Tag Archives: Trametes Versicolor

The all-natural power of Turkey Tail Mushrooms!

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TURKEY TAIL MUSHROOMS: (Trametes versicolor – pictured here growing at Half Hill Farm® in Woodbury, TN) have been used for centuries for better health & well-being with modern science validating its substantial health benefits.

Immunity – Turkey Tail mushrooms are used mostly for its immune-boosting polysaccharides (polysaccharide K and polysaccharide peptide) that enhance the immune functions of white blood cells. Polysaccharide K improves survival rates of patients with certain types of cancer when used as an adjunct therapy by inhibiting the growth of cancer cells and enhancing the body’s ability to fight cancer.

Gut-Health – The natural prebiotics found in turkey tail mushrooms help nourish beneficial bacteria in the gut for a stronger immune system and better digestion.

Inflammation – Turkey Tail mushrooms are also rich in antioxidants, which reduce inflammation and oxidative stress. This helps prevent damage to cells which lowers the risk of chronic diseases while promoting longevity.

You can take fully mature Turkey Tail mushrooms as an encapsulated powder. You can also decoct it into a tea or liquid dual extract which removes the indigestible chitinous biomass.

Get 15% off our Turkey Tail Mushroom Dual Extract

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TURKEY TAIL MUSHROOMS: Get 15% off when you buy four or more 200ml bottles of our mushroom dual extracts in any combination using code “4PACK” at https://store.halfhillfarm.com - all orders over $150 ship for FREE.

We’ve been making and using our mushroom dual extracts for over 10 years. Our mushroom dual extracts are made with all organic and responsibly wildcrafted ingredients in several stages through a 45 day extraction process. We only use the full fruited mushroom body in our extracts.

Mushrooms have been used for centuries for wellness and evolved through every imaginable condition to become one of the oldest life forms on the planet. Tap into the wisdom of the ages with our Turkey Tail, Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Red Reishi, Cordyceps, and Five Blend mushroom dual extracts.

What customers are saying about our mushroom extracts

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Half Hill Farm’s mushroom extracts – available online and our retail store in Woodbury, TN

When it comes to using natural remedies alone, or as adjunct therapies in the treatment of disease, no two people will have the exact same result. Customer feedback from the past three years, however, has shown us patterns of success that are making a difference in their health and well being.

While we are not doctors and cannot make any claims that our products can diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, we are proud to hear a growing number of customers come from doctor recommendations. Our mushroom extraction process was first formulated for a family member to match standardized processes used by scientists and ethnobotanists for the purposes of many clinical trials and studies because we were not happy with the quality available in the market. The recognition of our quality and reports of better health and well being are humbling and give purpose to our work. It’s also as close to an authentic voice our products can have on behalf of what they can do for others.

Patterns of success: The general experience shared by our customers is that doctors are amazed at better than expected results (These customers didn’t experience the hair loss, appetite loss or nausea typically associated with primary care options and often seen in patients around them, and their blood work often surprises doctors showing strong immune response where a dramatic drop was expected). These observations match the results of recent U.S. based clinical trials. Customers with the most success take 2-3 times the daily serving of our extracts during treatment for various cancers followed by regular daily servings as maintenance. Requesting integrative care options early in cancer treatment exposed customers to alternative treatment options that include mushroom extracts. Examples of integrative care programs can be found at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. One of the most common patterns with these customers is a change in diet that adds more juicing and less meats as well as adding turmeric and black pepper seed oil (piperine in the black pepper dramatically increases the bioavailability of curcumin in turmeric to reduce inflammation).

Feedback: Below are excerpts of written feedback in letters, cards and emails from some of our verified customers who have agreed to let us share their experiences. We have slightly anonymized the names of customers below, but if you have questions or more testimony to share, add them in comments.

My mother has stage 4 Lung and brain cancer. She was given 6 months to live and we just passed year 2. She is on a maintenance chemo and in addition to her vitamin regiment I think your product is helping save her life. Thank you! ~ S.O. in Minnesota

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I purchase your extract for our son who has been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. He has had surgery and had 12 rounds of chemo with no avail. He is now on his second round of chemo for eight treatments. He has been taking the turkey tail extract (a friend recommended it and you) for four weeks today and he feels so much better! His appetite is back and his numbers have been “phenomenal”! He will be having a CT Scan the beginning of December and we are hoping it shows his tumors being affected (we are actually hoping for a “miracle” and it be gone). He is surprised at the amount of energy he has now that he is taking your product. He is taking 2 teaspoons in a cup of tea every morning. I pray everyday this is our answer. Our son says he will take it the rest of his life if it works! Thank you for your dedication to the health of your fellow mankind – it truly gives us hope! ~ J.P. in Wisconsin

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This isn’t about money. It’s about who does things right and won’t cut corners and that’s why i believe your products are the finest offered anywhere. This product is Awesome. I’m 72 and have more energy than I ever had. ~ H.M. in Florida

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Last report was from the radiologist who was excited to see small changes. Couldn’t explain it. This week we saw his oncologist who was very pleased with the progress & admitted there was definitely some changes going on. With that he added, “Don’t stop what you’re doing.” This is huge!! His Dr. encouraged him!! His oncologist really doesn’t want to know about what the “new” changes are that he is doing but his Dr. saw improvement!! Thank you for all of your blood, sweat & tears.  Thank you for taking risks & stepping out and working so hard for a vision that you believe in. You are changing lives & giving hope where there has only been hopelessness. ~ J.D. in Virginia

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I just started taking turkey tail liquid over a month ago. I have stage 4 breast cancer and I went for my monthly shots and exams. My tumors are shrinking and my labs have changed for the better tremendously. My Dr. Was shocked and did not start me on another chemo pill that she intended to do that visit. God has blessed me with this. And I will continue to take it. Thank you so much. More time with my children. ~ K.I. in Kentucky

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I was diagnosed in May 2016 with a tick-borne disease. (Not Lyme, but a similar type of disease with similar symptoms.) The aftermath of these diseases can last for months if not years! As part of my treatment, I took Turkey Tail Mushrooms. Within 3 weeks of starting to take them, I was completely better. My doctor could not believe it, and said that all the blood work indicated that the disease was gone. The biggest problem with those diseases is inflammation and auto-immune response. I really believe the Turkey Tail was the factor that made the difference! Definitely take it in your coffee, it took a couple days to get used to it, but it kind of tastes like vanilla, so was easy to get used to! ~ K.F. in Tennessee

How are you doing? Are you seeing results you want to share? Are you a Doctor recommending our product? Do you want to ask our customers a question? Let us know!

Below is a short list of the extracts we make. Half Hill Farm uses a triple extraction process with distilled water, USDA certified organic and wild crafted mushrooms, and USDA certified organic USP alcohol. Our farm will soon offer more products based on what we continue to learn from published research and our customers who are seeing the best results in their health and well being!

Please consult your doctor before using any of our products for health purposes. These statements have not been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration. Our products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

‘You saved my daughter’s life!’ – the healing power of mushrooms

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A ‘cloud’ of Turkey Tail mushrooms (Trametes Versicolor) on logs at Half Hill Farm

A few months ago, I got a call from a customer who was looking for what I thought was an adjunct therapy for his daughter in treatment for brain cancer. His own research made him hopeful that our Turkey Tail extract could help. It wasn’t until a couple months later that I discovered on a second call the full extent of what was going on.

“I want you to know you saved my daughter’s life,” the customer told me. It’s something I hear often from customers, from ecstatic calls of people now in remission to those experiencing little to no side effects to chemo or radiation (most common) and positive changes in blood tests, but when he told me his daughter had been in hospice, I was shocked.

It is certainly not a common experience for patients to go from hospice back to treatment options, but it’s stories like this that give what we do meaning and purpose. It’s stories like this that are why we have grown into an FDA-registered manufacturing space and why we continue to expand our product offerings to include nature’s very best organically grown and wildcrafted mushroom extracts.

We are humbled every day with your phone calls and emails. While the body of research on mushrooms is growing, we know we cannot market our extracts or products as a treatment, cure or prevention of any disease, but that doesn’t stop our customers from sharing their stories. It has presented a unique challenge over the past two years as to how we present those stories to you in a responsible way.

Mushroom Dual Extracts available in 100 ml (3.38 oz) or 200 ml (6.76 oz) bottles from Half Hill Farm:

If you are one of the hundreds of customers across the country who take our extracts, we would love to hear why you take them and what you are experiencing. Your experience could help someone follow you on a path toward better health and well-being. You can leave your comment here, or leave a review on the product pages of our online store.

Bees use mushroom fungus to protect colony

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Honey bees make a quick pharmacy stop on our farm’s used Turkey Tail mushrooms (March 2015).

Last year, I noticed honey bees coming and going from our compost bin of organic mushrooms we use to make extracts and thought I had a swarm problem. On closer look, I discovered they were nibbling on our used mushrooms and then flying away.

Understanding that bees eat pollen and nectar, I suspected they were up to something entirely different. I suspected they were self-medicating on residual compounds found on Turkey Tail (Trametes Versicolor) and Red Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) mushrooms left over from our extraction process.

As scientists are now discovering, that may very well be the case. A scientist at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation recently discovered that the Brazilian stingless bee uses fungus to protect larvae food stores from spoiling.

He and his team discovered that the fungus is a key part of the hive. It permeates the cerumen, a material made of wax and resin that the bees use as building material. After the bees have deposited regurgitated food for the larvae inside the cells, and laid an egg, the fungus starts growing.

Once the egg hatches, the larva feeds on the fungus, and it turns out this food is absolutely crucial. When the team tried to grow the bees in the lab without the fungus, the survival rate of the larvae dropped dramatically – from 72 per cent to just 8 per cent.

This Summer, self-taught mycologist Paul Stamets began working with Steve Sheppard, a bee expert at Washington State University, to test various wood decaying mushrooms on honey bees. They are finding promising results that could lead to ways of treating colonies for parasitic mites and other infections at the heart of troubling colony collapse disorder.

As other scientists are now discovering what I also observed, it may be that bees are already doing it themselves. Understanding what they are doing and why could help us understand more about the medicinal value of mushrooms and lead to both a re-evaluation of our use of fungicides and important life-saving discoveries for humans as well as bees.

Available now: You don’t have to be a bee-in-the-know to take advantage of these important mushrooms. Half Hill Farm makes organic mushroom extracts with USDA certified organic mushrooms, USDA certified organic pharmaceutical grade USP alcohol, and distilled water.

Read several studies showing what scientists are discovering about extracts of these mushrooms and what they can do now for your better health & well-being.

Local farm makes medicinal extracts from native mushrooms

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Farmers turn to cancer-fighting – Cannon Courier – April 9, 2014

(WOODBURY, TN) Mushrooms are revered in ancient herbal medicine as a cure-all for everything from colds and flu to cancer. With recent research validating some of this ancient wisdom, a local organic farm is turning native Turkey Tail mushrooms into medicinal extracts.

Half Hill Farm is a small seven acre USDA Certified Organic farm in Woodbury, TN specializing in apples, blueberries, hops and mushrooms. But a recent cancer diagnosis for one of the owner’s 72 year old mother made mushrooms a priority.

“Cancer has a way of making you change your priorities and rethink your life routines,” said farm co-owner Vince Oropesa. Last year his mother was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Working with her doctors in Murfreesboro, he began providing her with extracts from a native Turkey Tail mushroom as an adjunct therapy to chemo treatments.

“She was at a stage in her health and age where the doctors left it to her whether to go through chemo,” Oropesa said. “We take it a day at a time, but she has surprised us and the doctors through every turn. She’s a real fighter.”

Months before the cancer diagnosis, Oropesa and his husband Christian Grantham began building farm infrastructure to cultivate edible mushrooms for local markets.

“When we got the news of Sandy’s diagnosis, our priorities shifted as well to research on medicinal mushrooms growing in our own back yard,” Grantham said.

What the farmers found opened their eyes to an opportunity to not only help Vince’s mother, but also many people dealing with cancer and other illnesses.

“It was a real wake up call to pay attention to what was literally growing right under our noses,” Grantham added. “Life has a way of doing that, and it’s up to us how we respond to that opportunity.”

Turkey Tail (Trametes Versicolor) grows wild throughout Tennessee and the world. The anti-cancer properties of extracted polysaccharides (PSK) and polypeptides (PSP) from Turkey Tail mushrooms are approved cancer drugs in Japan. Private research in America has been limited because pharmaceutical companies cannot patent the results. That has prompted the U.S. government to start funding research.

In late 2012, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a $5.4 million grant to study 4-6 gram daily doses of Turkey Tail mushroom extract on stage IV colon and lung cancer. This comes on the heels of promising National Institute of Health (NIH) research on breast cancer. The funding also follows a University of Pennsylvania study showing Turkey Tail mushroom extracts dramatically increases life expectancy for pets with cancer.

“The NIH studies alone showing enhanced Natural Killer (NK) cells and reduced tumor growth in breast cancer patients was enough for us to immediately start Vince’s mother on Turkey Tails,” Grantham said.

Since creating their mushroom extracts, Oropesa and Grantham find interest mostly from people whose illness has them searching for natural alternatives and adjunct therapies. The two say the extracts they are creating on their farm are just as effective as preventative treatment.

“We take our extracts everyday,” Grantham said. “We do Turkey Tail in our morning coffee and Reishi in our evening tea. We’re not doctors, so we try not to talk about how we feel because we don’t want to sound crazy, but it is turning into a life-long routine for us.”

The dual extraction process subjects dried mushrooms to a lengthy hot water and alcohol extraction process that takes a month to complete. The result is a 1:1 concentrated dual extract you can mix into foods or drink.

Most of the farm’s customers for extracts are people whose priorities have changed due to illness. To bring their medicinal extracts to a larger market, the two farmers are taking a page from the medicinal marijuana industry and are infusing their product in food.


Red Reishi Mushroom 1:1 dual extract – available as gifts and soon as infused chocolates from our farm’s online store.

“Most people who aren’t sick don’t quiet understand what to do with our extracts, and that’s OK,” Oropesa said. “But everybody understands chocolate, and most eat them before we have a chance to tell them how good it is for them.”

Half Hill Farm offers Spring and Fall workshops on growing your own edible and medicinal mushrooms on oak logs as well as how to make your own extracts. Their mushroom extracts and infused chocolates will be available online soon.

PURCHASE NOW: Buy our Turkey Tail or Red Reishi extracts online.

Learn more:

DISCLAIMER: I am a farmer. I am not a doctor. Please consult your physician before using any of our products for health purposes. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Our products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. These food products were made in a private home not licensed or inspected.

Grow your own mushrooms with our inoculated logs

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What better way to celebrate the first full day of Spring than inoculating some locally harvested oak with medicinal and edible mushrooms! These one foot Red Reishi, Shiitake and Turkey Tail mushroom logs from Half Hill Farm are available for local pick up ($22) or ordering online if you live outside the area. We accept most major credit cards. Call 615-469-7778 for pick up.

Each log comes with instructions on how to care for your log to ensure it produces for many years to come. You can expect between 50% – 90% of the log’s weight in mushrooms over the years depending on the variety and proper care.

We also offer spawn pegs in 100 count units to inoculate your own logs. These are $12 per unit (100 will inoculate roughly three 4 feet logs) and are created from our cultivated spawn in the farm’s Shroomery lab. 500 or more are $10 per unit. These also come with basic instructions. Check out our other products for the more advanced mushroom grower.

Workshops: We do Spring and Fall workshops for small groups up to four people by appointment. You’ll learn all the basics in a quiet rural farm setting 12 miles East of Murfreesboro, TN and take home the log you inoculate.

Help us build an outhouse and shelter to host workshops

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You can help change the way people think about their food and health while reconnecting them to a rural farm experience.

Vince and I started our small seven acre USDA Certified Organic farm in rural Woodbury, Tennessee with a mission to become responsible stewards with our resources and to do something positive with our time and energy. We had no idea just how personal that mission would hit home and have created a unique mushroom extract we want to share as well as show people how to create it at home themselves.

A relative’s recent stage IV cancer diagnosis quickly shifted our attention to growing and producing native Turkey Tail mushrooms used as an adjunct therapy to chemo and radiation treatments. Based on the promising results of NIH research and FDA studies on dosages of polysaccharides (PSK) derived from these mushrooms and MD Anderson Cancer Center’s findings that Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC) present in mushroom extracts may cure HPV, we’ve created both Shiitake, Turkey Tail and Reishi mushroom extracts we believe can help many people.

To help fulfill our farm’s mission, we need your help to open up our farm to visitors for workshops on growing these and other mushrooms and creating life-enhancing extracts, providing pick-your-own harvests of apples, blueberries and hops, and other educational opportunities.

We’ve created an online fundraising campaign to raise $4,500 that will purchase materials (locally harvested and milled cedar and a special composting toilet) needed to build an accessible outhouse and small 10 x 20 shelter to host workshops and guests.

Here is what you get for your contribution:

  • $50 – you will receive a 100 ml 1:1 Reishi Mushroom extract bottled in Miron ultra-violet glass (retail value: $40) and a postcard thank you!
  • $100 – FREE WORKSHOP (retail value: $50) plus a 100 ml 1:1 Reishi Mushroom extract bottled in Miron ultra-violet glass (retail value: $40) and a postcard thank you!
  • $250 – gets you everything above, plus placement of an inspirational quote of your choice in our outhouse for visitors to read for years to come!
  • $1,000 – gets you everything above, plus a brass plaque dedicating our pavilion in your honor! There is only one of these special gifts available.

We hope you consider giving and can share this link with others. This will help us accommodate visitors and share our passion for making food our medicine and medicine our food.

Medicinal Reishi mushroom extract infused chocolates

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Test batch #2 of our medicinal Reishi mushroom extract infused semi-sweet chocolates came out excellent! The bitterness of the reduced dual extract (upper right) was completely complimentary to the chocolate, and we put a full daily dose of our Reishi mushroom extract in each serving size.

The next step is to make these with locally made chocolate and experiment with a couple other ingredients before packaging and making them available. We’re excited about sharing the many noted health benefits of Reishi mushrooms in a manageable serving of chocolate.

RECIPE: Red Reishi and Turkey Tail mushroom extracts

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2 1/2 quarts of Red Reishi extract made at Half Hill Farm. Purchase our 1:1 dual extracts.

Red Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) and Turkey Tail (Trametes Versicolor) mushrooms have been widely known for their medicinal value for centuries. Today, new studies reveal anti-cancer and anti-viral properties of high concentrations of polysaccharide K (PSK – an approved cancer drug) and lesser studied triterpenoids in both mushrooms. Last year, the FDA approved a $5 million study focusing on use of Turkey Tail PSK adjunctive treatment for stage four colon and lung cancers after promising results from an NIH study on breast cancer patients.

Many people mistake these two particular mushrooms as edible. Some websites actually prescribe so many grams of these dried mushrooms. The fact is, you cannot fully digest these medicinal mushrooms. The protein-bound polysaccharides can only be extracted through a several hour decoction process while triterpenoids typically are extracted over several days in an alcohol solution. You certainly won’t die eating these mushrooms, but the best way to realize the full health benefits is to create a single or dual extract.

SINGLE EXTRACT (DECOCTION): A typical decoction is a 1 oz of dry mushroom to 1 cup of water. A single decoction will extract water solubles such as polysaccaharide K (PSK) and beneficial polypeptides (PSP).

  • 1 oz dried Red Reishi or dried Turkey Tail mushrooms
  • 2 cups of distilled or purified water

Take 1 oz. of the mushroom of your choice and place them in 2 cups of water. If you are using Reishi you will need to chop it up as close to 1 inch squares as you can. You can break it up into small pieces. Boil for 3-4 hours, reduce to between a light boil and simmer after the first 30 minutes. At the end, remove the mushrooms. You will then want to filter out any pieces of mushrooms. Your two cups should have reduced to close to a cup, including whatever you can squeeze out of your mushrooms.

Jar and store in the fridge for about 1 week before discarding. Take 2-6 teaspoons twice daily. Reishi is very bitter and best in coffee or soup broths.

DUAL EXTRACT: To extract antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral triterpenoids and other medicinal compounds present in the fruit body of the mushrooms, you will need to take the mushrooms from the first process and place them in a high proof alcohol for a month and blend them using proofing formulas.

OTHER USES: Our first use for these extracts is 1 tablespoon in 16 oz. soup servings we are making for Vince’s mother who was recently diagnosed at age 72 with stage IV lung cancer.

You can put 2 teaspoons of either extract in coffee and tea, or slightly more in soup, stews, or water you use to cook things like rice or even larger recipes calling for fluids.

WHERE TO GET: Growing your own medicinal mushrooms and following the steps above is the most affordable way to get extracts. We offer 1 foot logs inoculated with either mushrooms through our online store or larger logs for pick up at our farm in Woodbury, TN. This is the most economical way to grow your own. It takes several months for the logs to fruit and will produce seasonally for 3-5 years.

PURCHASE NOW: Our farm makes quality dual extracts of both Turkey Tail and Red Reishi mushrooms using distilled water and USDA certified organic alcohol (USP). Buy our Turkey Tail or Red Reishi extracts online.

Ganoderma Lucidum dual extract

Research on Turkey Tail (Trametes Versicolor) mushrooms

Research on Red Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) mushrooms

DISCLAIMER: I am a farmer. I am not a doctor. Please consult your physician before using any of our products for health purposes. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Our products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.