She Used to Dance Flamenco






Today, I decided it was time to harvest the first real flush on these Avery's Albino mushrooms. The total initial flush from this six-quart shoebox was 349 grams wet. This is the first time that I've had anything that I would count as a real "flush" - enough that it's worth counting and weighing.






















The biggest individual fruit was 85 grams. The gills and parts of the stems are definitely starting to show the blue bruising from the psilocybin. They were gray before I started handling them, but once I handled them to harvest and cut them up, the blue bruises rose up fast and strong. The color and the veining of it remind me of bleu cheese. 


 





Some Psilocybe cubensis strains break their veils, drop their spores, and then begin to decay. Others, like this one, will continue to writhe and elaborate, getting bigger and softer - when to pick them is kind of a matter of choice. I followed advice from one of the gurus I admire, Nichy Myco. Nichy has been working with the legendary Dave Wombat to release some beautiful and bizarre strains and hybrids. 








I had to quarter it to even get the dehydrator lid to close. Normally, best practice is to avoid cutting the fruits, because it exposes more surfaces to the air, and oxidation damages the psilocybin. However - getting them into the dehydrator is an important part of the process, and if they're too damned big to go in, they've got to be reduced somehow. They're still quite big pieces. 










These big puffy caps look almost like marigolds or chrysanthemums, more than mushrooms. Because these are true albinos, it's impossible to tell if they have spores on them - I didn't see any powder. 







The Flamenco dancer came up as a cluster; she was 138 grams, with four mushrooms stuck together. 

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