my buddy gave this to me. try it out, its so good!

alright kathy I'll do my best but my culinary etiquette is somewhat lacking
so um sorry in advance for any confusion this may cause you.
1. pick a lovely day to go out lichen pickin' (very important when you are
collecting the lichen that you make sure to sample what your collecting by
nibbling at it. If it tastes really bitter than you should move to new
location or tree cause it either has large concentrations of vulpinic acid
or usnic acid which is bad for you in larger quantities or the lichen has
absorbed too many air contaminates {avoid lichen around roads} also try to
collect from a variety of trees in a wide range, it takes forever but I'm
sure you of all people could appreciate this part.)
2. once you have a bunch (really depends on how much you want to make it
shrinks quite a bit) put it into a pot and just cover it with water and let
it soak for a long time (the longer the better) (couldnt soak it enough
really)
3. add a teaspoon of baking soda. (actually if you drained it first and put
new water in it it would taste better, but why waste good water) if you have
a pressure cooker this next part could work better for you, but i didn't and
i actually dont really know what one looks like,or what it does for that
matter. Anyways bring the water to a boil and let your lichen boil like
crazy for quite sometime (till it feels soft and looks like hairy snot) then
drain it.
4. repeat. everytime you do this your lichen will become less bitter and
softer (but also lose some of its nutrients)
5. Add an apple thats been chopped up in little pieces. and some sugar
(still boiling all the while, just make sure you reduce the water in your
pot before adding them) (also don't do what i did and burn it) it should be
getting gooie by now. Really from this point on you either add more apples
or sugar to your own taste or if your feeling particularily inclined you can
throw in some cranberries or any other odd things you find lying around your
kitchen.

So as long as you can stick to that very strict quantifiable and dare i say
scientific method you should come up with something tasty. Best of luck let
me know how it goes. and if you have any questions i'll try to answer them
better next time around.
take care,

Me