What
do you make with mushrooms and alcohol? A reishi mushroom tincture was the
final product of Reishi & the Power
of Medicinal Mushrooms, a workshop on February 16 at the Moon Infospace in Newburgh.
Hosted by Rochester-based fungi cultivator Olga Tzogas of Smugtown Mushrooms, we
learned about medicinal mushroom varieties, sources, preparation, as well as
some fungi lore.
Medicinal
mushrooms have been around for centuries and utilized by countries the world
over. Olga presented a slideshow of photos and uses of common medicinal varieties.
Tooth fungi is a strong antiflamatory which can rebuild nerves and treat crohn’s
disease. Reishi is a liver detoxifier and improves oxygen utilization. Maitake
regulates blood sugar and birch polypore can substitute for a bandage.
Turkeytail, one of the most common and studied varieties, can expel dampness from
lungs and help build muscle. Shitake improves circulation and offers protection
from nitrates which are found in bacon.
Mushroom
images appear in prehistoric rock paintings. A variety called amanita muscaria,
commonly recognized as a red cap with white spots, takes many forms: from Christmas
tree ornaments to an iconic role in Nintendo’s Mario franchise. Mushrooms appear
in a fresco depicting Adam and Eve within 12th Century Plaincourault
Abbey in France, as well as in Alice in
Wonderland and the 1940 Disney film Fantasia.
Olga
helped participants create tinctures using a simple pack-and-cover method. She
brought her own farmed Reishi pieces which we broke up and packed into jars
which were then filled with alcohol which both preserves and extracts material
as it sits for 6-8 weeks. The next step in this “double extraction” process
involves draining, adding water and simmering the solution into a viscous
liquid that can be consumed in tea form.
Olga’s
knowledge of mushrooms is vast: she talked about industries using mushrooms as
a substitute for plastic in packing material and how they “create life from
death” by breaking down dead and decaying plant matter on forest floors. Though
they are superficially plant-like, mushrooms are actually genetically more
similar to humans. Olga’s passion in the mushroom kingdom is for medicinals. Utilizing
them as both food and medicine is not only a great way to take control of how
we eat and treat illness, but restores a connection between food and medicine
that we forgot or never learned.
Smugtown
Mushrooms: www.smugtownmushrooms.com
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