Favorite medicinal mushroom, preparation and use

burekcrew86

I have loved foraging for mushrooms this year for both culinary and medicinal purposes. I’d love to hear what your favorite mushrooms are and how you use it. If medicinally, how do you prepare it for use (tincture, dehydrate, fresh, etc.) and what medicinal reason do you specifically like to use it for?

Torey

Oh, how to choose just one. :)

I love puffballs when they are in season. Apparently, my province, BC, is one of the top regions in NA to forage for puffballs. Last year I got one that was over 9 lbs. A couple this year that were around 7 lbs. I prepare them in several ways. Marinated cubes on skewers like tofu Kabobs. Thick sliced and fried like steaks. Use a large round cutter to cut circles out of the thick slices and use as a vegetarian burger substitute. Sliced into strips and fried to top a steak. Smaller bits to top a burger. Added to stir fries. Puffball soup.

Next favourite edible in my area is Shaggy Manes. Didn't find any this year and now it is freezing and we are getting snow so that's the end of mushroom harvesting for me this year. They deteriorate so quickly that they are best fried up or made into soup within a couple of hours of picking.

If I were a bit further south I would be after the Oysters, Lobsters, Hen of the Woods and Chantrelles. All yummy mushrooms.

Medicinally, we have several species of medicinal mushrooms in BC. Red belted conk is one of the most common in my area. It can be used similarly to Reishi. We also have a Ganoderma species here that can be used in place of Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum). Both of those get tinctured as adaptogens and immune support. Lion's mane grows here but I have never been able to find a large enough patch to harvest. If I do, I would tincture a bit of it for medicine and take a piece for dinner. The tincture would be used to support mental and cognitive health. As I haven't been able to harvest it, Lion's Mane is a tincture that I purchase. I harvest Turkey Tail when I travel a bit further south. It also gets tinctured for immune and gut health support.

There are a huge number of other edible and medicinal mushrooms here but above are the ones that I have experience with.