It's almost that time again - from around the end of August until late fall, it's mushroom season! Not only for lovers of edible mushrooms, but also for fans of Amanita muscaria microdosing, it's time to get out into the forest. Find out here when and how best to collect Amanita muscaria.
In the realm of Amanita muscaria
The fly agaric mainly thrives in boreal, i.e. northern coniferous and deciduous forests. The conspicuous mushroom is particularly common near birch trees, as it forms a mycorrhizal symbiosis (from the Greek mukês - mushroom and rhiza - root) with them. In other words, it forms a symbiotic relationship with the roots of its favorite trees, providing them with nutrients and facilitating their access to sufficient water. It can establish this relationship in both dense and sparse forests. They can therefore be found right up to the tree line. However, toadstools very rarely grow in gardens, even if there is a significant tree population.
It is important to note that toadstools should never be collected near roads, industrial areas or other potentially polluted regions. This is because the environment in which these sensitive creatures grow can have a major impact on their quality and safety.
The right timing
In the period from late summer to early fall, you can usually hope for a particularly rich harvest. This year, unfortunately, we had a persistently rainy summer in many regions. However, it has clearly favored the conditions for mushroom growth! Amanita muscaria thrive particularly well when the soil is moist enough. A walk in the forest after a few rainy days can be a real experience to discover the diversity of nature - and to find lots of toadstools! The most magnificent mushrooms are generally found in the early morning, including the coveted toadstools.
Play it safe
When exploring the forest, it is important to wear suitable footwear to ensure a secure footing and avoid injury. This is because hidden roots can lurk in the undergrowth, which are easily overlooked when looking for mushrooms. If you are an experienced barefoot walker, feeling the forest floor under the soles of your feet and thus grounding yourself is of course the perfect complement to the Amanita muscaria search.
Incidentally, identifying Amanita muscaria is relatively easy - although the inexperienced could confuse it with the much stronger Amanita pantherina. Although its shape is almost identical to that of the fly agaric, its coloring is clearly different: the panther mushroom appears in light to dark brown shades while the Amanita muscaria stands out in yellow-orange or bright red colors.
Even if there is no danger of confusion here, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the names and appearance of the most dangerous poisonous mushrooms in our local forests. After all, if you're out and about anyway, you might not just want to collect Amanita muscaria.
Basket instead of plastic bag
Experienced mushroom pickers go hunting for delicacies with a mushroom basket for a reason. In plastic bags, the quality of the mushrooms deteriorates very quickly! They can't breathe, get bruises and sweat. You should avoid this at all costs, as it affects the quality and you would have to cut away and dispose of a lot of the valuable mushroom material later.
A cloth bag is also not really suitable for harvesting toadstools: They could squash each other - and that would be a real shame! Incidentally, it's best if you have a cloth with you to remove coarse dirt and moisture directly on the spot before the mushroom goes into your basket. This ensures minimal decay and a good aroma.
Think about the future
It is advisable to avoid mushroom specimens at a certain stage of development. For what reason? Baby mushrooms can be difficult to recognize and they help us much more when they are given time to grow. Old mushrooms, on the other hand, play an important role in the ecosystem and in reproduction, which is why they are also best left standing. Tearing fly agarics out of the ground should be strictly rejected. This would destroy the sensitive mycelium and destroy a valuable source for future generations of mushrooms.
When harvesting Amanita muscaria, the focus is usually on the caps, as the stems only contain ⅕ of the active ingredients and are therefore not used for microdosing. In addition, the mushroom stems are very popular with various animals and insects - so let's give them their tasty and healthy snack! Before you carefully remove the caps from the stem by hand, you should gently flick or tap the cap once or twice. This will release the remaining spores in the spore ring and ensure more offspring. You don't need a knife to harvest Amanita muscaria.
When and how to go picking Amanita muscaria
As friends of natural healing methods, we are of course particularly keen to tell you when and how to go picking Amanita muscaria. Because Amanita muscaria microdosing is not just about using an ancient remedy - it goes far beyond that! We think it is important to strengthen the understanding of this valuable healer, and respect for nature and the idea of sustainability naturally go hand in hand with this...
Collecting fly agarics in the fall can become a valuable part of your personal growth, bringing you closer to nature and teaching you to appreciate it more. The Amanita muscaria duck slows us down and brings us into harmony with ourselves. Of course, if you don't have the opportunity to go foraging for mushrooms yourself, you don't have to miss out on the enriching and healing effects of microdosing: Because at MamaMuscaria you can buy both dried Amanita muscaria and ready-to-eat Amanita muscaria powder. So nothing stands in the way of your health-promoting and balancing experiences with microdosing!
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