Highly Medicinal Mushroom: Maitake

Kombucha is going to be hard to find due to its high demand in use with Green Tea / Drink mixtures. You maybe better off growing it yourself if you can get a spore print.

www.crazyfortea.com...

SourD

Originally posted by nixie_nox
Never go hunting mushrooms without a professional to identify them first. People have gotten sick and died. And there are many species that closely mimic each other.

I just want to add more to this. Not only have people died, they have died in an extremely painful way. Lots of poisonous mushrooms will stop your liver from working which is what kills you. Days and weeks later.

Back in the old days, when a king wanted to murder a rival king, they would invite them for a "truce" dinner. At the dinner the rival king would be fed a mushroom that would kill him weeks later. Since he died weeks later, they couldn't pinpoint it back to the other king.

[edit on 23-2-2010 by Nutter]

thanks for the Kombucha links, I'd say that was what it was.

There is good advice in if you cannot identify the type of mushroom, then do not pick it and definately do not eat it.

I say this from experience as being young and stupid one time, had some that thought would be ok to eat and try out.
Being only two tiny white mushrooms, what harm could they do I thought, so ate them raw and the taste wasn't even that bad. All fine.

Wrong, an hour later it was time to visit the toilet for a chuck and was in there pretty well for three straight days of continual chucking. I was lucky to have lived.
Be careful with what you pick, I've learned my lesson and never have tried another mushroom again.

I haven't researched this yet but I was thinking - since mushrooms are so easy to grow, and at the same time have benevolent medicinal properties - why not research the good ones, farm cultures for their spores and market them to hydroponic producers?

I'm gonna go look into this now.. he he! =)

reply to post by Nutter


INteresting story. I never knew that. Star for you.

I heard a story about a Japanese man who moved to like Oregon. He went for a walk and found some mushrooms that he constantly ate in Japan. They looked so alike that he couldn't tell the difference. Cousins, but only a few people would of noticed the difference. The one in Japan. Tastey. The one in Oregon or something, extremely toxic. Died a pretty bad death.



Now, I am just a beginner. But I am sure many fungus enthusiasts agree there is nothing more annoying then when you tell people you like mushrooms, and they immediately go: oh the MAGICAL kind.

Which I promptly follow with a sigh and an eye roll.

The information is very interesting. I just saw it the first time. Thanks for sharing this.