Based on my 67 acres of wild forest located Upstate NY, Reishi mushrooms are gonna be ready to pick up in July while Turkey Tails are available almost all year around. My question would be When to collect Reisji and Turkey Tails to get the most bio activity effects?
Reishi don't last very long (at least here). They sprout and then within days they're devoured by slugs that seem to love them (and then the slugs turn orange from eating them, so maybe they're doing it with purpose, who knows, but it's a specific type of slug that just can't get enough of them). Anyhow, we only have a few days to collect them, but we can usually get a few 5 gallon buckets of them in those few days, simply because we have so many hemlock stumps. The turkey tails are out year round, but at least around here, I've found that they're in the best shape in the spring and early summer months. I think that varies by region, but at least around here, they look pretty beat up later on in the season.
I found 5 GA dried reishi suit my entire year for daily consumption of 1 tea spoon. Chaga is different. I found only one birch into my 67 acres forest that carry such a mushroom. I do collect them carefully and gently. Feel much better with my disciplined consumption.
If you look carefully, you'll often find chaga on hop hornbeam and poplar, and other trees too. Honestly, we have very few chaga in our birch but for some reason it's really common here on hornbeam.
I thought it only grew on birch until I started seeing it elsewhere and looked into it. Apparently, "It has been seen on many trees species such as alder, beech, maple, rowan, hornbeam, poplar, oak, ash, willow, plane-tree, chestnut, and walnut, but the main hosts of I. obliquus are various species of birch." (Source here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2225411020309809)
If your woods are anything like ours, you might try looking at non birch hosts.
Love your articles!
Based on my 67 acres of wild forest located Upstate NY, Reishi mushrooms are gonna be ready to pick up in July while Turkey Tails are available almost all year around. My question would be When to collect Reisji and Turkey Tails to get the most bio activity effects?
Reishi don't last very long (at least here). They sprout and then within days they're devoured by slugs that seem to love them (and then the slugs turn orange from eating them, so maybe they're doing it with purpose, who knows, but it's a specific type of slug that just can't get enough of them). Anyhow, we only have a few days to collect them, but we can usually get a few 5 gallon buckets of them in those few days, simply because we have so many hemlock stumps. The turkey tails are out year round, but at least around here, I've found that they're in the best shape in the spring and early summer months. I think that varies by region, but at least around here, they look pretty beat up later on in the season.
I found 5 GA dried reishi suit my entire year for daily consumption of 1 tea spoon. Chaga is different. I found only one birch into my 67 acres forest that carry such a mushroom. I do collect them carefully and gently. Feel much better with my disciplined consumption.
If you look carefully, you'll often find chaga on hop hornbeam and poplar, and other trees too. Honestly, we have very few chaga in our birch but for some reason it's really common here on hornbeam.
I thought it only grew on birch until I started seeing it elsewhere and looked into it. Apparently, "It has been seen on many trees species such as alder, beech, maple, rowan, hornbeam, poplar, oak, ash, willow, plane-tree, chestnut, and walnut, but the main hosts of I. obliquus are various species of birch." (Source here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2225411020309809)
If your woods are anything like ours, you might try looking at non birch hosts.
Thanks, very convincing article
Dandelion mead sounds amazing! 🌼
It it so good, and totally worth the time I put into cleaning those petals!