preserving mushrooms

[Oddley]

Hi Sam, as you know flyagaric mushrooms are poisonous. and known for their hallucinogenic properties, Not suprising as they come from the amanita family, which includes the destroying angel and the death cap, some of the most poisonous mushrooms there are. I think I read somewhere, they were indeed eaten in small quantities by Vikings on certain feast days in the year to go into a trance and foretell the future.

I'm a bit surprised you tried them, how did you know how much to eat without killing yourself? did they give you a high?

[Sam Newman]

Hi Oddley. I think it is more a matter of what part to eat rather than how much. I recomend 5 big 1s per person. Basically wipe the white dots off and peel the red skin from the top. the red stuff is the hallucinagenic part. DON'T eat any white parts. That is the same as deathcap and can kill or blind you. It is ESSENTUAL to dry the skin in the sun to kill the stricnine ammides. it can then be put into your beer, enjoyd in your favourite omlet recipe. Or soaked in milk and honey. The vikings did use it to predict the future and also used it before going into battle. 1 thing that I found different to the sillacybin blue mushrooms is that it brings out heavy emotions and you see lots of little trianglular patterns rather than kelidoscope shapes. It is very beautiful, if you don't mind the wavey feeling and much easier to swallow than Payote or San Pedro cactus. As it is a highland fungi, it was hard for the vikings living in the lowlands to get their hands on them, so they were worth a lot. 1 MUSHROOM would be traded for 1 HORSE. Sadly today it is undervalued and looked down apon. IMPORTANT! DON'T TRY THEM IF YOU ARE NOT INTO TRIPPING!!! otherwize, Enjoy.

[Oddley]

Sam thanks for the info, even though I doubt that I will ever use it. I'm not really into mind altering chemicals not because I have anything against them, it's just that I'm a control freak and they frighten the crap out of me. When I was young I was seen by others as a rapscallion, now I'm a fat old bugger, I think If I was young again I would choose the life you have. Hunting and fishing, freedom! with a beautiful young woman to keep your bed warm at night. Who could wish for more... :D

[Sam Newman]

Thanx Oddley. Thats really nice of you to say. I do LOVE my life. There is a downside to the way I live. If I don't get anything on my fishing/hunting trips, I don't eat well and I smell like fish and possums, Possum fur, tattooing and painting isn't bringing enuf $$$ in to get ahead yet. My 99 Suzuki BanditGSF600 road bike needs a new motor and my car needs a lot of work too, altho Im working hard on that. I installed a clutch and thrust bearing in the old girl today. I will keep fishing, hunting, gathering and have a great time doing it. I try to avoid the supermarket and major outlets, as I believe they take away business from the familys who would normally be providing the same services. I am very Anti-McDonalds! etc. We have a great saturday market with organic produce, hand made tools and second hand goods. Trade is cool. What do you do for a living Oddly? butcher?

[ped]

You might be interested in these:


http://www.davidarora.com/uploads/muscaria_revised.pdf

http://www.williamrubel.com/mushrooms/amanita-muscaria

The first is quite a long paper but worth reading.

p.s. I myself haven't had the guts to try ...yet

[Sam Newman]

Very cool Ped.
You learn something new every day. I havn't tried preparing them Im the way suggested In the bottom link. Sounds like it's worth a go. Sounds like you don't get the hallucinations if you boil them 3 times in a large amount of mildly salty water, then fry them in butter. I think I'll stick with my method tho. I like the effects. I used to just dry the whole cap and scrape out the gills. It was ok but got a mild nausious feeling. Try at your own risk. I have been eating them since I was young and never had any real trouble but my friends havn't tryd them either and they may have different effects around the world, due to different acidity levels in the soil etc. I guess, "If you don't try something, you will never know what it's like or if you like it."

[Oddley]

Hi Sam, I'm retired.

If you are a bit short of cash, have you ever thought of offering your very specialised skill set to the tourist trade. I'm sure there must be loads of people around the world that would love to experience your hunter gatherer lifestyle for a couple of days, or even a week and would be prepared to pay handsomely for it.

[Richierich]

Hi Sam, I'm retired.

If you are a bit short of cash, have you ever thought of offering your very specialised skill set to the tourist trade. I'm sure there must be loads of people around the world that would love to experience your hunter gatherer lifestyle for a couple of days, or even a week and would be prepared to pay handsomely for it.

I think plenty of people woudl be interested in seeing how you catch, kill and cook the stuff you are posting here. I am sure I would.

[Ryan C]

Hey Sam,
when I first started this thread it was relating to the preservation of "edible" mushrooms I collect around my home. Recently, however, this thread has become a lot more interesting!!
I've eaten quite a few fly agaric mushrooms as well as various types of psylocibe. I would say that the agaric is a much more intense trip and I would not recommend to any first timers. You are right about them being more "emotional" and they make everything uber-interesting but in my opinion the most enjoyable would be Psylocibe Cubensis ('mexicans'). These are eight hours of side splitting hilarity, so much so that on a few occasions my cheeks and stomach have ached for days afterwards. Unfortunately, all psylocibin producing mushrooms are now banned in the UK so we must not recommend these to anyone over here unless they are heading to Amsterdam for the weekend . Fly agaric are still perfectly legal though and can be bought in dried form from plenty of shops in larger towns and villages. The Liberty Cap psylocibe mushrooms that grow in patches of thousands around the UK in late summer are also a bad idea for first timers as, although they are free, they are very intense and the effects last quite a long time, not to mention that they taste bloody awful!.
Incidentally, did you know that there is a smoking ban in Amsterdam now? During the summer my friend and I were kicked out of a hash-cafe for putting tobacco in our joints!!! Seriously, we got a few herbal ingredients from the bar and a cup of nice earl grey tea, sat down and skinned up like everyone else but when we lit it the Australian asshole behind the bar kicked us out and banned us because he said the tobacco smoke could give him cancer. Fair enough but when we first went in you couldn't even see the bar for weed smoke. Aaahh crazy Amsterdam! You've got to love their sense of humour.

You are very unlucky with your bike my friend. I've got a bandit too and I love it to bits. I like the amount of power it has combined with a nice upright seating position unlike the other sports bikes which, if you manage to stay alive, they give you god-awful back ache. What happened that you need a new engine? I realise that she is no spring chicken but bandits are famous for their reliability and longevity. Let me guess, you ate a few mushrooms, put it on the centre stand and pretended you were racing Rossi and Stoner for the title until the engine burnt out?

By the way, I noticed your other post regarding your "tomatoes", I think you should take the tops off them very soon to increase your final yield. As we know, "tomatoes" are mostly produced at the tips of each branch so forcing it to split into two main shoots now should almost double the yield at harvest time. I have a few books in .pdf form, if you'd like them PM me your email address and I'll email them to you.

Finally, happy 30th last week . As I'm 32 I think you have stolen my title as officially the youngest member of the forum.

All the best

Ryan

[Sam Newman]

I think thats a great idea to set up something in the tourist field altho it is easier said than done. I have plans to devellop my fathers property into a hunting game park. Feed the wild Kiwi etc. He has one of the largest wetland areas in the North and I am already targetting the pests and saving injured waterfowl for release there. I shoot on a couple of large dams in May and June but the amount of birds I get doesn't make much impact on things as I am carefull what I chose to shoot and I'm not greedy. I don't know what it is like in the rest of the world, but the Occupational Health and Safety rules and regulations are quite strict here and to conform can cost a lot of money. Set up costs are out of my reach at this time. I also have 2 home made 4X4 buggys that can go more places than any SUV or modern hylux etc. They can get to heaps of remote fishing spots where you are garrunteed to get a massive feed of Kaimoana (seafood). Maybe through sites like this, where people can chose to come on a cheap adventure with me and a couple of ferrel mates. hahaha. I am skilled in Maori cooking teckniques such as Hangi, etc. We have eels here the size of your thigh and they are yummy too. Any advice from knowledgable folk like you lot would be greatly appreciatet too. Hi Ryan. I think I need a bigger bike. I kept it at about 12000RPM's prettymuch the whole time I rode it. I am young and I couldn't help myself. She threw a conrod out the bottom of the engine block and spat it onto the road. What amaized me, was it was still running and it got me home on 3 cylenders. Good ol' suzies ay. Know anyone selling an engine? Cheers for all the feedback everyone! Sam.