Bodyaga, packaging of 100 grams - 1 kg, Kharkiv region.

Badyagi belong to the Badyagovy family, type Sponges. There are about 20 types of freshwater sponges. Badiagi are primitive multicellular freshwater sponges that form immobile colonies in the form of growths of various shapes. Young colonies form a crust 2-3 mm thick. Perennial colonies reach a weight of several kilograms. River badiags form lumpy growths up to 70 cm long and 30 cm thick, lake ones - bushy finger-shaped growths up to 1 m long. The raw material is collected during the whole summer and dried colonies of intestinal-cavity freshwater animals - badiags. Colonies of sponges are separated from the submerged objects to which it is attached, placed in a bucket or box, cleaned of silt, sand, remnants of bark, wood and washed in water. They are dried in the open air in the sun or in an attic under an iron roof. After drying, foreign impurities are removed from the raw material. The raw materials are presented as light, porous, fine- or coarse-celled, fragile pieces of various shapes and sizes, which crumble easily when rubbed with a feeling of roughness.