A Detailed Guide to the Harvesting and Processing Methods of Wild Poria

Harvesting  The best time to harvest is from the Beginning of Autumn to the Spring Equinox. Blind, slash-and-burn style harvesting is both laborious and time-consuming, and is harmful to soil and water conservation, so harvesting should be done scientifically.

The places where poria grows have the following characteristics: (1) there are cracks in the ground near the old stump, and tapping produces a hollow sound; (2) the soil is dry and loose, and after light rain the area around the old stump dries out relatively quickly; (3) little or no grass grows near the old stump, or it grows sparsely. The specific harvesting method is as follows: use a specially made steel probe about 60cm long and about 0.6cm in diameter, with a small groove cut behind the tip; hammer it about 20-40cm into the ground. If it is difficult to pull the steel probe out, or if poria pine sap adheres inside the groove of the withdrawn probe, then poria has been detected, and you can then dig it out with a hoe.

Processing Brush the soil off the poria that has been dug up (do not wash it with water), and place it in a cool, unventilated spot. First spread a layer of rice straw, then layer the poria and rice straw one on top of the other, seal the sides tightly with rice straw, and cover the topmost layer with thick burlap sacks to let it "sweat." After 6-8 days, if white fuzz (mycelium) has grown on the surface of the poria, the "sweating" has succeeded (if no mycelium has grown, it needs to continue "sweating"). Take it out, wipe off the water droplets, brush away the white mycelium, and spread it in a cool place. Once the surface is dry, repeat this sweating process 3 or 4 more times, until the surface shrinks and wrinkles and the skin color turns brown. Then leave it in a cool, dry place to air-dry until completely dry.