Wild Medicine Part Two

Lion's Mane mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) is a fabulous medicinal as well as a tasty edible.  It grows on dying or dead oak, walnut, beech, maple, sycamore and other broad-leaf trees, usually on logs or stumps.  It's easy to identify and has no poisonous look-alikes, but there are a few other closely related species.  Coral mushrooms have small white branches growing upward instead of shaggy hairs that hang down.  They are also edible and possibly medicinal, but the one most studied is Hericium erinaceus.

It has some very unique healing properties.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this mushroom has been used for stomach ailments and for the prevention of cancer in the GI tract.  It improves immune function and is anti-microbial.  But perhaps the most exciting property of lion's mane is its ability to stimulate regrowth of neurons, making it of great significance for the treatment of Alzheimer's, senility, neurological trauma, cognitive issues and possibly muscle/motor response issues.

Hunt for lion's mane in the fall after a few good rains.  Hard freezes will turn the mushrooms brown and bitter, so try to collect them before the weather gets too cold.  The specimen shown below is a younger one and hasn't yet formed long, shaggy filaments, but I picked it because I was afraid if I waited, it might get eaten by animals or be spoiled by the elements.

Lion's mane can be eaten fresh, sauteed in butter or simmered in soup.  It can be sliced and dried in a food dehydrator, or made into a tincture for medicine.  Tincturing mushrooms is a little more complex than making a simple herb tincture.  Most mushrooms need what is called a dual extraction to capture all the medicinal components, some of which are water soluble, others soluble only in alcohol.  The process takes time, but yields potent medicine that will keep for years.

Here is the process:

After you have harvested the mushrooms, remove any bits of dirt as well as you can.  Don't worry if you don't get them all, a little dirt won't hurt anything, and will be strained out later.  Don't wash the mushrooms -  they're too fragile and will soak up water like a sponge.  Weigh the mushrooms with a kitchen scale.  The ratio of mushroom to alcohol when using fresh mushrooms is 1:2, which means if you have 10 ounces of mushrooms by weight, you will need 20 ounces by volume of alcohol.  I use Everclear, which is 90% alcohol.  This allows for dilution by the water content of the mushrooms (they naturally hold a lot of water!) and the water you will be adding later in the process.

Break up the mushrooms and put them in a blender or food processor with the alcohol and blend them up.  Transfer to a clean glass jar with a lid and let steep for one month, shaking daily if you remember.  Don't forget to label the jar with the contents and date, so you know when it's finished.

After a month, strain out the solids with a thin tea towel or several thicknesses of cheese cloth.  Squeeze out as much alcohol as you can.  Measure the amount of tincture you have and write it down.  Put it in a clean jar, and transfer the solids you've strained out into a pot with enough water to cover plus some extra to allow for evaporation.  Stir it up to break up the mushroom pulp.  Simmer, covered, for two hours or longer, keeping a close eye on the pot and adding water if necessary so it doesn't dry out and burn.  Some people cook it in a crock pot and leave it on all night.  You are aiming to have about 1 part water to 3 parts alcohol, so if you have 20 ounces of alcohol tincture, at the end of simmering you will want approximately 6 1/2 ounces of water.

It will look like apple sauce.  This batch I am making yielded 4 cups of alcohol tincture, so I needed about 1 1/3 cups liquid mushroom extract.  I had to simmer it several hours uncovered to reduce the liquid, as I started with 4 cups to make sure it wouldn't burn.

After two hours or more of simmering, let the contents of the pot cool, then strain and discard the solids.  It takes a lot of squeezing to get all the liquid out!  You will end up with a lovely syrupy liquid full of potent polysaccharides and some rubbery mushroom solids.

Measure the amount of liquid from the pot.  If it's much less than 1/3 the amount of alcohol, add a little water.  If it's much over 1/3 the amount of alcohol, let it simmer a little longer with the lid off.  The final alcohol content is supposed to be 30 - 35%.  It doesn't hurt to have higher alcohol, but the water soluble polysaccharides will precipitate out, so you just have to remember to shake the bottle before using.

Mix the water and alcohol together, then label and store your tincture in dark bottles in a cool cupboard.

Dr. Stephen Harrod Buhner, one of the western world's most skilled herbalists, recommends lion's mane tincture for encephalitis, respiratory illnesses, cognitive impairment, nerve damage, depression and anxiety at a dose of 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. 3-6 times daily, depending on the severity of the condition.

One last thing:  preparing medicine is sacred work.  Do it on a day when you are feeling well and have no other distractions so you can devote your whole attention to the task at hand.  The alchemists of old went through rigorous purification processes before entering their still rooms.  Too often we forget or don't realize the profound effects our energy, mood and state of mind can have on our work.  Reverence and devotion can make the difference between a mediocre medicine and a great one.