Dr. Anna Sitkoff is a licensed naturopathic doctor, medicinal mushroom educator, author of the medicinal mushrooms chapter in The Textbook of Natural Medicine, founder of the blog, Reishi and Roses and co-founder of the mushroom supplement company, Lucidum Medicinals (coming soon). In addition to being a naturopathic doctor, she is an avid researcher, botanical medicine enthusiast and exceptionally curious applied mycologist. She has spent many years learning about mushrooms through many lenses; laboratory research, literature reviews, wild harvesting, and at-home extraction experiments. Now, as a practitioner, she is able to apply this knowledge in practice and utilize mushrooms as therapeutic agents on a daily basis. Her hope in writing this blog, is for people to feel educated and empowered through having well researched information available to them. She practices as a primary care physician at Bear Root Apothecary in Port Townsend and is licensed in both Washington state and California. She teaches classes at conferences, in her community and for various organizations remotely through Zoom and in person. Here, she provides her notes, recipes, and monographs. Enjoy!
Follow this link if you would like to make a medical appointment with Dr. Sitkoff.
She is somewhat present on social: @reishiandroses
reishi and roses 
thank you for sharing like this!
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Awesome blog, kiddo!
– Manu
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Love this blog!
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Great Blog Anna! I have a question… Is it possible to still make a broth with Artist Conch after they’ve dried hard?
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Hi Magda! You can definitely make a broth with whole dried Artist Conk. It is difficult to slice them when they are already dry, so you can stick the whole mushroom in to boil, it will just take a little longer to extract. Thanks for checking out my blog. Let me know if you have any more questions.
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Thank you for sharing the wealth that all are entitled to ! You are a treasure !!
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Hi Anna, I came across your blog post on making Amadou felt. Very well done and great pics and instructions. What I’m wondering is how do the artisans in Romania and elsewhere that are making entire hats out of this material joining all of these shaved pieces together to make large sheets; just by pounding strips side by side into each other and they mash together and stay together and the sheet looks seamless like one giant piece? How does the joining of pieces work and look seamless? ~ Brian
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Hi Brian, thank you for checking out my write up on making fabric with amadou. In my experience, it seems like the bigger the mushroom, the bigger piece of felt you can pound out. I’ve tried pounding strips together, but it has yet to work, and I don’t think that it is possible. Always worth experimenting though! Please let me know if you come up with any new ways to fuse the pieces together. I have heard of using a special glue that has a seamless finish, though haven’t tried it. Best bet for making a hat seems to be to look for the biggest mushrooms!
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…”our own mycelial-like fascial network ” ………. -> primo vascular system
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I really love your content. I’m in Portland and have learned a lot. Thanks!
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Thank you!
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I stumbled onto your site whilst researching the different varieties of Ganoderma that grow here in the PNW. Love your writing, very poetic and informative! Thank you for sharing.
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Hi Anna- I went on your herb walk at the Bastyr Herb Fair and you mentioned making something out of green Douglas Fir cones- do you remember what it was?
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Hi Heidi! I put the Doug Fir cones in water and they have a lot of wild yeasts on them and sugars, so they start fermenting pretty fast, and they make a great yeast starter. I also just put them in my water and drink throughout the day.
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Nice! So then would you use the starter with fermented veggies? bread?
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Hi anna 🙂
Really nice job, keep going!!
I have a question about you concentrate extract of (coriolus, fomitopsis, ganoderma).
You didn’t talk about a dosage?
Which quantity if i use it as a therapeutic or if i use it as preventive.
Thx max
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Hi Max,
I have to be careful about talking dosage with medicines on the internet, but I can tell you what I typically do for myself. For preventative I take about 3 mL extract 2x per day and for treatment I double that amount.
Anna
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Thanks for your blog & wonderful work that you are doing! Looking forward to reading more!
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Thank you for your really great blog , i have been thinking a lot about the whole cycle of the tree mushrooms and the importance of working with the host tree to , it was great to read your thoughts also
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I am grooving on a lot of things here, Anna, being a fungus kind of girl myself but also, a few years ago i wanted to make a reishi tincture but the only alcohol i had, had been employed in making a rose tincture, but decided to use it anyway… and the resulting tincture, which you may guess tastes fabulous, i call ‘reishi rose’ tincture. xo
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Câte grame pulbere uscată de Fomitopsis pinicola pe zi se poate folosi preventiv? Pace!
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I love your blog! I just came upon Trametes Elegans and was trying to find some info about it’s medicinal properties… found this and thought you may like to see/know about it!
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283794463_In_vitro_Antiradical_Activities_of_Trametes_elegans_Collected_from_Osengere_Ibadan_Nigeria
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Thank you!!
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I just tried to make the reishi powder extract with your method. It is still pretty fluffy even when I put it in the high speed blender for a long period of time. Do you think I should do the slurry thing again and then dehydrate it again? When I did it with the Hericium it powdered up really well. Thanks!
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The Ganoderma and Fomitopsis generally come out fluffy. I just deal with the fluffiness 🙂
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Hi Anna, I love this blog, it is such an incredible learning tool. Do you sell pdf versions of you “Mushroom Constituent Chart”? I would definitely buy one if you do.
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What is your email address? I’ll send PDF to you. You can donate $5-10. Paypal or Venmo.
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Hi Anna, I asked you about soxhlet extraction at Green Gathering. Do you still boil the conk in water first before the extraction? Or after? And use 95% etoh? Thank you!
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Hello Anna – I have a question about something in the constituent chart – for the qualities that are extracted in ethanol at 65 C, how possible is that for the average person making tinctures (I have read that it can be pretty risky to bring 100 proof vodka up that high) and how much is being missed by not extracting via 65 C?
Thank you
Adriana
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Hi Adriana! Yes, do not heat ethanol in an open environment when there is an open flame. In a laboratory setting, this is done in a closed system in a reflux apparatus of some kind. You can extract these compounds in cold ethanol as well, but you will want to heat the mushroom in boiling water to break down the cell wall to better extract the ethanol soluble intracellular components. See my post on triple extractions for more information. I think it is the post titled: Mycophysiology and Hominid Perks
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Hi Anna – thanks for your reply. So it is better to do the hot water extraction before you allow the mushroom to sit in alcohol – I often see divided opinions about this, but no real science about why one is better than the other. I will change up my process in the future. Thanks!
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Hi Anna – thanks! I have read opinions on alcohol before vs alcohol after without any reasoning, so this is helpful. In the future, I will definitely reverse to water first, alcohol second.
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I just had the priveledge of attending a class you put on for MO mycological society. Thank You for the information! I am looking forward to learning more from you! do you have any information on some of the other rarities that are semi connected to mycology in a way? For instance Monotropa uniflora (Ghost pipe)?
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