Isaac Hill

Michael Cox wrote:I had one experiment with powders last year - some dehydrated mushrooms. It failed miserably, because my hand-held blender just wasn't up to the job. Could just be the wrong type of blender, but is there something special about dry powders, vrs wet soups etc...? Do you need different blades/blender style?

We cut our mushrooms into fine strips to sun dry, then chop up, then use blender, and use coffee grinder for the fine powder after they're cooked and dried again. This is for hard, medicinal mushrooms like Reishi. An immersion blender won't really do the job.

We started making mushroom powders this year and it's great. We sun-dried for Vit D, blended, cooked, blended, dried, and then powderized in a heavy duty coffee grinder. It's such a great way to add the whole mushroom, including all the polysaccharides and fiber, to shakes, soups, oatmeal, whatever! This year we did Reishi, Chaga, Red Belted Polypore, Miatake, Turkey Tail, Artist's Conk and Lion's Mane, mostly respectfully wild harvested from within 15 miles of our home. Definitely going to be doing this every year.

Anybody here utilized this resource yet? I haven't seen any posts about this, but it's a great opportunity for folks who want to get a free greenhouse. You have to be actually making money as a farm, but I've had several friends get one of these grants. Just wanted to put it out there for people who might not know about it, but are potentially eligible.

USDA High Tunnel Grant

Everything depends on the individual's needs, desires, resources, etc etc. We have a lot of sawmills in the area and can get a giant dump truck load, enough for most of the winter in cold Central NY, for about $150. That makes sense to us. Also, there are hidden costs to all other heating sources... but again, it depends on your circumstances.

Thought you folks might like to check out the Plant Cunning Podcast, which is available on most podcasting platforms. We've interviewed folks such as Michael Pilarski, Rosemary Gladstar, Matthew Wood, Darrell Frey, and this week, Sean Dembrosky. You can find Sean's episode on Anchor here: Plant Cunning Podcast with Sean Dembrosky  and also on YouTube.

We put out a new video! https://youtu.be/aau97xXWoTc