In light of the success of our lion’s mane mushroom grow kit from TwoSpores, I found myself sitting on a mighty big mushroom, purported to have some mighty big effects. See the video below for an idea of what I’m talking about.

Now I know that effects like these can’t be found just by eating most mushrooms. Even with the minimal processing like cooking, the majority of the compounds remain locked up inside the mushroom. The best way to get the most out of our mushrooms is to perform a double extraction on them. In short, soak them for a while in high proof alcohol, strain, heat the solids for a while, strain, combine. The process takes a little better than 2 months, and I’ve already got reishi and chaga mushroom tinctures ready for the water extraction as of this writing.

Having just harvested, processed, and dried the chunks of lion’s mane mushroom over the wood stove, they’re ready for a spin in the ol’ Blendtec before taking the long bachelor’s bath. This got me to thinking about which spirit to use for the extraction. I’d never really thought too hard about it, but I’d recently glimpsed a mention in a forum about spirytus being a better extraction tool than Everclear. I couldn’t really find much to back that up, but I did find this interesting article about how Everclear became synonymous with high proof alcohol when most any still can produce it.

My aim is to put together a mushroom complex that I can take daily. The purported beneficial effects of mushrooms has been well documented, and I’m eager to see what including a daily regimen of mushrooms will do for me. If I find it beneficial, I’d like to make more and share it with my community. To do that, I’d like to get a more intentional mushroom operation here, growing at the very least an amount sufficient to provide my household. Making mushrooms a larger percentage of my overall food sources can really only benefit me, and it also provides excellent compost for the rest of my growing systems.

I’ll keep you updated about what the addition of these mushrooms in my life is like, if there’s anything worht updating you on. Until next time, I hope you’re doing great!