So as far as harvesting went, I found floating and cutting to be tedious... but twisting and pulling I was ripping up substrate down to grains and it was more work getting rid of all that afterwards, so after this experience, I think I prefer the float and cut method. I'll have to see how the stumps fare. Also, this time I used a little paring knife and maybe next time I'll try something bigger and do big slices instead of little cuts.
I think my mushrooms turned black as a combination of rinsing my mushrooms (adding water), not towel drying them well enough before putting them in the dehydrator, overcrowding them in the dehydrator, and cranking the heat up. I'm not worried that they went rancid or anything, but clearly there was oxidation going on for them to turn black. The batch that I put in first were less black, presumably because they had a head start before I overcrowded the dehydrator.
I finished a round of antibiotics not too long ago, so my gut's probably not the healthiest at the moment. It probably rejected the freshies before I could get the full dose. In any event, previously when I imbibed, the mushrooms were dehydrated and ground up into powder and taken either with lemon tek or in capsules so those or a tea are probably a better way for me to enjoy the fruits of my labor in the future. When I get another harvest, maybe I'll try something fancy like TV's honey recipe.
Today's been a good learning experience. Thanks for keeping me company for it. :)
Now to learn about the challenges of a 2nd flush and work on getting a clean clone culture going.