You’re an incredible human with an amazing mind and a taste for adventure. I want to find and taste these mushrooms based off your descriptions alone. You’ve done your share of foraging by the sound of it. Extractions of medicinal compounds is what I truly want to come to understand.
Water and ethanol seems to be the standard process for extractions. But, I can help but wonder what is missed. Or what else could be pulled out of them.
From what I understand, one of the better mushrooms to help aid with brain activity and neural damage that comes with that is Lionsmane. I have read several stories about it helping with people who suffer head injuries. I would be more curious to see what else you all have on this. I just had to start dealing with dementia in my last grandfather and would love to help him slow the process
@hambread oh I can not wait to get up to read all these now. Thank you for sharing my friend!
@BigM i appreciate the friendly welcome. I’ve known the forum for a long while, but this is my first dive into it with mycology. I was hoping this thread would be great and it has provided so much information already. On that note, I could not agree more. Slime molds are amazing. I had almost forgotten about them and now I want to spend a good day reading on them.
@GroovyOctopusLabs any idea why it made you irritable??
@Future oh I’ve been following you on IG for years and seeing the hauls of mushrooms has me envious of your land. Makes me reconsider living in the city. And I owe you the biggest thank you of all. If you and your post about the Trippy team building a mycology team had not been on IG. I may have never learned the art. This forum has been beneficial to so many for a long time.
Not a clue, they really helped my back/sciatic nerve pain though and I might go back to them though so I’ll definitely keep an eye out for side effects again.
I originally took them because it’s one of the number one recommended supplements for ADD.
Nobody said this one yet but I love me some Enoki (velvet shank). Boiled or tempura.
so
Enoki in stir fry with teriyaki sauce!!! So fucking good!!!
Thank you! I plan to taste as many mushrooms I can before they eat me instead.
While I use these mushrooms for tea, apparently boiling water can denature some of the compounds found within the fungi. I’ll give you a quick rundown of my dual extraction SOP for turkey tails!
For alcohol extraction- get you a mason jar, a freezer, dried turkey tails, and everclear.
For my purposes I used 500mL to extract 2oz dried mushies. Just cut em up to increase surface area, throw em in the jar with everclear, and give em the ol’ shakey shakey every day while they sit in the freezer for a week. That’s our cold extraction! The flavor stays for a long-ass time.
For water extraction- I used a hot plate with a stir bar and a kitchen thermometer. I used a mortar and pestle to crush up another 1oz of dried mushies and placed into a tea bag. You’ll want to keep the extraction at a low temp. I kept mine between 120-130*F and kept adding water as it evaporated off. The extraction was done over 4 hours. That’s our “hot” extraction. The flavor only stays for a day or two… afterwards it takes on a mineral flavor. I dubbed it “New Jersey Pond Water” based on taste tests from friends.
When you’re done with both then just throw em together in a 7:3 water to ethanol ratio for ~30%abv tincture. The taste is very woody and astringent, and the alcohol helps preserve the flavor. This was made about 3 months ago and still has kept its flavor. I’m planning on making bitters from local herbs and mushrooms in this manner!
I would imagine this extraction technique could be used for whatever variety you intend on extracting… I just need to learn how to preserve the water tincture’s flavor for people who don’t want the alcohol constituents.
I’ve yet to do any extractions on medicinal mushrooms. I’ve tried a couple cubes and they went alright. Nothing amazing. But I’m curious to try to see what the ethanol extraction would look like of each as you have more concentrate and after you evaporate the ethanol off.
Also makes me want to set up my old mini closed loop and try passing several different solvents over different material to see what I can get off it
Shaggy parasol. They turn orange when you cut them. Nice flavor. Yellowfoot chanterelles are also good.
We have a forested area near me that’s practically carpeted with morels. Only problem is the ticks in there. While you will come out with a big bag of morels, you may have more ticks on you than morels in your bag.
That’s a true dilemma. Ticks can be a real pain. Growing up hunting, my father and I set up our tent on a nest or hive of ticks (not particularly sure how they congregate) after a day of no turkeys we noticed a couple ticks on our ankles only to realize they had cover our legs. Very unpleasant memory
Listening to the podcast now and gave it a follow already
Thanks Cat!
Yes just getting the method set up for cordycepin now. I am looking into other mushroom analytes that are amenable to HPLC testing and will develop methods for those. Then, as soon as there are funds for a mass spec we will develop methods for things that require the MS.
Cheers!
Wow, those look incredible! Did you set these up in your yard to grow? Or did you just happen upon these beauties while walking your land? They look incredible. Have you been able to properly identify them as well?
I love that your son is always on your forays with you. Teach them to be sustainable as soon as possible!
This log floated onto the beach behind the house we were renting. We were there today moving the last bit of stuff and noticed it was flush with Oysters. Jack, my son in the pic, was actually the one to point em out
Jack seems like a sharp kid. That’s incredible he’s spotting mushrooms that quickly. I hope you were able to harvest some and if they aren’t toxic in any sort enjoy them.
I can imagine a log soaking in water for a while and then being washed up on land would make an amazing natural substrate for oysters and other hardwood loving fungi
Ya harvested like 90% of what you see in that pic, and ate a bunch last night. Oysters are not toxic fyi.
Jack’s been hunting mushrooms with us since he was 3 days old lol. He was actually born a week early because we were pushing it a little too hard climbing a mountain that was flush with Admirable Boletes.
