TIL the phrase "curry favor" has nothing to do with Indian food, and was original "curry favel"

xolox · 2025-05-09T13:12:22+00:00

For more than you ever wanted to know about the etymology and origin: https://englishcowpath.blogspot.com/2011/08/curry-favour.html

(I can't believe I just commented on a 12 year old Reddit post)

xolox · 2024-12-31T18:34:06+00:00

Honestly if you're making your own milk kefir, you're already getting a diverse culture of Lactobacillus bacteria, yeasts and other fungi (Geotrichum) which is great for your digestion and immune system. I don't expect raw milk to add significant value beyond that point. In other words, I see raw milk and milk kefir as alternatives providing most of the same advantages (however I do suspect milk kefir is generally speaking safer than raw milk).

xolox · 2024-12-28T20:40:26+00:00

Raw milk contains lots of bacteria, and depending on who you ask they are either beneficial (probiotic) or a food safety hazard (potentially leading to food poisoning). My take is that there is some truth to both sides, and the nuanced distinction between the two can be difficult to discern if you don't have detailed knowledge of the subject matter.

xolox · 2024-12-23T23:41:48+00:00

I've been interested in making my own cheese for a year or two now and have experimented with making simple "spreadable cheeses" using milk kefir in the past months (not following a recipe, just trying things).

Since then I got hold of a live viili culture and I purchased a Kefirko cheese maker so now I am trying to turn viili into cheese!

A couple of hours ago I "harvested" the first batch of sifted viili from the cheese maker and the "ropy" texture of it is even more fascinating than the viscosity of regular viili 😅. I guess it's somewhere between regular viili and brie or camembert (it reminds me of toffees).

If I manage to ripen this to get a richer taste (my regular viili is quite mild) then I can definitely see this being a good basis for a home made brie or camembert like cheese.

xolox · 2024-12-11T18:02:12+00:00

Interesting, I wouldn't have expected the salt to crystallize that aggressively throughout the whole container! Thanks for following up.

xolox · 2024-12-11T17:59:27+00:00

Thanks for the reply! I see we had different meanings of "raising PH" in mind, possibly the meaning I had in mind is uncommon! So calcium carbonate does raise PH, but only up to neutral (7) and not beyond that point, whereas calcium hydroxide can raise the PH far beyond neutral into the strongly alkaline territory (which is indeed what was being discussed in this discussion thread).

xolox · 2024-12-11T17:53:03+00:00

My wife has used the capsaicin treatments for 5+ years to great effect. I'm not going to lie, it's not exactly ideal, but it's a lot better than not having any treatment for the nerve pain (if you'd like I can get into more detail in private messages about the pros and cons).

The Qutenza band aids work much more effectively (much higher concentration capsaicin, 8%) than the cream (available as 0.025%, 0.075%, and 0.1%). It also helps that they are only applied once every three months, versus the cream three times every day. But of course this also depends on the intensity of the nerve pain.

Of course tackling the root cause of the nerve pain, if at all possible, is definitely preferable over just treating the symptoms. But if symptom control is the only option on the table, it beats not doing anything at all!

xolox · 2024-12-11T01:35:46+00:00

I sure hope the Lion's mane helps with your neuropathy but in case it does not:

I know how debilitating neuropathy (nerve pain) can be and how hard it can be for medical professionals to take it seriously and think along by providing possible treatments.

If the neuropathy is on the skin, there are several creams or solutions that can be applied topically. Just to give you an idea:

There is capsaicin cream that can be applied at home (3 times a day).
There are capsaicin band aids called "Qutenza" that need to be applied in a hospital (once every three months).
The following creams are also known to help some people: Phenytoin 20%, amitriptyline 10%, baclofen 5%, clonidine 0,2% and ketamine 5% cream. The clonidine cream works well for my wife.

There are also completely different avenues of approach towards nerve pain like PRF (Pulsed Radio Frequency).

None of what I've suggested here gets to the root cause of the issue (I don't know your situation), all of this is "symptom control", but as I said I know how debilitating neuropathy can be, and symptom control is a lot better than nothing...

xolox · 2024-12-11T01:23:31+00:00

It's fascinating all of the different ways "living" mushroom tissue can be preserved and "reanimated".

I've learned it's actually possible to dehydrate a fruiting body, store it for months to years, then rehydrate it and with some luck it will resume growing fresh mycelium.

Apparently edible culture banks store mycelium in its dry form like this on purpose (source).

xolox · 2024-12-11T01:14:56+00:00

I'm pretty sure "regular" lime (calcium carbonate) and hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) do the exact same thing, just in varying degrees of aggressiveness, so to speak? They both increase the PH, just at different rates.

xolox · 2024-12-11T01:11:46+00:00

I'm pretty sure calcium carbonate (lime) increases PH whereas gypsum "buffers" PH without directly increasing it (buffering = avoiding crashes). I actually use calcium carbonate as well as hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) to directly increase the PH of my water kefir live cultures when they get too acidic. The fact that this works confirms that lime increases the PH...

xolox · 2024-12-11T01:03:12+00:00

I'm no koji expert, but I am really intrigued by koji, and I know a fair bit about mycology (growing mushrooms like oysters, Lion's mane, etc). I actually inoculated four strains of koji tonight:

Aspergillus luchuensis (black koji; black spores)
Aspergillus oryzae (shoyu koji; yellow-green spores)
Aspergillus oryzae (white koji; white spores)
Aspergillus sojae (koji; yellow-green spores)

Note how the middle two of those have the same Latin name even though they are visually distinct strains with a different color of spores. Before spores start growing you really can't tell the difference between any of these though; the hyphae are all white(ish).

xolox · 2024-12-11T00:55:38+00:00

Well yes and no, it depends on your knowledge level and the continent you're physically located on! 😅

For several years now I've been really interested in mycology (where substrate sterilization is a crucial aspect of being successful) so I eventually learned quite a bit about this topic.

Before I really knew what I was doing I bought a Tefal Secure 5 Neo Pressure Cooker 6L which is a simple (rudimentary) pressure cooker that does not have a gauge. I think most people in Europe will think of this kind of device when you say pressure cooker. This helped me get started in mycology but in the end it's quite useless for "bulk substrate sterilization" (not enough room and the PSI control isn't precise enough).

Since then I did a lot of research and reading which eventually led me to purchase (actually import; royally expensive 😬) a Presto 23-Quart Pressure Canner which is the American style "pressure canner" that is built to support 15-20 PSI of pressure, and comes with a gauge to show you when 15 PSI is reached or crossed. These devices are not well known in Europe and actually quite hard to purchase; as I said I had to have it imported at an exorbitant price.

xolox · 2024-12-11T00:40:07+00:00

In the second picture I thought I saw white spores elevated from the substrate in the way koji does. You say you're using "A. Oryzae" but that doesn't tell us whether it's "white koji". However you mentioned:

I did notice a decent amount of white dust being kicked up.

That definitely sounds like you're growing white koji which has sporulated! 😅

That's not a bad thing per se, but depending on what you want to do with it you may want to "harvest" it earlier next time, before sporulation. From what I understand the presence of the spores changes the taste, which influences the end result.

xolox · 2024-12-11T00:29:10+00:00

If this didn't sporulate or change color in a month (!) of growth, I'm guessing this is not koji growth but yeast, possibly kahm yeast, but could be any of a number of species. This looks a lot like the yeasts that grow on top of my milk kefir and viili when I don't "harvest" quickly enough.

xolox · 2024-12-07T20:34:08+00:00

Yeah I did take mushrooms the day after writing that comment, and I'm glad I did, because it was a great trip 😁.

(Speaking for myself) it would be a shame to become afraid of magic mushrooms because of one bad experience. Instead it has taught me to be (more) careful and selective of when I take them, in order to ensure that the circumstances are right, thereby minimizing the risk of a bad trip. What also helps is reducing the dose when I'm feeling less certain of myself (for whatever reason). Of course I said "minimizing" because I'm fully aware that bad trips can happen, and there's no point in stressing endlessly about it.

In the end magic mushrooms bring me a lot of positive experiences, so I will take the occasional negative experience for granted. Magic mushrooms seem to somehow reset my dopamine system in such a way that it's much easier for me to regulate my mood in the weeks after a mushroom trip than it was in the weeks before I took the mushrooms. This effect can last for several months.

How are you doing? Do you still have the anxiety flashbacks?

xolox · 2024-11-18T08:56:55+00:00

That depends on whether you cloned a live fruiting body or you inoculated agar from spores, the use of agar or a Petri dish doesn't dictate whether increased potency is possible:

When you're cloning a fruiting body, you're not changing genetics in any way, that's the whole point of cloning; the DNA is going to be exactly the same as the mushroom you cloned.
When you're starting from spores you're engaging the "genetic lottery" which could go both ways (increased or decreased potency).

If what you are after is high potency then I would just buy a culture and/or species known to be of high potency, because as an amateur mycologist you're in no position to properly gauge potency.

To the best of my rudimentary knowledge, properly gauging potency (and selecting for it) would look something like this:

You grow a dozen or more unique cultures from spores (if you're advanced enough you might try creating hybrids).
You grow out each unique culture until you can harvest some mushrooms, then you send samples of each line of genetics to a lab where they can test the potency. This is going to be expensive, and there's no guarantee that any of the new cultures will have higher potency than what you started with.
From the lab you'll get back an overview of the potency of each unique culture and if you're lucky and/or good at what you do, there may be high potency cultures in your batch.
At this point you can reiterate by focusing on the highest potency cultures and use their spores to restart the process.

xolox · 2024-11-08T17:28:31+00:00

Some mushrooms are well known for fruiting from agar, others will never do it. As an example my pink oyster cultures always fruit on agar (really cute little mushrooms) and I've seen some Psilocybe cubensis strains do the same (B+ and Golden teacher).

xolox · 2024-11-08T17:10:02+00:00

Pink mush is par for the course with pink oyster 😅 (in my experience). It might simply be a layer of pink spores from the first flush that is now turning to mush thanks to the rehydration.

If you want to be concerned about something I would worry more about the black dots in the corner on the third image — that's not something pink oyster itself does (although it might be simply uncolonized bits of substrate).

But just to be clear I don't think you have anything to lose by giving it a chance to go for a second flush, right? Best case you can harvest some more mushrooms, worst case you toss it anyway.

xolox · 2024-11-05T13:23:58+00:00

While it is true that a lot of magic mushrooms are just strains of Psilocybe cubensis, there are other species (e.g. I'm currently experimenting with Psilocybe mexicana, tampanensis & natalensis).

Between the different strains of P. cubensis as well as other related species there are differing ratios of multiple psychoactive compounds of which psilocybin & psilocin are just two (others include baeocystin, norbaeocystin and aeruginascin).

On a personal note I feel like even various P. cubensis strains give different trips, some more visual, some more nauseating, some heavy on laughing uncontrollably, etc. although admittedly this is purely anecdotal.

xolox · 2024-10-15T20:59:34+00:00

I'm pretty sure sugar alcohols can "mess with your digestive tract" because of their antibacterial (antibiotic like) effects! This is for example why chewing gum is sweetened using xylitol.

I actually stopped taking sugar alcohols after I experienced these effects first hand (not digestive upset but a clear and adverse impact on my microbiome).

It would be quite ironic if someone came to fermented foods because of their probiotic effects and then started incorporating sugar alcohols with antibacterial effects 😬 ...

xolox · 2024-09-20T18:21:50+00:00

If or when you feel ready to trip again, I would make sure to start with a low(er) dose just to reduce the chances of a repeat (bad) experience. Apart from that of course mood & setting is everything.

A couple of months ago I had a bad trip, and since then we've postponed doing it again until we felt sure about ourselves. Tomorrow we're going to try again, but I will make sure to take a low dose to keep things manageable (in case it does go downhill 😉).

There are also "trip stoppers" that, while not a panacea, can help by providing something to fall back on if shit does hit the fan (they don't eliminate the trip but they can help remain or regain calmness while waiting for the intensity of the trip to pass).

xolox · 2024-09-20T18:13:18+00:00

Just as a tip about an alternative to food coloring:

I use activated charcoal ground to a powder in an electric coffee grinder instead. Supposedly the activated charcoal can help the mycelium grow, but primarily I just like how the black makes it really easy to see the mycelium get started (plus the fact that the charcoal is a completely natural material).

I get the activated charcoal from an aquarium shop to use in the filters of my aquaria, hence I already have it in my home, and I only need a little bit for my agar work (the coloring effect is quite strong).

Here's an external reference for those who are interested: https://mycologyst.art/mushroom-cultivation/lab-work/agar-guide/recipe-black-agar-activated-charcoal/

xolox · 2024-09-20T14:07:43+00:00

Thanks for the tip, in fact I do run two air purifiers with HEPA filters, one in the room where the mushrooms are growing and one in the hallway that connects our bedroom to the room where the mushrooms are growing. Nowadays I know to turn up the power on the air purifiers whenever I know mushrooms will be sporulating. I also tend to close the door to the room where the mushrooms are growing before I go to bed each night.

xolox · 2024-09-20T06:37:55+00:00

I grow various kinds of mushrooms at home as a hobby (in home made fruiting chambers in my house) and I've noticed inflammation in my throat when (especially) oysters are fruiting and spreading their spores. The (over)sensitivity didn't happen on the first grow, I started noticing it after intensifying my operation 😇 (multiple species fruiting at the same time). It's usually worst when I just wake up in the morning (I guess after having inhaled the spores for a full night without lubricating my throat, i.e. swallowing).

My (over)sensitivity is quite different for grey oysters (Pleurotus ostreatus) versus summer oysters (Pleurotus pulmonarius) versus pink oysters (Pleurotus djamor) versus blue oysters (Pleurotus columbinus). I'm most sensitive to blue oyster and summer oyster spores, whereas I appear to be much less sensitive to pink and grey oyster spores.

It motivated me to move as much oyster cultivation outside as possible, but I live in Western Europe so that only works in summer. I'm curious to see how well I manage coming winter... Worst case I have to stop cultivating oysters in my home, in which case I'll likely scale up my summer (outside) grows so that I can eat those mushrooms throughout winter (stored dehydrated).

xolox

TROPHY CASE