2’ section of clean maple from a log drop, roughly 8” or so in diameter. inoculated last winter with totem method. Overwinter inoculation in the garage was a good move, I had a fully inoculated log in the spring letting me start a full 3 months earlier. Probably wouldn’t have gotten a harvest this year otherwise.
You can see these all came out of the spawn so I’m hoping to get some from the log itself next year. Time will tell.
Biggest ball is 4” or so across.
Very hype for these as I have never tasted them before. They’re supposed to be delicious and are suuuuper expensive at the store (30-40 usd a pound)
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This is awesome. I know lion’s mane is hot now, but I have never seen it at a store (probably because I live in a rural backwater). Are you seeing it for $30/pound fresh or dried?
Fresh
Damn. That’s wild.
I kind of get it, for a lot of these species to grow commercially would require humidity controlled fruiting chambers, sterile environments for propagation, etc.
My shit’s all covered with bugs and chew marks (but I’m ok with that)
Oh yeah. Not saying it isn’t reasonable based on the inputs. Just sort of surprising to see any sort produce fetch a price like that. Maybe I should quit my job and become a full time forager.
That’s crazy, it’s usually somewhere between 10 and 15 here
Good shit though, really tasty
I just tried the first bite, it is indeed a choice edible. Best mushroom I’ve tasted yet
looks so good. I’ve never had lionsmane because of the price, but I keep seeing recipes with it swirling around vegan youtube.
I’ve been thinking about growing my own too. How much do you have to tend to the moisture with these? I know some mushies are really finicky.
Lion’s mane tends to do well on artificial logs (sawdust/BBQ pellets and wheat bran or Master mix) if you’re willing to put in the effort to sterilize it in a pressure cooker.
Alternatively, the Yesterday’s News protocol (e.g., see here) is a neat shortcut. You use the litter and some guinea pig chow, both of which are sterilized by the pelletization process and hot water that you’ve allowed to cool. Yields are a smidge lower but it is easy and cheap. The litter holds onto moisture so it is also set-it-and-forget-it.
Damn, that’s super helpful. I might take a look at doing this.
The results are definitely worth the effort! Lion’s mane is delicious.
There’s also sous vide tek 👀
Dang, didn’t know about that one! It looks so much easier than steam pasteurization. I will have to give it a shot.
This yesterdays news thing is sick too you should make a separate post on it
Can do! I’ve had some pretty good luck with it.
Gonna have to push back a little bit here. Lions mane taken in controlled and limited quantities can probably help with memory issues but eating an entire fruiting body or part of one is pretty irresponsible. For alot of people it might be harmless but it seems to trigger severe disassociative mental illness that’s similar to people who have post-finderistride syndrome and can also really fuck with people’s serotonin levels if taken in excess and can cause an overdose that creates sertonin syndrome similar to how taking too much molly or SSRIs can fuck your brain up in the wrong dose.
I support people taking Lions Mane diy style but be safe and keep it in small and controlled doses and if you start to feel weird then please stop.
see r/lionsmanerecovery for all the associated risks
Looks like crankery tbh. National Audubon society field guide to North American mushrooms classifies lions mane as a choice edible. Many people have foraged and eaten this species with no issues.
Could be that drying and powdering it and eating it every day provides higher doses but there’s nothing I’ve seen to indicate this species to be dangerous for culinary use.
I get where you’re coming from but keep in mind that research on lion’s mane cultivation is pretty recent and that it’s affects aren’t as really well understood as the effects of let’s say asprin.
For the majority of people they are gonna get a nice tasty treat when eating lion’s mane but for a noteworthy amount of people they are going to get horrific mental illness.
I think that sure some daily doses are probably too high for some people because we need a safe dosage recommendation and right now we don’t have good research on that but also if you are incorporating this into your diet and eat this let’s say 1-2 times a week at a dosage that’s waaaaay bigger than a capsule (a fruiting body is obviously larger than pill form) then you have a similar risk.
I couldn’t get more than 1-2 meals a year out of my grow anyway. Mushrooms are mostly water, when you dehydrate these things they shrink to 50% of their size. Then powdering shrinks them even further. A couple of capsules of dried powdered mushrooms probably contains as much as my biggest fruit here. And that’s being taken probably daily. Totally different applications.
Also supplements in amerikkka are completely unregulated. Who the fuck knows what is being put in those capsules and labeled as “lions mane”
Omg. Wow. Yeah, my partner is already on ssris and I’m seeing the papers on this. Probably best not to mix.
Thanks for the heads up. I was just thinking about it culinarily.
I do not believe culinary use to be dangerous. I don’t want to be a debate pervert here but would need to see some reputable sources beyond a crank subreddit. There’s probably one of these for 5g
No worries, I love lions mane and I def want to experiment with it to help with my own brain injury so im def not a hater but its important to be careful :)
I grow everything outside, so it totally depends on the weather if I get harvests. This is a bumper crop year we’ve had a ton of rain.
how do you grow it outside? I wanna grow lionsmane one day but like, idk if I want to continuously by grow bags forever. I kinda want to keep it like a perenial plant that I just harvest periodically.
I should make a separate post for this but totem method is very easy. You need a 5lb block of sawdust spawn, a hardwood log about 18”-24” and 8” or so in diameter, a way to cut it, a black contractor trash bag and a zip tie. You can also use one of those big paper lawn and leaf bags if you are plastic averse.
First step is to cut 2 2” thick slices off the log so you have 3 pieces in total. Then you take your spawn, break up and scatter half of it in the bottom of the bag, then put the big log on top. Then you take 1/4 of the spawn and put it on top of the big log, stack on a slice, then the last 1/4 of the spawn and finally top with the last log slice. So you have a wood-spawn-wood-spawn-wood double decker sandwich.
You close up the bag and tie it loosely with the zip tie to allow air exchange, then bend over the top so rain can’t get in. This you leave for 3 months or so. It’s best to start in spring or outdoors when the weather is warm, if you want to start in fall you can overwinter indoors (garage works well). If you’re starting in spring you can do it right where you will leave the log long-term, in winter it’s better to start it on a plywood base or something so you can move it easily. I did it on a little roller dolly with cardboard taped across that worked well bc I could roll it out of the way in the garage.
After 3 months you have the stack covered with mycelium and you can just untie the bag and drop it around the log to expose it fully… or move it outside to its final locations. This should be somewhere out of direct sunlight, and close (but not on) the ground. Then from there you just keep an eye out for fruiting bodies after rain.
A big totem will yield for a long time… maybe 5 years or so.
I’m gonna save this post for later and might message u in a year or two from now if I ever get a place big enough to do it again. thank u <3
That’s awesome. Can you give a complete noob some mushroom advice?
I inherited 3 inoculated logs last year that have not fruited yet. I do not know what they were inoculated with or when or how. How would you manage a mystery inoculated log?
Keep then in a moist area that’s completely out of direct sunlight and wait - sometimes it can take a couple of years depending on the species and the size of the logs.
This is good advice, I would add to it to keep it off the ground
That’s cool! How many years can you harvest from a single log?
A totem like this can probably go for 5 years or so
Neat!
Delicious sauteed in olive oil. Lion’s Mane tastes very similar to lobster, and is in every respect nutritionally superior. I’d recommend trying it out in both sandwiches and soups!
We’re gonna sear it like steak 👀
They look fantastic! I did a couple spawn bags of them once, only got ten ounces or so but pheweee were they tasty.
