PNW mushroom foraging: red-belted polypore, formitopsis pinicola

Red-Belted Polypore:

This bracket/shelf fungus, closely related to the reishii (ganoderma), though too tough and chewy to be considered edible, is not poisonous, and has a long history of being used as medicine by native people's as tea and smoke. Used to treat head-aches, colds and as an expectorant, a beautiful, perennial mushroom, these are one of the few mushrooms you can find growing any time of the year.

To harvest and process for tea or smoke, you want to chop, slice, tear, grate or grind the conks into thin, small bits while they are still fresh from the forest. Otherwise they will dry to be very tough and be extremely difficult to process.

Hope you enjoyed this. Stay tuned for lots more!

Disclaimer: I could be a liar, or an idiot, always do your own research :)