the last 20 minutes okay you know but it's a really fun thing to do you know at Keystone herbs I really want to I want to make mushrooms cool again and I want to make I want to help make mushrooms understood a little bit better so it's gonna be part mushroom education and providing these mushrooms people who live in big cities and who can't otherwise get out in the forest and look on their own that's great so it's gonna be nice I'm gonna it's gonna be launched September 1st okay September 1st September 1st so please look out for it and if you want to go up and if you want to get on the email list and keep in touch then go to keystone herbs.com and just sign up on the mailing list it's not it's not the website's not finished right now Bonnie means but it's it's on its way cool very cool well let's take a little break for our sponsors all right and we're gonna start off with Mt. 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Carpe Vm it's a online marketing company that develops videos for your website for your business if you have any concepts or ideas they will definitely formulate a video to help you promote your your website promote your business they work very closely with you from the beginning to the end to make sure that your video will really make a strong impact I mean video on the web is a really ideal way to engage your viewers so definitely check them out it's CarpeVm.com cool buddy cool man so okay on top of the on top of the mushrooms you're also a fan and and it's very strong enthusiast a biodynamic gardener I know your uncle Bob had gotten you into that and I've had your biodynamic honey tell us a little bit about the biodynamics and how you got into that well I haven't I'm interested in it and I advocate for but I mean I've been having to have my own full-out biodynamic garden myself oh sure you know I've I've I've just been influenced by my uncle's garden I grew up next door to it and he's had it for 11 years 11 or more what the what what makes a what makes a garden or a farm biodynamic what is biodynamics well biodynamics is wow it's a wild subject essentially essentially it's it's a closed loop system where everything lives in harmony with each other as far as the cycle of life so you have a soil amendment soil amendments you treat the soil you really you really give a lot of attention to the soil there there's preparations which are made in really strange ways I'm talking like a liver sewn inside of a stout a cow's stomach and buried in it sounds really wacky there's really strange procedures but it's amazing and its results are incredible it was it was conceived by Rudolf Steiner in the early 1920s okay some some some farmers came up to him a lot of farmers came up to him and said hey man we need some help here our soil our soil is awful we can't grow anything and well I guess to give you a little bit of background on Rudolf Steiner he was an esotericist he could see into other worlds and he could just like just like I'm talking to you right now he could he could look into other worlds and pull information and it sounds strange but everything he's done is quite legit I mean the proof is just there at least in the in the vegetables but it works it works on a star system it's really bizarre trying to explain it really it's just you work with you work with the planets and the stars and the earth and nothing is left out it's like nothing is left out everything works together so it's pretty much the harnessing of energies through whoops sorry my you're all good you're all good it's the harnessing of energies cosmic energies energy the earth energies it's pretty wild stuff but yeah I've we had the cherry tomato with a cherry tomato challenge all right old Michael and his master gardener L.A. Rothrein L.A. Rothrein they have it's hilarious they have a battle each year who's gonna who's gonna grow the tallest one and and they just they bicker back and forth about it it's really funny but it's all it's all on good fun but they've they've made cherry tomato plants that I mean they've harvested thousands like some 2,000 cherry tomatoes off of one plant coming from one seed is I mean it's it's something to be it's something to be you know looked at absolutely let's put on here I remember when you sent me those seeds and it was yeah it was really when I when I tried it for the first time I couldn't believe number one it's a cherry tomato but it was so big like it was the biggest cherry tomato I've ever seen and it tasted so good I have this is a biodynamic cucumber okay I mean it's huge it's huge whoa and that's a squash of some sort it'll stay this I had one of these in my cupboard last year for a month and it stays fresh for so long you wouldn't believe it yeah so I mean and how I have you has Uncle Bob been harvesting honey this year yet or is he gonna wait till the fall I think he I think he has already harvested some honey does he harvest a bee pollen as well you know he doesn't he didn't he doesn't he hasn't he hasn't because it has he has someone else helping out with that and I'm not even sure he's aware they can get it but I have to get on I gotta get on about that because I think I'm missing out oh my gosh I mean you guys are in such a pristine really unpolluted area I would think I mean I don't think there's much industry up there me I don't know are there any coal well there is there's there's Kendall and there's a there's refineries around but as far as I mean the bees are so happy in this area because he they had everything they need right there you know that they don't have to go too far away right right they have the best flowers they could ask for right in the area so I don't know how far they stray probably not too far honest but yeah he's got a great setup there he's got the chickens he's got the bees he's got he's got cows and a different property and yeah he's got a really good stuff but he's actually expanding oh great you I would love to get you two together you guys would have a great conversation I would really like to come up there what's the best way from from New York City to get up to Brad Pennsylvania I would I would say just get on the train you can just go to Penn Station that's the way I go get on Penn go to Penn Station and take a train to Buffalo and come I'll come pick you up all right very cool really nice man I'm have you noticed as far as like with his eggs like do they get orange or as the season progresses oh yeah you in the winter time you definitely notice that they're pale they're quite pale and it's like it's funny because you have like the egg lands you know like the egg lands best organic eggs or whatever like one day I had yeah they're horrible I had I was at my parents house I was making some eggs having a breakfast with my mom and there was one egg land one left and like three you know three of my uncles left and I put the other egg land in there I cracked it in there it was just so much more pale complete compared to the you know the homegrown yeah yeah it's funny even after I buy these ones in New York City and and they're probably five dollars a dozen and they're supposed to be it says like progressively pastured and everything and they're still they don't compare to like the Amish farmer or like even the young kid that has some that has chickens and he's like really focusing on getting the grass into his chickens and yeah I just don't know how how these big companies that are really promoting the pasture the pasture raised eggs they still just can't get that dark orange color in the yolks I don't know it's maybe it's too big of a production probably it's almost like they're lying because you know I mean yeah I know I mean even even if they're doing the practice whatever there's not getting the results they're not getting the results even close yeah yeah but it's I love what you have going on Minnesota man with I wish I had some chickens or something it's the way to go it's the way to go yeah you think at some point you might well if you get probably if you were there more more the time I guess it's yeah the trick would just be to get my parents into it like I got my dad into the bees but the chickens are a little more work obviously and then I really feel like if they were to tap into it they would see the benefits and they would just become pets but they're still kind of standoffish about getting chickens it's at some point it might be interesting to just go ahead and do it and let them do yeah I guess what I was thinking just get them yeah apologize later because once it's once they're there and they start working with with the chickens I think they'll come to love it you know yeah they really will now does your uncle have them I know there I'm sure they're free range but he does he have him like in a paddock system where he moves it or they just all he's actually he's actually got him he's actually got an electric fence around him because the fox will come down oh sure two seconds and just tear the whole place apart so yeah he's really got to keep that part guarded and it seems to work it works it's worked so far mm-hmm and where does he and he gets his manure from those cows on the other property or not quite he he just he has friends that have manure and he just goes and picks it up you know and he lives in the township so he'll ask the township to drop off like leaves and you know when it's fall season he'll say hey bring all the leaves you pick up to my place nice and when I was younger he would pay me to break the leaves bags open and spread the leaves out and most of the garden yeah so uh-huh he's no dummy yeah he knows I mean the results are there with I've seen the photos yeah going off and he's he's he's turning out more space to he's he's uh he's getting into the berry trees now so he's starting to he's starting to get away into the more permanent things which is really smart what you talk about dealing with the fruit trees and the nut trees and not messing around with things you have to babysit and plant every year yeah that's really smart yeah it's really the whole forest gardening idea is really all about lazy people gardening that's what it's called it's like the lazy person's guide to gardening is is the food forest why mess around I mean it's great to have your square foot raise beds with your veg and and your tomatoes obviously but overall most of the system is pretty much based on perennials so it just it's a lot easier you just harvest me some occasional weeding some mulching in the fall but otherwise it's just harvest so it's not so serious I'm speaking of like growing stuff have you ever inoculated mushrooms into logs I haven't I feel bad Jake from right raw utah.com sent me something I still haven't put it in yeah yeah I just have I haven't gotten around to locating the right type of logs and where am I gonna set it up at what stupid excuse is pretty much yeah that's okay do you know what like as far as Rishi I know Chaga really likes the birch do you notice if Rishi grows on certain trees. Elm. Hemlock I'm sorry hemlock. Hemlock at least the Rishi suge was on the hemlocks just and that's and that's one of the parts about trying to find these look for a hemlock forest look for like a like a piney a piney shaded forest with maybe a stream and you're gonna want to look for fallen over trees fallen over pine trees pretty much oh so so hemlock is a it's an evergreen it's yeah well it has pine needles okay I believe but but and they're usually growing on dead trees or living trees but yeah dead and dying trees man okay dead and dying trees yeah yeah I've noticed the I have a lot of poplars on the property and the a fomus fomentarius the iceman fungus just loves the poplar for some reason just all over all over and then I see like I have a lot of turkey tail growing on the birch but I don't see yeah that's a beautiful specimen beautiful wow but I never see I never really see any chaga and I'm kind of I think I'm a little bit further south than you on the you know on the the latitude longitude kind of you're actually played north really Alexandria you're actually way north compared to me well I'm kind of like in an oak maple basswood forest and then I have to drive about an hour north to start seeing large amounts of birch trees I've got some birch on the property but really there's maybe like five birches instead of like a whole stand and I someone told me I think it's like one out of every hundred trees or you do you know the ratio that you might see chaga I don't know the ratio but it's it's slim it's pretty slim yeah it's slim and when you knock off the the fruiting body which is what we would consume does the might the mycelium on the inside will that continue to produce another fruiting body after it will just keep going until the nutrients are gone uh-huh pretty much well so it's you know you have to consider the state of the tree you know as far as if you're gonna take the chaga or not I like to I like to take chaga off the trees it looked like they're at the end of the rope and like they're almost done or if the tree looks like it's about done and it looks like a decent size and I'll take that but I'm not gonna take I'm not gonna take you know small bits of a skinny tree that's not grown yet you know yeah have you noticed now like that people are getting more into the wild foraging that it's harder to find stuff in the woods or are you I mean I know you're kind of in an area where there's not a lot of health enthusiasts so maybe it's easier to find stuff but I've heard like in Maine where everyone's into this stuff people are starting to have a kind of a hard time finding this really like you have to go deeper and deeper into the woods to find it yeah I can imagine I can I have there's no there's no shortage I mean it's I mean you don't exist you don't exactly walk into the woods and like oh there's every mushroom I want to find right there I mean you have to search regardless but I don't know if there's anything picked over but that's why that's kind of a good thing you know like it's cool that people are so aware up there and but as far as everywhere else nobody right hey buddy no you're good you're good okay nobody else wants this stuff so there's just a ton there I mean and there's no shortage there's always going to be mushrooms right so that's kind of I really want to teach people how to get into the woods and find this stuff for themselves yeah yeah I know it's it's really nice with keystone herbs is that you're you're both educating and then you're offering the product for those that are too busy to get it themselves I think that's the key yeah it's it's about bringing the mushrooms back man it really is because who's I mean really if you look around in our population who is consuming medicinal mushrooms one out of 10,000 people one out of even 100,000 people I don't know 50,000 yeah and the Asians the Asians know what's they know what's going on they know what's good and they're all over the mushrooms yeah it's been a part of their culture forever and they haven't let it go it's just funny that since and it was a part of all our culture too where we came from but when we came over to this new land it seems like things got reset and things did not everything made it yeah yeah it definitely didn't it's like it's a resurgence now where everyone's like remembering the ancient ways yes wow so cool one question about the chaga like you say the reishi can go bad if it's left on the log too long like the bugs can get to it but can chaga is just a perennial grower it doesn't really go bad right yeah it doesn't go I mean I mean if it actually will go bad if it's if it stays on the tree long after it's done take up a nutrients for the tree bugs I've seen I've seen some chaga that's just like really really old yeah it doesn't look good like I wouldn't take it home I wouldn't use it and I gotta leave it there okay but um other than that no it just it just grows and grows and grows until until there's nothing left to take and then I heard most of the anti-cancer properties in chaga is the black exterior but if you or I remember Vitalis doing a video about that and if he said if you're if you're healthy and you just want an everyday tonic to take off the black and save it for later and then just use the the the brown core on the inside any any um comments on that um yeah the the black part is actually the medicinal part that if you have too much of it it could harm you okay but um he's had it every day for years and years with the black part it's so of some friends of mine and they've they've never noticed anything I think bad but it's yeah the black the black mass is concentrated with betulinic acid uh yes and betulinic or bet betulin betulin betulinic yeah betulinic acid okay or it can be say the tulinic acid but um that's what concentrates really richly um on the black the black parts so yeah he just shaves that I had I don't always shave it off because sometimes sometimes I'll just use an inside piece like this and there won't even be a black part around it so it's not often it's not often that I even get that much black mass in my tea but it's it's something to be aware of either way I'm I'm not afraid of it though okay yeah okay before we go give us a quick recipe like a chaga rishi something that like someone would want to make as a tea that they could maybe you know I don't know like some vanilla or some cream something that a newbie would really appreciate if they're gonna get some chunks from you what would they do to make it to really soup it up hmm well you take you take the chaga oh here's the chaga I have I also have shilajit nice which is really awesome this is one of the like when I buy supplements I don't always have an immediate I don't always notice immediately the effects but if you have like too much shilajit or like if it's your first time I guess you're supposed to look kind of like prime yourself have a little bit a little bit more I'm built upon it maybe like half a quarter of a tablespoon the first time and then maybe a half tablespoon build up but it just it ramps you up this stuff ramps you up I mean you have energy you feel you feel something going on in your brain like this is good stuff yeah and it's it improves the efficacy of nutrients that are mixed with it so it's thought that this mixed with you know the mushrooms it can improve its nutrients cool mushrooms so I like to take a chaga at a chaga base maybe a half a tablespoon of shilajit right tablespoon of cacao and that's a really really awesome drink cool that sounds great that sounds amazing it really is but you can't put too much you can't put too much shilajit in there because it's kind of smoky has a has a different taste yeah you're gonna throw it off too much if you put too much shilajit but yeah oh that sounds awesome it's a great drink cool and there'll be more tutorials I'll have drink tutorials on the website on keystoneherbs.com to help everyone out and give them some ideas and some inspiration great great and how else can people find you online um you can go to facebook.com forward slash Kurt Cummins C-U-R-T-C-U-M-M-I-N-S okay add you there and you can go to keystoneherbs.com and sign up in the mailing list and I want to keep people informed with I love to take pictures in the woods I love to take I like to document my you know my forgings and I'm going to share that with everyone awesome awesome man it's really a pleasure to have you on the show I mean a longtime friend and really just you're a really hero for me for what you're doing in the lifestyle I really appreciate everything you're doing for the community thanks a lot man yeah yeah we'll be in touch take care I hope I hope to be on again oh you will of course all right all right all right take care buddy keystone herbs everyone peace Kurt later man thanks Anthony bye bye thanks so much everybody for coming and right here Chaga Rishi amazing medicine from the forest wild harvested by people who care thanks so much Anthony Anderson only one tv.com peace have a great week see ya