[eterpstra]

For the section on growing your own "special" mushrooms, they have a young guy in a baja hoodie watching the "magic" happen and winking at the camera. Pretty sure they're targeting a very specific audience here. Solid marketing.

[labrador]

> For the section on growing your own "special" mushrooms

The county where I'm from in California has decriminalized growing psilocybin mushrooms for personal use so I can just come right out and say that I plan on growing hallucinogenic mushrooms

[devwastaken]

It's still illigal at a federal level.

[chasebank]

So is weed. Nobody cares.

[mellavora]

Unless you are a vet receiving federal benefits or living in federal sponsored housing. They might not want to cut your benefits, but the law says they have to.

Many sad stories here. Vet thought it was legal, and it helped their PTSD, but they lost their housing over it.

[devwastaken]

If you admit to smoking weed in the ER, or to any benefits program, your benefits will end or not begin, with a big red stamp on your file. If you have weed on a federally funded college campus, they by law have to cut your loans.

The feds very much so care. Don't get complacent.

[angst_ridden]

Nobody cares until the rolling coup finishes up in the next few years. Then it'll be a problem for everyone, just as it is now for folks in the US on foreign visas, US citizens on various welfare programs, and US citizens who want certain jobs.

[HyprMusic]

The banks do. Payment providers do. Advertisers do. There's plenty of reasons for a business to be low-key about providing accessories to break Federal laws.

[chasebank]

No they don’t. They just want plausible deniability. They’re a bank, they want to make money. Every dispensary has CC processing and a bank account. If they cared about federal law, they would stop obvious money laundering.

[hn_throwaway_99]

> Every dispensary has CC processing and a bank account.

I've never been to a dispensary in the US that takes credit cards, and MC and Visa specifically don't allow cannabis businesses.

https://www.cato.org/blog/cannabis-banking-clash-between-fed...

[alex64]

I feel like this isn't the case? All dispos in California and Washington were cash only.. because they couldn't get accounts with banks.

[LouisSayers]

Have a watch of border control TV shows based in the US.

They will literally cancel your visa and send you back home for admitting smoking weed in the US.

If you're not from the US, beware weed is very much ILLEGAL, and you should treat it as such.

[eatbitseveryday]

> They will literally cancel your visa and send you back home for admitting smoking weed in the US.

No they don't. They explicitly state, "we do not care what you do on your travels, only that you do not bring any forbidden substances with you across the border."

If you BRING something measurable (beyond a trace sample they wipe from you or your stuff) then they can take action like what you suggest. Admitting to them you do take substances on your travels is irrelevant to them.

[LouisSayers]

Yes they do, if they have reason to believe you will break US law (I.e. smoking weed) they will not hesitate to cancel your visa and put you straight back on the plane.

They've shown that multiple times in their border control TV show.

The episodes I saw:

There was an Australian girl (admitted to smoking weed on a previous trip) - put straight back on the plane, visa cancelled, and a German guy- on his way out got found with a speck of weed, admitted to smoking weed - got his visa cancelled and told he'd be refused entry if he tried to return.

They basically say "we are federal officers and we enforce federal law". In terms of visas if you provide reason to believe you will break the law, then they have the right to refuse you entry.

[LouisSayers]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5gqp5q/when-immigrants-are-d...

[birdyrooster]

This is why I bring hella weed with me to Japan. Not only do they never catch me, but the worst case scenario is going home.

[dehrmann]

Federal employees can be fired if their drug test comes pack positive for cannabis.

[idiotsecant]

As well as private, federal-adjacent businesses like power utilities and other heavy infrastructure.

[giraffe_lady]

Give it a few years. It's not a priority compared to cracking down on abortion and genociding queer people but they'll get around to it eventually.

[BurningFrog]

Also at the state level.

[upupandup]

There are psilocybin mushroom sold in marijuana dispensaries online and offline.

To be honest I don't like the come up. I no longer like being "scolded" by it.

[labrador]

I get people selling psilocybin mushrooms following me on Twitter all the time since I follow MAPS and other research groups. I've been afraid to order because I have to give a real address to mail to and it's still illegal at the federal level

[everforward]

Viable spores are still federally legal, and they're legal in most states.

[goatsi]

Those people are generally scammers unfortunately.

[upupandup]

oh im talking about canada btw but yeah not sure how US works

[namlem]

If you don't like the come up being too slow, then I suggest mushroom tea with citrus. Makes it hit all at once. One moment you're normal and the next moment you're tripping.

[agency]

Apropos of nothing you can easily buy Psilocybe cubensis spores by mail as they do not contain any psilocybin. Of course they’re only intended for you to look at under a microscope ;)

https://sporeworks.com/

[bocuma64]

"There is an exception to magic mushroom spores being legal though, and it’s in California, Georgia, and Idaho. In these states, magic mushroom spores are illegal as the legislators are trying to prevent the purposeful cultivation of magic mushrooms."

From https://healingmaps.com/mushroom-spores-psilocybin-legality/

Just FYI.

[_aavaa_]

> Strain Origin: Cross of B+ and Penis Envy

[throwatrip]

Here you go. Reason for the name should be obvious. https://sporeworks.com/Psilocybe-cubensis-Penis-Envy-Spore-S...

[chasebank]

Indeed it is.

As someone who’s been encapsulating magic mushrooms for 10+ years, what I’d really love to see is an easy way to extract psilocybin for a more accurate measurement of the compound. Encapsulated mushrooms work ok but sometimes it can be orders of magnitude different in potency. Like you think you’re drinking a beer and accidentally drank 3 margaritas. I’ve read that people are working on deriving psilocybin from yeast but haven’t heard much as of late.

Fwiw, I think mushrooms at low quantities might be the best drug of all time, even better than caffeine. Happy pills, I tell ya!

[retrac]

> I’ve read that people are working on deriving psilocybin from yeast but haven’t heard much as of late.

They were successful. A team at the Technical University of Denmark inserted the genes to synthesize psilocybin into Saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewer's yeast) [1] and they had excellent yields:

> a final production strain producing 627 ± 140 mg/L of psilocybin and 580 ± 276 mg/L of the dephosphorylated degradation product psilocin in triplicate controlled fed-batch fermentations

It's likely the means it will be produced commercially if it becomes a widely-approved drug. Not sure the average person will be able to get their hands on that strain easily anytime soon though. I imagine it'll be guarded as a trade secret as strictly as those modified E. coli that pump out human insulin.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S109671761...

[s1artibartfast]

The best I can think of for consistency short of measurement is homogenization to make an average. This goes for many products. Blend the individual items, batches, ect. The larger the quantity, the more consistent the output.

[nibbleshifter]

Soxhlet extraction into ethanol might be promising for this (higher efficiency compared to soak and strain).

Just need to see if the elevated temp over a period of a couple of hours negatively impacts potency I guess.

[WaitWaitWha]

:) The three-picture sequence on the front page, under the heading "Easier than You think; 3 easy steps", the last picture shows the grown mushrooms in a round container, while the device is cuboid throughout the other pictures.

[Alex3917]

> Pretty sure they're targeting a very specific audience here.

Probably accurate. Growing edible mushrooms on such a small scale doesn't make any sense given that they are 90% water, and so shrink ~90% when you cook them. This would be like buying an AeroGarden that can grow only a single leaf of parsley.

E.g. it takes at least 10 lbs of lions mane to make crab cakes for two people, whereas I doubt this thing is going to produce more than half a pound.

[skyyler]

What makes you think it takes 10lbs of lions mane to make two servings of crab cakes? This recipe uses 6oz and claims to make four: https://steamykitchen.com/192632-lions-mane-crab-cake-recipe...

[Alex3917]

Because that's a fake recipe that was written just to rack up page views, that wouldn't actually work at all if you tried it. Making crab cakes isn't going to work at all unless you sweat the mushrooms to get the water out -- you cook them for 20+ min on low with a lot of sea salt, and then you rinse off the salt and squeeze out as much water as you can before forming them into crab cakes and pan frying.

[skyyler]

https://foragerchef.com/hericium-crabcakes/

Okay, is this one better? It still only calls for 16oz of mushrooms to make 4-6 cakes.

I can't find a single recipe that calls for anywhere near 10lbs of fungus. Could you link one?

[Alex3917]

If you look at the different photos in that recipe, you can see that the one on the tree has several times more water than the one purchased from the store. So which '16 oz' is it even referring to?

[skyyler]

This still isn't addressing your hyperbolic statement. And now I feel you don't wish to address that. And that's okay.

[idiotsecant]

10lb of lions mane would make an absolutely enormous amount of crab cake meat. Even if you figure you can sweat 60% of the moisture out of your mushrooms (which you probably won't, but let's assume that) that's still 4lb of 'crab' for 2 people. Most crab cake recipes call for 1 lb of crab for about 6-8 patties. Mushrooms might be a little bit less dense, but not that much less dense.

[bluedino]

Good thing it only takes about 1/8th of an ounce (dried) to trip balls.

[scoot]

That would be dried mushrooms. No thanks!

[hn_throwaway_99]

As the top comment says, this seems like the Juicero of mushroom growing. There are already much simpler, cheaper, and more straightforward ways to grow your own mushrooms:

https://magicbag.co/

[dalbasal]

Only sensible.

Growing mushrooms is cool, and the idea of making it an ornamental object like and aquarium is good. It's kind if expensive though, and pretty small for culinary mushrooms.

Personally I kinda want one to try growing some flamboyantly ornamental fungus. But... a desire to pay $300 in order to grow a cool mushroom... these two "very specific" audiences overlap a lot. Exactly the kind of tolerant niche customers that makes for a good crowdfund.

[blueprint]

Wow is that why the scene of the family in the kitchen has what appear to be psilocybes growing in the device? lollll

[PartiallyTyped]

It is certainly working.