Fungi, FUN-guy

You read it correctly. This week’s column is all about the cool parts of another one of Mother Earth’s natural amazements. This morning, as I was taking Koda outside for his morning frisbee throw/catch and potty time, I was curious to see a bit of white spiky pufflike balls in my lawn. So, I go to investigate. Pulling out my camera, because “Hello, it’s me!” and crouch down, practically lying in the morning dew to get the perfect angle.

For the past several months, my intrigue in these fun fungi has become ever more present. From reading books and researching to wanting to cultivate mushrooms like chaga, lion’s mane, reishi, aswaganda, cordyceps, turkey tail, shiitake, maitake, oyster, etc. for the benefits that they provide.

Even my taste buds are appreciating their flavor now, where before I thought they were horrendous and turned my nose up at them, thinking to myself, “Eww, how can people eat those slimy things?” Now, I understand that if you cook them properly and with the right amount of time, they are quite delectable and should NOT be slimy in any way. But, let’s talk about some benefits of these cool fungi!

Lion’s mane, aka yamabushitake, alone has amazing benefits primarily for cognitive enhancement and immune support, as well as cognitive function, memory, ADHD, anxiety, depression and even can help with stimulating growth in the myelin sheaths on the synapses between the neurons in our brain (in multiple sclerosis, the myelin sheaths are destroyed).

Reishi (ganoderma lucidum), I believe you might have heard of this one, has similar benefi ts as lion’s mane, including the reduction of anxiety, depressive symptoms and fatigue.

I could describe all of the mushrooms I listed off earlier but I don’t have that much room and, no, this isn’t a novel. Almost all mushrooms have some medicinal properties, even the psychedelic ones.

Psilocybin has been a very popular topic among the medical community and psychologists, even dating back to May 13, 1957 Life magazine issue, to be exact. However, there were/are the “dark ages” for all the psychedelic “drugs” that started in the 70’s. That is when the criminalization for mushrooms started to take over and less and less considerations of the beneficial aspects were looked at. Now, more and more opinions are changing because of the research being done which increases popularity of micro-dosing, which is occurring due to the ever present benefits.

I saw a quote by Terry Prachett saying, “All fungi are edible. Some fungi are edible only once,” and that is a great quote to remember. Somemushroomscanhurtyou.Thatiswhyif you ever start to forage for mushrooms make sure you know how to identify them. Some are very similar looking. Keep your field guide handy and if you question it then I would leave it where it lies. The ever so popular Alice in Wonderland mushroom, fly agaric mushroom (classic depiction - white stock, cap red with white dots), can be very dangerous and possibly lethal if too much is ingested. I don’t think you would want massive liver failure.

“Nature has been experimenting with fungi for a billion years, perfecting a lot of powerful survival tools. We can use these tools in fantastic ways -- to revive damaged ecosystems, to help offset global warming, and even to prevent diseases.”

Paul Stamets

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SAMANTHA Y OCIUS PHOTO-TECH