Finding Shrooms...

[Mallory Sunshine]

Anyone out there with knowlage on the right way to properly identify and select magic shrooms? I know that it grows under cow poo, and I live in the country surronded by cows so it's worth a look! I just have no clue how to dry them out the right way and anything else! Thanks!

[delta9]

*cough* Like this (http://www.happyhippie.com/vb/showthread.php?t=30) topic, you need to learn how to identify things like bruising, spore prints, and various cap and stem characteristics - not to mention habititat. There are a FEW kinds who grow ON TOP of cow manure - and they have poisonous look alikes, I believe.

Your best bet is to look up identification guides, such as Safe Pik (http://www.google.com/search?q=safe+pik). You'll also want to find a community of mycologists (http://www.google.com/search?q=mycologist+community) to help you identify your finds, especially a community specialising in psilocybe mushrooms (http://www.shroomery.org), and only, I repeat, ONLY dose them when you are 100% sure what it is you found.

All things await at the great Internet Oracle (http://www.google.com).

[mamasharones]

I mentioned this in another thread.

THEY DO NOT GROW ON POO!
I've eaten tons of mushrooms none of which grew on poo. If someone was trying to sell me mushrooms that grew on poo I would just walk away. Buy them from some one who grew them themselves. and please do some research. You shouldn't eat any kind of fungi unless you really know what it is. some can kill you. Death angel mushrooms don't kill you right away but it's a slow painful death so be careful. I would research before you even thought about tripping. Go to shroomery.com
also check my other posting

[delta9]

I mentioned this in another thread.

THEY DO NOT GROW ON POO!
Not all kinds do, but there are in fact some Psilocybe mushrooms that grow on a substrate of cow dung. Nothing wrong with it, unless you don't properly clean your pickings :)

[Ride Asthetics]

i would definatly agree, and wouldnt stress it enought....make sure you know what your eating....my friends girlfriend supposidly picked shrooms out of the woods and sold em for like a year cuz they made you trip...well two of my friends foolishly ate some of the ones she picked last summer.... neither tripped, one of them had there arms go numb....the other just lay on the couch moaning for an hour.... dont eat shrooms unless your 100% positive what they are

[suimush]

i hunt shrooms go here www.shroomery.com the info you need is here.

[mamasharones]

Well obviously they can grow on poo. lots of things grow on poo I just mean they're not the only place to find mushrooms nor is it an ideal place to find them.

[suimush]

Well obviously they can grow on poo. lots of things grow on poo I just mean they're not the only place to find mushrooms nor is it an ideal place to find them.

Why isnt it the ideal place to find them? In the areas that can sustain Psilocybe Cubensis, and Coplandia Cyanescens mushrooms, two varieties that grow from cow dung substrate, it is the ideal place to find them. Because its cow dung youll turn down piking cubes or copes? That makes no sense Cope cyans are some of the most potent kinds. They grow there that makes it an ideal place to find them.

[suimush]

Im sorry i just dont believe you know what your talking about. First you say all in caps that quote, "THEY DONT GROW IN POO" then when my good friend Delta9 corrects you and informs you that you information was bad, you try to save face by saying "Of course they grow on poo", so they dont or they do, make up your mind. Another thing that led me to believe you were talking out of your ass was the fact that you said that its not an ideal place to find them. In the areas that sustain dung loving mushrooms, the majority of active species native to that area grow on dung. There are exceptions of course, but as i said, in the areas that sustain dung loving active fungi, dung is the ideal place to find them. Thats where they are most abundent.

What species have you sampled? What was the general substrate that they grew on? Were they wild or cultivated?

I placed a link to a great shroom website in one of my earlier posts in this thread, go there and do some research.

[delta9]

Hey suimush, thanks for coming along. I'm disappearing today, last day posting for a while :o

But... Be nice :). She was a bit of a transient at the shroomery, I believe, and her husband and her probably grew cubes, I'm guessing. :P

Y'all be good, and listen to suimush :)

... I mean come on... Just nine months ago, I was talking out my ass about shrooms, and it's only 'cause of your research I'm at all up to speed :).

[mamasharones]

my point is I don't eat anything that grows on poo cause I don't have to. sure you can. go ahead I just don't. there are many species to that genus and I'm sure they're real interesting but seeing as though we grow them ourselves I don't need to look on poo

[Shydog]

Shroomers are a very wily bunch to be sure, they also grow on a grain substrate, if my research is accurate. And what about wheat straw? Does anyone rember hearing about the salem Witch trials? It was wheat infected with some kind of fungus and mushrooms are fungi. They were just trippin' but all the uptight Puritans thought they were Witches. The powers that be put a stop to it all... Hey wait a minute that sounds just like it is today... Nevermind.

[LIBRA]

I dont recall hearing that one, about salem??

We eat wild shrooms all the time, just not the ones that make ya trip :D
The big huge puff mushrooms are yummy all scrambled up!!! Cant remember the name of them, its not really big puff mushrooms,lol

[Shydog]

Puffballs? Morels in the mid-spring season, can't resist, it's fun to get out that time of year. I just wish I had a whole bunch of yummie veggies and apples to get me through the winter.

[LIBRA]

ya those!! they are yummy!!
We have been canning, freezing veggies and fruits like crazy. Im hoping they last till spring at least.

[peaceseeker]

:hippie:
Im sorry i just dont believe you know what your talking about. First you say all in caps that quote, "THEY DONT GROW IN POO" then when my good friend Delta9 corrects you and informs you that you information was bad, you try to save face by saying "Of course they grow on poo", so they dont or they do, make up your mind. Another thing that led me to believe you were talking out of your ass was the fact that you said that its not an ideal place to find them. In the areas that sustain dung loving mushrooms, the majority of active species native to that area grow on dung. There are exceptions of course, but as i said, in the areas that sustain dung loving active fungi, dung is the ideal place to find them. Thats where they are most abundent.

What species have you sampled? What was the general substrate that they grew on? Were they wild or cultivated?

I placed a link to a great shroom website in one of my earlier posts in this thread, go there and do some research.

Dude, chiiillll.... This is not the place for friction, save that for the people who hate on the outside! Peace and Love for all! ~Emili~**

[Unkle_John]

I don't think he's around here anymore Emili.

I find my shrooms in cow patties.

[Adam Blanchard]

I gotta get a book to identify them.. there are lots of cow pastures up in these here parts. ;):bat::bat::bat:

[LIBRA]

I live in pa too and can never find them. I think they need the heat of the south or something. We used to look in highschool. I havent looked since then.

What part of PA you from anyways???

[Adam Blanchard]

I live in north central pa, kind of around the dubois area, clearfield isn't too far away, an hour I think.

[Shydog]

The Pacific Northwest = Mushrooms.

[LIBRA]

I live in north central pa, kind of around the dubois area, clearfield isn't too far away, an hour I think.

Im not that far from ya, not that pa is a huge state,lol But im in bradford county, about a 1/2 mile from the Ny border.


Howdy Doody Nieghbor :D

[Adam Blanchard]

lol I'm vaugely familiar with where Bradford is, I'm in Elk county.. it sux.. I miss my city life!!!!!! lol

okie dilly dokio neighbor... maybe we should hang out sometime.. preferribly after we get a bigger place.. having a large apartment and a regular apartment worth of stuff in a small apartment makes things very congested and cluttered. :D

[LIBRA]

Ive never lived in a city so I cant say Id miss it. Ive been to lots of them and I was damn glad to come home. I live so close to ny though that I go to Ithaca all the time its sweet there and a few other places like Corning NY or Watkins Glenn. Not big cities but big enough for me!

I like my mountains and country side!!!! :)

[Adam Blanchard]

lol I grew up in Baltimore, Md and some of the surrounding areas... even out Dc now and then. I like the city because there is always something to do.. but there is alot of drama.. unfortunately there is alot of drama everywhere as I learned after moving to a small town that is about as big as some of the neighborhoods I lived in back home. lol But there are some I suppose you could say benefits of not hearing polive cars and ambulances constantly.

[Gary Blanchard]

I suppose you could say benefits of not hearing polive cars and ambulances constantly.


As I recall, they were usually chasing you, weren't they? :D

[Adam Blanchard]

dad!! I wasn't THAT bad.. I mean hell... I never got caught for any of the big things.....I mean uumm... yeah... you only had to get me from a police station twice growing up. :p

[NCW_Woodnymph]

The Pacific Northwest = Mushrooms.

So true! There are all kinds of mushrooms around here. We find shitakes, matsutakes, morels, boletus, (I don't know if any of those are spelled correctly :) ) and we learn about new edibles every year. I have yet to find any hallucinogenic ones though.:D

:hippie:

[Shydog]

I think they grow best in wood chips found on public property.

[forrest]

"Know Your Mushrooms" (Excerpt) Video by Ron Mann - MySpace Video (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=24956648)

It plays if you click on the words!

or here!

"Know Your Mushrooms" (Excerpt) Video by Ron Mann - MySpace Video (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=24956648)

[Pedata]

There are SO many better things to do than eating wacky toadstools....like listening to this....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USZzf5IrZp8

[forrest]

There are SO many better things to do than eating wacky toadstools....like listening to this....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USZzf5IrZp8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwBMVg9L7Q0

[Pedata]

You want to end up like this man?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aus1PA5-SyI

[forrest]

You want to end up like this man?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aus1PA5-SyI

Will I be able to play the piano too? :D

[forrest]

The Tale of blue honey

It's summer.
The sun is high up and blazing hot.
The little magic mushrooms that used to appear
in the cow pastures down the road have dried up and gone away.

For that matter so has your grass connection,
and all that you're left with is sandpaper leaf
that leaves a static edge on your head.

The mellow highs of the rainy season
are now just so many jasmine-of-your-mind memories.
Dreams from another time.

The butterfly mushroom that opened the doors of perception
in the springtime are but lost keys in the heat of summer.

You tried drying the little fungi,
but the magic is lost in the process,
and freezing turns them to mush.

What to do?

The answer comes to us born on the winds of time.
Kosmic, karmic trade winds from an ancient Mayan past.

To save the magic, all one needs to do is immerse those morsels
in raw honey and stash them in a cool, shady place,
and let osmosis do its thing.

The honey will first turn amber,
then a deep blue-black color
indicating that the honey has become psychoactive.

At this point it is time to strain out the mushrooms from the honey.
Use the mushrooms to make a psychedelic snack,
And store the honey in a tightly capped glass jar.

The honey has now taken on the magic,
and properly stored will retain it for several months.

Come summer when the mushrooms have
disappeared from the field, it doesn’t matter.

There, in the cupboard, is the honey pot,
full to the brim with "Blue Honey"
Shades of Pooh Bear and Van Morrison.

A couple of teaspoons in your tea or coffee,
and one or two to sweeten your cinnamon toast,
and its time to keep an appointment with God.

[Gaston]

OK, here's where I sound like an old grandpa again - never, ever, ever, ever, pick wild plants to eat, especially mushrooms, unless you've spent some quality time being taught in person by someone who has a lot of experience and also eats or uses such things themselves. You can even poison yourself just handling some of very pretty plants barehanded. Monks Hood is beautiful, and it's long been used medicinally when extremely diluted ... and, also used as a fairly quick-working arrow poison. Some of the vines that can be cut to use their sap as a refreshing drink look very much in pictures like the vines that are such potent hallucinogenics that they can drive you permanently insane or kill you; they also look quite a bit like the vine of an old, mature poison ivy plant. Many harmless plants and insects survive by looking similar to harmful ones and some are very good at their mimicry.

Now, enough scare-mongering. Plants are very useful to humans, but if you're determined to learn about particular ones then learn it in person. With the Internet and other networking skills you can surely find a proper teacher, and it's worth a long drive and some expense to keep yourself safe and healthy. Pictures and descriptions simply aren't enough as the differences can be very subtle. I spent several afternoons learning one-on-one with a "mushroom-ologist" with him first teaching me using mushrooms we found, then later pointing out some of them and asking me about them. I made several mistakes that could have been serious. Also, this is an area that particularly doesn't have many yes/no answers; there are quite a few of them that can either help or harm you, depending on handling and preparation of the harvest and of your own allegies and sensitivities. There was one that Earl picked and ate a bite of it, then told me to just touch it to my tongue. When I did my tongue went numb and my mouth got dry and said "OK, maybe you shouldn't try that one, some people react badly to it".