Law enforcement officials came across a staggering find after being tipped off about possible drug-dealing: dozens of dog-food-size bags of psychedelic mushrooms worth an estimated $8.5 million at a home in rural Connecticut.
Law enforcement officials came across a staggering find after being tipped off about possible drug-dealing: dozens of dog-food-size bags of psychedelic mushrooms worth an estimated $8.5 million at a home in rural Connecticut.
The other hobbyists on this thread made some good points about what’s being shown in the photos, but I’m a mushroom nerd and wanted to point out a few things just for fun. I’ve only grown the tasty kind, but since we’re looking at cubes I’m going to talk about cubes.
The first item on the mushroom grower’s quest is usually spores. This may seem like a large hurtle, but with the exception of three state it’s actually not illegal to buy, sell, or ship spores in the US. There’s an understanding that the buyer will not be growing anything with them because that would be illegal. A syringe with spores can be found for under $20.
You can see this person’s spore germination lab in the second photo.
The bottles with brown liquid are liquid culture media. That’s basically a nutritious, sterile broth. A few drops of the liquid from the spore syringe is added to the bottle and the grower lets it incubate until it starts to form mycelium (the main part of the fungus). Behind the jars you can see agar plates. Some people start with the agar and then move to liquid culture. Some use the agar just to isolate strong organisms and remove contaminants. With one big exception, there’s no one correct way to do this.
The exception explains the equipment in the back of the photo: sterile work environments and growth media. The bench is a laminar flow hood that pushes sterile air forward across the work bench. The big pots are (I’m making an educated guess here) steam sterilization chambers. The bags contain sterile substrate. Usually grain like oats, rye, or millet. Even brown rice. The grain is cooked in water, drained, then bagged up (as in this case) or placed into modified jars. The containers and contents are sterilized prior to adding the mycelia.
There are a couple of ways to do this, but lets say they’re adding if from the liquid culture. Working under sterile conditions, they fill a sterile syringe with liquid, then proceed to inject a few millilitres into every bag. The injection holes are sealed with tape and they’re ready to incubate for a few weeks while the mycelia consumes the grain.
Remember: fungi are not plants. They don’t grow in dirt. They consume organic matter and eventually form fruit in order to reproduce.
After a month or two the bags should be filled with pure white mycelial growth. It’s now mushroom time. They need a drop in temperature and the introduction of fresh air . I would imagine that this grower moves them to that second room and simply opens the bags to admit fresh air. (I use a slightly different method with my tasty mushers, and it’s my understanding that this would also work with cubes. I transfer the grain to tubs filled with a damp substrate, wait for it to colonize completely, then adjust the environmental conditions).
In a couple of weeks the fruits (mushrooms!) start to form. After harvest, you can usually rehydrate the block, wait a week, and get a second crop. And also - now that you have mushrooms, you can collect their spores and begin again!
As a hobbyist it was very interesting to see the photos of a small but still commercial scale grow.
If not cubes what does a hobbyist do with their mushrooms?
Like what’s really going on here? Are you eating them? Preserving them for display? Photo logging or vlogging them? Making various distalates or tinctures? Poisons?
I have about 6 5lb bags of oyster mushrooms, and 3 bags of shiitake in incubation right now. There is a 50qt tub of cubes behind me now that I’ll be fruiting in another day or so. My Lions Mane is currently fruiting as well.
And yeah, they are tasty AF! Simple fried oyster mushies are a quick snack (butter, garlic and salt) and are plentiful enough to be used anywhere button mushrooms are used. I am building my collection of dried mushrooms now for various stocks and such. Lions Mane is probably my new favorite. Cut those bad boys into steaks, cook 'em up and they taste just like pork. I am not a vegetarian or anything, but I could see how gourmet mushrooms could be used as a meat replacement.
If the medicinal perks are real, awesome. If not, cool too. Lions Mane is supposed to help regrow neurons, but those studies are preliminary.
I plan to start selling mushrooms by the pound when I get efficient enough growing them. Most gourmet mushrooms do not transport and store very well and are ideal for local markets. I’ll probably hit up a local farmers market to sell what I can.
As far as my cubes are concerned, they are fun to eat as a replacement for my alcoholism. I can’t eat them every day and I really don’t want to. However, it’s been fun to be the guy at parties with mason jars of cubes just handing them out for free. (It’s newly legal here in CO, so party on!)
On an extremely serious note, once the party phase mostly wore off, I have developed a very healthy respect for the power of psilocybin these days. Used in controlled environments and while deeply meditating, I have been able to tackle extremely complex issues in my life. I already mentioned alcoholism, but that came with a healthy side dish of daily depression, anxiety and mild PTSD. Not only do I not need my daily dosage of antidepressants, other aspects of my life became much easier to manage.
Final reason I grow them is for fun. Different species and strains have different needs and learning about them is awesome. I have built a small clean lab to tinker with genetics and such, so that will be an adventure.
Regardless, I want a good supply of mushrooms on hand for food and fun! (Being the “funny shroom guy” at parties is a fun perk and much better than being the pissed off drunk. My absolute best side comes out when I trip and it’s absolutely hysterical from what I have been told.)
I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
I can write one in some of the shrooms communities, no problem! ;)
There are some cases where verbosity is just required, it seems. When I talk about mushrooms I tend to get wordy because I like the subject. However, there are so many quirks and caveats on that topic it’s almost unavoidable. (Aminita muscaria is know for its toxicity… buuuuut… [insert endless caveats here] )
I know this one! 🤩❤️🤘🏼 It’s also why flying reindeer, festooned firs, and red w/ white accents are Yuletide iconography 🥰
Don’t forget Mario! ;)
Waitwut.
Well said.
Thanks! I am absolutely understating my fascination with cubes though. It’s crazy how such a simple thing could potentially change the world.
There are a few practical options:
It’s honestly just a relaxing hobby once you get past the challenge of learning to do things under sterile conditions. My setup, for example, does not feature an expensive sterile environment like the one shown here. There was a lot of improvisation and learning.
They’re really just fun to grow. Nerd shit.
You can also experiment with breeding new varieties, or clone mushrooms that you really like. I haven’t tried that one yet.
Other than working with plates, keeping clean environment is super easy. I have a small lab for plate work, but everything else just takes a few quick sprays of IPA and a wipe down.
I have been slowly eliminating steps where I would re-clean my work area to see how long it takes before I get contam. I have only gotten one spot of trich in a mostly spent monotub when it wasn’t worth it to even use gloves to grab the final flush. (For lulz, I hit the trich directly with a tiny spray of Lysol to see how far the death would propagate. It’s quite far and not recommended if you plan on eating anything else off of it.)