Morels

[Pat B]

After owning our property here in the southwestern North Carolina mountains for about 35 years and living here for 32 we found our first morels.  :thumbsup: While on her walk with our dogs this morning my wife sat on a bench of our woodland native wildflower garden where she spotted what she thought was a morel. She came back to the house and looked it up in a mushroom book we have and sure enough that's what it is. I walked back to the area where she found the morel with my camera and before I got to the bench she had sat on I found another, then another. Three in all. I continued looking around but couldn't find any others. This was a pleasant surprise. I didn't harvest them because their value as a plant was more important than the little food value 3 morels have. We have found a few naturally growing ginseng plants in this area also. That's why we made it a native wildflower garden by adding may apples, black cohosh, yellow lady slippers, trilliums and other native wildflowers.

[bjrogg]

Hope you keep finding them Pat.maybe even enough to have a meal or two.

They usually start popping up around Mother’s Day around here. Thinking as cold as it’s been here it might be later this year.

Bjrogg

[Pat B]

It's just odd that we never found them before and I look every year. We do find chanterelles but they are about as big as a little toe nail. Hardly worth collecting them either.
 Years back we inoculated white oak logs with shiitake mushrooms and had them growing for years.

[PaulN/KS]

Historically the morels start coming up at my place in NE Kansas starting this week.
It's been cold and dry this Spring and today there's a frost warning so maybe they will be later this year. 

[DV IN MN]

Normal year unlike this and last. Last year to dry only found maybe couple dozen this year to cold. By know in southern MN I would be looking for greys. Its still to early in a normal year but I get a little impatient. We are probably as it is right now 3 weeks out at least, soil temp was 41 on Sunday.

[Buckskinner]

Next week they should start popping up here based on the forecast and if everything holds as predicted could be a great year for them.  Good moisture and not going to be getting any +70 days right away.

[Buckskinner]

I thought that the 90 deg weather was going to burn the morels off but on a whim, I stopped by public area and found this bunch in about 5 minutes and to get to my daughter's track meet so couldn't look much more but will hit it tomorrow again.  Good to find some anyway, far cry from the guy in Iowa that found 175 lbs in 2 days though...

[Buckskinner]

Cooked a batch up last night, lightly dusted with flour and fried in butter is my favorite!  Couple fingers of bourbon while cooking makes them even better!

[DV IN MN]

I did find  few in Southern MN

[Buckskinner]

Nice, they are a treat!

[GlisGlis]

never forget the genus morchella is poisonous while fresh
always cook well or use it after they dry out completely

[Buckskinner]

Hmmm, I didn't know that and have on several occasions eaten them raw while turkey hunting, must be low levels of toxins or I'm immune.