Years first Amanita Muscaria

[Tony6Strings]

As a button, this cap was shaped like a buttocks. This is how it grew out.

 

[rOm]

have you tried yet Tony6Strings ?
You can start low, brew 5 grams and sip like 2 grams worth first. wait some time, like 30 min to see if you want to sip more.. it's way easier than psilos in low doses.
But if you wanna trip, you can also mix this doses with psilos mushrooms or LSD dose.

 

[Tony6Strings]

Not yet rOm. They've been on my mind lots lately. Thank you for the encouragement, I will try a low dose soon.

 

[Tony6Strings]

Another fly agaric.

 

[AliRadicali]

I've been collecting and experimenting with Amanita Muscaria since early October, but then I found a giant patch of Amanita Pantherina growing within walking distance from my house. My first recreational dose of amanita muscaria was rather anticlimactic, it made me feel persistently nauseous and after about two hours or so it knocked me out. However, I've read that that's often the case for the first time on amanita mushrooms.

Now the second time, whoah. This time I mixed pantherina and muscaria, unaware of the difference in muscimol levels. I did a 15 gram tea w/ lemon with probably about 8 grams of pantherina stems and caps, and had the most amazing, life altering dream. It's hard to describe, but in short it felt like I'd reached singularity, which was at once exhilarating as well as frightening. It felt like I was hurtling forward/downward, while switching between the perspectives of billions of people in a fraction of a second.
I woke up spasming and still half-delirious and ended up bruising myself pretty badly, but overall I'd say the trip was worth it. Would definitely recommend easing into it and treating A. Pantherina as roughly 5-7 times as powerful a substance as A. Muscaria.

Also, whether you're using muscaria or pantherina, if you have a convection oven, dry them at ~ 75 degrees celsius. This will convert some amount of ibotenic acid into muscimol, which is the compound that's supposed to be more trip-inducing rather than vomit-inducing. The same is true for adding lemon juice to the tea, it'll convert about the same amount of ibotenic acid into muscimol.

 

[Exitwound]

I've posted it here already, but here is my receipe to success with Amanita Muscaria:
- Process gathered mushrooms, remove all moldy/slimy/wormy/rotten parts
- Leave drying naturally for 40 days at least (we spread them on tablecloth)
- Grind them and store them in glass jars
- When need to ingest arises, simmer for 2.5 hours on low heat with pH 3.0-3.5 (lemon acid or juice)
- Discard solids, drink liquid

With this method liquid form is roughly 1.5-2 more times potent than dry powder form, be careful!

I have never worked with pantherina and will probably refrain myself from doing so, as I see no reason why I should risk physical injuries
Watch Stamets' pantherina trip depiction (youtube) for a good example of what amanita overdose can do to you.

 

[Tony6Strings]

Exit, I dry mine the same way. This year I have removed and thrown out the stems, because last year all the fly agaric I picked turned to maggots on the drying plates. I recalled Null saying something about larvae in the stems. So far so good this year, everything has dried, no maggots!!

I dried a couple in the oven as per an idea in this thread. They turned black on the gills while drying. Looks gross! Looks like a rotten brain!!

I will attach a pic of some dried amanitas shortly.

 

[AliRadicali]

Exit, I dry mine the same way. This year I have removed and thrown out the stems, because last year all the fly agaric I picked turned to maggots on the drying plates. I recalled Null saying something about larvae in the stems. So far so good this year, everything has dried, no maggots!!

I dried a couple in the oven as per an idea in this thread. They turned black on the gills while drying. Looks gross! Looks like a rotten brain!!

I will attach a pic of some dried amanitas shortly.

If the gills turn black the mushrooms are getting too hot and getting cooked. You'll probably also notice a bunch of liquid seeping out of the mushies when this happens, which is bad as this will contain a significant amount of the IBO/MUS. If you're drying at the right temperature the gills should turn a pale yellow to golden-brown colour. The red cap will probably darken a bit toward the middle, but it should still remain a dark-red colour.


I've found that drying gills-up and regularly moving the caps around helps prevent cooking, which usually occurs when air/moisture is trapped under the cap, like when you put a lid on a pan. Spacing your caps out also greatly reduces the risk that they'll get too hot in the oven while drying.
With very young bulb-shaped mushroom caps I tend to split them down the middle before drying, because these do have a tendency to trap water and cook themselves no matter how you place them in the oven.

Edit: added some pics, these are all pantherina mushrooms from the same drying, as you can see the results were *ahem* mixed.

Ideally, you'll want all your caps to look like the ones toward the left. Older caps do tend to dry a bit worse than caps that are firm and fresh. They usually end up looking like the one left of center, a bit brownish with more wavy gills.
As you can see in the pic below, the mushroom on the left was not playing the game during the drying process.

From the look of it the bottom half stuck itself to the paper It was drying on and then cooked itself. I still wouldn't throw these out though, I keep these overcooked mushies separate and just use them earlier than the ones that dried out well.

 

[Tony6Strings]

Amanita Muscaria 2021

 

[null24]

Ohhh, I'm jelly!

Man, I straight up need some of those. Like, for a secret craft project involving a super-secret technique I have perfected over the last couple seasons.

I need to get out there. It just started raining down here, things are just popping off. I did a half-hearted hunt today but didn't see anything but squirrel-holes. They are going nuts(!) after the first frost digging up all the acorns and things they buried, it's kinda funny how quick and efficient they are.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

That's a lovely collection of Xmas tree ornaments you got there, Tony

You got me planning another walk in the woods now thanks to this.

 

[roninsina]

Such wealth!

I haven’t seen a flush that size here where the two big US rivers meet, for fifteen years. Maybe I gotta get out more, like DFZ was saying. I do think I spotted a couple of flushes of big laughing Jim’s (g. Spectabilis) from my car over the last few days, but that’s a distant second in consolation.

Edit: was planning to use these as my winter tonic this year, as my work often takes me outside.

 

[null24]

Such wealth!

I haven’t seen a flush that size here where the two big US rivers meet, for fifteen years. Maybe I gotta get out more, like DFZ was saying. I do think I spotted a couple of flushes of big laughing Jim’s (g. Spectabilis) from my car over the last few days, but that’s a distant second in consolation.

Edit: was planning to use these as my winter tonic this year, as my work often takes me outside.

As a mycovenator, giving such vague geographical data makes me want to sleuth your location.

And for anyone new to Ammies- watch for the maggots that live in them. As Tony and his excellent recall pointed out, indeed I learned the hard way during drying a season or three ago. They all have em. Salt water wash will get most of em out, but they do live in the stems and seem to emerge from the gills when they are forced out by drying. Or just chuck the stipes.

 

[roninsina]

Not to sick anybody out, but I’m not really all that bothered by ingesting some desiccated invertebrates, as long as any eggs can’t hatch between my mouth and ass. I always soak my morels in salt brine, as you mention null, as most people seam to think worms somehow detract from the whole culinary presentation, lol. Anyway null, it’s the two biggest rivers - should narrow it down.

 

[Tony6Strings]

I've got a new picking method now that I don't keep the stems. I just twist the cap right off. I was doing so when I picked these, and in both the stem and cap of one there were several small slugs. No holes in the cap so they must have gotten in from below. I left that one.

 

[null24]

Not to sick anybody out, but I’m not really all that bothered by ingesting some desiccated invertebrates, as long as any eggs can’t hatch between my mouth and ass. I always soak my morels in salt brine, as you mention null, as most people seam to think worms somehow detract from the whole culinary presentation, lol. Anyway null, it’s the two biggest rivers - should narrow it down.

Mmm-mmm mmmaggots!

 

[roninsina]

Not to sick anybody out, but I’m not really all that bothered by ingesting some desiccated invertebrates, as long as any eggs can’t hatch between my mouth and ass. I always soak my morels in salt brine, as you mention null, as most people seam to think worms somehow detract from the whole culinary presentation, lol. Anyway null, it’s the two biggest rivers - should narrow it down.

Mmm-mmm mmmaggots!

:lol: Oh my Gods, dude. I have literally belly laughed at this like six times now. I can totally imagine you enunciating all those mmmmmm’s. You would make an awesome tripping buddy!

 

[roninsina]

I just wanted to ask where you’re all finding these. We have mostly deciduous forests here, but I have really only found them under long needle pine trees. Are there any deciduous habitats you’ve found them in?

 

[Tony6Strings]

I find these growing mostly around deciduous trees. I know supposedly they only grow in close proximity to evergreens but I find them near deciduous. Almost always close to trees of some sort though.

 

[roninsina]

I find these growing mostly around deciduous trees. I know supposedly they only grow in close proximity to evergreens but I find them near deciduous. Almost always close to trees of some sort though.

But, do you notice them more frequently around some particular few species? Or some other factors that are visible that would contribute to the purported symbiosis required for them to flourish. Other than finding them where I have around here, which isn’t frequent, I was hoping to narrow down my search a bit.