Drying
Mushrooms
Fresh
Mushrooms are best when fresh, both tasting better and working
better. The freshness affects experiences a lot. The "divinity
factor" is enhanced.
Drying
Drying mushrooms is easy. There are many ways to do it:
- The drawer. Put the mushrooms into a drawer on few sheets
of paper. Wait 24 hours. Works well on smaller mushrooms
such as Ps. semilanceata. If you have silica gel or something
similar (captures humidity) I'd recommend using it.
- The oven. Put the mushrooms into an oven (with the fan
on if there is one) with the heat set to 30 to 35 C (~90
F). Wait 2 to 6 hours. Higher temperatures, even 40 C, destroy
psilocybin and psilocin.
- The mushroom dryer. Just follow the instructions. Also
easy to build.
- The freeze dryer. A psilophile's dream come true, the
gadget that stops the time on your mushrooms. Read the instructions.
Once the mushrooms are dry, place them into airtight
containers and protect from light. Some psilophiles grind
the mushrooms, if you do so, weight the outcome. It is very
hard to tell how much of a dose there is if the mushrooms
are dried and ground. Some mix the dried and chopped or ground
mushrooms with honey. Be sure to use a brand that hardens
once cooled. Place in refrigerator. Note that mushrooms containing
only psilocybin keep their psychoactivity much longer than
those containing psilocybin and psilocin or only the latter.
Evidently the psilocin breaks up easily and needs refrigeration
to be preserved. I have never had to preserve mushrooms over
a year so I wouldn't know exactly, but if stored properly
the mushrooms stay psychoactive for at least a year.
Especially with strong, large mushrooms like Str. cubensis,
grinding is the only way of calibrating doses. With for example
Ps. semilanceata, statistics ensure that the sum of 40 mushrooms
from a batch will be more or less the same no matter which
40 you pick, but if you're eating only two Str. cubensis caps
things are different. Thus, dry, grind, mix and weigh the
resulting powder. After a carefully weighed initial dose (which
you'll have to guess, aim low), it's easy to measure out smaller
or larger doses in the future.
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