Talkin’ trees?

After reading Susan Simard‘s work on mycelium and it’s benefits in nutrient uptake, water retention and literally activating an underground community or network for plants……. I decided to experiment and lay down about 6 inches of eucalyptus in our backyard…..attop that I covered it with about 2 inches of guava leaves. The results are in the photos, you can literally see the silky white threads in the soil, and we now have mushrooms appearing!

Fungi literally connects trees/plants….. & they provide humans with food & medicine. There is a universe of knowledge, ‘a kingdom of ‘life’ hidden within the mysterious world of fungi.

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Trees are linked by an underground Mycorrhizal network of fungi that, according to researchers, these silky mushroom roots resembles neural systems in the brain. In one study, Susan Simard observed a Douglas fir, that had been injured by insects, send chemical warnings to a ponderosa pine growing nearby. The pine tree then produced defense enzymes to protect against the insect. Fungal roots called mycelium, literally connect local trees into a community, with neighborhood watch.

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“Fungi can help us provide food and medicine to communities that don’t have access to them. They are already the source of many of our pharmaceuticals [penicillin, for example, is used to make antibiotics], and could be the basis for new materials for textiles and green construction.”

“Despite their mysterious nature, fungi—a category that includes molds, mushrooms, yeasts, lichens, mycorrhiza, and mildews—are essential to human life and play crucial ecological functions. They have also been shown to help people solve a wide range of problems, from oil spills to clinical depression to food insecurity. Yet they are vastly understudied and misunderstood.”

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Magical Medicinal Maitake Mushrooms, or the "dancing mushroom," contains 28.1ug Vitamin D (D2+D3) per 100g. This is 141% daily value vitamin D and 1.4X more than steamed rainbow trout, 1.7X more Vitamin D than cooked sockeye salmon and 28X more than canned tuna fish.

With these Vitamin D levels, ancient foragers were definitely doing a happy dance!

Maitake mushrooms contain 90X more vitamin D than portabella mushrooms, 40X more than oyster mushrooms, 5.3X more than chanterelles, and 7.2X more than dried shitake.

*According to one study, maitake mushrooms work more effectively at stimulating immune responses when consumed with shiitake mushrooms

In the wild, they grow on oaks and maples (reaching over 100 pounds)....but can easily be grown at home..and tossed on pizza, stir-fry, soups.. with a nice earthy flavor..

(100 gram serving also contains 41.3% daily value niacin)