I started foraging for medicinal mushrooms about 4 years ago. The 4 main mycelia friends that I have wild harvested (with permission from them, of course) are Reishi, Maitake, Turkey Tail, and Chaga. One year we found Lions Mane and Shiitake. And often we find field mushrooms (which Fred calls horse mushrooms) that we dry for yummy winter soups.
This year I found Fomes fomentarius (commonly known as the tinder fungus, hoof fungus and iceman fungus). But unlike this beautiful example pictured below, the ones I found were black and too old for use. Sometimes a mushroom doesn’t emerge in the timeframe I desire, sometimes it shrivels and dies before I get to see it in all its glory. I was sad that I had not found any for medicine making, and so I sat with the ones that had appeared in my search and asked them to call friends who might like to work with this human for healing.
3 days later, my good friend Karma Glos who has an organic farm just over the hill called me up and asked me …
wait for it…
If I might be able to use some dried mushrooms that she did not need… Fomes, Ganoderma applanatum, Daedaleopsis, and Ashwagahnda!!
I felt so grateful to the mycelium community (and for the human community I have cultivated), for answering the call from their old shriveled friend in the forest that I had sat with…
So, WHY was I searching for Fomes Fomentarius?? Because it is said to improve the quality of sleep (along with a host of other things — digestion issues related to stress is another and anxiety and depression are a few others) for folks!
Stress is known to lead to sleep issues. Our minds can’t shut down, we worry, we watch TV and have our phones on all the way up until we want to go to sleep, and we become restless and lie awake frustrated… Long-term effects of sleep deprivation can show up as obesity, muscle pain, irritability, depleted immune system and, paradoxically, higher levels of stress. No wonder I was looking for Fomes. This year has been hard for me to sleep, and I have been feeling it more and more in my waking life.
I had read that Fomes Fomentarius can be used as a natural sleep supplement that can be taken right before you go to bed every night. So I made a tea (and an oxymel and a tincture from the gift I received) and drank some in the late afternoon. I felt very relaxed and calm afterwards, and drifted off peacefully to a little afternoon snooze.
To make the tea I used one tablespoon of finely diced Fomes Fomentarius and boiled it in 1.5 cups of water for 20 minutes. It turned a golden brown, tasted sweet and also a little birchy… And… like chaga mushroom, after you have strained the tea, you can add more hot water to the left over mushroom pieces and make more tea (Stop using them only when you notice the tea comes out clear).
The tincture and oxymel (vinegar and honey blend) will be ready to share in 3 weeks. I will continue to make my own tea and will share what I experience after a few weeks. I may also be asking to test subjects to use the oxymel and tincture and report their experience, so if that calls to you, please reach out!
As always the mushroom world reminds me to slow down, trust in the process of life, and ask for what you want without attachment and expectation of how it will show up!
Love, Aniiyah
