Spagyrics + Mushroom Extraction, Double Decoction | Shorts

Hi, this is Rita Hogan and welcome to the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog through an herbal lens. So let's get to it and dive right in.

Welcome to another short. I am your host, Rita Hogan, and we are going to be talking about answers to a couple of questions today. First, I want to thank my sponsor, Sean from earthbuddy.com I recently met Sean at Super Zoo and then I met him again at the thriving Pet Expo, which I just spoke at. And it was just a lovely meeting of the minds, for sure. He is a wonderful, wonderful steward of the land and really takes good care of his cannabis plants. And I heard all about his process and I'm just loving it, loving his products. Check him out@earthbuddypet.com and they have a great coupon for 20% off. That is huge. Herbal Buddy 20. Herbal Buddy 20. For those podcast listeners, we have a new question that was submitted to the podcast. This one was submitted via voicemail and I never even thought of this, but you could record a small voicemail on your phone voice message and just send it in via email and if I can figure it out, maybe we'll play them on the podcast. So send in your voicemails. I loved it. Rachel in Cincinnati, Ohio, says, what is a spagyric tincture? That's S, P A G Y R I C S. I have been hearing about them, but I am unclear as to what they are. Great question. I love that question. I love spagyric tinctures. They are a mouthful. Okay. You kind of feel like you're chewing on that word, right? Spagyric tinctures are a process. It's an alchemical process. I wish I had the equipment to do a really nice spagyric tincture, but that is not my current situation. It may be in the future, but it is not now. However, I purchase all of my spagyric tinctures from Sage of Popham Natura Sophia. Spagyrics. N A T U R A S O P H I A S P A G Y R I C S And Saja is a fellow herbalist and mentor of mine. Love, love, love him. And he has a really beautiful website. They show a lot of their, like, kind of different videos on their processes. And they are actually in Bellingham, which is about three hours from my house. And so just love Sage's process in the whole chemical spagyric making process. And he is an expert at it. So that's where I get my spagyrics. But what is a spagyric? So there is a long answer and then there's a short answer. And because this is a short, I'm gonna give you the short answer. So a spagyric is a tincture that is made normally, but then the material that we make a tincture out of a tincture is a alcohol soaked gathering of plants. So like if we were doing a violet tincture, a violet tincture would be violet leaves and flowers, or just violet leaves, depending. We would put certain amount of alcohol over that, let it macerate, or sit in the alcohol for a certain amount of time. And then we would squeeze out the alcohol from that material, that plant material, and put it in a amber glass bottle and that would be our tincture. But a spagyric takes this separation process a step further and brings it back together, which with its original plant material. So the plant material after the extraction process is then burned and it's burned in a very methodical process, multi step process. And that is what is called the alchemical process. And it's a very controlled burn. And what it does is it reduces the plant matter, in this case the violet leaf and flower, to ash. And those are the mineral salts and ash of the plant. And then you combined that mineral salts and ash into the liquid that we extracted. And then you have what's called a full spectrum tincture. And it's really a beautiful, beautiful process. So that's the answer to your question. That is a spagyric tincture. And they're absolutely beautiful. And I really feel that they, they can help heal that separation that we have from nature in so many ways. Plants have that subtle language and intelligence and ability to reconnect us with ourselves. And spagyric tinctures are definitely a wonderful process for that. Okay, so we have another question. This one is from Angela in Austin, Texas. Angela says, what is a double decoction? This must be. This past week has been the week of medicine making questions. I love it. I love it. What is a decoction and what is a double decoction? I have seen this, basically. Okay, so it's a long paragraph. We're gonna bring it down a little bit. Basically what Angela is asking is that she has seen the words double decoction used when they're talking about mushrooms or double extraction. Okay, so both of them are kind of the same thing when you're talking about mushrooms. But I feel that the terminology isn't being used correctly. You would make a decoction of the Mushroom and then you would make an extraction and then you would bring those two together. So one of the like, especially those hard chitin coated mushrooms like reishi, artist conch, things like that need a double extraction. Or they can have a double extraction. They can also be hot water extracted. And let's just go through it. So there's different constituents that you know that let's just use reishi for example. Reishi, mushroom and other mushrooms like it. Many, many, many, many mushrooms have a thing called chitin that covers the outside of the mushroom and it keeps us from getting all of the benefits of that mushroom. So when you do a decoction, you are extracting the mushroom with water and that is basically a hot water extraction decoction. A decoction is a simmering and that is used for like seeds, roots and definitely mushrooms. Okay. And that is going to be water soluble. So you're going to get a lot of the beta glucans that are found in mushrooms. And a double extraction is going to give you like the alcohol side which is a lot of the triterpenes that are in the mushroom. And both of these methods are going to extract the medicinal components of these plants. Another plant that I like to use decoctions with is the oak tree and decocting acorns. But that is another conversation and medicine. So let's just go through it really quickly. We've got a couple minutes, I gotta get this done. But let's just go through it quickly. So basically you're gonna cut up the reishi. I'm just using the reishi as an an example into the smallest amount, like smallest particles that you can because you want to expose a lot of surface area. Okay. And then you're going to get like a mason jar, you're going to get a natural piece of wax paper and you are going to put a hundred proof alcohol over it. I like to use organic alcohol all the time. And so you're going to put a hundred proof alcohol over it and you're gonna fill it all the way up to the top. So you can fill it halfway with the plant material with the mushroom and fill it all the way up to the top. Then you're gonna put your wax paper over it and you're gonna let it sit for four to six weeks. And each day you're gonna shake it and you wanna put the cap on over that wax paper and give it a shake. Kiss it, give it some love, tell it how awesome it is. Put a lot of your love into it. Don't touch it when you're stressed out, try to, you know, smile and put on a happy face when you touch your medicine. And when you're done, you're gonna strain it out and you're gonna strain that reishi mushroom out of the alcohol. And I always put that aside and I make another decoction out of it or a mushroom broth out of it. I try to use as much as the mushroom as possible, but that again, is just for myself. You're gonna strain the mushroom and then you're going to put it in a container, a glass container is preferable, or stainless steel. And then you're going to cut up equal amounts of the, let's just say, reishi mushroom. And you're gonna put that in a pot, a stainless steel pot, and you're gonna cover it with distilled water. So basically, for every, I would say half a cup of reishi mushroom, you're going to put two cups of water and distilled water helps with longevity. And you're gonna bring it to a boil and then turn it right down like you're making rice. And then simmer, simmer on the stove, stirring frequently, but not all the time. Just give it a stir every now and then for about two hours. So basically simmer, you don't wanna burn. And then again, you're gonna strain out the reishi. And I like to make mushroom broth out of it. So I keep all of the spent reishi mushroom because there's a lot of medicine still left in that fungus. You're going to combine three parts of the alcohol based extraction with one part of the water extraction. And there it is. That's how you make a double extraction. Now, you can mix them half and half if you'd like, but only do that if you are using 100 proof alcohol. All right. And then you just store it. You can store it in the refrigerator. You could also store it out of the refrigerator. And just make sure that you're not opening and closing, opening and closing. If you're opening, closing, opening, closing, just put it in the refrigerator. So that is a way that you can easily make. Make an extraction. Okay, so that's it for our short.

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I'm not a doctor and I don't treat disease or prescribe anything. I a traditional herbalist providing herbal support education only. Regarding any products I may suggest the statements made regarding these products have not.

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