Drying?

[Hyphal]

doesn't freezer storage reduce and eventually destroy potency??

If using fresh fruits, yes - completely destroys them. But, dry is ok to freeze - though completely unessecary.

[immanuel]

My friend in antartica is also quite interested in drying mushrooms. She is giving the epsom salts a go and going to let me know how it goes.

She has a small batch of mush from one of her cakes and has fan dried for 36 hours. She doesn't want to use much incase this doesn't work. Now she put them into this:

How does it look? Oven dried epsom salts on the bottom, with mesh over the top, then a papper towel ontop of the mesh, then mush ontop of that. She put the lid on and is planning to leave for 3 days. Everything look OK?

Edited June 25, 2007 by mardybum

[xShiva.spacetechnology]

so how long should one bake the espom salt? how much espom, and what heat would maybe help also

[immanuel]

Just chuck it in there at 200 celcius for about 1.5 hours. Check it after an hour and mush it up a bit, if there's still wet patches then keep it going for another 30 mins.

[immanuel]

Just letting everyone know. Epsom salts work GREAT! All the mushrooms were fan dried for 24-36 hours, then chucked in a container with the oven dried epsom salts in the bottom, left for 3 days, checked this morn, all are cracker dry. Awesome :D.

[ballzac]

If using fresh fruits, yes - (freezing) completely destroys (potency). But, dry is ok to freeze - though completely unessecary.

Really? Why? A friend of mine noticed that between the end of one season and the beginning of the next, potency in dried subs can diminish quite dramatically, and he was going to try freezing some from this season so that they would be okay early next year. He figured that if heat destroys alkaloids, then removing heat (and obviously keeping them airtight and dry) would slow this destruction almost to zero. Just curious as to why freezing them would actually speed up this process rather than slow it down.

[gamma.goblin]

psilocin oxidises, so get yourself oxygen absorbers for long storage of dried shrooms.

[devance]

I think just a common hot air dehydrator would work for plants.

Dehydrator that for jerky or fruit.

Degredation of a plant occurs in two ways.

A self destructive release from the plant itself enzyme when wilted.

And exposure to oxygen.

So drying stops the enzymes from occuring and fungal problems.

A loss in potency might be 5%, but freezing has a another effect which not good as simply unless dried turns into slime for any plant.

[gamma.goblin]

Foreign organisms can also contribute to degradation of stored material. Low oxygen enviroments asphyxiate the O2 breathers ;)

[t st tantra]

a year or two ago shroom ginger chocolate was the prefered method of consumption and is prob a good method of long term storage as no oxygen should be in contact with the shrooms.

chocolate can be frozen.

should be an old thread.grandma k's herbal chocolate or similar.

t s t .

[Hyphal]

Really? Why? A friend of mine noticed that between the end of one season and the beginning of the next, potency in dried subs can diminish quite dramatically, and he was going to try freezing some from this season so that they would be okay early next year. He figured that if heat destroys alkaloids, then removing heat (and obviously keeping them airtight and dry) would slow this destruction almost to zero. Just curious as to why freezing them would actually speed up this process rather than slow it down.

I was referring to freexing FRESH fruits - it completely destroys the cell walls. You know when you leave a beer in the freezer and it explodes and leaves a terrible mess? Thats because water expands when it freezes and busts open the top of the bottle.

Picture every individual little cell in a fresh mushroom as an individual beer bottle - freezing busts open the cell walls, exposing all the 'good' stuff inside to be exposed to oxidation and all you are left with is a pile of black, gooey mess that is virtually non active.

This however doesnt happen after they are dried, so yes - they can be stored in the freezer - but after they are dried, as long as they are stored in airtight, opaque bags, in a dry, dark, cool place - they should stay very potent without the need for freezing IME. Heat can play a role in degradation of the actives, but it isnt a major player until you start to get temps quite warm.

[mec]

When buying regular mushrooms from the supermarket, I put them in brown paper bags and frig. Eventually they dry out and become brittle. The paper bag absorbs the excess moisture.

[mec]

When buying regular mushrooms from the supermarket, I put them in brown paper bags and frig. Eventually they dry out and become brittle. The paper bag absorbs the excess moisture.

[xShiva.spacetechnology]

hey mec, im pretty sure theres a difference..because they dont have any goodies in them that easily breakdown.

Edited July 2, 2007 by xshivaspacetechnologyx

[ballzac]

Also, if we are talking wild mushrooms, they will have larvae in them that will eventually destroy the mushrooms before they are dry unless extra steps are taken to dry them quickly. I assume that this isn't a problem with sterile, cultivated mushrooms.

[alkatrope]

I remember a thread with alot of discussion about people's methods of drying but I can't seem to find it..

Know someone in NNSW who wants to do some drying.. How do people up north usually dry their findings? I'm used to using a heater and having them in front of the fan etc, but this isn't really an option. Maybe a paper bag in the fridge for a while? Seems to fully dehydrate them for me. I know desiccant seems popular, is there proof that kitty litter works?

[B. Loco]

how do people feel about chopping up fresh fruit and storing in a spirit alcohol like scotch, vodka or whatever. lets say 200 grams for every 700 mill of scotch. would there be any major loss of goodness if this was kept for a long time in the dark. it could be a good way to just have a little shot whenever you wanted to but i have no idea if the alcohol will be a bad thing.

[Hyphal]

Cutting them while fresh is a bad thing, and storing them in a liquid is pretty bad as well. You can extract the goodness into alcohol but fresh mushrooms plopped into vodka doesn't store well at all.

[watertrade]

I have found the best way (for me) is to cut each mushroom in 2 or 4 and put in front of cool fan. After a day or so they are dry - I then place them in sealed container with a 'damp rid’ container - in a dark cupboard.

A couple days later it’s done.

[B. Loco]

hyphalknot, or anyone, why is cutting them fresh a bad thing, it would make drying them more easy hey........ or do you think the greater surface area might mean that the value would fade so much quicker.

and why is long term storage of fresh fruits in spirits a bad thing??? no air would be getting to them - or does the alcohol muck them up after a few weeks, months, years...........

[watertrade]

I think cutting them open exposes more of the goodies, which then oxidize. So there is some loss.

as for adding to alcohol - I'm not sure really but I guess if you were to add equal parts of fresh mushrooms and alcohol ( or enough alcohol to cover the mushrooms in a jar for example) ~90% of the fresh mushroom is water so the once high % alcohol is watered down.

100 grams 95% alcohol + 100 fresh grams mushrooms = 190 grams 50% alcohol + 10grams dried mushroom.

50% alcohol might still have preserving properties but you would be better off drying the mushrooms first then soaking in alcohol.

The same works for honey. Dry the mushrooms first or it can start fermenting - osmotic pressure in the pure honey keeps it from spoiling.

[B. Loco]

of course that makes perfect sense, i would not even dream of putting foods in water, or for example something mostly water for any long term storage, and of course being that the fruits are so full of moisture. thank you for answering a silly question that is obvious if i thought about it in the first place.

[watertrade]

of course that makes perfect sense, i would not even dream of putting foods in water, or for example something mostly water for any long term storage, and of course being that the fruits are so full of moisture. thank you for answering a silly question that is obvious if i thought about it in the first place.

its not that silly a question ;) I think a lot of people have done it before... and never do it again

[Hyphal]

A food dehydrator is by far the best option, and storage once they are completely dry in an air tight/light tight container, with some silica gel packets in the fridge will preserve them for many months perfectly.

As watertrade said, cutting exposes all the insides to oxidation so keep them whole. The more blueing you see, the worse off you are - the blue is oxidation of the goodies. Even handling them makes them blue but as long as you are gentle and don't cut them you minimise the damage so there is no significant loss.

[mudva]

it has been my experience that the Kiss method in this case dying using a properly designed food dehyrator is the best method , there are many myths surrounding the drying of mushrooms one of them that it should be done at as gentle a heat as possible WRONG! the best way to dry mushrooms is with your dryer set at the maximum setting hit em hard & fast the quicker you remove the moisture from the mushrooms the better, heat is not nessicarlity the enemy of the active ingetients in mushrooms my first experiences on mushrooms in the mid 70's was ingesting Mushroom Milo the shrooms were placed inside a boiling pot of water inside a stocking squezzed of their juice after a couple of minutes,then milo, milk, sugar added and then it was off to checkerboard land! so heat is obviously not an issue, after 8 to 10 hours depending on the initial moisture content of the shrooms( picked during rain or dry conditions) the shrooms should be brittle snap dry, and crush into powder easily between you fingers, now you have two choices store then as complete or partial shrooms or cram the lot into a blender and blend them into a nice fine dust or powder, if you choose to blend them into a powder you will be able to see through the blending process wether your shrooms are truly dry or not, if they are properly dried there should be no limit to how fine you can blend them if there is too much moisture you will end up with a darker material that sticks to the walls of the blender & the blades this does happen from time to time and it's back in the dryer on trays for an hour or so to finish them off, after a while you will know you have it right, the material should powder easily be light grey in colour with no sticking, once you have the shrooms in a powder form you are in possession of the simplest most stable form of shrooms which should last you even at a cool room temperature for many months without refrigeration,the other advantages of drying in this way is that the experience is slightly different , firstly the trip comes on much faster from between 15 to 20 minutes it's very clean, with no gut churning kidney aching effects, also any pasture parasites and worms are desicated and pulverized by the drying & blending process,remember shroom grow in cow shit and there's all sorts of wonderful creatures crawling around in cow shit liver flukes, maggots you name it, raw mushrooms are a bad idea because of this one fact alone,also this process reduces a knapsack of fresh shrooms into a powder that is hard pressed to fill halfway an average snap lock sandwich bag.you will be amazed at just how compact your harvest will look after following this process,half a 35mm film canister full of this powder is more than enough for most people to experience a 6 to 8 hour trip from between 2 to 3 grams it comes on fast it's clean and it doesn't leave you with a kidney hangover the next day , as far as I'm concerned this is the simplest and safest way to process and consume this sacred plant. good luck & happy shrooming

Edited January 7, 2009 by mudva