These are some powerful natural medicines. A lot of people have a love hate relationship with them but I love them. I studied them.
They are used in so many drugs and foods to preserves them. Like cheese, breads, antibiotics, vitamins, probiotics, frozen foods, list goes on.
●Yes mushrooms are fungi group but they are the foundation of our ecosystem and healthcare, that was here first on our planet and well be here after●
FACTS:
🌱Mushrooms are rich in the B vitamins: riboflavin, niacin, and pantothenic acid. The combination helps protect heart health. Riboflavin is good for red blood cells. Niacin is good for the digestive system and for maintaining healthy skin.
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🌱Reduces Inflammation via Antioxidant
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🌱It Improves GI Microbiome to boost immunity
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🌱Anti-Tumor properties
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🌱Anti-Bacterial Properties
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🌱Anti-Viral Properties (may help reduce HPV)
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🌿Anti-Cancer Properties
There are many Mushrooms that are not easily found in your local grocery stores.
Beefsteak Polypore – (Fistulina hepatica)
Beefsteak mushrooms are now cultivated in Europe on a small scale indoors, we are offering this hard to find clone on plugs so you can grow your own outdoors! The Beefsteak is a beautiful, juicy polypore that resembles fresh cut steak when sliced. Marbled and meaty, it has a lemony, tangy flavor that can be grilled, pickled, or dehydrated and made into Beefsteak Jerky! A weak parasite of oak trees, this one is safe to cultivate since it only attacks trees that are injured or falling ill. Cultivate on stumps and oak rounds that are partially buried so they wick water up to the tender fruitbodies. This mushroom is high in vitamin C!
Edibility and TasteLemony and meatyGrows OnHardwood Logs, rounds or stumps. Also fruits on supplemented sawdust indoorsFruiting Temps60-70FAvailabilityYear-Round
Birch Polypore “Blue Ridge” – (Piptoporus betulinus)
A firm, corky, hoof-shaped bracket mushroom, this unique fungus has shown strong antibacterial activity, making it a good candidate for making powders and extracts for tinctures. Traditionally used as a medicinal mushroom, this strain of the Iceman Polypore was isolated from a prolific fruiting in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The mushroom is typically not consumed, and bitter, but it can also be sliced thin and used for making primitive antibiotic strips to apply to wounds to stop bleeding or powdered and made into a tincture. A wonderful addition to your medicinal mushroom garden. Prefers and is suspected to exclusively fruit on birch, it is a slow growing mushroom but worth the wait! Natural cancer fighting molecules and parasiticidal properties.
Edibility and TasteBitter and Tough. Best powdered and made into extractsGrows OnHardwood Logs, rounds or stumps. Also fruits on supplemented sawdust indoorsFruiting Temps45-65F is ideal, but this slow grower can tolerate most temperatures and will regulate its growth when idealAvailabilityYear-Round
Chicken of the Woods – (Laetiporus spp.)
Most of our Chicken of the Woods strains are isolated from native stock on the East Coast of the U.S., meaning they prefer hardwoods, specifically varieties of Oak. This species is a polypore, with no gills, and is best harvested young by slicing the outermost tender, silky tissue on the tips, which can regenerate more tips if you go back and harvest a week or so later! Fruiting bodes range from light salmon to bright orange in color and wither white or yellow tube color depending on the species. This mushroom must be chopped and boiled in water, then tossing the water, and cooked like you normally would chicken. Olga and I like to soak it in organic chicken broth, then cook it into a curry dish or even cubed and breaded to make chicken nuggets. Chicken of the Woods mushrooms may take 2-3 years to fruit, but well worth the wait! Chicken of the Woods “Phil” (White Pored) – Laetiporus gilbertsonii var. pallidus Isolated from a White Oak stump on our friend Phil’s property in Georgia, this one will adapt to many oak species. Inoculate fresh cut stumps or rounds or you can stack oak rounds “iced” with sawdust spawn in between for best fruiting.Preferring White Oak, this species is a tender, silky tissued, juicy form of Chicken of the Woods that is salmon-orange with alpine white pores underneath that typically fruits in the fall. Chicken of the Woods “ANDERSON” (Peach-Pored) – Laetiporus persicinus Isolated from a large rosette fruiting underneath a living Red Oak tree in downtown Anderson, SC, this species is a tender, pink or salmon-colored form of Chicken of the Woods. Fruiting body is light orange with peach to cream colored pores underneath. More of a terrestrial strain, this species prefers to fruit from oak rounds that are partially to fully buried. Chicken of the Woods “Isaqueena”(Yellow-Pored) – Laetiporus gilbertsonii var. pallidus Preferring conifers, this species is a crunchier, meaty form of Chicken of the Woods. Isolated from a fallen Hemlock near Isaqueena Falls, Walhalla, SC, this one may adapt to many aromatic wood species. Absolutely beautiful strain with bands of orange and yellow on the upper cap surface, with an intense yellow pore surface underneath, this strain fruits in the fall. Great for planting along nature trails! Chicken of the Woods “Cherry”(Yellow-Pored) – Laetiporus sulphureus What grows on Cherry wood? This new strain was found by folks like you and cloned to make spawn that everyone could use to inoculate Cherry trees and related species. This unique find is bright orange with yellow tubes underneath, and was found COVERING a standing dead cherry tree in Pennsylvania.
Edibility and TasteLike white chicken meat, great textureGrows OnOaks, except for a few strains for Hemlock and CherryFruiting TempsVaries, Spring to FallAvailabilityYear-Round
Maitake, Hen of the Woods – (Grifola frondosa) – EXPERIMENTAL
Hen of the Woods, or Maitake, is a beautiful, clustering polypore mushroom that ranks as one of the best medicinal foods in the woods. Our strain was cloned from the South Carolina Botanical Garden in Clemson, SC fruiting on White Oak. Hens take longer to appear than other mushroom strains, the mycelium is very slow growing and can take 2-3 years to fruit, but once it is established will appear for many years after! Always fruits in the fall and winter months, it actually forms from buried wood and expands under a protective blanket of leaves before emerging. Saute in oil, never butter to reveal its true amazing flavor, and it has a crunchy texture that makes it stand out above everything it is served with, making this the main course! Studies have shown anticancer properties when consuming maitake, and you can also make tinctures with fresh or dried specimens for taking on a regular basis. One of the best!
Lion’s Mane “Tufted” – (Hericium americanum)
Looks like Brains Good for Brains
A mushroom that tastes like lobster? Become a believer and this will be one of your favorite edible mushrooms that you ever grow. Hericium fruit have spines, not gills, and can be found fruiting on a variety of hardwood trees. Nearly identical in appearance and flavor to other Lion’s Manes, this slight species variation differs from H. erinaceus in that this species forms tight branches on the ball of the fruitbody. Tearing this mushroom into strands and sautéing with butter and garlic tastes nearly identical to crabmeat or lobster! Great mushroom for anyone with shellfish allergies that wish they could eat shrimp or other seafood, this mushroom is excellent on pasta dishes and will leave everyone at the table stealing the delicious chunks out of any dish you prepare.
Edibility and TasteLike crabmeat or lobster when sautéed with butter, garlic and onionsGrows Onblack walnut, oak, beech, elm, maple, cherry or Sterilized sawdust indoorsFruiting Temps50-65FAvailabilityYear-Round
Morel “Blonde” – (Morchella americana)
Morels are the most recognized and sought after mushroom on the planet, rivaling truffles in their elusiveness and difficulty in cultivation. Fortunately they are now being grown with some degree of success and luck, when you follow specific directions for the bed preparation. Blonde morels also like to associate with tree compatible with their microbial interactions, such as Ash, Elm, Tulip Poplar, and many more specific to your region. If you have these trees and no morels, try this technique to see if they will produce morels in your area. Will not fruit in climates experiencing less than 200 chill hours (total hours below 32 degrees F, check your weather data) at 4 inches depth. Making the beds are simple and inexpensive, and if they fruit you will have bragging rights to your very own private morel patch! This strain was isolated from Ash tree hosts.Since morels are hollow and have a pitted cap, they can be stuffed with cheese or ground meat, breaded and fried, then dipped in a honey mustard sauce. Mmmmmmm!
Edibility and TasteThey taste like morels. Earthy and exoticGrows OnPrepared beds outdoors with sawdust and bran, near Ash trees FruitingFruiting Temps52-56FAvailabilityOctober to May
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