Trametes versicolor for tea as medicine.

[The Vault Dweller]

Due to some research pointing to this having a legitimate benefit I'd like to try making tea with turkey tail.  In part due to the fact I find this almost often so I can count on finding it again and also that it's a saprophyte which means I can actually grow it at home.  Since I live in an area of rural/wilderness and most of it is forested I'm sure I can get a lot of wood cheap as scrap that people are trying to remove from their property (though I'll have to check to see that some isn't stuff used to make things and might be chemically treated).

I'm starting this thread so I can make updates when I start on what I'm using and the results.  I already have a lot of information from Paul Stamet's book and various online sources.

[Dave W]

Trametes versicolor is not difficult to find in the wild. You can find it year round. Stereum ostrea looks a lot like it, but Stereum has a smooth fertile surface and Trametes has round pores that are just large enough to see without magnification. I haven't used this species. I know that it can be made into a tea, and I imagine you could also make an alcohol-based tincture. 

[CamilleR]

I just made some tea from Trametes Versicolor recently and I'm very interested to know if anyone has a good recipe. Does anyone here have experience with it? The first batch I made tasted good when I added honey and lemon. A second try at making it turned out too weak.

 

[Old Oak]

I made it into a tincture with fruiting bodies. The recipe is in this section. I'm not sure how much good using the fruiting bodies is though. All the research into its health benefits point to the polysaccharide k molecule as being the main player. Significant amounts of this molecule can only be extracted from the mycelia. This goes for almost all mushroom medicine with the exception of Chaga, which is a mycelial growth.