Episode 1 - Intro to Mushroom Cultivation/Consumption
Transcript (transcribed programmatically - for all spelling/grammatical errors, blame the robots)
————————————————————————————————————————————————
00:00:11
Hello and welcome to the very first episode of the MUstaSH ROOM podcast.
00:00:16
I'm your host David Ben.
00:00:17
Kind of like Uncle Ben, but without all the racism.
00:00:19
Yeah, David Ban your host an I am here to take you guys with me on a journey to understand mushrooms.
00:00:26
Appreciate mushrooms, become amateur mycologist, whatever you want to do with it.
00:00:32
I found them to be extremely fascinating.
00:00:33
I recently watched the movie fantastic fun guy fungi.
00:00:37
However, you want to pronounce that.
00:00:38
And holy crap, if you're not a fan of mushrooms, mold, fungus, penicillin, anything that stems from fungus.
00:00:47
After watching that movie, you're insane.
00:00:48
It was super well done narrated by Brie Larson who is what Captain Avenger.
00:00:54
I think that's right.
00:00:55
Captain Avenger.
00:00:57
Anyways, yeah, she was a superhero and she was in movies.
00:01:00
Other ****
00:01:01
I can't remember that.
00:01:02
Games, but she actually did this movie.
00:01:04
First person from the Funguses perspective which is really cool and it had Paul Stamets who's like the mushroom God Michael Pollan, who is a bestselling author who wrote about psilocybin and psychedelics.
00:01:17
And he's a big culinary guru.
00:01:20
It had really awesome.
00:01:22
People testimonials just really well done.
00:01:25
So again, you know this podcast is from a amateur experimental perspective.
00:01:31
There's no real education behind this other than things that I've found out on my own.
00:01:36
A lot of research online, so it's a lot more organic and less formal than maybe some of the mycologist that.
00:01:41
To you have met or come across in the past, however, the enthusiasm will not be hammered.
00:01:48
He will always have enthusiasm for me and I'm really transparent and open about learning and there is no ego.
00:01:56
So one of the cool things about psychedelics ayawaska psilocybin.
00:02:01
Some of the things I've experimented with.
00:02:03
Is they really kind of diminish your ego and we can go into more detail about?
00:02:07
That another time.
00:02:09
But I think for me it's been really a beneficial thing because, you know, once your ego gets in the way, you just look at things with preconceived notions and you know you just always have this burden weighing on your perspective of life.
00:02:23
So when you remove some of those shackles, it's pretty liberating.
00:02:27
So that's one of the main reasons that I've really common very fond of psychedelics because they offer you that perspective.
00:02:35
Not many other things can do that, so I'm a fan.
00:02:38
Plus it's super organic.
00:02:40
It grows in the ground or in my basement, but not cut with any ether or anything crazy like that.
00:02:47
So that we will progress with this podcast in that fashion.
00:02:51
On this first episode I had my buddy Patrick and will stay away from last names.
00:02:56
My buddy Patrick I knew him when I lived in Tampa.
00:02:59
He is an improvisational comedy expert.
00:03:02
I mean he's been doing it forever.
00:03:04
Really talented.
00:03:05
He teaches classes.
00:03:06
Says he's a voice actor, an actor, traditional actor, and just an all around good dude.
00:03:11
He's part of the improv Boulder.
00:03:13
I don't know if that's a troop or what he's doing, but he lives in Boulder and super talented guy, but he kind of turned me on to some of the.
00:03:24
Nuances of psychedelics I did and Ayawaska experiment experience when I lived in or in Orlando.
00:03:31
I should say in the Orlando area the experience was in Orlando and Patrick is the one that pointed me in that direction and I would have to say that is one of the most.
00:03:42
Powerful experiences of my life really kind of.
00:03:46
Pave the way for me.
00:03:47
Wanted to have kids and I'll never I could never show my level of gratitude for that experience as a result of the change it had and me wanting to have kids and procreate.
00:03:59
Some of the things that I wasn't too interested in prior to heading into that experience.
00:04:04
So Patrick pointed me in the direction of Ayawaska
00:04:07
He also kind of explained some of the things about psychedelics that really without having experience in using them and experimenting with them, you wouldn't really be able to discern.
00:04:18
So just kind of a mentor in that capacity.
00:04:20
An just super cool dude, so some of the audio because we had to do a zoom session due to the covid pandemic.
00:04:28
Thank you former now former President Donald Trump for perpetuating that much longer than it had two.
00:04:33
But because that we had to do a zoom session and so some of the initial audio was a little rough, so the portion that you're going to hear is a little truncated.
00:04:41
We will have Patrick on again, so you'll get to know him in future installments, but just know there was a little bit more.
00:04:48
To the podcast that you're going to hear but without.
00:04:53
Tweaking some of the audio at a really delicate level, I don't even know how I would have made that work, so we'll have to bring him back to to fill in some of those gaps.
00:05:03
So with Patrick, basically we go over the process of cultivating mushrooms at a very, very high level, very early phase of the game, just to kind of give.
00:05:13
Light to some of the jargon. Some of the techniques, terminology that you run across when you try to cultivate mushrooms. Just a real introductory type of discussion. So that's, uh, excuse me, it's about 25 minutes or so. And really, I thought it went well, but just know that we jump right into it.
00:05:33
And there is more to the Patrick discussion that you don't get a chance to hear, but hopefully that will get you a little acclimated to where we're going to go with the podcast.
00:05:41
Some of the things that have really got me geeked out, you know, really nerding out with science and really understanding the way the stuff behaves and really cool, cool stuff.
00:05:52
So the things that we're going to touch on in the future, not today, but in the future. I definitely want to profile specific mushrooms that my wife and I have experimented with in cooking. We've with Lions, Mane and some other we did a hawk's eye.
00:06:12
Lion's Mane I'm trying.
00:06:14
Think.
00:06:15
PAP NI I believe is another one. I'll have to look up the spelling and be able to pronounce those more officially. But really, really awesome dishes. Awesome flavor coming from these different varieties of mushrooms, so I want to bring on the wife who's a nutritional expert. She's actually studying right now to be a dietitian. Very proud of her, but will bring her on to profile different mushrooms in.
00:06:35
From a culinary sense and also talk about some of the health aspects, different ways that you can compliment your foods or what you're drinking with different varieties of mush.
00:06:44
Terms and I also want to get into medicinal mushrooms and I will talk about this continually.
00:06:51
They've gained so much more so much momentum in the world of alternative healing regarding mushrooms, Cordyceps, mushrooms, Lions, mane, mushrooms.
00:07:02
There are other mushrooms that we will talk about.
00:07:04
Will try to profile one.
00:07:06
Each subsequent episode.
00:07:09
And just kind of give you an idea of what you can benefit from from these different strains of mushrooms.
00:07:14
Some of them are ground up, some of them are put into other consumable substances, just different ways of consuming them.
00:07:22
But there are some really awesome health benefits that we're just now starting to embrace and discover.
00:07:29
Out East, I'm sure they've known those for hundreds of years, but hey, you know we are who we are.
00:07:34
So yeah, lots of cool stuff to come.
00:07:36
I currently am working on growing my own psilocybin mushrooms, so a lot of the things you will hear in my discussion with Patrick come from my own experience.
00:07:45
Right now I have about 10 mono tubs in my basement that I'm using to grow a variety of different strains, so I have full automation setup with electrical scheduling humidifying spliced, humidifying through different humidifiers, automated fans, lighting, really a.
00:08:05
Pretty robust setup at this point, and so I'll be taking a lot of pictures and video and other stuff that I used to compliment the website and not the website I put them on a website to compliment the podcast.
00:08:16
And I'll get to get to know you guys. You guys will get to know me overtime. One of the things that we discussed that got cut off in our conversation. Patrick and I I used to have a podcast when I lived in Tampa called the Frightened here. Now you won't find that online because I refuse to pay the 10 dollars $15 a month hosting fee for SoundCloud to hold those files.
00:08:38
So you won't find that online, but that was my original podcast. There were about 100 episodes.
00:08:43
And it was comprised of stand up comedy and mixed martial arts commentary, news, current events, all kinds of stuff and I would say the bulk of it was stand up comedy.
00:08:54
From a interviewing standpoint, all the stand up comics in the Tampa Bay Area, lot of which now are pretty successful and even well known they were on my podcast.
00:09:04
We would talk about stand up comedy and then we would venture into the world of mixed martial arts, which I would say 90% of the the people on my podcast had no idea what I was talking about. So it was kind of cool from a listener perspective. If you weren't a big MMA guy.
00:09:19
Speak.
00:09:20
Then you could kind of follow along because the people on the podcast aren't either.
00:09:23
So I like to have an inquisitive kind of unfamiliar.
00:09:28
Presence on the podcast just so I can give the listener something that they can relate to.
00:09:33
If they're not familiar with the subject matter, I'm really into answering any and all questions and guiding you guys down the right path.
00:09:39
So again, I'm David Ben and I'm super excited about where we're going to go with this.
00:09:46
This is episode one.
00:09:48
Patrick and I are going to talk now about cultivating mushrooms.
00:09:51
I hope you enjoy.
00:09:53
And.
00:09:53
By I want to start off with some of the early phases of cultivation, so you know anybody that's interested in psychedelics and you don't want to go to your drug dealer and ask him for mushrooms and you want to just do the journey yourself and be able to make not drugs, but beautiful fungus that can take you on amazing journeys.
00:10:14
I'm going to help you get started.
00:10:16
So First things first.
00:10:16
OK, great.
00:10:19
Mushroom spores are kind of the the smallest.
00:10:24
The earliest point of inception for a mushroom, right?
00:10:27
So?
00:10:29
Will talk about.
00:10:31
As we go through this prod podcast, we'll talk about what happens when a mushroom is fully bloomed and its umbrella opens up and the spores come out and trickle down onto whatever surface it's sitting on.
00:10:42
But those spores are then used to.
00:10:46
Are you getting a whiteboard for me?
00:10:47
Yeah, yeah.
00:10:48
OK, those spores are then used to make more mushrooms.
00:10:52
So in nature, basically when a mushroom is fully bloomed it lets go of its spores and the spores in the wind travel to other locations and then fallan make more mushrooms.
00:11:04
But because we don't have a full.
00:11:07
Or
00:11:08
A full nature scenario here in my basement, right?
00:11:08
Uh.
00:11:12
We have to improvise and we have to use things there we go.
00:11:15
Here we go.
00:11:15
Spores nice.
00:11:16
Patrick's doing a really nice visual depiction of what I'm talking about so the spores fall in nature.
00:11:25
That works in my basement.
00:11:26
That doesn't work right?
00:11:27
I have to get those spores and I have to harvest.
00:11:29
And go through the process myself, because the wind and Mother Nature are not going to do.
00:11:35
For me, so spores are legal to purchase in the US. You can purchase spores from a number of different places.
00:11:43
Wait, did you just say mushrooms or legal?
00:11:45
Mushrooms are not legal in Denver, where I am where we are decriminalized.
00:11:50
I don't know what that means.
00:11:51
Cores.
00:11:52
Spores legal.
00:11:56
Mushrooms not legal.
00:11:59
Yes, correct.
00:12:01
In the visual diagram with which you listening to the podcast can't See.
00:12:05
We have this all laid out those look like Super Bowl trophies, but they're actually mushrooms.
00:12:13
Alright, and I'm a huge Browns fan, so depending on the Browns state of play, my mood may be positive as it is this week or it may be negative.
00:12:24
Thank you for pointing out Odell Beckham junior ACL tear not be with the team.
00:12:29
OK, so.
00:12:31
Moving past that.
00:12:33
To a happier subject.
00:12:35
You can buy spores. You can buy spores legally. In the US. There are a few different places.
00:12:41
If you.
00:12:41
If you look them up online, I'm not going to endorse anybody specifically, but if you look them up online, if you look for mushroom spores, most of the people that sell traditional spores like just culinary spores or medicinal spores, they'll also have the psilocybin, which is the.
00:13:02
Active ingredient in mushrooms.
00:13:04
They also have those available as well.
00:13:07
Questions on that Patrick?
00:13:09
Well yeah I have a question, so I've heard that you know you can buy the spores in like a vile.
00:13:11
Yeah.
00:13:15
Yes, so Amanda likes them.
00:13:16
He dropped them onto like some media.
00:13:19
Good good question.
00:13:20
So the spores again.
00:13:21
They fall out from underneath the mushrooms umbrella, right?
00:13:25
And when you buy those spores, they come in.
00:13:29
Traditionally, they'll come in what's called a spore syringe, right?
00:13:32
So it's a syringe that has a sterile liquid which consists of sterilized water and mushroom spores.
00:13:42
Alright, so it's usually like 10 CCS of sterile liquid with spores.
00:13:46
10CC's
00:13:48
10CC's
00:13:49
Side note for the listener, the band from England 10CC's.
00:13:51
Yes.
00:13:55
Got their name after learning the average sperm count.
00:14:00
It was approximately 10 CCS.
00:14:02
That's why that yeah, Trivial Pursuit Jeopardy that could come up at some point. So so yeah, 10CC's. And so again, the we're not making those syringes the process to make those syringes a little elaborate because you do have to have sterile water and the spores have to be.
00:14:04
True story.
00:14:21
Not contaminated by anything foreign right?
00:14:24
So this step?
00:14:24
But typically they will Mail these syringes legally to you.
00:14:27
Right, so they have prepared those syringes in their laboratories in a sterile environment. Whoever whichever vendor you use to purchase the spores from, you'll buy those syringes, and they're not that expensive. Usually it may be like 10-15 bucks per syringe.
00:14:44
Maybe slightly more, but if you buy combo packs.
00:14:47
I'd say, you know 10 to 20.
00:14:49
Bucks per syringe is a good ballpark and 10.
00:14:51
CCS is a decent amount right so you can there.
00:14:55
And a dollar is CC everybody.
00:14:57
Dollar a CC. The quick math Patrick's here for the quick math. If Patrick's not here I can't guarantee I'll have that quick turn around.
00:15:04
Time.
00:15:05
Anyway, so you buy the serialized syringe with the Spores If you look at the syringe.
00:15:10
It'll actually have the Spores suspended in that liquid you can actually see them.
00:15:16
OK, and they they will sometimes concentrate into little blobs inside the syringe.
00:15:22
Ultimately, you're going to shake that up to suspend them in a in the most dispersed fashion possible within that spore syringe.
00:15:30
So you take that syringe now that syringe is going to be injected into some sort of spawn.
00:15:40
Something that the spores can then go to the next phase of growth, which is building mycelium.
00:15:49
OK, so you can take.
00:15:49
OK.
00:15:53
Common when they're called substrates, you're going to take some substrate.
00:16:01
There's all this this jargon?
00:16:02
Yeah, no, that's good Patrick trying to spell my psyllium just to just and I just an M dot dot dot would have sufficed.
00:16:10
There we go.
00:16:11
Beautiful.
00:16:11
No, I crushed substrates though.
00:16:12
He did.
00:16:13
He did really good substrates, solid effort on the mycelium OK, and you can look that up.
00:16:19
I think if you start typing NYC it'll eventually and Google will help you with my show.
00:16:25
So the spores will go into a substrate, so there are a couple of different ways to prepare your substrate spawn whatever you're going to take these spores and inject them into.
00:16:37
I'm the 1st way is it's called PF Tek is what you'll see it referred to. That's PF tech DK.
00:16:48
You'll see that online it's kind of the beginner way to grow mushrooms.
00:16:53
You create little cakes in jars with a mixture of vermiculite and Brown rice flour.
00:17:01
And you can find all these recipes online and I'll follow up on on my website with the specifics as we go on.
00:17:08
But you're going to create a substrate right?
00:17:10
So that substrate could be the PF tek substrate.
00:17:13
It could be a spawn bag or a spawn jar.
00:17:16
With like Rye grain or some people use popcorn kernels.
00:17:21
Basically what you're doing is you're saying, hey, these spores need something to feed off of to grow with to reach the next phase of cultivation, which is, like I said, becoming that mycelium.
00:17:36
OK, now before I go any farther.
00:17:39
Patrick, what questions do you have?
00:17:41
Do people normally?
00:17:44
Do this.
00:17:45
In a jar or they use boxes.
00:17:48
Good question.
00:17:49
So when this happens and again I'm speaking, you know these are these are high points throughout the process.
00:17:56
There are little intricate details and minutiae.
00:17:58
I mean, you're going to have to follow a recipe to make this work, but I'm giving you the highlights and kind of, you know, just the major milestones throughout the process.
00:18:07
But in order for this process to work.
00:18:09
You really have to have a sterile environment, so not only does this syringe have to be sterilized, and D contaminated with a flame, you want to flame sterilize the edge of your needle.
00:18:20
No kidding.
00:18:21
Because you always.
00:18:22
Whenever you're cultivating mushrooms, the most important enemy is contamination, because when you're when you're trying to create the first phases of mushroom growth.
00:18:35
The mushroom spores are competing with mold and bacteria for access to that substrate.
00:18:45
So mold is like hey I want to feed off that substrate.
00:18:48
I want to live in that substrate.
00:18:49
Bacteria wants to do the same thing, but you want the mushroom spores to win that battle?
00:18:56
OK.
00:18:56
OK, because if the mold gets there first then it's the molt.
00:19:00
It's a first come first serve sort of monopoly on whatever that substrate is.
00:19:06
So and again I will elaborate on all these as we go through, but you'll hear from my experience.
00:19:10
This is very.
00:19:11
Is is is ready to do whatever?
00:19:15
Come to contact with.
00:19:17
Yeah it it it it it's not.
00:19:19
It's not waiting, it's just going to do whatever it does, contaminated stuff or ideally.
00:19:23
Good spores, yeah.
00:19:24
And sometimes, no matter how hard you try, like the most sophisticated way to mitigate contamination is using what they call a a lemon are flow hood, and the lemon are flow.
00:19:35
Hood uses a certain grade HEPA filter.
00:19:37
An A lot of science to reduce contamination in the air.
00:19:42
To a percentage that's really safe for mycology and mushroom cultivation, really?
00:19:48
I mean, it's expensive stuff so you know a HEPA filter that does that level of decontamination is like a couple 100 bucks so lemon are flow.
00:19:56
Hood is the Super scientific way to do it.
00:19:59
I use a still air box.
00:20:01
They have an oven method.
00:20:03
Where you can use an open oven and hot air to decontaminate.
00:20:08
There are lots of different ways to go about it.
00:20:11
I prefer this still air box, which is just a basic piece of Tupper Ware with a couple of armholes that has still.
00:20:17
Air.
00:20:18
The most important thing is just to reduce the amount of floating particles.
00:20:22
Sterilize as much as possible and just be really diligent with sanitizing everything you touch.
00:20:29
OK, so you'll see whenever you watch mushroom videos online, they're constantly using alcohol.
00:20:34
It's you would think that it's like sunscreen and they're out in the middle of the desert.
00:20:39
I mean, it is.
00:20:39
The most important thing dousing your arms, your gloves, your work environment, your tools, everything with alcohol. 70% alcohol. 90% is flammable, so I like to go with like 70% isopropyl alcohol.
00:20:57
So spores spores go into a substrate, spawn is going to be the bulk.
00:21:03
The more graduated sophisticated growers are going to use some sort of grain spawn.
00:21:09
They're going to use Rye grain oat.
00:21:11
They'll use popcorn, something like that.
00:21:15
No.
00:21:15
Be careful because that is going to then be the basis for large.
00:21:19
Sure.
00:21:20
What's what's that?
00:21:21
Casings, yeah?
00:21:21
And I apologize for answering for an individual.
00:21:26
A growing what?
00:21:28
Yeah.
00:21:28
What's the most common choice?
00:21:30
'cause you mentioned a few you mentioned Ryan?
00:21:32
Yeah, I use Rye. Yeah, you can buy a bag of Rye like a 25 pound bag, arrive for less than 40 bucks delivered on Amazon.
00:21:34
OK.
00:21:42
What were the other substrates?
00:21:44
So Rye is the most common semi pump.
00:21:47
Some people use oat.
00:21:50
Still a grain.
00:21:52
You'll see people use popcorn kernels.
00:21:57
Oh yeah.
00:21:59
And people get crazy.
00:22:00
They'll use rice.
00:22:01
I mean, all kinds of stuff, but I would say Rye and oats are going to be the two that you'll see most often.
00:22:08
So pretty dry dry.
00:22:12
Stuff well, so the process of creating your spawn is you have to hydrate your spawn and then you have to add a couple of components to your spawn like coffee for some acidity and then you add gypsum which gives a little bit more of a texture to the grain so it doesn't quite stick together.
00:22:33
Yeah, as much so you have to hydrate the grain.
00:22:36
There's a boiling process of drying and then adding the acid in the gypsum so it's a little bit more than just the dry grain that you get out of the bag, but it seems to be a good.
00:22:46
Good.
00:22:47
Place for the mycelium to really grow and flourish from my experience.
00:22:53
OK, cool.
00:22:53
Yeah.
00:22:54
And you can buy like if you go online you can buy spawn bags you can buy spawn jars that are premade pre sterilized so you don't have to **** with that process.
00:23:04
So all you do just to an, I realize we're talking about a process with these examples.
00:23:07
Yeah.
00:23:09
You buy a box, you buy a bag or a jar.
00:23:12
And you buy a syringe and then Bob's your uncle.
00:23:16
Yeah, if you bought if you bought a spawn bag that was pre sterilized and you bought a spore syringe and you in a sterile environment which with those two things in the way you're handling it, it doesn't need to be too elaborate, but in a sterile environment you could grow your mycelium with just those two things.
00:23:34
Wow.
00:23:35
And once you have the mycelium, that's a whole other next step, but that's the hardest process is getting to.
00:23:41
The mycelium is the hardest process because contamination will enter pre mycelium.
00:23:48
So from what you've covered so far.
00:23:48
OK.
00:23:51
You start with with, you know you.
00:23:54
I love that the visuals again.
00:23:56
If you're listening, it doesn't mean anything to you, but for me it's it's helpful.
00:23:59
Good, and hopefully this will make it a video some days, so when you get a really big patrion following, they'll get to watch this.
00:24:06
Hell yeah man.
00:24:06
So.
00:24:07
So we we for the, for the person that wants to do this for themselves.
00:24:12
They'll obtain approximately 10CC's.
00:24:17
Or a million a million little lives of this.
00:24:23
No hit alive Yep.
00:24:23
And then he'll set up some kind of substrate again, like.
00:24:26
So the substrate is.
00:24:28
Yeah, the substrate is your spawn essentially at that point, yeah?
00:24:30
Yeah, yeah, it's the womb.
00:24:33
Oh yeah, OK, yeah.
00:24:36
So, so they'll do this and you can look up PF Tek.
00:24:39
And then there's a number, but the most common would be right, and then you know of course the gypsum.
00:24:47
OK great just wanted just want to verify that that's where we're at.
00:24:48
Yeah.
00:24:50
So yeah, the most important piece is getting to the mycelium without contamination.
00:24:58
So there's all kinds of ways to start off.
00:24:59
The spore syringe is great because it's a good beginner technique.
00:25:03
It takes a lot longer than the other cultivation techniques because going from spore to mycelium is.
00:25:10
Yeah.
00:25:10
You know it's a time consuming process.
00:25:12
We're talking weeks, maybe months depending on the environment.
00:25:19
So if you can bypass the sporta mycelium process with things like Augur or a liquid culture which will talk about down the road, you could save yourself some time.
00:25:31
But yes.
00:25:33
You buy your spawn bag.
00:25:36
Or you can do the PF tek to build your cakes.
00:25:39
You take your syringe, you put it into your womb.
00:25:43
I like the analogy.
00:25:45
And from there you start growing your mycelium in the womb and it basically encompasses whatever that spawn is all the Rye.
00:25:52
All the PF tek cakes, whatever it is, it gets completely overtaken by the mycelium, which makes it entirely white when it's completely overtaken, it looks like trying to think.
00:26:05
Like some some some frozen yogurt kind of thing like a.
00:26:09
Because symbiote almost like I mean, if you could imagine well.
00:26:11
What is that?
00:26:12
I'm thinking of like the character from Spiderman.
00:26:18
Venom.
00:26:19
Oh yeah, OK.
00:26:20
Like you know where he kind of kind of like completely takes over some you know.
00:26:24
I mean it's it's it's parasite taking over host, essentially, right?
00:26:26
Yeah, no, absolutely yeah.
00:26:28
It completely overtakes it's correct when it is completely overtaken it you will just see white everywhere.
00:26:35
If it's your bag it will be completely white.
00:26:37
If it's a jar completely white that is ready to then next go to the next level.
00:26:42
You haven't been contaminated.
00:26:44
You don't see any mold.
00:26:45
You don't see any.
00:26:47
Purple or orange or any weird colors that would indicate contamination that mycelium is then ready to go to the next.
00:26:54
Level.
00:26:55
And it could sit like that.
00:26:56
It can sit like that for awhile.
00:26:57
Mycelium can can can be preserved for surprisingly a long period of time.
00:27:04
Just don't keep it in too hot of an environment.
00:27:07
I don't know.
00:27:08
Are we moving past the mycelium stage tonight?
00:27:10
Well, I I want to make sure that we're comfortable up to that point.
00:27:13
At least with the basics of early phases of cultivation.
00:27:17
I, I think you've covered it really well.
00:27:19
OK.
00:27:20
You know from from an outsider that's never done this, but but you know, certainly I've read stuff and I've watched videos.
00:27:28
I think that yeah, you've moved somebody along from.
00:27:32
In interest phase two.
00:27:34
Legitimately like now, it's time to do something again.
00:27:37
I don't know what comes next, but I feel pretty confident that you've helped.
00:27:41
At least me.
00:27:42
Yeah, understand like where to go from zero to like, oh, I've got something growing here.
00:27:48
Yeah, and So what I'm going to do for you to help you get started is.
00:27:54
I'm going to take you right to the mycelium.
00:27:57
OK, So what I've done is I've used something called oguer, which we'll discuss in another.
00:28:02
You know, down the road.
00:28:03
Agur is basically it's a gelatin that is.
00:28:10
Basically a a place to grow mycelium Aga R.
00:28:16
It's basically a little gelatin that is a great little place to grow.
00:28:20
Oh yeah, sure sure sure.
00:28:21
Yeah, it's used for a lot of science experiment.
00:28:23
Exactly if your science savvy if you paid attention in science class, Yeah Auger might sound familiar.
00:28:28
So oguer is a great place to grow mycelium.
00:28:31
You do it in the Petri dishes in a sterile environment.
00:28:33
But once you create the mycelium now.
00:28:36
You don't have to wait for that anymore, so you can just take that my silliman, transplanted into your spawn or something that can act as a womb to net then take that mycelium to the.
00:28:46
Level essentially all you wanted to do is just spread throughout whatever that that substrate is, and once that's done, you know then you go to the next.
00:28:53
The next phase I'm going to give you Agra.
00:28:55
So this acts as a yeast almost.
00:28:58
Yeast is one of the ingredients in Agra.
00:29:01
OK, OK so that's OK.
00:29:02
Yes, you use nutritional yeast.
00:29:04
You use auger auger?
00:29:07
It's like a sugary kind of thing.
00:29:09
I'm not a scientist, but yeah, there's like three ingredients and yeast is one of them, yeah.
00:29:15
Yeah you, you're looking to like explode the growth now with this stuff giving it food.
00:29:19
Yeah.
00:29:20
Right exactly so it grows, and it's a great way because the problem with spores when you go right from the spore syringe into your spawn.
00:29:28
You may not know for weeks for awhile if something happened.
00:29:33
If it got contaminated.
00:29:34
If there's if the spores are bad, but if you go right into your auger, the Agar will show mold almost instantaneously.
00:29:43
It's a much quicker way to validate the health of your sports, Ridge or whatever your you know your.
00:29:48
Or is sports sitting in?
00:29:50
OK.
00:29:51
So yeah, Agar liquid culture is another great tool.
00:29:54
Great way to avoid contamination when you're starting to inoculate and get ready for mushroom cultivation.
00:30:00
So these will be running.
00:30:01
Things will bring up as we explore the different phases, but again I think just quickly overview early on.
00:30:10
Hopefully we got you off on the right foot.
00:30:12
At least understanding like what you need to do to get started.
00:30:16
Yeah, I you know speaking for the audience, I'd say you've done that.
00:30:19
Yeah man.
00:30:20
The I I read or listen to Michael Pollan's how to change your.
00:30:24
Fine.
00:30:25
OK, which was so awesome.
00:30:25
OK.
00:30:27
I assume you familiar with that one.
00:30:29
I have read it.
00:30:30
Oh man.
00:30:31
Great great book in audio format his I wish.
00:30:37
Like I wish that I could just listen to him talk about everything.
00:30:40
His voice is so soothing.
00:30:41
Michael Pollan, man, I love that guy.
00:30:43
Yeah.
00:30:45
Yeah, his some of his books on you know food which are mostly a lot of his stuff but but had a big impact.
00:30:48
Yeah.
00:30:51
And yeah.
00:30:52
Yeah, Omnivore's Dilemma is a good.
00:30:54
1.
00:30:56
But anyways, Michael Pollan talking about psychedelics.
00:30:58
And like all the different types of psychedelics that he tried, and his experiments experience with mushrooms, and like that really, really piqued my interest.
00:31:08
Oh great.
00:31:09
Yeah, I was already a fan, but I didn't really have access to mushrooms, you know?
00:31:15
So I would do him every great once in a while and it was always in a weird setting.
00:31:20
And it just.
00:31:21
It wasn't the right formula for me to really have a good experience.
00:31:25
Experience in a healthy experience.
00:31:26
A constructive mushroom experience, it was.
00:31:28
It was a way for me to have some cool, you know, fun with my friends and cry a little bit and laugh hysterically but not a real opportunity to have any healing or therapy which I think is one of the most awesome qualities of mushrooms.
00:31:44
Like when you.
00:31:44
So when you say that I'm just curious what what kind of dose are we talking about for that experience?
00:31:45
Yeah.
00:31:48
'cause 'cause I would guess you were somewhere between one and two grams for that experience.
00:31:53
For my own.
00:31:54
Feeling no no for.
00:31:55
No, the crying and laughing with friends in that business.
00:31:56
The the social.
00:31:58
Yeah, I usually.
00:31:59
2 grams of psilocybin is where I like to hover socially.
00:32:04
Uh, 5 grams if I'm just trying to to kind of get some therapy and you know hanging out by myself for in a real nice setting, but I'd say 2 grams in a social setting.
00:32:16
Yeah.
00:32:17
Yeah, and that's that's a healthy amount for that too, you know, but definitely, yeah, I was just curious.
00:32:19
Yeah.
00:32:23
How about you?
00:32:25
Yeah, like 1 1/2 you know. Like for hanging out and having fun and then for you know real work three to three and a half to five is will get you there and and that's.
00:32:29
Yeah.
00:32:35
Good.
00:32:37
You know, obviously the recommended dose, the heroic dose and but, but also you know I.
00:32:42
The heroic dose is 5.
00:32:44
Yeah, according to Terrence, 55 grams dried.
00:32:44
Yeah.
00:32:49
Yep.
00:32:49
In darkness and.
00:32:52
An an I'd say you know, for somebody who's who's had some experience with DMT, you know the the powdered form.
00:33:00
For me there were on a couple of experiences with five grams.
00:33:05
There were, like I don't know if it was an hour and a half or two hours of what seemed like a prolonged EMT kind of experience.
00:33:12
Oh wow.
00:33:13
Yeah, and so.
00:33:14
Interesting.
00:33:16
Which I was grateful for and you know.
00:33:18
Like
00:33:20
So.
00:33:20
So.
00:33:21
Yeah, I never taken DMT.
00:33:24
I did ayawaska the you know more drawn out version of it but yeah I'm not a big visual guy like when I when I take psilocybin.
00:33:28
Yeah.
00:33:34
I do get visuals but not the same strength as ayawaska.
00:33:39
I was really heavily visual or it was heavily visual.
00:33:43
I don't have the same effect on mushrooms.
00:33:46
My senses are all really heightened.
00:33:47
I get very introspective and things are great, but in terms of like strong visuals just for me that.
00:33:54
It hasn't really.
00:33:55
Nothing.
00:33:56
Yeah, and I.
00:33:57
Don't know if it's visuals, I guess.
00:33:59
But I mean, you know, but it's an experience with your eyes closed.
00:34:02
And again, you know, laying down on the safe place an but for me it was a very similar, you know, kind of experience.
00:34:06
Sure.
00:34:10
But again, like incredibly elongated, not fast and furious the way that you know a DMT experience would be.
00:34:17
Sure, and.
00:34:17
Sure.
00:34:20
So yeah, really really great and and I missed that like that's, you know, I've only had the opportunity to do kind of lower dosage experiences for the last couple of years, but but yeah, there's an I've. I've seen some people talk about. I don't know if you've seen about 20 or 25 gram dose experiences which sound bonkers. But I mean, again, life changing. And these people are talking about it, and they're not.
00:34:38
Whoa.
00:34:44
You know doing it from a padded room?
00:34:46
Yeah, if you want to carve out a week.
00:34:47
So.
00:34:49
Yeah, I don't know.
00:34:49
That would take a really long time.
00:34:50
I I.
00:34:51
I imagine, yeah, I don't know how many hours are, but I think this is like, you know, yeah may have been a couple.
00:34:56
Days.
00:34:57
I mean, you know anything that has strong testimonials associated with it.
00:35:03
I'll listen to you know, unless they're coming from Fox News.
00:35:07
And then I'm not listening because it's let me, not sure.
00:35:09
Yeah, well the reality too is the lethal dose for mushrooms.
00:35:12
For those of you who are concerned and there's a concept called LD.
00:35:15
50 that all drugs are compared by LD 50, meaning lethal dose 50.
00:35:19
Meaning that if you gave this to half the population, at what point would it kill half the population and the lethal dose for mushrooms?
00:35:25
OK.
00:35:29
Is like it's almost your weight and mushrooms.
00:35:33
You have your weight in much.
00:35:33
It's just not feasible.
00:35:34
It's not feasible.
00:35:35
It's not possible.
00:35:36
You can't do it.
00:35:37
You can't eat enough.
00:35:39
To get you to a place, you know.
00:35:40
But you can't.
00:35:41
It you know.
00:35:42
I mean, you know what are you gonna do?
00:35:44
How many?
00:35:44
How many mushrooms so?
00:35:45
Right, you might be like mentally unavailable for a month, you know, but but you're not going to die.
00:35:49
Right?
00:35:51
No.
00:35:51
And I love that I love.
00:35:53
I love the The Safeness.
00:35:54
The safety of knowing that you're not going to die, that's it.
00:35:56
The most safe drug on the planet.
00:35:58
So and yeah, I remember Michael Pollan talking about in the studies.
00:36:03
They would give it to the Lab Rats, and they would never come back for another.
00:36:06
To so it's like.
00:36:08
It's not addictive, it's you know it's just you're on your own journey.
00:36:11
You know it's not.
00:36:12
Yeah.
00:36:13
Yeah non addictive and non lethal.
00:36:16
Down Yep, alright, so I think it's a good good stopping point Patrick.
00:36:20
You have a lot of knowledge in this area so I really appreciate you.
00:36:24
You know kind of filling in some of the gaps in the psychedelic discussions and hopefully I gave you a little bit of counter knowledge on the mushroom cultivation side.
00:36:32
Yeah, thank you so much counterculture knowledge.
00:36:35
Fantastic, well, I really appreciate you being here and this is episode one so you know it's like if you have the original Spiderman comic that means something.
00:36:36
Yeah.
00:36:44
It's worth something, so this hopefully will rival Spiderman as far as podcasts are concerned.
00:36:51
I don't know if that's attainable, but anyways.
00:36:53
Yeah, aim for the moon Patrick.
00:36:54
Thank you so much.
00:36:55
Thank you buddy.
00:36:55
I will talk to you soon man and listening audience.
00:36:58
Thank you.