Morels

[44man]

They have not been coming fast. But maybe I learned a few things about the crazy things. All the spots where I used to find them, except one, have had zero this year. The ground seems too dry even with recent rain.
Where I do find them the ground is damp under trees in some shade or where the sun has not dried the ground.
They also seem to move a little year to year. If they move into a dry spot they don't come up.
Black ones take cold better and are first with a small brown one now and then. The brown ones need more ground heat.
They come up over night and never get larger, I find some, I go back the next day and find a few more. If I leave a small one it just dries out.
So far we have found about 230 of them and dehydrated most. Tried some with eggs but the eggs kind of over power the flavor. They taste better if dried and brought back with milk, milk and water, plain water not as good. Use the liquid in the recipe, never waste it.
They make the best squirrel with wine!
If anyone can add anything I will be happy.

[VA Shooter]

DO you mean Morels? If so I have found trash bags of them here in Virginia. My favorite spots are cedar thickets and overgrown apple orchards. This is the best year I have had in a long time

[KCSO]

I have found the country sadly lacking in both herebouts. After last years drought and no rain so far this year i doubt we will have any Morels or morals left.

[ole 5 hole group]

By the sound of it - I think he meant morel mushrooms and they probably would go good with squirrel but sometimes I think Jim probably drinks too much wine with Squirrel.:p

[300winmag]

I think you will find more morels in the wild than you will find morals in today's generation of people.
Good luck 44man on your quest of mushroom hunting, haven't found many here yet either.
300

[44man]

:coffee: Yeah, hit the wrong key!
I bet you thought I wanted to know how good you all are.
I don't know if I can correct the title.

[44man]

After walking miles I don't have many morals left either. I can't wait for my stout to settle and get kegged.

[300winmag]

Its OK we are not the spell police, we know what you were referring to.

[sparkz]

Man Sean and I went out and looked for 6 hours where I have known to see find them in past years and its not from from our house on our lands and Nut-in-honey
Morels AKA, Dry Land Fish as the locals call them here are not to be found at all maybe i am too late or early but Sean and i hope to look for other known roots (hes trying to collect for cash to save to buy his Own Shotgun) Kids really working too saves every penny and I told him I would even Buy the mushrooms from him, so hes lookin but I fear maybe as i say we are late here in Eastern Kentucky mountians,, but weathers right...


We shall see Ain't over till it's over!!!!!!!!



Patrick & Mushroom-less Sean Campbell

May have to switch to Ramp's / Rams,, haha


Hey 44Mag, want part with a few dryed or whatever we can beg for?

let me know,, as we have nut-in........

[Alvarez Kelly]

I have found exactly 1, yes... that's a 1, morel mushroom so far this year. :-(

[Marvin S]

So what kind of gun and loads are preferred for hunting these things? On a serious note i have found it to be an average year here with the small greys comming first and and larger yellow after. I have been picking them for a little over a week.

[historicfirearms]

We just got back from our first morel hunt this year. Found 11 from our favorite spot.

[jcwit]

Here in No. Indiana we can buy Morels all summer long for $30 to $35 bucks a lb. Sure beats an old crippled man from trying to tramp around in the woods, then having to phone EMS to get me out.

[runfiverun]

I gotta move somewhere where food just pops up everywhere and there is water or something.

[tomme boy]

Dead Elm trees are what we look for around here. They are always around these. I have not been out for about 3 years. Last time I went, a tree limb broke and hit me in the eye. Took me two years to be able to see right out of it.

[44man]

Ramps! Back in Ohio I picked them all the time but there are none here at all.
I bought seeds, followed instructions and worked at it. It takes two years for seeds to sprout but I never got a single one.
There are no birds here to hunt, Quail all died in a deep snow long ago, pheasants are gone, no grouse and even rabbits are hard to find.
We have gray squirrels and deer. There is no need at all to own a shotgun.
We have some turkey but only a spring gobbler season, I just never got into hunting them.
The morels I found and dried only amounted to 6 oz, Carol gave the neighbor a small bag of fresh ones but if they were dried and added, I would not reach 8 oz.
Now it is too dry again, the ground here just sucks water and I can drive on the grass in a rain storm.
Back in Ohio, if you got off the driveway, you would sink to the axles in the clay.

[oldarkie]

picked a nice mess two days ago,then went out that night and caught 15 slab crappie ,if i go today ill need a snow shovel.

[Philngruvy]

Ramps!

Yes!!! The ramps are up here in the mountains and man are they good!

[jcwit]

Ramps! Back in Ohio I picked them all the time but there are none here at all.
I bought seeds, followed instructions and worked at it. It takes two years for seeds to sprout but I never got a single one.
There are no birds here to hunt, Quail all died in a deep snow long ago, pheasants are gone, no grouse and even rabbits are hard to find.
We have gray squirrels and deer. There is no need at all to own a shotgun.
We have some turkey but only a spring gobbler season, I just never got into hunting them.
The morels I found and dried only amounted to 6 oz, Carol gave the neighbor a small bag of fresh ones but if they were dried and added, I would not reach 8 oz.
Now it is too dry again, the ground here just sucks water and I can drive on the grass in a rain storm.
Back in Ohio, if you got off the driveway, you would sink to the axles in the clay.

Where pray tell is "here".

[44man]

Where pray tell is "here".
I live near Harpers Ferry, WV.

[Dean D.]

I fixed the title for ya, it might attract more comments that way.

I sure wish I could find a good Morel patch around here. They are few and far between and very fleeting when they do pop out.

Good luck on your hunt!

[44man]

Crappie and bluegills, then ramps. OH my!
I caught millions of perch, blue pike and walleyes from lake Erie, bluegills and crappie from lakes and rivers. Catfish too. Bass would be let go. I never got a taste for bass unless small but I felt it not right to keep them.
Lake Erie was a cesspool back then but I am none the worse for eating the fish.
Another thing I miss are the fox squirrels.
Then shooting carp and gar with bows. Thousands of pounds of carp, never figured how to eat them.
A friend gave a 30# carp to a black man we worked with. He said he had an old woman that would cook it. He brought some of the fish to work and we all tried it. IT WAS ASTOUNDINGLY GOOD. She would not disclose how to cook it. A loss I never will forget.
You guys bring back memories.

[Kull]

Mom hunted Morels and so do I. I wish I had finding the things down to a science but I don't. I have one good spot that when it produces I find way more than I need. Large area full of Cottonwood trees that's always shaded, just above flood plane near a river and a lake. Ground is always covered with a thick later of leaf mulch. Rather convenient actually since it's right near my favorite fishing spot. This year there's been hardly any rain since things thawed out and I haven't found any yet.

[quilbilly]

Never found any good morel spots around here so always went to Eastern Washington then yesterday while I was mowing, there it was in the lawn - a morel. Just another reason I like this place.

[sparkz]

Hey 44Man, Say the word and Il ask Sean to find, Dig and il send ya some Ramps for replant near you so ya can at least have some

Patrick

Long Live the Ramps "at your House" lol

[44man]

That would be wonderful. I will pay postage. PM me.

[44man]

I fixed the title for ya, it might attract more comments that way.

I sure wish I could find a good Morel patch around here. They are few and far between and very fleeting when they do pop out.

Good luck on your hunt!
Thank you so much.

[jcwit]

I live near Harpers Ferry, WV.

Been through that area many many times, one would think that would be ideal for rooms.

[FredBuddy]

First time in my life - 65 - found a big mess the other day. In the past, one or two now and again. Called my mom - 99 - to brag. She told me to throw 'em away, and never pick another! Saute'd em in real butter, served 'em with a cheap steak, the wife and I polished 'em off. Yesterday, called MaBuddy and told her we weren't dead.

[Iowa Fox]

Ramps! Back in Ohio I picked them all the time but there are none here at all.
I bought seeds, followed instructions and worked at it. It takes two years for seeds to sprout but I never got a single one.
There are no birds here to hunt, Quail all died in a deep snow long ago, pheasants are gone, no grouse and even rabbits are hard to find.
We have gray squirrels and deer. There is no need at all to own a shotgun.
We have some turkey but only a spring gobbler season, I just never got into hunting them.
The morels I found and dried only amounted to 6 oz, Carol gave the neighbor a small bag of fresh ones but if they were dried and added, I would not reach 8 oz.
Now it is too dry again, the ground here just sucks water and I can drive on the grass in a rain storm.
Back in Ohio, if you got off the driveway, you would sink to the axles in the clay.

Sounds just like here, Iowa. Never imagined I would see the end of the pheasant but they are headed for extinction in these parts.

[xacex]

Getin dry here in Oregon early. I need to head to the hills. The hot weather has got them up, and drying by now. I love those pine cone mushrooms! We get a ton of calves brains here too. I don't eat them, but there is someone harvesting them. The poison is said to be cooked out(used in rocket fuel), but I don't need a mushroom that bad.

[10x]

Used to pick Morels as a kid. There were years I could pick 5 gallon pails, and other years I couldn't find a single mushroom. Conditions had to be just right.
My mother made cream of mushroom soup with the fresh ones, they were great fried and on steak, or with liver and onions. We even dried them.
A couple of morels in a soup or stew added a very pleasant flavour.

And then in 1991 or so a lady brought me a 5 gallon pail of morals and I put them on the food dehydrator after slicing them in half. They have a different, very pungent smell. A smell that filled the house for the 3 days they dried. I had to give them away as I almost gag at the smell and find the flavour to not be to my taste. The folks I gave them to loved them. But I haven't been able to eat one since. Strange how that works...
I used to love cream of morel soup when I was young...

[theperfessor]

Filet the carp, then cut the mud vein out of the center of each filet. That's where the nasty taste is. You end up with four strips of nice white meat from each fish that way. Pop always soaked the filets in salt water for a while before cooking or freezing them.

[41 mag fan]

mmmmm....morels with a good mess of crappie!!!
I've got a spot, which this year I couldn't hunt due to knee surgery last Dec, then the complication of a torn ACL now, but when the conditions are right, like this year, (go figure...my luck) this woods will produce 500+ daily.
Most we found at one time was 1100 a couple years ago. I think before it was all said and done, me and the wife had close to 3500 for that year.
Last year not one mushroom there, due to being too dry. This year I bet they was up like normal. Dang my luck

[theperfessor]

Can't swear about the morels here in SW Indiana, but all kinds of other fungi are growing like crazy right now. We had two large maple trees cut out of our front yard last year, and we opted to have them finish up with a stump grinder. (These trees were 36"+ in diameter.) Now that it's gotten warm and wet there is mutant ninja fungus all over the front yard. But no morels.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

well, it's just getting warm here in MN (above 70º). The grass is just turning green. scattered rain today and tomorrow. I'm thinking this weekend I'll be going for a walk in a secluded woods.
Wish me luck,
Jon

[Kull]

We've had light rain for the last few days. Checked my spot yesterday and conditions look right but none yet. Morels make the best beef stroganoff ever.