Stir Fried Marmite Mushrooms Recipe

Marmite

I’ve been trying to eat healthy since I’ve started hitting the gym regularly. I go six days a week (1 rest day) and I’ve been getting really good results that I want to start off this post with a shot of my back. Haha! I’ve been working those shoulders and lower back for 3 months and it’s starting to look pretty sweet, if I say so myself.

Back

Anyway, one thing I’ve been eating a lot of lately are mushrooms. Why mushrooms? Well, mushrooms are the best food for dieters! 100 grams contains only 22 calories! It’s has a lot of important nutrients and it’s relatively high in fiber so it’ll fill you up. This is my recipe for stir-fried Marmite mushrooms!

You will need:

1. Assorted fresh mushrooms
2. Marmite
3. Coriander
4. Butter and garlic

I got a mixture of enoki, brown, button and Portobello mushrooms but any fresh mushrooms would do. Slice up some and leave some whole – this is mostly for texture when you eat it, you don’t want everything to have the same shape and texture in a dish.

Garlic

Next, chop up some garlic. You need garlic for most dishes. Fry the garlic with a little bit of butter until slightly brown.

Cooking

Add the mushrooms into the pan.

Mushrooms

Add 1 teaspoon of Marmite. A little goes a long way here.

Mushies

You want to stir fry them until they’re soft and bleed out a little water.

Coriander

Cut the end (stem) of the coriander into small 1/2 inch sections and add to the mushrooms when almost done. This will add a lot of taste and the cooking process will soften the usually tougher stems so it’s easier to eat.

Stir Fried Marmite Mushrooms

Garnish with the leaves of the coriander and serve hot. I love eating this coz it’s delicious and the Marmite contains Vitamin B and folic acid so I’m getting a lot of nutrients while at it. I’m also trying to cut sodium from my diet so by adding Marmite, I can cut out salt and it still tastes good! I’m cutting weight now so I have this meal in addition to 1 whole rotisserie chicken (for protein) most days. Try it out, you’ll be surprised such a simple dish can taste so good!

Do check out their Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/marmitemalaysia/
I saw some really good recipes up there perfect for CNY.

Sautéed Jerusalem artichokes with garlic and mushrooms in white wine

jerusalem artichokes

Jerusalem artichokes is a bit of a misnomer. They’re neither artichokes nor do they hail from Israel. I heard the name “Jerusalem” comes from the Italian word for sunflower – girasole. This vegetable belongs to the sunflower family and it’s a small, lumpy, brown-skinned tuber instead of the beautiful green of the true globe artichoke.

Here’s a photo of an artichoke with Jerusalem artichokes side by side. They look very different coz they *are* completely different things. I got both of them while grocery shopping yesterday.

jerusalem artichokes vs artichokes

I found a recipe by Jamie Oliver for Sautéed Jerusalem Artichokes and modified it a bit. I cooked this last night for dinner while my better half came out with the protein dish. You will need:

preparing jerusalem artichokes

  • 200 grams Jerusalem artichokes
  • 100 grams Portobello mushrooms
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 100 ml dry white cooking wine
  • Salt and pepper to taste

peeling jerusalem artichokes

The hardest part about cooking Jerusalem artichokes is the peeling bit. The tubers are tiny and knobbly and it’s really hard to get a grip on the little things to peel away the skin. After that labor intensive process is done (enlisted the help of my dear – she volunteered after listening to the choice French phrases I directed at the tubers smirk) you just need to slice them into chunks.

I sautéed the the Jerusalem artichokes in a pressure frying pan with olive oil and some thinly sliced garlic until golden brown before adding in 50 ml of dry white wine (eye-balled it) and putting the lid back on.

cooking jerusalem artichokes

I waited for 15 minutes and then put the sliced Portobello mushrooms in and adding the remaining 50 ml of white wine. I let it reduce (only takes a while coz the mushrooms absorb the wine) and served it up with some basil from our own herb garden.

We were both pleasantly surprised by the taste – the Jerusalem artichokes are crunchy and sweet! I thought it was just a bit of sales talk (grocery place-card says the tubers can be sweet) but it really is deliciously crisp and sweet! It’s a delicious dish, but Jerusalem artichokes sells for RM 39.90 per kg over here so it’s more expensive than local offerings.

sauteed jerusalem artichokes

I’ll love to eat it again though. I can see a lot of possibilities e.g. puréed, deep fried etc. I’m going to do a stuffed globe artichoke tonight so it’s back-to-back artichokes (except the Jerusalem artichoke is actually a tuber). 😀

Turkey stew with quail eggs, Portobello mushrooms and apples

stew start

The turkey stew is made with half a savory sauce base and half apple juice. It sounds a little weird and we did this as an experiment of sorts but it worked out really well. The stew takes a lot of time to cook (3 hours approximate) but we also made BBQ pork ribs. The hearty stew is served with slices of French loaf topped with Mozzarella cheese slices seared in olive oil.

You will need:

ingredients

  • Turkey drumstick
  • Pork ribs
  • Quail eggs
  • La MASIA extra virgin olive oil
  • Coat & Cook Honey and Soy Sauce marinate
  • Heinz BIG N CHUNKY Stew
  • PEEL FRESH apple juice
  • Mozzarella cheese block
  • BBQ sauce
  • Potatoes
  • Baby carrots
  • Portobello mushrooms
  • Onions and garlic
  • Apple
  • French loaf

turkey drum size

Turkey drumsticks are huge – check out the sheer size of it.

turkey drum slice

The turkey drumstick will be the stock of the stew but we wanted the meat as well so we sliced the turkey drumstick with a knife, going sideways as to maximize the return on investment on this bird.

sliced turkey

Mmm…

apple

We started off by preparing the ingredients for the stew. Chop up the onions, garlic, potatoes and apples. The last two should be cubed and diced respectively. Put the baby carrots into the plate as well.

pre stew

Next up, fry the onions and garlic in olive oil…

fry turkey

…and put in the slices of turkey to sear it for the stew.

stew base

Open the can of stew base and dump it into a suitable sized pot. DO NOT ADD WATER.

stew progress

Throw in the rest of the ingredients except the quail eggs and Portobello mushrooms.

quail eggs boil

Boil 6 of the quail eggs (reserve the rest for the stew) and peel it.

turkey drum

You can also throw in the pasta at this time for the two birds with one stone thing (pardon the lame pun).

add apple juice

Pour in the apple juice in lieu of water – trust me on this. Add about 500 ml or so.

turkey stew

Chuck in all the rest of the ingredients and let the stew…well, stew for 2 hours.

Here’s the video!

marinade

This is where you cook the pork ribs. Marinate the pork ribs with Coat & Cook Honey and Soy Sauce and let it sit for a while.

fry pork ribs

Use olive oil to fry some onions and garlic and put in the pork ribs.

pork ribs done

You don’t want to overcook the porcine goodness so flip every now and then and add BBQ sauce before serving.

thicken stew

After 2 hours (do check on the stew from time to time and remember to turn the heat down) put in a few slices of bread to thicken up the stew.

quail eggs crack

Add BBQ sauce and crack in the quail eggs…

mushrooms

…and the Portobello mushrooms.

stewing

Let it stew (you guessed it) for 30 more minutes with the lid on.

Crack the rest of the quail eggs in at this point. High cholesterol but adds a lot to the taste!

bread stew

Chop up the French loaf to go with the stew and heat it with cheese slices on top of olive oil until the Mozzarella cheese melts.

melted french loaf cheese

Cook some pasta to garnish in the middle of the French loaf with melted cheese…

serving

…and serve with the turkey stew with quail eggs, Portobello mushrooms and apples.

stew end

I’m telling you, it tastes DIVINE. It might be a bit sour but it’ll be nothing a bit of BBQ sauce can’t fix and the medley of sour, sweet and savory notes is something to experience. The stew is thick and full of turkey with quail egg and apple surprises!

Photo Friday – Multiples

multiple.jpg

Photo Friday – Multiples [photofriday.com]

Multiples. The recent rains and cold weather produced a flush of mushrooms around the halls compound. This is Coprinus comatus
(shaggy mane), an edible mushroom. I saw a large one growing on the
grassy lawn on the way to the campus. The large shaggy mane is
surrounded by multiples of itself, albeit smaller ones. This is in
Melbourne, Australia.

The shooting data:

Focal Length: 8mm
Exposure Mode: Programmed Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern 1/72 sec – f/2.8
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Sensitivity: Auto
White Balance: Auto
AF Mode: AF-C
Saturation Compensation: 0

The post-production work was done in Photoshop 7.0 and involves:

Image Size: Size reduced from 2048×1536 to 500×375

Amanita muscaria (6.5 grams, taken orally)

amanita1.jpg

Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric). I’ve never had this mushroom before,
they’re different from magic mushrooms, as the primary content of
amanita muscaria is muscimol and ibotenic acid (which gets converted to
muscimol by the body). Read more about amanitas here
[erowid.org]. I had 6.5 grams of prepared (baked caps and dried skins)
amanita muscaria courtesy of chemist_tip. Thanks buddy! I’m writing
this now at T +7 hours +. I consumed the amanitas at 5 pm and the trip
is wearing off now, but the after effects are still felt, still a bit
confused.

amuscbak.jpg
Mmm…baked amanitas look, smell and taste wonderful

Anyway, CT baked the amanita muscaria last week to potentiate the
effects. There’s an article in Erowid about how baking decarboxylates
ibotenic acid into muscimol – basically, baking the amanitas before
consuming it raises the muscimol levels and thus makes the amanitas
stronger as more ibotenic acid is converted into muscimol.

Substance: Amanita muscaria
Dosage: 6.5 grams (mixed material of dried caps (baked) and cap skin (dried))

amusceat.jpg
6.5 grams of baked caps and (peeled) dried cap skins of amanita muscaria. I ate everything in this picture. Mmm…

The amanitas I consumed are a mix of all caps (baked) and the skin
(just dried) on an empty stomach. I ate them as is, they taste
wonderful, baking adds a lot to the flavor! There was a nice “french
fries” taste to the baked caps and the dried skins tastes good too –
mushroomy taste, like shitake mushrooms actually. Hmm…I think I’m
repeating some stuff that’s already in the trip log, so I’ll just paste
that here in its original and unedited form (beware typos):

If you’re not interested in reading the trip report, scroll down
to the end if you’ll like to see a picture of drying peeled cap skins.

took at 5 pm
last meal: 17 hours before
very nice tasting, the baked amanita caps tasts LOVELY, like some kind
of baked french fries. the dried cap skins wasn’t too bad too, tasted
nice as well.

5:40
was getting slightly sleepy without realizing it. and i’ve read about
the nausea, but god, i didn’t know it was this bad. it just suddenly
started. the nausea i mean. not eating for 17 hour beforhand is prob a
mistake. ugh, the nausea is really bad, like the ones you get on third
plateu dxm doses. feel an urge to throw up, and i’m very dizzy too.
damn. the feeling is like the nausea and diziness you get after smoking
wayyyy to many cigarretes. gonna lie down for a while.

just got up to tell you all VERY DIZZY and i notice the saliva
effects too. i’m also think i’m getting gastric coz of the way my
stomach is churning.salavating more than usual even before drinking
water.

i felll askeep just now and suddendly wope up beofre 10. i don’t
rememembre dreaming or taking the mushrooms and just sat up for almost
5 minutes there not knowking anything. i didn’t realise i was inder the
influence until i knoticed i was repepating “shut now” and” ‘recipient”
while looking back and forth at two nacent peoole. i know the pic are
thise them byt sge looke anyway, so there’s like three google for 3 pll
to “go for it” and “recipent”/

its hard to type.i saw that my hard of view is sharrting to get hard
now. when i see a line it rend tosee another like with the “comp”
“abuse” words. damn i didn’t reliuase but talkimg will be hard on this
one,the visual field is too fast for me fo one thint. when i look left
ahright as the keyboard once, it’s like “helllo nad tkae care”

sorry, tellying is hardf since i’mt thinkbg one character bakc is
correct/i keepm moving my head to the northwest.i can tell i’m very
under the influnce.it was go keep going northwest. keeps on upperright
uppperright and hehe oops i thought my digicam was my mouse, i kep
themside by sode controlled with a lit of effects but it does keep
shiny and i have be my on my toes all the time. yep, lazy to correct
the typos too.

walkked to the toilet just nopw and realized my motor skills isn’t
as stable as i thought it was. fell down while putting on toilet
slippers. things are strange too, found mysefl very open to any
suggestions, can be quite a dangerous drug in this context. and now my
head heard this it keeps wanting to lean to the left and grabbed my
mouse receptor instead of my mouse.

i think amanita is clear for me. i have no “mental noise”, totally
silent for the occational “all clear” that its repeating now. it can
repeat anything too, but just one phase. I notice it went “boom, boom
boom” just now, but otherwise the mental clarity is good,. i don’t
think i can talk properfly though but i can try if confronted.

the effects are mainly mental. the only “visuals” i saw was a very
fast moving field of vision. you dunno how hard it was to type those
few words. my brain keeps repeating “television” and another phrase i
forgot to comfuse me. it wanted me to help something else, i think. oh
i rememeber now! it was “help” my brain keeeps repeating “help” in a
male voice like someone is in trouble. the vouce sounds middle aged,
caucasian, and weakening, like he’s drownking (not in water) in
something like weak sand. quicksand i mean.

ah i can see i’m confusing you too. anyway, i was just talkking
about a filed of vision who like to instist going “went of form” come
her” to eat oothter ahd i looked back and forth even thought I’m
tyoping now. strabge, 🙂 ate a time tam. wasn’t aware of the taste at
first but its great now. at firt duriring the crunching stage, it feels
large and volimuniis in my mouth, but tasted dry, there wasn’t any
taste until a movied it back a bit towards by throat. then the nice
taste came. i just notice i dropped a piece of chocolate on my hard and
i was surprised at this new brown bit on my left hand. i was thinking
is it a bug that landed on my hand or did i grow a new strange brown
wart?

Its not the first nor the seond but i didn’t want to eat the small
bit after i made the bug association. ah, now you scared me a bit.i
don’t like bugs and i subconsiouly shuddered a littke as i bruch it
offed. damn. heh. surprised myself that i should shudder even know my
mind knows that its obviously not some bug but a piece of chocolate.

oh i just noticed that i was doing minor twitching tooo. little
things i can’t control like my right hand twiched a acouple of seconds
ago. which is strange (damn my brain insisted on writing “why” as
strange” but i won) because i had a couple of klonopins – clonazepam
(not only a benzo but an enti epilepsy medication because it supresses
epileptic fits) with beer last nite (or early this morning) while
coming down off meth so i should still be feeling it now.

it feels like dxm too, kinda “dissociative like”. funny. i’m going to smoke some weed and eat some food now.

i don’t know why but it seems that i like to wave now. like move to
side to side.. oh damn i lost a bit of infor by not saving. btw, i
haven’t eaten, walking feels unsteady right now, will try again later.

short term memory is either affected or overrided by some other
effect. can’t do stuff quickly. wanted to resize the amanita pics and
took ages. keep going to wrong folders that seemed “right”. keep going
to wrong menus that seemed “wrong”. sometimes i even know they’re wronf
before clicking the folders and yet my hand goes to click it. what a
paradox!

yeah it things can be quite blur. trying to do things is hard since
your mind seems to have a mind of its own and want to do other things.
so you end up doing things that was not what you wanted. this is like
picking up wrong things – want to pick up keys, pick up fan instead,
really strange stuff. hmm…

12:00 am
feeling a return to baseline. aftereffects still present but not
tripping anymore. its been 7 hours since ingestion. lasted fairly long,
nice, considering shrooms just lasted 3 hours that time. mushies
effects are better though.

amuscskn.jpg
Peeled amanita muscaria cap skins drying on a piece of paper on a box

My personal experience today did not find anything extremally
noteworthy about amanita muscaria. It does feel (caught myself spelling
“fill” twice) interesting, but there’s no real visuals associated with
it besides the “everything is moving fast, the world has a fast
framerate” feeling. As you can see, I accidentally fell asleep in the
early stages of the trip. I may have slept though the peak, but I’m
under the impression that sleeping the first phase (sedating phase) off
is common and people will automatically waking up during the
stimulating/psychedelic phase. Personally, I did suddenly wake up for
no reason and was disoriented for a while before remembering the
amanitas I had previously consumed. I sat there for 5 minutes wondering
why I’m feeling weird without realizing that I was under the influence
coz I forgot all about amanitas. 🙂

I do appreciate this experience though, I like trying new things and
amanita muscaria’s effects are interesting. It’s markedly different
from a magic mushroom trip, which is understandable as the contents are
totally different. The experience sure is different from any substance
I’ve tried before, although comparisons can be made – a cross between
(magic mushrooms(psilocybin)/LSD – part of these effects are present) /
(DXM/ketamine – slightly disassociative) / (benzodiazepines – memory
problems). That doesn’t do it justice though, the effects are different
from anything I’ve tried before and I found the trip just plain weird
because of the strange effects. Eh, I’m still a little confused now,
would have been better to write this tomorrow, but I feel like getting
it done today. 🙂

I would try it again at a higher dose, it’s quite interesting, not
“noteworthy interesting” but “interesting interesting”. Certainly worth
a second trip, and I’ll stay awake during the sedative stage next time
to see if there’s anything interesting in there. The nausea is really
bad for me though, I’ll make it a point to smoke cannabis during the
trip next time, I didn’t want to “cloud” my experience today so I
didn’t. I prefer to try substances I’m new to on it’s own the first
time. My apologies for all the typos and confusing statements in this
post, I’m still feeling the mild aftereffects even after 7 hours 41
minutes. Oh, and I changed the POTD to one of amanita muscaria to honor
my first experience with this nice mushroom. 🙂

Magic mushrooms – Psilocybe subaeruginosa (1.5 g, dried)

psubldh.jpg

This is psilocybe subaeruginosa – a species of psychoactive mushroom
that only grows in Australia. I’m glad to have the chance to experience
this particular strain of magic mushroom coz it doesn’t seem to grow in
Malaysia. I read that the dosage of fresh psilocybe subaeruginosa is
much higher than the few small ones we found that day so I didn’t eat
those. However, I have 1.5 grams of dried psilocybe subaeruginosa
courtesy of chemist tip’s (not his real name) generosity.

psubscal.jpg

Substance: Psilocybe subaeruginosa (dried)
Dosage: 1.5 grams

I’m consuming the magic mushrooms on an empty stomach (last meal –
20 hours ago). The mushrooms are all caps, without the stems. I chewed
it up real good and held it in my mouth for about 10 minutes. I was
warned that it tastes really bad so I should powder it up or something.
It doesn’t taste bad at all! On the contrary, it tastes rather
delicious! The taste is fragrant and aromatic, it reminded me of
shitake mushrooms. It tastes like dried shitake mushrooms too. I didn’t
have any problems consuming it as is, I liked it actually. Great taste
and texture! 🙂

psubbag.jpg

Trip Log:

felt about 30 minutes later
shadows say a lot about things
in darkness, shadows are amazing. they really do say a lot.
some are spooky, some are nice
visual disturbance = mostly shadows and color inverting (slight)
like suddenly a red thing on a yellow background will become a yellow
thing on a red background. it lasts for a while and then stops and the
starts. goes away when focused hard. only happens in bright light

i find myself attracted to simple things, like a bug flying about,
for half a sec, i seriously considered that it’s dancing to the music
i’m listening to. 🙂 it flies around based on the beat of the music

later:
t+45
mild “darkness” not refering to light here
heightened sensitivity to everything – cold, hunger, pain and aches etc
thought process difinately altered
also more body load
quite high or either i’m imagining it, part of psychedelic experience
prob the latter
weakness in legs, heavynes in head, muscle sore eveywhere
feelsl ike my whole body is sore 🙂 but thats a frequent feeling i
have, mostly after long tweak sessions, just came off one, prob not
related to shroom

“breathing” hallucinations like lsd
🙂
visual distortion like things are breathing
hahaha!
oh fuck i lauged out loud as i saw a cev
now i can’t stop laughing
heheheh
the cev i saw was the pattern of a cupboard – the wood pattern morphing,
its very fucking amazing !!!! the visual effect is very consistant, and its ALWAYS THERE. doesn’t go away if you look away.
nice
it looks like the wood patterns is flowing, like a waterfall, from the
top down. and then up again…no, no ups, its all flowing down, just
looked like it was up at a point, like when you look at wawterfalls.
very consistant and amazing…open eyed visuals, looks like the wood is
constantly morphing and flowing.
only that cupboard behaves that way, i suspect its coz of the pattern,
it makes the visuals very nice. other objects don’t display this level
of visual distortion
alll the wood distortions happened in bright light

amazing closed eyed visuals geometric pattern
thought process altered like lsd, dunno how to descibe this er.. you’re thinking differently when compared to normal reality

veryy visual too, notice the various visual distortions- morphing, breathing etc just to name a few

it feels like lsd
very visual though

i keep getting confused about whether i’m keeping this for myself or for posting
i don’t kno
w if that makes sense
it doesn’t to me 🙂

promotes laughter 🙂
hehehe
like marijuana in that sense

trip ended at 3 hour point (at least most of the effects went away) so i smoked mj and had some beer + food

The most impressive visual of that night was this:

Original:
psubvis1.jpg

Simulated:
psubvis2.jpg

This doesn’t do it justice though, the effect is continuous, and the
pixilation was smoother and the effect is “transparent”, not like this
blending representation. My Photoshop skills are not sufficient to do
an artist’s depiction of the visual. Sorry. 🙂 But it was a great
visual, the best of the night.

Note: Neither I nor CT possess any mushrooms (fresh, dried or
otherwise). This post describes events that have already happened and
thus is in the past.

Mushroom Hunting III – First Contact! :)

amanita1.jpg
Amanita muscaria var muscaria (Fly Agaric)

I went for a walk with chemist tip (not his real name) today
and found two species of magic mushrooms! 🙂 The first one isn’t really
considered a “magic mushroom” even though it’s psychoactive – Amanita
muscaria!

amanita2.jpg
Amanita muscaria – mature

Unlike magic mushrooms, which usually refers to the ones containing
psilocybin, amanita muscaria (also called Fly Agaric) contains muscimol
as the psychoactive chemical.

amanita3.jpg
The amanita muscaria we found was growing in singles over a small patch of grass under pine trees.

Amanita muscaria needs to be prepared before eating though. Read more about it here
[erowid.org]. There are a lot of bad reports about this particular
mushroom, but I’m really keen to try it since I haven’t had amanitas
before.

amanita4.jpg
I’ve saw somewhere that Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland after his experiences with amanita muscaria.

amanita5.jpg
CT found this – a peeled amanita muscaria cap. Looks like someone has been here before. 🙂

There were heaps of them too, but most are quite old. CT mentions
that they grow at the same place every year because of the symbiotic
relationship they have with the trees.

psub1.jpg
Psilocybe subaeruginosa

The second psychoactive mushroom we found – Psilocybe subaeruginosa.
I’ve read that this species only grow in Australia and it’s common in
Victoria (Melbourne).

psub2.jpg
Another one at a different spot

These are the ones that stain blue easily after picking. It was
growing a small patch on rich woodchips and around plants. Most of them
are still really small ones in the early growth stages. We only found 4
small mushrooms, but with the rainy conditions coming up, hopefully the
patch with sprout with abundance! 🙂

psubldh.jpg
CT with the mushrooms

The way that the mushrooms bruise blue when it’s picked is
interesting. The side of the cap is also stained blue. That makes it
easy to distinguish this species from other mushrooms. Oh, and I found
a small slug under ones of the caps. 🙂

psubslug.jpg
I let it crawl on my hand

Trip report coming up really soon. 😉

Mushroom Hunting I is here [sixthseal.com].

Mushroom Hunting II is here [sixthseal.com].

Mushroom Hunting II – Mini Mushroom Hunting

mush18.jpg

Mushroom #18
Mushrooms, mushrooms everywhere, but not a single one to eat (with confidence). A patch of mushrooms with different species.

Yesterday was a great day for mushrooms in Melbourne. Cold
temperatures and it rained most of the day. I saw HEAPS of mushrooms
EVERYWERE. Mushrooms galore. It’s raining mushrooms! Popping up on
roadsides, fields, even CONCRETE! Okay, maybe not that last one, but
you get the idea. I saw several at the hospital but didn’t pick anyway.
Too tired and run-down. I saw heaps at the place I live too, even right
outside my door! Mushrooms, mushrooms everywhere, as far as the eyes
can see!

mush19.jpg
Mushroom #19
Promising looking mushroom growing on enriched soil. It stains blue, but the cap looks strange.

Well, I was too tired to go for a long hunting expedition but I took
a very short stroll and photographed a few. Damn, I missed a good
chance. If I had gone the route MH and I went in the last couple of
days, I would have found plenty of magic ones I reckon. Anyway, I don’t
know if the ones that I photographed yesterday are psychoactive,
there’s just too many species of fungi and wild magic mushrooms are so
hard to identify for a beginner like me. Anyway, enjoy the photos! 🙂

mush20.jpg
Mushroom #20
Interesting looking mushrooms on enriched soil.

mush21a.jpg
Mushroom #21
Early stages of a mushroom’s growth cycle…still shaped like a ball on a stem.

mush21b.jpg
Mushroom #21
The same mushroom (visually similar, on a same patch) in a later growth stage…looks like a mushroom now.

mush21c.jpg
Mushroom #21
The same mushroom with the gills showing. The A$2 coin is for size comparison.

mush22a.jpg
Mushroom #22
This one was tricky. It was growing at a high human traffic area under
a small brush and I had to climb into there in daylight and photograph
them in full view of anyone who happens to look by. Looks dark coz I
used flash.

mush22b.jpg
Mushroom #22
The same mushroom with the gills showing.

mush22c.jpg
Mushroom #22
The same mushroom picture beside A$2 coin. It’s quite large, size of my extended palm.

Mushroom Hunting I is here [sixthseal.com].

Mushroom hunting

Location: South-Eastern Suburbs, Melbourne, Victoria (Australia)
Date: 24th April 2003
Time: Afternoon (1:00 PM onwards)
Weather: Relatively warm (19 degrees Celsius) and dry

It’s mushroom season! 🙂 Autumn is here! This afternoon was a warm
19 degrees and there was rain a couple of days ago. Rain followed by
warm weather is reported to provide the best growing conditions for
mushrooms. I went mushroom hunting this afternoon with Mushroom Hunter
(not his real name) during a break from our assignments. Mushroom
Hunter (MH) has past experience with identifying some magic mushrooms
and knows the hotspots around our area. I brought my digicam and
backpack along, met up with MH and off we went.


Mushroom #1
Habitat: Wood chips with dry leaves and a plant
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Toadstool

We walked a long circuitous route around our area to check out every
magic mushroom hotspot that MH has harvested from in the previous year.
I took photos of every species we came across. There were several
promising ones which could be psychoactive, but none which could be
positively identified with 100% certainty, so I’m going to post the
photos later at The Shroomery
[shroomery.org] for help. I can’t give more information about the
location except that it’s somewhere in the South East suburbs of
Melbourne, Australia.


Mushroom #2
Habitat: Wood chips
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Panaeolus subbalteatus – magic mushroom based on this picture [erowid.org].

Well, most of the previous year’s hotspots that we went to were
either filled with possibly poisonous mushrooms or non-magical
mushrooms. There were some spots which had dried out as well, but it
was a great learning experience. I discovered that mushrooms can grow
in the strangest places and with MH’s help I learned how to spot for
mushrooms. It became easy after a while and I was surprised at the
amount of wild mushrooms growing around our area. I had never noticed
them before!


Mushroom #3
Habitat: Wood chips
Growth pattern: Clumps
My guess: Toadstool

I harvested three different species, which have since been disposed.
I had neglected to bring plastic bags, so I could only take samples of
three specimens to avoid cross-contamination. One of them somehow
disintegrated during the journey (Mushroom #7) and I was left with two
– one which is probably not magical and one which has a higher chance
of being magical. The purpose of taking samples is solely for
photography in a controlled environment. The specimens have all been
disposed of after the photography session. I do not have mushrooms in
my possession!


Mushroom #4
Habitat: Wood chips
Growth pattern: Smattering
My guess: Gymnopilus purpuratus – magic mushroom based on this picture [erowid.org].

Anyway, even though we did not find mushrooms that could be
identified with absolute certainty as magic mushrooms, there were
several hotspots which MH foresees would spring forth groups of
potentially psychoactive fungi to be collected from future mushroom
hunting trips. I saw a place where there were heaps of what I think is psilocybe cubensis. This would warrant a return visit if it’s positively identified as such.


Mushroom #5
Habitat: Wood chips
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Unknown

I do not have experience with mushroom identification, so I wouldn’t
want to risk death by misidentifying a potentially poisonous mushroom.
We did not find the species that MH knows is safe from previous
experience. However, we came across several species which appeared to
be psychoactive to my untrained eye. I’ve taken photos of all the
mushrooms we encountered and compared them to known psychoactive fungi
pictures on the net and some bear a remarkable resemblance.


Mushroom #6
Habitat: Wood chips
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Looks promising – magic mushroom?

The possibility of encountering poisonous look-alikes is high, so
I’ll like to be absolutely certain that they are hallucinogenic. I’ll
post every picture up, and if anyone can help in identifying the ones
containing psilocybin and psilocin (magic mushrooms) I’ll be very
appreciative. Mycologists and seasoned mushroom pickers in Victoria, I
need your help and experience. I can post larger and higher resolution
pictures if extra detail is needed for identification purposes. Thanks!


Mushroom #7
Habitat: Wood chips
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Panaeolina foenisecii – not psychoactive based on this picture [erowid.org].


Mushroom #7
This is another view of Mushroom #7. It has black/brown gills but it’s not very visible in the picture.


Mushroom #8
Habitat: Wood chips
Growth pattern: Clumps
My guess: Gymnopilus purpuratus – magic mushroom based on this picture [erowid.org].


Mushroom #8
This is another photo of Mushroom #8 at a different spot. Can anyone
confirm this as Gymnopilus purpuratus? This looks promising and there’s
a lot of them.


Mushroom #9
Habitat: Grass
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Psilocybe cubensis – magic mushroom based on this picture [erowid.org].


Mushroom #9
This is another view of Mushroom #9. It has brownish white gills.


Mushroom #10
Habitat: Grass
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Psilocybe australiana – magic mushroom based on this picture [erowid.org].


Mushroom #10
This is another view of Mushroom #10. This shows the gills.


Mushroom #11
Habitat: Grass
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Unknown


Mushroom #11
This is another picture of Mushroom #11 at a different place. I’m not sure if they’re similar, it looks similar to me.


Mushroom #11
This is another view of Mushroom #11 (second one). This shows the gills.


Mushroom #12
Habitat: Grass
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Psilocybe cubensis – magic mushroom based on this picture [erowid.org].


Mushroom #13
Habitat: Wood chips
Growth pattern: Scattered
My guess: Psilocybe cubensis – magic mushroom based on this picture [erowid.org]. Possible for Psilocybe cubensis stem to be this slim?


Mushroom #14
Habitat: Grass
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Psilocybe aucklandii – magic mushroom based on this picture [erowid.org]. Possible for Auckland, NZ species to be in Victoria, Australia?


Mushroom #14
This is another view of Mushroom #14. It shows the brown gills.


Mushroom #15
Habitat: Grass
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Toadstool – it’s a single large (about the size of two golf balls) growth.


Mushroom #16
Habitat: Wood chips
Growth pattern: Clump
My guess: Toadstool


Mushroom #17
Habitat: Grass
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Toadstool? It’s very interesting – the size is
unusually large and long and it’s squishy when pressure is applied. It
feels like there’s some sort of fluid or air pocket inside.


Mushroom #17
This is another view of Mushroom #17.


Mushroom #10 – Sample Mushroom #1
Habitat: Grass
Growth pattern: Spread out over a small area (picked from a different place but seems similar to Mushroom #10)
My guess: Psilocybe australiana – magic mushroom based on this picture
[erowid.org]. These mushrooms did not ‘bleed’ when the stalk was
snapped. The gill is brownish. This sample has since been disposed.


Mushroom #17 – Sample Mushroom #2
Habitat: Grass
Growth pattern: Single
My guess: Toadstool? The outer ‘flakes’ rubbed off with normal contact friction. This sample has since been disposed.

Added on 25th April 2003 (01:43 AM): Here’s the very informative replies from The Shroomery forum members! [shroomery.org].

Good magic mushroom references:
John W. Allen’s Magic Mushrooms of Australia & New Zealand [erowid.org].
The Shroomery [shroomery.org].

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