Education – Mushroom Kingdom

Aug72022

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets: Review of Chapter 4 – Part 1

Hey there travelers, welcome back to another episode of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, a chapter based review blog series! Today we’ll be going over a portion of chapter 4 since it’s quite a long chapter. If you’ve been following this blog or somehow just ran into our humble abode looking for sweet knowledge on this great book, you may have noticed that I didn’t do a writeup for chapter 3. The reason for that is because it’s a really short chapter on selecting a candidate for cultivation. Stamets gives a list of candidates which can be grown using methods explained in the book. I won’t list them all here but if you want more details, you can (and should) buy the book directly from his company.

With that said, let’s begin Chapter 4!

Natural Culture: Creating Mycological Landscapes

Natural culture is the cultivation of mushrooms outdoors, much like growing standard plants in your backyard, but constructing your mycological landscape will be much different. Designing a habitat that suits your mushroom’s needs involves emulating your selected species’ natural home. The problem, however, is that capturing a spot in nature is yet to be completely understood. Think about it: what exactly makes soil arable? Is it the moisture content, mineral content, aeration, electrical conductivity, pH, etc.? And even so, not every mushroom or plant prefers the same soil properties, and that’s not even mentioning the microbiota inhabiting the area.

You can tell immediately which is the more arable soil, but how…?

So the next best option is to collect the knowledge of experienced mycological landscapers and apply it for yourself. Stamets calls this laissez-faire cultivation. Some important things to note when selecting your mushroom patch is the topography, sun exposure, and use of native woods and/or garden by-products. Now you might be thinking, why would I grow outside where mushrooms have to deal with natural forces? The main advantage of growing outdoors is minimum maintenance. Once you plant your mycelium, you can just wait until something grows.

Let’s say you decided to go with a woodland species on a 25 ft. x 25 ft. area in your yard. Your best bet is start with fresh materials to avoid competing molds or wild mushrooms that may be in old sawdust, chips, or other woody based materials. To ensure success, you use a high 25% spawn/substrate inoculation rate to avoid as much wild species to emerge along with your desired mushrooms. This should be a good first-time outdoor setup to which you can optimize as you grow.

Just an example of outdoor mushroom farming.

That’s it for part 1 of Chapter 4. I want to stop here and take my time to show my appreciation for all of you that have been involved in our journey. We have some really cool stuff coming in the near future, like other products and more guides. We do this to let you know that we take great care of our products and we only want the highest quality stuff so you can have peace of mind. I believe that the content that we put out, the creativity that’s put in, and the values that we hold present itself in our products, which is of the best quality in the market. Thank you all so much for helping us go through this crazy ride, and I hope that the positive energy we put out in the universe will spread and raise us all up even if it’s just a tiny bit. I hope you all have a great week, and as always, safe journeys!

Jun192022

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets: Review of Chapter 2 – Part 3

Hello and welcome back fellow travelers to another episode of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms! Today I’ll be finishing up Chapter 2 – The Role of Mushrooms in Nature, which is jam packed with tons of information that I couldn’t completely fit in these blog posts, so make sure to pick up your very own copy right here. So without further ado, let’s begin!

“I’m *pretty sure* this is a microdose.”

Loss of Species Diversity

Studies have shown a loss of species diversity when we disrupt a natural habitat’s lifecycle. Woodlots are burned and replanted, causing a natural forest to have highly uniform mono-‘crops’ that don’t replenish the ground’s debris for a variety of species of fungi, eventually leading to the loss of a plethora of species that would have otherwise populated the native soil.

At some point, the diversity of life inhabiting the area would fall so low that it may never recover without direct action. We would have to plant trees of various ages, species, canopies, and undergrowth – a task so incredibly difficult that the resources it would take to do so could question the reason why we did it in the first place. We would have to replicate the area’s habitat which evolved for thousands of years.

Toxic Waste

Petroleum-based compounds, polychlorinated biphenols, heavy metals, pesticide-related compounds, and radioactive waste can all be absorbed in mushroom tissue! I wouldn’t eat any of mushrooms grown in these polluted grounds, however, unless maybe I want to grow superpowers!

Mushrooms grown in nuclear waste can even emit radioactivity, setting off Geiger counters and also providing superpowers. Jokes aside, these fungi capable of absorbing toxic chemicals can be a part of the bioremediation process. What’s great about this is that an area can be treated directly at the site without the need of hauling, transportation, and storage of contaminated soils.

One experiment that Stamets has done was testing if Oyster mushrooms was able to degrade petroleum residue on an oil-saturated lot. Spoilers: it did, and the fruitbodies were free of petroleum residue under microscopic analyzation!

Mycofiltration

Mycelium consists of interwoven strands, constructing a large network in a 3D plane that can span up to many acres. If you take a large chunk of this mycelial network, you would have a perfectly designed filtration membrane which can consume a variety of food sources particular to the species.

So if you pass some water through this mycofilter, it can cleanse carbon/nitrogen-rich compounds, bacteria, nematodes, and other microorganisms. Stamets has been experimenting with mycofiltration in farmland by trying to remove biological contaminants from surface water passing directly into watersheds. We’ll go over more in a later chapter, but it’s something definitely worth researching about!

Chapter 2 is Complete

Whoa we finally made it! Writing about this chapter was pretty cool, and there’s also more updated information on these topics as well. If you do some searching, you can find out the updated news on certain things, like Stamets’ update on mycofiltration. Even though we have had decades of research with fungi, it seems like we’re barely scratching the surface, but that means a world of opportunity is open for all of us, so the more the merrier! I hope you all have a great week, and as always, safe journeys!

Jun122022

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets: Review of Chapter 2, Part 2

Welcome back, travelers, to another episode of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms! Today I’ll be continuing where I left off in chapter 2. Last week I briefly mentioned mycorrhizal mushrooms, so today I’ll begin with parasitic mushrooms and finish off the chapter with Saprophytic Mushrooms. I’ll be keeping it brief and giving the more important bits of information since I don’t want to waste your time, but if you want to know more you can always purchase the book here to go deeper in the mycological universe.

Parasitic Mushrooms

Parasitic mushrooms have a bad reputation for endangering its host plant, and because of that, the amount of research on its importance to a forest’s ecosystem is quite limited. Armillaria mellea AKA the Honey fungus is the most popular edible parasitic mushroom. Of the genus Armillaria, the species A. gallica made national headlines when scientists discovered a single colony that was ~1,500 years old covering 37 acres and weighing over 220,000 pounds! Another species, A. ostoyae, was found in Washington State at around 2,400 years of age, covering 2,200 acres. This fungus is the largest known living organism on the planet!

*Armillaria gallica* on the left and *Armillaria ostoyae* on the right.

Another parasitic mushroom, Bridgeoporus (Oxyporus) nobilissimus, appears in the pacific northwest, can weigh hundreds of pounds, and lives for hundreds of years! It’s the first ever mushroom to be listed as an endangered species, with less than a dozen specimens collected (as of 2000). Stamets says that because of its ability to survive for such a long time from its anti-rotting properties, antibiotics, or other compounds, it may have medicinal use if more research is done.

As research on parasitic mushrooms develops, scientists are able to make incredible discoveries from the neglected group of fungi. Montana State University had discovered that Taxomyces andreanae produces minute quantities of Taxol, a potent anticarcinogen proven to treat breast cancer. Another fungus in the Congo was found to duplicate the effects of insulin if ingested. There is an estimate of 1,500,000 species of fungi with only about 70,000 identified, and of those, only 10,000 are mushrooms. The research done on fungi has barely scratched the surface, yet fungi’s role in our ecosystem is of absolute necessity.

Saprophytic Mushrooms

Saprophytic mushrooms are the primary decomposers of nature, and they also compose of most of the gourmet mushrooms. Saprophytic mushrooms secrete enzymes and acids to break down cell walls of plants, degrading them from large molecular complexes into simpler compounds that other life forms, like plants, insects, bacteria, and other microscopic life.

Saprophytic mushrooms are broken down into three main categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary decomposers. Primary decomposers digest plant tissue, wood for the most part. Secondary decomposers break down the product from the primary ones, and tertiary further decomposes what the primary and secondary decomposers produce.

Examples of primary (left, Oyster), secondary (middle, Button), and tertiary (right, Orange Peel) mushrooms.

Alright folks, that’ll be it for today. I hope these blog posts are as helpful to you as they have been to me. I’ve been doing these not only to reinforce our mission to educate our little community we have going but also for my own self development and improvement, which I hope will positively impact those around me as well. As always, safe journeys everyone, and we’ll see you next week!

Jun42022

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets: Review of Chapter 2 – The Role of Mushrooms in Nature

Welcome back, travelers, to another episode of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms! This week we’ll be going over the three basic ecological groups in which mushrooms are classified: mycorrhizal, parasitic, and saprophytic. I’ll be breaking down this chapter in multiple blog posts, since it’s a fairly large chapter packed with valuable information. Let’s first go over mycorrhizal gourmet mushrooms, which include matsutake, boletus, chanterelles, and truffles.

From left to right: Matsutake, boletus, chanterelles, and truffles

Mycorrhizal mushrooms form a symbiotic relationship with the roots of various plants. For you cannabis cultivators out there, you might be familiar with this type of fungi. Mycorrhizal mushrooms can form a ‘sheath’ covering the roots of plants or they can insert themselves inside the root cells as well. The mycorrhizal mycelia that attach to the plants extend the reach of the plant’s roots which help the host absorb nutrients and resist disease. It’s like having a few extra sections on your limbs – very useful for reaching the top cabinet and scaring the crap out of people.

One very popular species of mycorrhizal fungi is the revered truffle. There are truffle orchards in France, Spain, Italy, and also in the United States. There is, without a doubt, more truffle farms coming around the corner, and with them going around $350-500 per pound, plenty of people would love to jump at the opportunity to grow truffles in their backyard. You can actually grow hazelnuts and truffles at the same time. Cool stuff!

Greenhouse with various forest species inoculated with various truffle species. Source.

That’ll be all for today. I’ll be going through the rest of the chapter throughout the week so I can move on to chapter 3 next Saturday. Hope you all enjoyed this quick read, and check out the links for more information if you’re interested in growing truffles. Safe travels, everyone!

May292022

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets: Review of Chapter 1 – Mushrooms, Civilization, and History

Welcome back to Mushroom Kingdom, travelers! Pull up a chair because it’s learnin’ time – beginning with Chapter 1 of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms (GGMM) by Paul Stamets. If this is your first time here, we’ll be going over the entire book throughout the GGMM series in a series of blogs which I will be posting every Saturday night PST. I’ll most likely have a break here and there to talk about other subjects but for the meantime, we’ll be getting some education in. Let’s begin!

In the first chapter of GGMM, Stamets goes over the historical use of mushrooms of human history. One of the great assets of mushrooms that people have taken advantage of is the very useful trick of killing your enemies!

Yes, I just used a presentation slide as a picture in this blog.

The earliest recording of mushroom use actually lies in a Tassili image from a cave dating 7,000-9,000 years ago (Samorini, 1992). The article linked (which is a PDF download, if you want to read more about it) explains that the paintings were found, by Henri Lhote, in secret sanctuaries.

Even our ancestors knew how to explain a psilocybin trip.

In 1991, hikers in the Italian Alps discovered a mummified man who was named Ötzi or the Iceman, who carried on him a variety of goodies, one of which was a knapsack. Inside this knapsack were berries, two birch bark baskets, and two species of polypore mushrooms with leather strings through them. One of the species of mushrooms was the birch fungus, known for its medicinal properties, and the other was a fungus used for tinder.

Stamets briefly mentions some societies view fungi with fear and loathing, particularly the English and Irish. Other societies have enjoyed a long history of mushroom use, such as the Polish, Russians, and Italians. Stamets also mentions an investment banker named Robert Gordon Wasson, who studied mushroom use in diverse cultures from Mesoamerica to Eurasia/Siberia. Stamets claims that Wasson is responsible for kindling the interest in ethnomycology moreso than any other individual in the 20th century.

The next historical usage of mushrooms is a very interesting one indeed…

Aristotle, Plato, Homer, and Sophocles participated in religious ceremonies in Eleusis, where other pilgrims journeyed 14 miles from the Athens, paying a month’s wage to also attend this annual ceremony.

The ceremony, termed Eleusinian Mysteries, was a gathering for a mystery cult where participants descended in to a hidden central chamber and consumed a fungal concoction. The pilgrims spent the night and came out forever changed. Upon leaving the ceremony, no pilgrim was allowed to speak about the ceremony’s secrets under the punishment of imprisonment or death. This ceremony, according to Wasson, persisted for nearly 2,000 years!

I think it’s time we bring it back.

And with that ends Chapter 1! Hopefully you enjoyed the first episode of our GGMM series, and we’d like to see you back for the next one. Don’t forget to honor those who passed this Memorial Day, and as always, safe travels!

May222022

Mycological Education!

Hello travelers, good to see you again! Continuing off of last week’s post, I wanted to emphasize our goal to educate our followers of the world of fungi (I pronounce it with a hard J like the word jive, but I’m just weird) and begin with a very famous book among mycologists by Paul Stamets: Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms.

If anyone knows what the scripture on the left says, let me know!

This third edition of Stamets’ book was published in 2000 and is still very relevant today. Many fungi farmers refer to this book when it comes to growing a wide variety of species, and with good reason; the book is jampacked with 1,000+ pages of in-depth knowledge varying from the common white button to exotic magic mushrooms. If you’re interested in Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, you can find a copy from his website here. Make sure to check out the rest of his merch, along with many other books and goodies. [/end free plug]

Personally, I’m about 20% through the book and I’m already hooked. The instructions are clear, the text isn’t too dry, and best of all, it is authored by someone who has decades of experience in the world of mycology.

While reading the book I had stumbled on an idea… to share my learning on a chapter-by-chapter basis! So starting next week, I’ll begin on a long journey to provide brief but impactful blog posts for those of you interested in growing mushrooms. Some chapters will be consolidated but other chapters may require multiple blog posts to complete. I’ll do my best to post all the good stuff so I don’t waste your time.

That’s all I have for this week, thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you next week!

Category: Education