“I think Valentina has found a mushroom in the yard and
eaten it. She vomited about four times,
but her eyes still look bloodshot, and she’s acting funny."
I went right home, found mushroom pieces in her outside
cushion, and we took her to the vet right away. Valentina had a tube put down
her throat and a bunch of charcoal put into her stomach to help absorb any
remaining poisons. (By the way, most Great Danes always look like they have saggy,
slightly bloodshot eyes, so that didn’t go away.) I searched the yard that
season and several seasons to follow, making sure there were no more poisonous
mushrooms in the yard.
I can’t remember when I didn’t use mushrooms in my cooking –
the nonpoisonous kind. When I began cooking, I started with white button
mushrooms, and soon abandoned them for the fuller flavor of cremini, baby
bellas, and portobellas. I can’t remember when I didn’t have a bottle of
maitake, shitake, reishi mixture in capsules among my arsenal of natural supplements.
But, it wasn’t until in the late 90’s that I came face-to-face with actual, whole,
dried medicinal mushrooms. My husband-to-be and I were walking the streets of
Chinatown, San Francisco, after a pleasant meal, and I noticed a Chinese
pharmacy. I was a frequent customer of the Phoenix area Asian grocery stores
that had a “pharmacy counter” where I could buy Quan Luong oil among other
remedies. [Another story: one of my Asian ESL students offered a bit of her oil
that she always kept handy in her purse to help alleviate my migraine. This
oil, among other Asian remedies, soon became a regular in my medicine cabinet.]
We stopped in the San Francisco Chinese Pharmacy. There was another customer
before me, and I watched in wonder at the lady behind the counter as she read
the prescription and proceeded to search the many shelves that lined the
pharmacy’s walls, and weigh an assortment of dried materials, one by one, according
to the paper which she held in her hand. Some of the ingredients were long, undulating,
gracile, pointed fingers precariously balanced upon the scale, some of them
indescribable, paper-thin, tenuous, filmy “wings” of dried materials, and just
a few of them were recognizable to me as mushrooms. I had no idea as to which
specific powers of remedy these strange-looking materials possessed, but I did
sense that I was in the presence of something very powerful. Years later, when
we lived in Placerville, California, I would begin to expand my culinary use of
mushrooms. Raley’s, a nearby grocery store, offered a plastic-film covered Styrofoam
container of a variety of mushrooms which I would frequently buy. My husband
had become fascinated with the delicious flavors of those mushrooms that were
prepared as a simple sauté with a little olive oil and maybe a little salt.
Fast forward almost ten years: Now, in case I cannot find
the fresh mushrooms at Natural Grocer or Whole Foods or elsewhere in Austin, I
have a stash of dried mushrooms that I rehydrate and use in a great deal of
recipes: tofu scramble, soups, sautés – just about everything savory. My
favorites are the Dried Forest Blend Mushrooms from D’Allesandro
(DallesandroGourmet.com, Also at Amazon.com) and the Dried Mushrooms Chef’s
Blend from lifegourmetshop.com, (also at Amazon.com). With a mixture of these
two, I have: Shitake, Morel, Porcini, Bolete, Chantarelle, Oyster, and Woodear
mushrooms. At this point, I’m only into buying and cooking mushrooms. (My
husband says, “And I’m into eating
them.”) I haven’t yet ventured into foraging for them or growing them.
I always have a supply of medicinal mushroom capsules:
maitake, shitake, reishi, chaga, etc. There has been research done to validate
the effectiveness of medicinal mushrooms. Some substances in mushrooms have
been credited with anti-tumor and antibiotic qualities. Maitake is being
researched for its power over HIV. Some of its substances appear to help
patients that have undergone radiation, both to soothe away the bad effects and
also to prolong life. Other mushroom substances are anticoagulant, while others
lower cholesterol. “Every year researchers isolate at least 10 additional
antibiotics from mushrooms. This is because mushrooms must compete against
bacteria, and they are equipped with biological weapons to survive in that
environment. This is perhaps the best reason for adding not one but many
varieties of mushrooms to your diet. You may be effectively arming yourself
against infections in the most natural way possible. Penicillin was derived,
after all, from a fungus.” (Jack Czarnecki, A Cook’s Book of Mushrooms).
In a book I’ve just purchased, by Paul
Stamets, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, we
learn that they may be of great use in saving our ailing world. Stamets’ book
has beautiful photographs. Another book which I have just purchased is, The
Fungal Pharmacy: The Complete Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms and Lichens of North
America, by Robert Rogers, RH (AHG). This book also has excellent
photographs, including one of corn fungus, ustilago
crameri, known as “huitlacoche” in Mexico. It is quite popular in Mexico. And,
it is very popular with my husband! I think we’re becoming true “mycophiles.”
There is a great deal of information about mushrooms on the
internet. One need only do a search for “medicinal mushrooms,” or “gourmet
mushrooms” or “mushroom recipes”. One of
the many sites that are very informative is ChagaHQ.com. Among all the
information, including medicinal qualities, history, and even recipes, for example: “Medicinal
Mushrooms: Our Top Seven to Try,” (ChagaHQ.com/medicinal-mushrooms-list/). Also check out Paul Stamets on YouTube.com, including, " TEDMED talk from 2011" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXHDoROh2hA ), and "How Mushrooms Can Save Us From Ourselves", (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-9zzXuZ2h4) and many more. 6 ways mushrooms can save the world (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY)
Many Americans still suffer from “mycophobia”, or fear of
mushrooms. But the Asians, and Europeans, as well as other world cultures have
long revered mushrooms for their curative powers and the wonderful ways in
which they can enrich and heal our lives, as well as heal our planet. Already,
with study of only a few of the 38,000 mushroom species, we have begun to
discover their amazing qualities. They are truly Nature’s Pharmacy.