Hello, hope you’re doing well, especially if you’re reading/listening to this. If you’re not reading/listening to this you won’t see this bit but I still hope you’re doing well even though you’ll never know.

Natalensis VS Ochraceocentrata

January: Yonks back. What have I been doing? Business-wise, I’ve been trying to sort out a more stable flow of the psilocybe natalensis, because they are insanely popular. Fingers crossed that’s all sorted now though, and the supply should be pretty constant from this point out (barring any unforeseen hitches).

I’ve also been following the whole “psilocybe natalensis vs psilocybe ochraceocentrata” thing, and it’s another reminder of how young the mycology scene is – we’re still finding out that what we thought was established knowledge is wrong. Here’s how it goes, and I’ll make it as clear as I possibly can for any beginner mycologists out there:

Orangutan Website: Science (FINALLY!)

It seems that what we’ve always called “psilocybe natalensis” is actually a different species of mushroom called “psilocybe ochraceocentrata”. I’m not going to get into the science of it as most of it is a bit beyond me, but all of the “natalensis” anyone’s ever grown are actually something else. Now, this doesn’t actually make any functional difference (everyone loved them when they were called nats, and they’re the same mushroom just with a difference name”), but it has made the whole naming thing awkward. I’m personally hesitant to rename what I’ve got on the store, as they’ve been sold to me as natalensis, and I don’t think it’s my place to go changing the names of the spores I procure; so I’m going to wait until it changes upstream. However, the guy upstream is likely doing the same thing, and so on and so forth.

Confusing, no? Even more confusing because there’s a type of psilocybe cubensis called “Natal SS” which is a cubensis variant (like your Golden Teacher or B+ spores, for example), and not a separate thing – I actually made a point of writing on the product listing for the Natal SS “if you want Natalensis then go over to my other product listing” but even that isn’t correct any more! I’ve had loads of emails about this, so thought I’d write this up and hopefully just be able to direct people to have a look at this blog post.

Sweet Merch

I managed to get my brain in gear and get some more excellent merch printed a while back; nice beanies with the OTC logo on to keep your head looking rad, and some lovely white longsleeve t-shirts to keep you cool and unburned in the summer. They’ve got a nice hand-drawn Orangutan on the back, by laura_likes_plants and they are fuckin’ lovely. If you would like to purchase some clothing I would be happy to sell you some: you don’t get much more of a niche brand than this, so if you’ve got a touch of the hipster lurking in you, this is gonna be the least-known brand you ever wear!

This is the back, it is on the opposite side to the front

What’s coming up next?

Bit of a busy few months for me, I’m going to be travelling around a bit trying to get some more headshops to stock my spores (it’s a great proposition). As a reminder, if you’re after wholesale spores, drop me an email with some quantities and we can chat. Anything above a few hundred or so and we can come to a reasonable price, I’m sure.

After that I’m off to All Things Fungi Festival up in Sussex, to go and help the MycoPunks by lending my considerably long orangutan arms to their cause. Sounds like it should be a good laugh, and I’ll be more than happy to help anyone out with the flow units, cloning, and all that sort of thing. I’m looking forward to spending a bit of time with people that don’t recoil in horror when I start talking too much about mushrooms, and if there’s anywhere in the world where I think this will be alright, it’s ATF!

You should come along, it'll be fun and educational!

Apparently some bloke called Merlin Sheldrake or whoever is gonna be there, written some books about something or other and sells hot sauce, but can he fit eight jaffa cakes in his mouth at once? Nah, didn’t think so. Ball’s in your court, Sheldrake.

Anyway that’s about it for now, enjoy this nice warm spring weather, and get yo’selves ready for summer, yeah? All the best! 

OTC