Morel Mushrooms

[Mullen]

It's that time of the year again, anybody else hunt these tasty motherfuckers?

[JC Denton]

Yep, mushroom hunting has been a hobby and passion of mine since I was a toddler. Though I've only found morels in Poland, never in the US. They're around for such a short amount of time - a day or two, that I probably miss them. I think I'll check the apple orchard in another town this time.

They're mouthgasmic simply pan-fried with some cracked black pepper and maldon seasalt.

http://www.visitbenzie.com/uploads/M...nting_Tips.pdf

[thegreatupski]

yeah - they're great - they usually grow on or around cedar trees. You got to have the eye for them though - I've picked loads in southern IN... a lot of people like to keep their morel spots secret

just make sure your picking the real morels that you can eat without dying or getting sick. There are black looking morels and other very similar mushrooms that can be fatal.

Always cook your mushrooms before you eat them!

[JC Denton]

Originally Posted by thegreatupski

yeah - they're great - they usually grow on or around cedar trees. You got to have the eye for them though

I've managed to find a bunch, twice in two different countries around old apple tree's. If you've got one of those pick-your-own orchards nearby, they're a good place to check. Also found a few near the maple tree's near my house. Never found any around cedar's, but I've also heard white ash and dead/dying elm's are good place to check.

[Sir Cornwell]

The toxic ones should be called Immorels.

[Lucid]

The place to really pick morels is on the burn, a year after a forest fire. Wait for the rain to start, get out about 15 minutes after a fresh shower comes down and you're in the money. Once you find a good flush of mushrooms, come back after every shower. I picked wild morels for cash a couple years, and everyone flocks to the burns. I've hiked up hill, loaded my backboard with plastic boxes full of shrooms, hiked back the same path and seen big ass mushrooms in my footprints laid down not even an hour before. I swear, if you knew right where the mushroom was going to spring up, you could literally watch them grow they pop up so fast.

If you want a really crazy experience inlife, head on on the mushroom trail for a year, get way way backwoods in some of the camps, and pick for cash. I guarantee you come back with a boatload of insane stories. You run into some incredibly strange people out there in the shroom camps.

[Sir Cornwell]

Less likely to find immorels on a recent burn too, isn't that so?

[Lucid]

Originally Posted by Sir Cornwell

Less likely to find immorels on a recent burn too, isn't that so?

Not so sure, I picked in BC, and as far as I know, there aren't any real poisonous look-a-likes in the area. Picked Morels, Chanterelles, Lobsters, and Brains. Then later on in the fall gave Pine Mushrooms a whirl for the big monies. You get some crazy big tent cities during Pine season.

[Malice]

Originally Posted by Lucid

I guarantee you come back with a boatload of insane stories. You run into some incredibly strange people out there in the shroom camps.

Tell us some of your stories.

[JC Denton]

Originally Posted by Lucid

The place to really pick morels is on the burn, a year after a forest fire. Wait for the rain to start, get out about 15 minutes after a fresh shower comes down and you're in the money. Once you find a good flush of mushrooms, come back after every shower. I picked wild morels for cash a couple years, and everyone flocks to the burns. I've hiked up hill, loaded my backboard with plastic boxes full of shrooms, hiked back the same path and seen big ass mushrooms in my footprints laid down not even an hour before. I swear, if you knew right where the mushroom was going to spring up, you could literally watch them grow they pop up so fast.

If you want a really crazy experience inlife, head on on the mushroom trail for a year, get way way backwoods in some of the camps, and pick for cash. I guarantee you come back with a boatload of insane stories. You run into some incredibly strange people out there in the shroom camps.

Theirs a forest fire still going on in the northwestern corner of my state, at the foot of the Appalachians. I've been meaning to go there. I just hope we get more rain.

iirc correctly their was a law passed in Russia that forbade the starting of forest fires for the sole purpose of creating a good morel season...

[Lucid]

Originally Posted by Malice

Tell us some of your stories.

It's not even so much individual stories as it is just the whacked out fucking people you meet. You're so far back out in the boondocks where nobody comes out looking for anyone it's not funny. So you run into a lot of people, who perhaps, just don't want to be found. There's fucking boatloads of drugs floating about. It runs through the whole spectrum, from oldschool hippies the 60's forgot, to escaped convicts.

One day we rolled into a decent sized camp and there was this guy running around with a fist full of bills swinging a baseball bat around in the air with the other like a mad man. His bills are all flying out of his hand and shit it the grass. He's got this huge fucking gash in his forehead and there's blood running down his face and arms, blood all over this money, and he's screaming that he has HIV. Then there's all these fucking people putting on gloves to pick up his HIV bloodied money and washing it off in the lake. I don't even fucking know.

Met some feral people out there too. Guys who've lived out in the bush for years and not come out for fuck all. They'll pick a few mushrooms to buy salt and shit, or a new knife for the year, then disappear back out into the wilderness. Batshit crazy fuckers, but they are a wealth of knowledge on the mountains.

[Infrared]

Originally Posted by Sir Cornwell

The toxic ones should be called Immorels.

Wholly morel advice, man! You're just un-boletus-able.

[Infrared]

In all seriousness, I love mushroom hunting too. I have all the good field guides and everything. Haven't been out in awhile though, but I intend to soon. As for morels, there's been a few good burns here in New Mexico, as usual, so I wanna hit 'em up. Will post pics!

[JC Denton]

Anyone here in the New England area?

[Village Idiot]

Subscribing to this.

[constantinople]

I didn't know mushroom picking was so lucrative.


What's to stop people from just growing morels in their house or something? Same with truffles.

[1983]

Try disturbed ground around cedar growths... My on friend always has some under her cedar / pine trees after she rakes the lawn and it rains.

Al

[JC Denton]

Originally Posted by DR.PAPADROPADOCALOPALIS

I didn't know mushroom picking was so lucrative.


What's to stop people from just growing morels in their house or something? Same with truffles.

Mycologists have only been semi-successful in cultivating morels in a lab setting. As for truffles, it's much more difficult.

Also, it's not called "picking". If we could just go into the woods in our backyard to pick some mushrooms, it wouldn't be called "hunting". The thrill of hunting mushrooms is just as much as that of hunting wild animals. It's one of the greatest traditions and past-times known to human culture. It requires much experiences and knowledge on where, when, and how to look for them.

Originally Posted by 1983

Try disturbed ground... My on friend always has some under her pine trees after she rakes the lawn and it rains.

I can attest to this. I've recently found a small cluster in a place with disturbed soil where there was some landscaping going on last year, and some pine tree's were planted. Wealthy suburban neighborhoods where people do a lot of landscaping on their homes is a good place to look, though you have to stealthy and careful not to get seen.

[Village Idiot]

Originally Posted by JC Denton

Mycologists have only been semi-successful in cultivating morels in a lab setting. As for truffles, it's much more difficult.

Also, it's not called "picking". If we could just go into the woods in our backyard to pick some mushrooms, it wouldn't be called "hunting". The thrill of hunting mushrooms is just as much as that of hunting wild animals. It's one of the greatest traditions and past-times known to human culture.

Ever so often I think about living in Tibet to pick the mushrooms that grow from the head of dead caterpillars. Ten grand a pound at least.

[JC Denton]

Originally Posted by Village Idiot

Ever so often I think about living in Tibet to pick the mushrooms that grow from the head of dead caterpillars. Ten grand a pound at least.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/summer-pasture/

I've heard of much weirder things being use as aphrodisiacs in chinese medicine.