The Bristol Fungarium

27/02/2025

Menopause 🫱🏼‍🫲🏽 Mushrooms

As with many processes relating to female health, the topic of menopause was taboo for a long time - and rarely discussed - despite directly affecting half of the global population. 🌍

Ancient knowledge has paved the way for mycotherapy as an increasingly popular means of support during the perimenopausal years - however, clinical research into both functional fungi and female healthcare is still thin on the ground.

It’s important to remember that much medicinal mushroom knowledge has come from TCM and Asian cultures with long histories of consuming culinary and functional mushrooms. Interestingly, in general, Asian women are known to have much milder experiences of the transition compared to average Western females who (among various other factors) don’t traditionally eat a variety of mushrooms in their diet.

Our latest blog delves into the science behind some of the mushrooms that may be able to help, and sheds some light on how and why they work. 🌝

Are you using mushrooms to ease the symptoms of menopause? We’d love to hear from you ♥️

14/02/2025

Whether you’re gearing up for a pyjama date on the sofa, a dinner tête-à-tête or a night on the tiles… add a little extra spice and all things nice with these medicinal mushroom and Sentia infused mocktails.🍹

These tantalising tipples are sure to get you in the mood for dancing / romancing / giving it all, etc.

Cordyceps On The Beach is an invigorating blend of Sentia Black - designed for engaging interactions and party starters - with freshly squeezed OJ, cranberry, rosemary and Cordyceps to keep the good times rolling, all night long 💫.

Reishi Royale is a restorative fusion of Sentia Red - designed for relaxation and intimate moments - with ginkgo and ginseng (or a syrup of your choice), an alcohol-free fizz, and the great big hug for your nervous system that is Reishi to help everybody unwind 🌹.

Mixologist medicine man shows us how it’s done…

Which one are you making first? 🥂✨

10/02/2025

☂️✨🍄 Happy National Umbrella Day!

04/02/2025

We LOVED having the Dirty Health team pop by for a visit last week ❤️🍄

We gave them a tour and chatted all things mushroom, health and well being ✨

Not only that, but they kindly carried out some food sensitivity tests on the team and we can’t wait for the results! Although it’s very exciting, we think there may be some surprises coming back from the lab 👀🔬(please don’t say white potato or garlic 🙏😂)….

03/02/2025

Interested in discovering the fascinating connection between mushrooms 🍄‍🟫 & chocolate 🍫 and how they can boost both your health and happiness?

WELL, lucky for you, we will be at this Thursday with ✨

🌟 hosted by of featuring:

🍫 Joe, director of
🍄 Tom, founder of
🤤 A mindful tasting session led by

🗓️ Thursday 6th February
📍 7.30pm
🎟️ Ticket 🔗 in bio

27/01/2025

ATT: Manchester Crew! 🫶🏼

We are coming for you…

This March, catch us at the Natural Health Trade Summit at Kimpton Clocktower for the leading event in health and food 🌿

It’ll be our first jaunt up North after much ado and many requests, so we really can’t wait for this one! If you’re running or working with a health conscious business of sorts, this is the perfect opportunity to come and chat shiitake with us. We’ll be stocked up with our full range of tinctures and shroomy chocolate provisions which we would love to see on the shelves in your vibrant Mancunian metropolis and beyond…

We can’t wait to meet you IRL! 🍄♥️

17/01/2025

📣 Announcement 📣

We’re all about gut health here at Bristol Fungarium, and we know lots of our followers are too 🫶

The science behind it is rapidly evolving, providing us with unprecedented insights into the workings of our gut and the crucial role of the gut microbiome in promoting better health and longevity.

Worth 7 hours CPD points, this online conference will discuss the latest research and integrative approaches to gut health and how it influences overall wellbeing, including its impact on immune function, mental health, our hormones and chronic disease.

Whether you’re a healthcare professional, medical student, or simply passionate about gut health, this online event is open to everyone and designed to provide you with valuable insights and practical strategies to improve gut health and achieve long lasting positive effects 🍄‍🟫

Early birds still available, head to our bio to book your spot ✨

15/01/2025

🚨Limited Bundle Alert🚨

Due to the nasty bugs doing the rounds at the moment we have been inundated by folk seeking advice on how to give their immune system a boost and to help build resilience against the lurgies 🥊

So, we thought the best way to support our community through the longest month of the year was an exclusive Immunity Duo consisting of two heavy hitters for defence. All hail Chaga & Turkey Tail 🍄❤️

Runs until midnight, Friday 31st of January ❄️

13/01/2025

10/01/2025

We’re often asked where people can catch us in the flesh, so here you go ✨

These are all the wonderful markets you will be able to catch us at in the next couple of months.
Obviously this time of year is notorious for unpredictable weather ❄️ so be sure to double check on the day that the market has not been affected, but we can’t wait to see you in person, please do pop by and say hello, we love meeting you and hearing how our mushrooms have added joy to your lives 🍄✨

Equally, if you’re new here and want to find out more about the benefits of our organic, UK native tinctures, there is no better place to pick our brains than when we can chat to you face to face ❤️

08/01/2025

Take a deep dive into our blog to learn more about how our organic, UK native, functional mushroom tinctures may add a drop of joy to your life ✨🍄

Maitake was so revered in ancient Japan that it could be exchanged with the Sh**un for its weight in silver! With Diabetes on the rise the world over, could Maitake be a useful natural tool for managing insulin resistance?

08/01/2025

Very excited for this 🍄✨🤩

19/12/2024

Get your orders to the mushroom elves by midday tomorrow and we will do our best to get them to you by Christmas 🍄🎄

09/12/2024

Tomorrow evening! 🍄✨

Unlock the Power of Mushrooms: A Journey Through Tradition, Science, and Health - Happening tomorrow at 7PM! 🍄

Join Aeon Education with Tom Baxter, founder of The Bristol Fungarium and producer of the UK's first organic certified medicinal mushrooms, for an enlightening session where he will delve into the fascinating world of medicinal mushrooms.

Tom will be talking you through:
- Why He Grows and Extracts Mushrooms: Understand the purpose and methods behind The Bristol Fungarium cultivation and extraction processes.
- A Rich History of Traditional Use: Explore how mushrooms have been revered across cultures for their healing properties.
- Cutting-Edge Research: Learn about the studies Tom and his team are funding and the groundbreaking insights they reveal.
- Health Benefits Backed by Science: Discover the positive health outcomes linked to specific mushroom compounds and what makes them effective.

Whether you're a health enthusiast, researcher, or simply curious about the therapeutic potential of mushrooms, this session will equip you with valuable knowledge and inspire your wellness journey.

🔗 Find out more and sign up at https://buff.ly/41bgZph

04/11/2024

REISHI RESULTS ARE IN 🤗​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Big news today. Flourish Labs in Oregon have been testing the levels of Ganoderic Acids and Ergosterols in our Reishi and we are VERY EXCITED by the results we just received!

We grow four Reishi specimens, one from the US and three cloned from Somerset Reishi mushrooms found by our amazing team 🙏🏼 Thank you , , and Daniel!!

Different specimens contain varying levels of the therapeutic compounds we work so hard to extract. Our Barrow Gurney Reishi is particularly high in Ganoderic Acids B and H, whilst the US species contains a wider range, including Ganoderic Acids A, C, D, and F 🍄

Ganoderic acids are triterpenoids with antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and antimalarial effects (to name but a few!).

They have also been shown to reduce inflammation of some very specific cells in animal and in-vitro studies and are therefore potentially useful in the realms of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s 🐁🧫

As always - there are various, important stages to defining the realities of this in real-world human context but evidence so far is very promising indeed.

When making our tinctures, we use all our reishi specimens so that you get the full spectrum of these beneficial compounds 🌈

FINALLY, from these results, we can confidently and proudly say that we have a “PHARMACEUTICAL GRADE DOSE” of these Ganoderic acids in just 1ml of our tincture 🤩

Thank you Reishi, thank you Nature, thank you Science 🫶🏻

Have you got a Reishi success story to share?

We’d love to hear it 🥰🍄



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31/10/2024

The veil between worlds is thinning… ​​​​​​​​
Blessed Samhain, folks! 🍂👻​​​​​​​​
(P**n: Sow-wen)​​​​​​​​
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The Celtic New Year traditionally marks the seasonal shift from light to dark. Symbolising transformation, cycles of life and death, and the deep wisdom hidden in the earth beneath our feet. The very essence of this ancient festival is beautifully embodied by the role of mycelium in nature 🌳 ​​​​​​​​
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🕸️ The Alchemy of the Wood Wide Web:​​​​​​​​
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Mycelium networks facilitate nutrient exchange and communication between flora and fungi through vast systems underground, breaking down organic matter to nourish new growth 🌱 ​​​​​​​​
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Through these networks life persists, and thrives. Samhain or "summer's end" calls us to fall back and go within, so we can transmute the wisdom of the past into sustenance for the future.​​​​​​​​
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🍄 How can I embrace the fungi realm at Samhain? ​​​​​​​​
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This is an invitation to explore the ancestral connections that mushrooms offer... Such as:​​​​​​​​
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• Meditating on the mycelial networks connecting all life 🧘​​​​​​​​
• Creating an altar with local mushrooms to honour the spirits of the land 🧙‍♀️​​​​​​​​
• Sharing stories of loved ones and lineage over a hearty, shroomy feast 🍲​​​​​​​​
• Getting out into the woods for a fungi forage with friends & fam 🧺​​​​​​​​
• Taking a big fat dose of medicinal mushrooms 🧑‍🚀 (we suggest Reishi, obvs - what did you think we meant?!) ​​​​​​​​
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Anywho. Whether you're gathering in community or embracing solitary reflection, we'd love to hear how you're connecting with the fungi kingdom this Samhain tide.​​​​​​​​
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Let us know in the comments 👇🏼♥️​​​​​​​​
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🎥 by the exceptionally talented mycophile, ​​​​​​​​
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14/08/2024

A festival dedicated to fungi?! 🍄

Yes please.

We are so so very excited about next month’s !! 🍁

Having a space where fungi nerds can commune and geek out on everything and anything fungal is literally heaven to us fungi-loving folk.

The mushroom world is BADASS and it’s a joy to be a part of such a collaborative, rebellious, passionate, nature-loving community

ALL the fungi legends are gonna be there (including us 😉), and this year we are on the line up!!

Discussing 🍄 MEDICINAL MUSHROOMS 🍄 with our new Neuroscience PhD student, Katie Turk at UWE with Tom, Henry, and Elle 🦋

Of course, we’ve also got our Fungarium crew on the stand so come find us and chat All Things Fungi at All Things Fungi! 🍄

Grab your tickets via and we’ll see you there ❤️

Mush Love 🍄

 

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24/07/2024

Maitake, the unsuspected Medicinal Queen 🫶🏻

Maitake is Japanese for ‘dancing mushroom’ and as legend has it, Buddhist nuns and woodcutters on a mountain trail were so delighted to stumble upon this seldom found and well-revered mushroom, they began dancing around it in celebration! 🧚🏻‍♂️

Foraged Maitake was so revered that it could be exchanged with the Sh**un for its weight in silver… Think we’d be dancing too! 💃

Also known as Hen of the Woods, Maitake is a fleshy polypore and a choice edible that grows at the base of deciduous trees, 🌳 usually oaks 🌳

Like all the mushrooms we grow, Maitake contains polysaccharides that can stimulate the immune system to help protect us against infection 🦠

But their purportedly unique medicinal capabilities truly lie in their ability to assist hormonal balance, by improving insulin sensitivity…

This stabilisation of blood sugars has been found to be enormously beneficial for those struggling with diabetes, PCOS, and numerous other hormonal issues - though as always, more research is needed 🔬🌸

This picture was taken in March 2020, when some of our first Grifola Frondosa came into fruit - and all we can say is that over the years this mighty medicinal has taught us time and time again to never overlook their medicinal powers (and very particular growing preferences) 🍄

Have you experienced Maitake’s magic? Let us know in the comments ✨



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