First things first: mushrooms are fungi, not plants. Americans are familiar with the common button mushrooms sold in grocery stores and piled on pizza, other mushrooms people mistakenly shy away from because of the association with toadstools. I’m talking about safe, edible mushrooms, not Amanita muscaria a.k.a agaric or fly amanita. They are not safe to eat! I hate seeing the white spots on a red cap mistakenly associated with edible mushrooms.
Do not pick or eat!
I grow, cook, eat, and sell all kinds of edible and functional mushrooms including Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus), Shiitaki Mushrooms (Lentinula edodes), and Lion’s Mane Mushrooms (Hericium erinaceus). Growing oyster mushrooms is easy using spent coffee grounds.
L to R: Golden Oyster, Blue Oyster, and Pink Oyster
To be clear, this is not, I repeat, not about Magic Mushrooms, microdosing, or having a psychedelic experience. This is a family friendly discussion.
If you’re new to mushrooms and want to get the best introduction to the subject Paul Stamets is the person to start with. He’s done plenty of videos including TED talks but his movie Fantastic Fungi [Netflix] is well worth watching at least once. OK, several times.
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