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Just had a swim at Walton and passed a new bookshop with a window full of fungi stuff xxxx Denise

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Or at least enjoy this one, celebrating champignons! I saw at a friends party and love it

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Mushroom records is an Australian record label. Often appeared on neighbours and included straps such as Jason Donovan. I know I'm late to the game this month.

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Got this lovely mushroom mug for my birthday!

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Ginny made a gorgeous fungi display and delicious mushroom 🍄 food xxxx
Denise, zoom in in different areas

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If you fancy reflecting on what you've enjoyed from this month and get a bonus point in the process, here's the link to do it! https://lifetheming.com/top-things-reflections/

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https://youtu.be/tQZyurzh5Ms
Easy explanation that I could understand xxxx Denise

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Fungal Morphology: The Parts of a Mushroom

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We thought we’d posted this before! Belatedly here’s the discovery playlist with one new song per life themer who suggested. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5rgF9TblSYj60R2XQdeMhI?si=K8TysLYZTiy1Ss0PH32JEg

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Watch the Wheel of Suggestions for 5 potential November themes!

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Watch the Wheel of Suggestions for 5 potential November themes!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1vUiX5AN8I

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Mushroom Escalope

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https://youtu.be/h2akBAjCNVY
Just heard this onradio 6 xxx Denise

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King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Topic

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James found this Giant Puffball in a farmer’s field soon after moving to Newquay. We then found three more and lived off them for days!

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My favourite from yesterdays fungi exploring Denise xxxx

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Ginny and I visited our friends beautiful woods yesterday, Ginny took this fabulous fungi photo (her favourite) xxx Denise

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https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/news/2022/october/mycelium-student-sculptures/
I love the Mycelium sculptures, I am going to research how to make them xxxx Denise

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Recent Textile Design graduate, Georgie Gerrard, has created a collection of sculptures using the mycelium of reishi, an ancient fungus nicknamed the 'mushroom of immortality' due to its purported health benefits.

Mycelium is the root-like structure of a fungus that consists of a network of threads, called hyphae. Fungal colonies of mycelium are often found on or in soil but can also thrive in other places, such as rotting tree trunks.

Inspired by her geologist grandfather, Georgie wanted to harness mycelium's ability to bind to substrates to create solid materials to showcase its sculptural and functional potential and highlight the tie between people and place.

"Mycelium uses whatever substrate it is in as a nutritious medium to form a web-like structure. I found it poetic how mycelium connects and binds together with materials using its branches and wanted to explore this in my pieces", Georgie explained.

"My project is conceptually based on my ties with family located in different corners of the country, and even on the other side of the world.

"I came across hundreds of my late grandfather's film slides from geology field trips and family holidays, in which he relentlessly photographed geological features, rocks, fossils, etc. The love of his subject brought me to think about how family can tie you to a place."

Based on where her family is located, Georgie grew mycelium in substrates from or representative of Devon, Dorset, Surrey, Leicestershire, Bolton, and Bolivia.

To create substrates, Georgia took clay taken from Bolton, Devon, Surrey, and Leicestershire, and gathered materials of cultural significance to each area.

For example, Georgie added beetroot pigment to the substrate representative of Bolivia as the Laguna Colorada in the Bolivian Altiplano is a deep red-pink colour due to the algae in it. She also included materials she associates with the country, including alpaca wool, sheep wool, and straw.
‌Left: 'Surrey' mycelium sculpture grown from reishi millet grain spawn, eucalyptus paper, wheat bran, and yellow clay dug up from Cranleigh, in Surrey. Right: 'Dorset: Durdle Door' mycelium sculpture based on the geologically fascinating Durdle Door on the south coast of England, grown from reishi oat seed spawn with barley straw, eucalyptus paper, wheat bran, and clay.
To create the sculptures, Georgia first made moulds and subject the substrates to intense sterilisation in the campus STEM labs. She then pressed the mycelium and custom substrate into the moulds, and left them to grow in a greenhouse.

The mycelium and mushrooms were grown for around three weeks and then dried, leaving behind a lightweight, environmentally-friendly sculpture.

Georgie hopes her sculptures will prompt conversations about the unusual material. She said: "Mycelium is a 100% biodegradable material that boasts properties such as being antibacterial, fire-resistant, thermal, and acoustic insulating, and arguably most importantly, can digest waste materials and by-products, including plastics in some cases.

"Although my sculptures aren't made to be functional, mycelium is a material with huge potential for these reasons.
More information on Georgie's collection, titled '6 Locations', can be found on the dedicated Design, Creative Arts and Architecture Degree Show 2022 webpage.
"I think it not only can look aesthetically beautiful and intriguing but is an important material for people to learn about, understand its benefits and hopefully start implementing into future design."

Notes for editors

Press release reference number: 22/161

Loughborough is one of the country's leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.

It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme, named the best university in the world for sports-related subjects in the 2022 QS World University Rankings and University of the Year for Sport by The Times and Sunday Times University Guide 2022.

Loughborough is in the top 10 of every national league table, being ranked 7th in The UK Complete University Guide 2022, and 10th in both the Guardian University League Table 2022 and the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022.

Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education's 'table of tables' and is in the top 10 in England for research intensity. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.

The Loughborough University London campus is based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and offers postgraduate and executive-level education, as well as research and enterprise opportunities. It is home to influential thought leaders, pioneering researchers and creative innovators who provide students with the highest quality of teaching and the very latest in modern thinking.

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Fantastic fungi: Harnessing the magic of mycelium to create striking sculptures

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Recent Textile Design graduate, Georgie Gerrard, has created a collection of sculptures using the mycelium of reishi, an ancient fungus nicknamed the 'mushroom of immortality' due to its purported health benefits. Mycelium is the root-like structure of a fungus that consists of a network of threads, called hyphae.

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https://www.kew.org/science/collections-and-resources/collections/fungarium
Who knew Kew had a Fungarium ( who knew anyone did?!!!) Denise xxxx

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About this collection

Fungi underpin all life on earth and yet it's estimated that over 95% of fungal species remain unknown.

Holding over 1.25 million dried specimens, Kew's Fungarium collection is the largest, one of the oldest and most scientifically important, in the world.

There are samples of fungi from all seven continents, spanning the entire fungal tree of life and representing well over half of known global diversity.

Our fungal collections are particularly rich in type specimens: original material that is used to make clear links between the fungus as a living organism and the name applied to it.

The specimens in our Fungarium can help us to describe unknown species; understand the distribution of fungi and plant-fungus interactions; identify pathogens that could threaten crops; distinguish the spread and effect of invasive species; and analyse the impact of climate change. We can also extract DNA from specimens to find useful traits or to discover new medicines.

The Fungarium was founded in 1879 with the donation of Rev Miles J Berkeley's personal collection of around 30,000 specimens (including 6,000 type specimens).

Numerous other bequests and donations over the years have greatly enhanced the collection, alongside many specimens collected by Kew staff from all corners of the globe.

In 2007, the International Mycological Institute (IMI) fungarium (owned by CAB International) was housed alongside the Kew collection, adding very substantially to our overall holdings.

What's in the Fungarium collection?

Our oldest specimens date back to the early 18th century, and we have a rich collection of historically significant material, including fungi collected by John Ray, Charles Darwin and Alexander von Humboldt.

The Fungarium holds an estimated 380,000 specimens from the UK, which are designated as the British National Collection of fungi. Collections from other parts of the world focus especially on historically significant collectors from the 19th century.

Reflecting the research interests of our mycologists over the years, the Fungarium contains particularly important collections of dried mushrooms, and the IMI samples are especially significant for tropical plant pathogens.

Almost a third of the Kew collection has been databased and is available online, including all incoming specimens since 1997, with and basic data are available for the entire IMI collection.

Digitising the Fungarium

Our Fungarium holds vast quantities of data still to be unlocked. That's why we're embarking on a large-scale project to digitise the collection and make the data freely available online to anyone, anywhere.

Digitisation and digital innovation will allow virtual repatriation of images and data to countries of origin, while helping scientists around the world conserve fungi and find solutions to some of the most critical challenges facing humanity.

Kew's Science Strategy

Read the Kew Science Strategy 2021 - 2025.

Read our Science Strategy

Science Collections Strategy

For the first time in Kew's history, there is a formal strategy to set out a framework for managing, developing and providing greater access to the Science Collections over the next decade.

Read our Collections Strategy

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Fungi underpin all life on earth and yet it's estimated that over 95% of fungal species remain unknown. Holding over 1.25 million dried specimens, Kew's Fungarium collection is the largest, one of the oldest and most scientifically important, in the world.

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There are interactive mushrooms on this website made for 'The Burning Man' I would love to have seen them xxx Denise

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A garden of five origami mushrooms with caps that expand and contract from a flat umbrella portobello to a bulbous cap when visitors activate them, creating a surprising and delightful experience.

Each mushroom is made of 18 sheets of corrugated plastic, a total of 83 square meters, hand-folded and carefully welded together. A solid mechanical structure made of aluminum and steel defines the shape of the mushroom head. An umbrella-like mechanism powered by an industrial actuator causes the cap to change shape. Pressure pads, located at the base of the mushroom, activate the movement, and at night, over 1,600 LED lights create a spectacle for those near and far. Nearly every one of the hundreds of parts for each mushroom were custom made by the FoldHaus team.

Shrumen Lumen premiered at Burning Man 2016, and is currently on view at The Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Inspiration
Shrumen Lumen is based on an origami crease pattern called Waterbomb Base pattern, and inspired by the unique transformation of the Origami Magic Ball, designed by origami artists Yuri and Katrin Shumakov, who were first to enclose the pattern and create its beautiful movement. Read more about their work here.
Thank you to our supporters
Shrumen Lumen was made possible by the work and contributions of many. In particular, we'd like to thank Burning Man Arts and for their generous support, as well as the supporters of our Kickstarter campaign.

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A garden of five origami mushrooms with caps that expand and contract from a flat umbrella portobello to a bulbous cap when visitors activate them, creating a surprising and delightful experience. Each mushroom is made of 18 sheets of corrugated plastic, a total of 83 square meters, hand-folded and carefully welded together.

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Watch Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland ( or any version) and the famous mushroom scene. Debatable that Alice was on mushrooms 🍄 all the way through her journey xxxx Denise

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https://www.emerge-partners.co.uk/post/polyphonic-emergence
This song is mentioned in the book Entangled Life,⁷ it could be in listen but it is worth reading about it before you listen to the extraordinary singing xxx Denise

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In Merlin Sheldrake's brilliant book on fungi, 'Entangled Life', he describes a song of the Baka or Babenzele Pygmies in the Central African Republic. A polyphony of sound which helps us to think about decentralised networks.

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I like these succulent sausages, full of fungus!

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There are some very bizarre songs this month! We love how jolly she sounds as she sings 🎶 ‘some will make you endure gastro-intestinal distress.’ 🎶 https://open.spotify.com/track/5bJsIt22K5EhuhtDHU2DQd?si=_60zPqP7S_ePfE0GCnNpjA

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(Alexandra)

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Martini with Mushrooms, Sake and CRAZY garnishes

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v3ZJdgXV4fk

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Nicholas Cage is a truffle hunter. What else could be said?
Been meaning to watch this film for ages!  Jen P

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PIG - Official Trailer - In Theatres July 16

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https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/why-future-homes-could-be-made-living-fungus#:~:text=The%20installation%2C%20called%20Hy%2DFi,grow%20into%20a%20solid%20mass.
Wow, fungi is so amazing xxx Denise

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This article was originally published on 14 January 2021. In&nbsp;the summer of&nbsp;2014 a strange building began to take shape just outside MoMA PS1, a contemporary art centre in New York City. It looked like someone had started building an igloo and then got carried away, so that the ice-white bricks rose into&nbsp;huge towers. It was a&nbsp;captivating sight, but&nbsp;the truly impressive thing about this building was not so much its looks but the fact that it had been grown.&nbsp;

The installation, called Hy-Fi, was designed and created by , an architectural design studio in New York. Each of the 10,000 bricks had been made by packing agricultural waste and mycelium, the fungus that makes mushrooms, into a mould and letting them grow into a solid mass.

This mushroom monument gave architectural researcher Phil Ayres an idea. ' It was impressive, ' said Ayres, who is based at the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture in Copenhagen , Denmark . But this project and others like it were using fungus as a component in buildings such as bricks without necessarily thinking about what new types of building we could make from fungi.

That's why he and three colleagues have begun the project - to explore what kinds of new buildings we might construct out of mushrooms.

Mushrooms might sound like an outlandish building material. But there is certainly good reason to drastically rethink construction. Buildings and construction are responsible for 39% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions - and a whopping 2 1 % of those emissions come just from the making of steel and concrete. Construction also uses vast amounts of natural resources. Take sand, one of the principal ingredients in concrete. It takes a special sort, with just the right roughness, to make concrete. These days it is a lucrative commodity and controlled in some parts of the world by sand mafias and stolen by the boatload from islands .

Such troubles are set to worsen over the next decades as the world's population grows faster and gets wealthier. We need a lot more homes and if you do the maths, the amount we need to build is staggering. ' It's like building a Manhattan every month for the next 40 years, ' said Ayres , borrowing a line from .

Can fungi really help? Absolutely, says mycologist Professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Fungi are not consumers of CO2 like plants are. They need to digest food and so produce carbon dioxide, like animals do. However, the organic waste streams (such as straw or other low value agricultural waste) that the fungi digest would be degraded to CO2 anyway, either by composting or burning. Plus, fungi bricks permanently fix some of that waste inside them and so act as a store of carbon. All this makes fungi buildings a climate win - and certainly miles better than using concrete, steel and bricks.

The mycelium composite can be grown over a woven scaffold for a period of 7-10 days, eventually encasing the structure. Image credit - FUNGAR/CITA, 2019-2020

The F UNGAR project began in late 2019 and so far Prof . Wosten has been experimenting with how to make building materials. At Prof . Wosten's lab in Utrecht, the team have been combining mycelium, the 'roots' of fungi, with agricultural waste such as straw. Then they allow the fungi to grow for about two weeks, until the fungus has colonised the straw. This binds the straw together, producing a white- ish foam-like material. Then they heat-treat it to kill the organism. They can also process it, for example by applying coatings or by squashing it. ' If we press it we can get a material like hardboard, ' said P rof . Wosten . By varying the type of fungi and agricultural waste, the growth conditions and the post-processing, Prof . Wosten says they are getting all sorts of candidate building materials with different mechanical properties.

' It's very early days to start saying your house will be made entirely of fungus, ' said Ayres. But parts of it already can be. Mogu , a company based near Milan in Italy, already produces and sells sound-dampening velvet-textured wall tiles and floor tiles based on mycelium foam. The company's chief technology officer Antoni Gandia is another FUNGAR project partner. He said that Mogu is also developing mycelium -based insulation material for buildings.

Ayres is hoping that the F UNGAR project will go way beyond just using fungi-based products as components in existing building designs. He wants to think about what entirely new kinds of building might be made from fungi. Foremost in his mind is building with living fungus.

"
'It's very early days to start saying your house will be made entirely of fungus.'

Phil Ayres, Centre for Information Technology and Architecture, Copenhagen, Denmark

Living fungus
There are two principal advantages to this. First, living fungus might behave as a self-healing material, simply re-growing if it becomes damaged. Second, mycelium networks are capable of information processing. Electrical signals run through them and change over time in a manner almost akin to a brain. ' We've discovered that fungal materials respond to tactile stimulation and illumination by changing their patterns of electrical activity, ' said Prof . at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, who is coordin ati ng the project with Ayres .

The idea is that perhaps the very structure of a mushroom building might sense and respond to its environment independently. It might for instance sense when CO2 levels from the mycelium are building up and open the windows to release the gas , according to Gandia .

Building with living mycelium will be a big challenge. This is because the longer it grows, the more of the substrate material - the straw, or whatever waste - it decompose s. Since the straw gives the materials their structural integrity, allowing the fungi to grow for too long isn't desirable. There may be ways around this though. Depriving the fungi of water puts it into a dormant state: alive but not growing. And so one of Ayres ' ideas is to construct walls with two layers of dead fungus enclosing a layer of living fungus inside. This set up would shut out water from the inner layer, keeping the fungus there dormant.

Mycolite panels are made by pouring the composite into a mould. Image credit - FUNGAR/CITA, 2019-2020

One of the few other people who have explored working with fungi in construction is at Kansas State University in the US. He sa ys that working with living mycelium is a very interesting new idea because it offers the possibility of the building being able to heal itself. But for him the real attraction of what he calls ' myco-materials ' is that they 'give us a way of reshaping how we think about the permanence of architecture .

'What if some - not all - of our buildings were meant to only last a couple of years and could thereafter be recycled into shelter, food, or energy?' he said.

The next major goal for the F UNGAR project is to build a small, freestanding building. They plan to pull that off within a year and then spend time monitoring it as it ages. It is crucial, sa ys Ayres, to be able to monitor the living structure and see how it changes. It isn't yet clear exactly what sorts of structures might end up being made from fungi , but they will probably start small. ' I wouldn't be crossing a bridge made of fungi , would you? ' joked Prof . Wosten .

You might be wondering what happened to Hy-Fi, that igloo-like structure in New York. The answer points to one of the most beautiful things about mycelium buildings. No wrecking ball or slow decay for them. It was taken down and composted.
The research in this article was funded by the EU. This article was originally published on 14 January 2021. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.

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Why future homes could be made of living fungus

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This article was originally published on 14 January 2021. In the summer of 2014 a strange building began to take shape just outside MoMA PS1, a contemporary art centre in New York City. It looked like someone had started building an igloo and then got carried away, so that the ice-white bricks rose into huge towers.

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https://www.visitcolchester.com/whats-on/fungi-walk-p1811701
Experience fungi walk with a fungi expert, I am going to book Ginny and I on this unless we can arrange our fungi loving friend to take us on a tour xxxx Denise

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Fungi Walk - Wildlife & Nature Event in Colchester, Colchester

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Take a stroll through High Woods Country Park on this fascinating fungi walk.

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Eat Shitake Mushrooms by Let’s Eat Grandma

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Eat Shitake Mushrooms by Let’s Eat Grandma

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Love this band - they are definitely down with the mushrooms 🍄

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(Alexandra)

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(Alexandra)

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Aimèe Cornwell (@peggyfarmandforage)

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I’m Wiltshire I noticed strange circular patches of grass on the hills. A friend visited and let me know they were fairy rings, a magical mushroom phenomenon with legendary powers 😃 https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2019/08/what-is-a-fairy-ring/

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What is a Fairy Ring and What Causes Them? - Woodland Trust

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Find out why fungi grow in circular shapes and where you can see them, plus discover more about fairy ring folklore.

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‘Fungi’ is also a cornmeal dish from the Virgin Islands!

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‘Fungi’ is also a cornmeal dish from the Virgin Islands!

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For those of you of don’t like mushrooms, you’re in luck! ‘Fungi’ is a dish of coconut cornmeal and okra. Here’s a recipe with fish but you could make it as a side dish for any meal this October https://goodfoodonbadplates.wordpress.com/2018/05/20/a-game-of-two-halves-british-virgin-island-fish-and-fungi/

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Storyville, The Truffle Hunters: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016489 via @bbciplayer
I loved this film xxx Denise

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(Alexandra)

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Hmmm... not sure about this Mushroom Martini 'cocktail'

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Hmmm... not sure about this Mushroom Martini 'cocktail'

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(Alexandra)

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Listen to Mushroom by ‘70s avant-garde rockers CAN - I’m sure they knew a thing or two about the effect of ‘shrooms

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We got this from the library, it’s brilliant! The aim of the game is to go for a walk in the woods and make the most delicious mushroom dinner 🍄 🍽

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French song about people looking for psychedelic mushrooms

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French song about people looking for psychedelic mushrooms

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taOsuVhXqzY

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Billy Ze Kick et Les Gamins En Folie - Mangez - moi ! mangez - moi !

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https://amp-classicfm-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.classicfm.com/discover-music/making-melodies-with-mushrooms/?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16647362329486&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.classicfm.com%2Fdiscover-music%2Fmaking-melodies-with-mushrooms%2F Wow!! Fungus music xxx Denise

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Funky fungi? Meet the musicians making melodies out of mushrooms

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Meet the musicians making music out of mushrooms using bioelectricity and the Earth’s natural resonance. Musical artist MycoLoco introduces himself on his Bandcamp page with the sentence, “I grow gourmet mushrooms and connect them to synthesizers.”You’d be forgiven for stopping in your tracks at the…

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I listened to the first episode of this wonderful podcast all about mushrooms and it’s great! I’ll definitely be listening to more - there are over 140 episodes! The list of different fungi-related topics they cover is so extensive and interesting. Bonus points for having good microphones and voices that aren’t too annoying 😆

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Mushrooms in Mexico with Laura Guzman Davalos

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(Alexandra)

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Mushroom Martini With A Twist

Description

We infused our favorite gin with dried button mushrooms and the result was amazing! The earthy smell of mushroom and the sweet taste of vermouth layered throughout this cocktail is a drink like no other! Try this paired with your favorite mushroom appetizer and you and your guests are in for a real treat.

Ingredients

Ice

2 1/2 ounces London dry gin, infused with dried mushrooms for at least 24 hours

1/2 ounce dry vermouth

Marinated mushroom for garnish

Fresh lime, twist

Instructions

In mixing glass or cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine gin and vermouth. Stir well, about 20 seconds, then strain into martini glass. Garnish with marinated mushroom and lime twist

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @montereymushrooms on Instagram and hashtag it #montereymushrooms

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We came up with the Mushroom Martini With A Twist by infusing our favorite gin with dried button mushrooms and the result was amazing! The earthy smell of mushroom and the sweet taste of vermouth layered throughout this cocktail is a drink like no other!

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(Alexandra)

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Mushroom Cocktail Appetisers | myfoodbook with Australian Mushrooms

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Collect this Mushroom Cocktail Appetisers recipe by Australian Mushrooms. MYFOODBOOK.COM.AU | MAKE FREE COOKBOOKS

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https://dangerousminds.net/comments/salvador_dali_goes_in_search_of_psychedelic_mushrooms_in_impressions_of_upp
Pretty bizarre, but of course what do we expect from Dali xxxx Denise

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Salvador Dalí goes in search of a psychedelic mushroom in 'Impressions of Upper Mongolia'

Salvador Dali, 'Impressions of Africa' (1938)

The rambling plot of the movie Salvador Dalí made for West German public TV in 1976, Impressions of Upper Mongolia (Homage to Raymond Roussel)-whose title has also been translated as Voyage in Outer Mongolia, and which more precisely concerns the region of Occidental Upper Mongolia-takes in golden circuit boards that replicate the painter's brain, the giant, hallucinogenic, fictitious mushroom champlinclis histratatus domus biancus, and "the cruel mouth of Hitler." Inspired by the writer Raymond Roussel's Impressions of Africa, the film does not lend itself to a one-line summary; I would love to see the TV Guide entry.

José Montes Baquer, who directed the movie (though it's "a film by Salvador Dalí," of course), provided this useful synopsis in a 2007 interview with Tate Etc.:

The story was: in ancestral times, in order to deal with a wave of starvation, the princess was forced to administer hallucinogenic powders from a gigantic soft mushroom to her subjects. This substance produced a collective madness among the inhabitants of her principality, who created rock paintings that were discovered on boulders by a Dalínian expedition to this dreamland.

In the same interview, Baquer recalled that the collaboration began with a gift from Dalí, who spoke these words as he handed the filmmaker a plastic pen from the Hotel St. Regis with a specially treated metallic band:

In this clean and aseptic country [i.e., the USA], I have been observing how the urinals in the luxury restrooms of this hotel have acquired an entire range of rust colours through the interaction of the uric acid on the precious metals that are astounding. For this reason, I have been regularly urinating on the brass band of this pen over the past weeks to obtain the magnificent structures that you will find with your cameras and lenses. By simply looking at the band with my own eyes, I can see Dalí on the moon, or Dalí sipping coffee on the Champs Élysées. Take this magical object, work with it, and when you have an interesting result, come see me. If the result is good, we will make a film together.

I love a happy ending. Baquer got a half hour of footage out of magnifying the band on Dalí's magic piss pen, and the two men turned it into this cinematic act of blunt force head trauma. If you persevere, you will see the pen from the Hotel St. Regis, and you will see Dalí lament that, "in this dreadful time of pornography," Standards and Practices won't let him whiz on it on camera.

The picture and sound are not optimal, but they're good enough, and this is the first time the movie has turned up on YouTube all in one piece and with English subtitles. It is not available on DVD.

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Salvador Dalí goes in search of a psychedelic mushroom in 'Impressions of Upper Mongolia'

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Salvador Dali, 'Impressions of Africa' (1938) The rambling plot of the movie Salvador Dalí made for West German public TV in 1976, Impressions of Upper Mongolia (Homage to Raymond Roussel)-whose title has also been translated as Voyage in Outer Mongolia, and which more precisely concerns the region of Occidental Upper Mongolia-takes in golden circuit boards that replicate the painter's brain, the giant, hallucinogenic, fictitious mushroom champlinclis histratatus domus biancus, and "the cruel mouth of Hitler."

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Another 1950s' recipe to try - Field of Mushrooms

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Another 1950s' recipe to try - Field of Mushrooms

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(Alexandra)

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Listened to this today - not bad at all!

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After a day in Portobello, Edinburgh what better supper than to combine the mushroom with a near-miss theme for this month: toast. Yum!

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Björk must’ve known Fungi month was coming as she released her new album, Fossora, yesterday - she said it’s inspired by mushrooms! The album cover art is incredible too - a fantastical mushroom paradise 🍄

Here’s a little feature (audio or you can read the transcript) analysing the different ways she references fungi lyrically and sonically
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1126282708/fungi-served-as-bjorks-latest-muse-in-her-new-album-fossora

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I was wrapping presents for a friend today and it was the perfect opportunity to use the fungi washi tape I’ve had sitting in my craft box. Washi tape is a great way to decorate other things too, like plant pots or even a pattern on furniture.

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My friend made us a delicious mushroom pasta for dinner

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https://lifetheming.com/podcast-2/

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Listen to The Mushroom Hour Podcast on Spotify.

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https://open.spotify.com/track/2FM733A1LmopJ2UjC8BhbF?si=47q293_KTraIemaScxPqTA&utm_source=native-share-menu

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https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/kale-and-mushroom-lasagne

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Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Heat the milk for the béchamel sauce with the bay leaf, onion, celery and peppercorns until just below simmering. Remove from the heat and set aside to infuse. Roughly shred the kale or cavolo nero.

Put into a large saucepan and just cover with cold water. Add salt. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes, until just tender. Drain well and set aside. Heat half the butter in a large, wide frying pan over a medium heat.

Add half the mushrooms and some salt and pepper. Increase the heat and fry, stirring often, for 5-10 minutes, until the liquid released by the mushrooms has evaporated and they are starting to reduce, concentrate and caramelise.

Stir in half the garlic and half the thyme, cook for a minute longer, then remove to a bowl. Repeat to cook the remaining mushrooms and set aside. Gently reheat the infused milk, then strain. Heat the butter for the béchamel sauce in a large saucepan. Stir in the flour to form a smooth roux and cook gently for a minute or two. Remove from the heat. Add about a quarter of the hot milk and beat vigorously until smooth.

Repeat with the remaining milk, adding it in 2 or 3 lots, until you have a smooth sauce. Return to the heat and cook for a few minutes, stirring often, allowing it to bubble gently until thickened. Stir in the mustard, then add some salt and pepper. Stir about half of the béchamel sauce into the kale; put to one side. Spread half the remaining béchamel over the bottom of a 28 x 22cm (or thereabouts) ovenproof dish.

Layer a third of the lasagne sheets in the dish, then spoon the kale over the top. Add another layer of lasagne, then the mushrooms. Finish with a final layer of pasta and the remaining béchamel. Scatter over the cheese and add a trickle of oil. Bake for about 30 minutes until golden. Serve straight away.

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Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Heat the milk for the béchamel sauce with the bay leaf, onion, celery and peppercorns until just below simmering. Remove from the heat and set aside to infuse. Roughly shred the kale or cavolo nero. Put into a large saucepan and just cover with cold water.

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https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81409016

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Create a Mushroom Cake from this 1950s recipe

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Create a Mushroom Cake from this 1950s recipe

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(Alexandra)

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https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/2021/dec/02/californian-firm-touts-mushroom-leather-as-sustainability-gamechanger?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16646103588851&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2F2021%2Fdec%2F02%2Fcalifornian-firm-touts-mushroom-leather-as-sustainability-gamechanger
I would love a mushroom leather bab xxx Denise

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Science

Vegan alternatives to leather could save more than just animals. The scientists behind fashion's new latest must-have - the "mushroom leather" handbag - believe that mycelium, a material grown from fungi which can be engineered to look and feel like calfskin or sheepskin, could help save the planet.

Speaking to the Guardian before a talk at the Business of Fashion Voices conference in Oxfordshire, Dr Matt Scullin, CEO of biomaterials company MycoWorks, forecast that mushroom leather could be a sustainability gamechanger, "unlocking a future of design which begins with the material, not with the object".

Fine Mycelium, a patented material which can be grown from fungi in trays in a matter of weeks, replicates the appearance and feel of leather while outperforming it in strength and durability. The material recently made its high fashion debut as an exclusive Hermès handbag.

"It can give the same emotional response as an animal leather. It has that hand-feel of rarity," says Scullin. On a planet of finite natural resources, Scullin believes both the technology and the mindset of carbon-neutral, grown-to-order mushroom leather could be "revolutionary" - and have implications for innovation in manufacture beyond fashion.

Alongside Scullin at the conference will be Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Lives: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures. Sheldrake, a biologist, is joining a lineup which also includes designers Vivienne Westwood and Tommy Hilfiger, "because I'm interested to talk to people in creative industries about how the possibilities of fungi can help open the mind to new ideas". "I am excited to support the fashion world in its efforts to become more sustainable. There is so much potential in fungi to overcome some of the problems we face," he said.

Sheldrake sees fashion's engagement with mushroom leather as a platform for "fungi as an analogy for thinking creatively, and sustainably". Mushroom leather can be grown in pieces to the specific shape and size required by a designer, eliminating the need for cutting room waste. A report by the Higg Materials Sustainability Index found bovine leather to wreak more environmental damage than any other fabric, including plastic-based synthetic leather, due to the deforestation and gas emissions associated with animal rearing.

With leather goods accounting for 15% of the luxury market in 2019, according to the Statista Consumer Market Outlook Luxury Leather Goods Report, sustainable alternatives could have a significant impact on fashion's footprint.
It's this season's mush-have Hermès bag. And it's made from fungus
Bolt Threads - another California-based biomaterials company working with mushroom leather, which collaborated with Stella McCartney on a handbag shown at Paris fashion week and is developing products with Adidas - is another leading player in the mushroom leather market, alongside MycoWorks.

Mushrooms may not have a glamorous image, but fungi-based leather has become an exclusive material, favoured by the kind of high-fashion design studios which work with double face cashmere, and silk organza. But in order to have a substantial impact on sustainability, the material would need to be accessible at a lower price point. "We are working with luxury fashion first because they are ahead of the curve when it comes to sustainability," says Scullin. "These are brands which are in a position to think big and to think long term."

But partnership with mass market brands is "on the radar" of MycoWorks, which is about to open a second factory in the US. Scalability that ensured the material could be used in high street fashion or in car upholstery is a definite possibility - the material can be grown in trays in a few weeks - but bioscientists caution that insensitive design could undermine some of the environmentally friendly properties of mycelium. If a handbag or jacket is produced using hardware, trims, adhesives and fastenings which are not biodegradeable, this would undo much of the good the material was developed to achieve. "We can bring biodegradeability to brands, but there is a big problem in the industry with thinking sustainably about a finished product," says Scullin.

Sheldrake believes that one of the overarching lessons learned from studying fungi is "reforming the way we think about waste. If fungi didn't do what they do, our planet would be piled metres high in the bodies of animals and plants". He believes that the impact on mushroom leather on our culture could go way beyond a new It bag. "We have been trained as consumers to think in terms of a straight line whereby we buy something, use it and throw it away. Fungi can inform thinking about fashion on lots of levels. This is about material innovation, but it's also about the culture of making endless new things, and what we can learn from thinking in terms of nature and of cycles instead."

Vegan leather alternative isn't just the hot fashion must-have - it could teach us about consumption and waste

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Californian firm touts 'mushroom leather' as sustainability gamechanger

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Science Vegan alternatives to leather could save more than just animals. The scientists behind fashion's new latest must-have - the "mushroom leather" handbag - believe that mycelium, a material grown from fungi which can be engineered to look and feel like calfskin or sheepskin, could help save the planet.

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(Alexandra)

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Shiitake Mushroom Cocktail Recipe - Sunset Magazine

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Chef and 'Eat Your Drink: Culinary Cocktails' author Matthew Biancello adds umami to a Manhattan with shiitake mushrooms that you can grow yourself.

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I was just listening to Radio 6 and my ears pricked at the mention of mushrooms xxxx Denise

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Jefferson Airplane - "White Rabbit" [MONO Mix] - Surrealistic Pillow (1966)

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(Alexandra)

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This is such a beautiful book about fungi connections xxxxc
Denise

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Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures — Merlin Sheldrake

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“Entangled Life is a mercurial, revelatory, impassioned, urgent, astounding, and necessary read. It’s fearless in scope, analytically astute, and brimming with infectious joy.” — Helen Macdonald

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https://lifetheming.com/october-fungi-quiz/

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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/may/03/psychedelic-drugs-women-taking-tiny-doses-hattie-garlick
Tiny amounts of mother nature's psychedelic gift can be very beneficial, some say, including some scientists. Weirdly, Adua just realised we know Lindsay in this picture.

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Rosie has just returned from the school run. She drops a bag of groceries on to her kitchen table, and reaches for a clear plastic cup, covered by a white hanky and sealed with a hairband. Inside is a grey powder; her finely ground homegrown magic mushrooms.

"I'll take a very small dose, every three or four days," she says, weighing out a thumbnail of powder on digital jewellery scales, purchased for their precision. "People take well over a gram recreationally. I weigh out about 0.12g and then just swallow it, like any food. It gives me an alertness, an assurance. I move from a place of anxiety to a normal state of confidence, not overconfidence."

Over the last 12 months, I have been hearing the same story from a small but increasing number of women. At parties and even at the school gates, they have told me about a new secret weapon that is boosting their productivity at work, improving their parenting and enhancing their relationships. Not clean-eating or mindfulness but microdosing - taking doses of psychedelic drugs so tiny they are considered to be "subperceptual". In other words, says Rosie: "You don't feel high, just... better."

It's a trend that first emerged in San Francisco less than a decade ago. Unlike the hippies who flocked to the city in the 60s, these new evangelists of psychedelic drugs were not seeking oblivion. Quite the opposite. While a "full" tripping dose of LSD is about 100 micrograms, online forums began to buzz with ambitious tech workers from Silicon Valley eulogising the effect of taking 10 to 20 micrograms every few days. Others used magic mushrooms. While both drugs are illegal in the US and the UK, increasing numbers claimed that tiny amounts were making them more focused, creative and productive.

Yet the scientific evidence remains shaky. The latest study, published in February in the open- access journal P los One and led by cognitive scientist Vince Polito, tracked the experience of 98 microdosers who were already using psychedelics - a class of drugs including LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms).

There is, the study noted, "a perception of microdosing as a general panacea that is able to improve virtually all aspects of an individual's life". All 98 participants expected its benefits to be "large and wide-ranging". Yet while some clear changes were noted - decreased mind-wandering, for example - the study found no evidence of increased creativity or life satisfaction. In fact, after six weeks of microdosing, a small increase in neuroticism was noted.

I have kids, responsibilities. I believe in what I'm doing, but having class A drugs sent in the post makes me nervous

The study's participants did, however, report lower levels of stress and depression. It was this that drew Rosie to try it. "I've done the traditional treatments," she tells me. "Therapy helped hugely - it got me out of a seriously bad place and to a functioning one. And for many years, I was functioning very well, outwardly. No one would have known. But inside, I was a mess."

Antidepressants failed to work, so she stopped taking them after the birth of her second child, comforting herself with alcohol instead. "I wasn't getting blind drunk and peeling myself off pavements," she says. "But if I felt bad, my mind would immediately travel to the next drink I could have. It was the only thing that helped block out the sadness."

That changed about a year ago, when friends began talking about microdosing. Rosie wondered whether it might have a positive effect on her mental health. She gave up booze, went online and found a company in Holland selling kits for growing your own magic mushrooms.

In the very early days, she got the dosage slightly wrong and found herself, "not tripping at all, but staring at a tree for slightly longer than passersby would find normal". Otherwise, she says, the only down side is, "I can't take it after 5pm or I can't sleep."

She is scrupulously careful to keep her mushrooms far out of the reach of her pre-teen children. "But it definitely doesn't impair my ability to parent," she says. "If anything, my awareness is sharpened."

There is, however, one major danger in Rosie's mind - its illegality. She has agreed to meet me on the proviso that I keep her identity a secret. "I have two kids. I've got responsibilities. And although I believe completely in what I'm doing, these are still class A drugs." Growing kits are illegal to possess in the UK and she says: "The thought that the company now has my name and address in their records makes me nervous, as did the fact that they mailed the kit to me through the post."

Once her kit arrived, there were more concerns. It came with strict instructions to wash her hands up to her elbows and keep her mushrooms as sterile as possible, to prevent bacteria growing. "Blue streaks appeared on their stems," she says. "As a novice, that was really scary. I didn't want to kill myself with contaminated mushrooms. I went on lots of forums to check, and it turned out it's just a normal, safe form of bruising.

"It would be much safer if it was legal, so you could openly seek expert advice," she concedes, but adds, "I've taken antidepressants with lists of side-effects as long as my arm. Now I'm taking something with no known side-effects and it's working. In life, you make risk calculations every day. Is it safe to cross the road? Should I have one more glass of wine? This is just another of those. And I'm significantly happier as a consequence."

***

Just how much of a risk is microdosing? Research in this area has a long and trippy history. Used to treat mood disorders, from anxiety to alcoholism in the 1950s and 60s, psychedelics including LSD and psilocybin became classified as illegal, class A drugs in Britain in 1971. Since the US had also criminalised them the year before, research into their clinical use ground to a halt, while horror stories about recreational overdoses and bad trips abounded.

Then, in 2011, came The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide. Written by American psychologist and researcher James Fadiman, it introduced the term microdosing into popular culture, setting out appropriate doses (10 micrograms of LSD every three days) and including glowing first-hand reports of improved productivity. He attracted evangelical followers in the US, and then across the world. Scientific research into the practice began, too.

"There's only one genuine concern about microdosing," says David Nutt, former chief drugs adviser to the government and author of Drugs: Without The Hot Air. "There's a theoretical possibility that a relatively low dose of LSD, taken every day, could narrow the heart valves." Beyond that, he says, there is no evidence that even "full" doses of LSD are dangerous to health (though clearly, the ill-advised actions of those under its effects can be). But users should not underestimate its illegality: "Possession carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison," he says.

Barbara J Sahakian, professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge's Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, is more cautious. She says that the "increasing lifestyle use of 'smart drugs' by healthy people" is not the best route to improved brain health. "Some people would prefer to take a drug, as it is rapid acting, rather than consider other means of enhancing cognition, like exercise or cognitive training, which take time and require effort," she says. "Rather than taking short-term, inadequate solutions, such as microdosing, to long-term problems, it is time for people to consider how they can best improve their health and wellbeing."

Yet some proponents of microdosing claim that it has enabled them to improve just that. Lindsay Jordan, 40, has just returned from a daybreak yoga class. She's a senior university lecturer, and will soon begin planning her next lessons. But first, she takes out a small dropper bottle. She squeezes two drops of liquid on to her tongue from the pipette. It looks like Rescue Remedy. In fact, it's 1-propionyl-lysergic acid diethylamide, or 1P-LSD, a psychedelic drug with effects almost indistinguishable from LSD. In 2016, the Psychoactive Substances Act made 1P-LSD illegal to sell or import, but not to possess. Jordan's supply comes through a friend who bought it before the act came into effect.

She first tried LSD recreationally while in the early stages of a doctorate in education, two and a half years ago. "I came to it rather late in life," she says. "It was as if a whole new world opened up for me. Psychedelics, combined with my doctoral study, really broadened my mind."

She came across the work of Fadiman, and decided to experiment by taking a tenth of a full 1P-LSD dose every third day for a month. "I felt unusually alive," she says. "Lights looked sparkly. I felt delighted. After the first month, I tweaked it so that dose days coincided with, say, visiting family. I enjoyed playing with the kids more when I was microdosing. Likewise going to weddings - I found it easier to be interested in people."

I'll take some on Thursday, because I'm upskilling one of my managers and it helps with my interaction and empathy

The effects may not have been dramatic, but they were wide-reaching. Jordan says that microdosing has made her significantly better at her job. "A colleague told me I'd become a lot more open, a lot warmer," Jordan says. "My job used to be a struggle. I used to not enjoy teaching, and my students did not enjoy learning. Now I can teach in a hot stuffy room for hours and look out across a sea of smiling faces."

Its impact was not limited to her professional life. "Microdosing contributed to the end of my marriage," says Jordan, "because it led to me seeing what I should be doing with my life. I want to devote my energies to serving my students and my lovely friends. We both feel much freer now."

***

The true impact of microdosing is currently being explored at Imperial College London, in the world's first placebo-controlled study of the practice. People who have already decided to microdose are volunteering to take capsules, some of which contain their usual dose of their own drugs, others a placebo. Thus blinded, they answer questionnaires and solve online tasks designed to measure their cognitive abilities and wellbeing.

"If we do brain imaging when a full dose of psychedelics is in the brain, a lot of the functional networks that we can measure start to fuse into each other," says Dr David Erritzoe, the study's lead. "There's broader communication between the networks. That could be the biology behind this 'more-free' state of mind or perception that people typically report."

It could be that the same is also happening, to a lesser extent, when a microdose is taken, he explains. "Collaborators of ours in Copenhagen have recently done some interesting research, conducting brain imaging with different doses of psilocybin. It looks like the amount that the psychedelic community call a microdose actually hits quite a lot of receptors. Enough, in fact, that it could be having a valid effect."

On the other hand: "We're looking to see if the mean effect [of microdosing] exceeds that of the placebo effect," says Balázs Szigeti, Erritzoe's partner in the study. "It's a big if. If I had to guess, I'd be torn. I'm not questioning the fact that microdosers experience a positive effect," clarifies Szigeti. "I'm questioning whether that's down to psychological reasons or a pharmacological effect."

***

Chloe is 40, lives in Yorkshire and runs a business in the hospitality sector. Like Rosie, she began microdosing as a means of addressing mental health problems, after suffering "quite a serious breakdown". Unlike her, however, she uses LSD, cutting a tab into 16 tiny triangles - a process she acknowledges is "inexact" - and taking one of these on each microdosing day.

"You can get acid delivered from the dark web, if you have a techy friend," she says. "Otherwise you have to get it through dealers, unfortunately." A 200mcg tab, costs her about £5, making each microdose come in at 30p. Given the irregularity with which she microdoses, she estimates that she is spending about £2 a month.

"If the impact on my life is finally finding a way out of depression, then I'm comfortable making that choice," she says. "The first day I microdosed was the best day I'd had in five years. For so long, I'd felt like I'd been sedated. It's so miserable when you know you used to be excitable and enthusiastic. But that day, it felt like a lightbulb had been turned on in my mind. I felt giddy, just really glad to be alive. I'd not had those feelings for so, so long."

Welcome to the trip of your life: the rise of underground LSD guides

It hasn't been totally straightforward; the first time her partner tried microdosing, "he had a massive panic attack. It really amplified his anxiety," she says. "He's done it loads since, mainly because he saw what a difference it had made to my mental health, and he has had some amazing days. But it's not to be taken lightly, especially if you have a mental health condition. He still finds that if he's feeling really anxious, it's best to stay away."

Nor does she feel microdosing helps with every task. "I'll take some this Wednesday, because my business is expanding and I'm designing that day. Microdosing will help with the creative side. I'll take some on Thursday, because I'm trying to upskill one of my managers and it helps with my human interaction and empathy.

"But if I knew I was going to be sitting at home doing the bookkeeping and looking at spreadsheets for hours, I wouldn't microdose - I'd get distracted." All the women I speak to stress that they use microdosing in conjunction with other strategies such as psychotherapy, regular exercise and a better diet.

Back in her flat, her microdose taking effect, Jordan says that the drugs shouldn't be mistaken for a magic cure. "It's not a linear path - it's not as simple as, 'Do this one thing, and everything will be fixed.' But I'm ridiculously happy." After I leave, she's planning to write a seminar and catch up with some admin. "Microdosing changed my life. For me, it was a catalyst for profound and wide-reaching changes." So much so, that she rarely feels the need to do it now. "I think that's a good sign - it means you're integrating what you've learned into your everyday life. These days, it's a treat."
Some names have been changed.
* If you would like a comment on this piece to be considered for inclusion on Weekend magazine's letters page in print, please email weekend@theguardian.com, including your name and address (not for publication).
Topics

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'It makes me enjoy playing with the kids': is microdosing mushrooms going mainstream?

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Rosie has just returned from the school run. She drops a bag of groceries on to her kitchen table, and reaches for a clear plastic cup, covered by a white hanky and sealed with a hairband.

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This month, we encourage everyone to get out into the local woods or fields and find good examples of fungi!  *Please note, many varieties are poisonous, so are not to be eaten!

Share your findings with photos, and post on this column. Happy exploration!

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If a fungus can be called 'Lemon Disco', 'Hen of the Woods' or 'Destroying Angel' then surely we can also spot an unusual fungus and give it our own weird name!

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(on Netflix)
https://fantasticfungi.com/

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WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF We’re on a mission to share the beauty and intelligence of nature – starting with the magic and mystery of mushrooms – to protect the planet and create a better future.

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An Italian classic topping. https://www.tasteatlas.com/funghi-pizza

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https://open.spotify.com/track/2J2HLjvWKMPRXQ4ERYOL2i?si=fc6b801830414cd4

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2 points for suggesting November's theme here: www.lifetheming.com/suggest

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Visit the leaderboard page to check your points! Top 5 at the end of the year get a prize. https://lifetheming.com/leaderboards/

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Femembered I had kept this since my children were small, I do love a pop up ( or plop up as Fungus says !!! )book xxxx Denise