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Drying mushrooms and preservation alternatives

Carlqua

Carlqua

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 22, 2012
Messages
126
Location
Lancashire, United kingdom
Well now my little mushhies babies have grown somewhat and I'm a very proud father blah blah blah :p
I realize that I will get more than I need for my first time trip, and I have read some things on drying them, but I'm afraid to do it because:
1) I don't want to loose potency
2) I don't want to destroy them
3) I don't want to destory their beautiful looks (sarcasm, they look like awful mutated penises lol)

I was wondering if I could freeze them as I suppose this would stop oxygen get to them and I hear psilocybin only decomposes -(lack of a better word) in oxygen and it would be much easier to freeze them for me because my kitchen lacks a working toaster let alone the equipment they are asking me to have in the drying methods I have read.

I would appreciate your input helpful blue lighters and this will also be new inputs of information for other noob cultivators.

(and btw I am defiantly going to crack out skyrim again when I take them :p)
 
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well, freezing works, as long as you maintain them frozen for the time you want the stored. when you do unfreeze them, they tend to turn to a goo though, thats not at all appealing to eat. but in theory it can work. just that you wont be preserving their looks much. also the generally high humidity inside freezers might get to them (though some times things dry out in some freezers)... then theres the problem with measuring them out when making up doses, because they arent really that dry, nor are they fresh so theres a lot of guesstimation going on.. i dont know man, doesnt sound too advantageous to me

you could read a bit more on the drying methods... like AIR DRY them! no toasters, no nothing, just pain old air, maybe a fan, and some hours till they are cracker dry... i know you can keep these like that for months on end.

good luck
 
Sorry, drying them is the way to go - freezing is a bad idea.
Think of it like this: the potency loss is more or less inevitable and if you dry them properly it will be minimal.
Just air drying them can work if there is enough air flow and not too high humidity - so that's very low-tech, but I highly recommend using desiccants to get them cracker dry then you could vacuseal portions or lock it in a mason jar together with desiccants packs (I make those myself, easy: just tape or staple an empty teabag sock with loose desiccant. I have calcium chloride but sodium sulphate or magnesium sulphate are probably a bit better).

Certainly don't use toasters or other things with heat. If anything, a fan blowing over them during air drying is good - and it doesn't have to be set close by or at high power at all. Just needs to be able to refresh the air constantly, a mild current is enough for that. It's not the same as blowdrying your hair.

About not wanting to destroy them: they are going to get destroyed by spoiling / molding over etc if you don't do anything and freezing absolutely destroys all cell walls which is what creates the goo, because the contents of the cell walls seep out. The only thing holding it together then is the fact that they are like ice cubes. But even frozen, its still frozen goo. Just don't.

I'd consider it a bit rude to merge before letting you get back on this but you are best off joining this discussion in the Drying subthread. For the record: dried mushrooms can look pretty awesome as well, all golden-shiny caps and wrinkly :) Drying may compromise the original integrity but it's still a great way to preserve them and 'stop time'.
 
Thanks guys such great advice. Ok, well I am now convinced freezing wouldn't be a great Idea. I wouldn't have any idea where to get CaCl2 or MgSO4 and I'm pretty skint anyway. I may have to naturally dry them, the poor buggers lol I like the idea of preserving them in honey too, if anyone could extend on the method of that I would appreciate it.

awww how considerate Solipsis, thanks, feel free to merge, I track my posts in the settings thing, I don't manually find them so it's alright.
I love this site, the moderators are so nice, don't act live Nazi's like other sites lol
 
Dry them by putting them on top of paper towels or in a shoebox with plenty air holes to prevent them from becoming moldy before the moisture's gone. No artificial heat (hair dryer, oven, all that stuff's a bad idea).

Ah, and good old NaCl is a good curing agent as well. Table salt was used for thousands of years to dry fish and meat, but it DOES work as well with mushrooms (though not quite as good I must admit).
 
I believe there's a section in the erowid mushroom vault about the honey method. The last time I used it was close to 10 yrs ago, so I might not be the best source of info. But basically you just put them in honey. Not too complex. One caveat is that not everyone who likes mushrooms likes honey. Ymmv
 
Mushroom honey looks uninviting (gah) and tastes like ass though, but maybe that's just because I was too dim to get it right. Don't like the taste anwyway and would tone down the moldy taste even of dried specimen by eating them together with a spoonfull of honey. That was more than tolerable.
 
any major dude said:
I believe there's a section in the erowid mushroom vault about the honey method. The last time I used it was close to 10 yrs ago, so I might not be the best source of info. But basically you just put them in honey. Not too complex. One caveat is that not everyone who likes mushrooms likes honey. Ymmv
Click to expand...

Drying should not be skipped or circumvented when storing in honey:

[Erowid Note: Storing fresh mushrooms in honey can lead to excess water in the honey, which can result in either rotting or fermenting. Caution should be excercised when ingesting fresh mushrooms stored in honey.]
Click to expand...
 
Oh i got this, been doing this for two decades. I take my hydrated stocks caps and all whole. Put them in a large container with a sealed lid, in bottom of container put calcium chloride (damp-rid) from Walmart. Suspend shrooms above c.c. don't let them touch. I use aluminium rain gutter screen from hardware store. Aluminum will not rust. Screen can be bent into any shape. I make a platform. Put shrooms in for a couple days, each day take out clumps of c.c. that absorbed water and throw away. Keep shrooms in untill no more clumping of c.c. now they're dry. -will and can crumble into powder with your hand now-----now, what I have done is take a piece of wood and drill about 50 "00" guage holes in hit. I grind my shrooms in a coffee grinder sort of powdery. Put "00" gel cap halves in board. Pour out shroom powder, use credit card and push back and forth to fill cap bottoms. Put tops on. My caps were half gram shroom weight caps. Eat 2 caps (1 gram dried) and have a fun body high for the bar. Eat 4 caps ( 2 grams dried) and have a fun trip. 6 gelcaps will make me planet hop insane. This way easy to store , dose, and carry. I keep dried gelcaps filled in a jar with c.c. in the bottom suspended inside an open sandwich bag so does not touch c.c. with lid on tight. These keep for many many years. No potency loss, no taste when eating, easy dosing. Any questions just ask.
 
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Uh, pretty sound tek, looks like. Thanks for sharing! Got a question: Back when I had still time and zeal to grow my little friends I was always anxious to keep them intact drying and storing them. My theory was that grinding them up would massively increase exposure to oxygen and accelerate degradation. And I got the impression that not only intensity but the character of the experience of mushrooms dried as a whole was noticeably better than the equivalent amount of powder. Did I just imagine that? There's a very marked difference in quality between fresh shrooms and dried specimen, no doubt whatsoever, not quite as sure about shrooms dried and stored whole vs. powdered. What do you think? I was surprised to read that your gelcaps containing ground up shrooms would maintain potency for years.
 
rider111 said:
Oh i got this, been doing this for two decades. I take my hydrated stocks caps and all whole. Put them in a large container with a sealed lid, in bottom of container put calcium chloride (damp-rid) from Walmart. Suspend shrooms above c.c. don't let them touch. I use aluminium rain gutter screen from hardware store. Aluminum will not rust. Screen can be bent into any shape. I make a platform. Put shrooms in for a couple days, each day take out clumps of c.c. that absorbed water and throw away. Keep shrooms in untill no more clumping of c.c. now they're dry. -will and can crumble into powder with your hand now-----now, what I have done is take a piece of wood and drill about 50 "00" guage holes in hit. I grind my shrooms in a coffee grinder sort of powdery. Put "00" gel cap halves in board. Pour out shroom powder, use credit card and push back and forth to fill cap bottoms. Put tops on. My caps were half gram shroom weight caps. Eat 2 caps (1 gram dried) and have a fun body high for the bar. Eat 4 caps ( 2 grams dried) and have a fun trip. 6 gelcaps will make me planet hop insane. This way easy to store , dose, and carry. I keep dried gelcaps filled in a jar with c.c. in the bottom suspended inside an open sandwich bag so does not touch c.c. with lid on tight. These keep for many many years. No potency loss, no taste when eating, easy dosing. Any questions just ask.
Click to expand...

Does ingesting, say, 4+ caps increase gut rot from plain old chewing? I can imagine all the caps dissolving at once and then your stomach's got to deal with a quickly expanding mass of fungal fibers that, in my mind, would cause a pretty good amount of nausea. Just my theory on it, any credence to it? I've always wondered.
 
Well, if the caps are filled with mushroom powder the fibers are probably much shorter than you could get by chewing.
 
I regularly grew 4 diff varieties. I kept them intact like you said for a about a year until I did not notice any difference to bother, the concept makes sense, but still I did not ever notice any difference at all in potency (by capping and freezing them). They did seem to keep for what seemed like forever, we would literally have too much and was given freely to all for so very long. With the above method it did have limited exposure to oxygen (sealed jar). If that would be a concern one could throw in a small oxygen absorber packet along with the c.c. = no moisture and no oxygen. But I did not bother with an oxygen packet like I do with some of my chems (DMT). Basically what I did was pick/dry/grind/cap/store. All complete within 3 days. Doses at 2 grams dried, from batches 5 yrs old and more, had me meeting ones on another planet and having conversations while they took me on tours meeting others on diff planets (all from my couch). I did not mention that at the time I started capping I just mixed all my varieties together. But never the less I had many out of body experiences on the way older batches I had, where 15 minutes under seemed like a week.

Once on a Sunday morning (note I said once) I made a tea concentrate shot from I think 6 or 8 grams dried from and old batch. Just emptied the caps in did my concentrate routine. I drank the warm shot (yuck) and within 5 min I was like "what"? 10 min I was like "oh no, what have I done" LOL. My brain shuddered and vibrate for a split second, then I went and laid down to let it run its course, I did check out for about an hour. Was able to get up and enjoy a nice rain just ending outside with frogs croaking and lizards everywhere. Was a nice sunny afternoon.

@Penthos, I only chewed shrooms like 3 times, could not handle the taste after that. Hence the journey that ended in my capping. I have never gotten nauseous after the capping method at any gram (up to 8 grams dried-but was too strong). My usual dose was 2.5 grams dried, 3 grams tops, but not often.
 
I found that placing them in a large cardboard box and sitting a fan above it on medium for a good 24 hours was the best way of drying them, i tried lots of different ways and this was the best, as for powdering them I have mixed feelings about doing this, I do instinctively feel that powdering them would massively increase the exposure to oxygen (no science to back this up but sometimes I just trust gut feeling).

I also tried powdering them right before ingestion and mixing the powder with lemon juice and while this did make the effects kick in much sooner than just chewing them up I got real bad bouts of vomiting every time I tried them this way, I find the best way is to just chew em up over say ten to twenty minutes and wash each mouthful down with plain cold water, a little bit at a time, mushrooms are strong enough on their own without the need to try and potentiate (is that a word) them imo.

I just chew em up, I don't mind the taste if they are really well dried, kind of earthy but much more pleasant on the taste buds than fresh wet ones.

Have never frozen them but it sounds like that would just lead to a mushy mess.
 
webbykevin said:
I do instinctively feel that powdering them would massively increase the exposure to oxygen (no science to back this up but sometimes I just trust gut feeling).
Click to expand...

No difficult science required: powder has a very large total surface space when everything is added up. And it is surface that determines the level of general exposure to the air around (which of course contains oxygen). So yes, powder allows quicker oxidation while hard-pressed pills show relatively little surface even compared to crystals or protective plant matter.
But mushroom powder should be stored in plastic ziploc bags and all air should be pressed out. One might argue that there remains some air between all the powder particles but this is unlikely to be a significant amount. Still, it can be helpful to keep a bag of desiccant in the same ziploc bag to first dry out the air - then pressing the air out and sealing immediately, then folding to keep the desiccant away from direct contact with the powder.

Not sure but it seems to me like little mushroom chips may be worse than fine dust because of the air in the spaces inbetween. So you may want to use a coffee grinder or not powder at all.

I agree that just chewing for 15-20 minutes works absolutely fine. Haven't felt the need to make weird kinds of preparations. Though I am still planning on doing an extraction and possibly attempt at purification and crystallization if I grow shrooms again.
 
Carlqua said:
Well now my little mushhies babies have grown somewhat and I'm a very proud father blah blah blah :p
I realize that I will get more than I need for my first time trip, and I have read some things on drying them, but I'm afraid to do it because:
1) I don't want to loose potency
2) I don't want to destroy them
3) I don't want to destory their beautiful looks (sarcasm, they look like awful mutated penises lol)

I was wondering if I could freeze them as I suppose this would stop oxygen get to them and I hear psilocybin only decomposes -(lack of a better word) in oxygen and it would be much easier to freeze them for me because my kitchen lacks a working toaster let alone the equipment they are asking me to have in the drying methods I have read.

I would appreciate your input helpful blue lighters and this will also be new inputs of information for other noob cultivators.

(and btw I am defiantly going to crack out skyrim again when I take them :p)
Click to expand...

Skyrim tripping rules
 
Goes to show how everyone's different. I have never thrown up on shrooms of any amount. I like the taste of fresh and juicy, cannot chew any dried without gag reflex. And powder with freezing after drying was never once mush, was always dry powder however long it was in there. In fact the calcium chloride never had to do its job, it stayed like new for years not needing to absorb moisture in my jars. Again, if oxygen exposure is a concern you can get the little packets at Amazon.
 
Use Calcium Chloride!
You can get it from Homebase or any garden center. Usually sold under the name of dessicant. Just stick some in the bottom of an airtight tub and then place your mushrooms on top of a screen ontop of it. Seal it all up and voila, cracker dry mushrooms within about 24 hours. Just make sure your "babies" dont make contact with the chem and your good to go :)
Other than that just store in a cool, dry, dark place and they should be good for up to a year without any noticeable lack in potency.
Just remember dried mushie doses are ALOT lower than eating them fresh.
If you are struggling just type. "Drying mushrooms using dessicant" into google and there should be tonnes of helpful information and diagrams to help you out :)
Also of course make sure the containers you are placing them into are sterile as they can be, dont want to risk get mold on your lovely mushrooms!
Hope I helped
Mike
 
Its my experience that if you dry Cubensis mushrooms well (methods described above, and store them airtight in a freezer, they are still potent 10 years later.
 
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