Anyone else hunting morels this season?

Spring is here and the mushrooms are up.

Anyone else out and picking???

GDViking said:

Spring is here and the mushrooms are up.

Anyone else out and picking???

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I live in a big city. The only mushroom picking we do here is between baskets at the market.

But a question to you. I grew up warned to beware of poisonous mushrooms in the wild. How do you know, in your picking, which mushrooms are safe to eat?

Morels are one of the easier mushrooms to identify. I've never found very many. I don't think I'm very good at it. People that are sell them around here for 40-50 dollars a pound when they're in season.

GDViking said:

Spring is here and the mushrooms are up.

Anyone else out and picking???

Click to expand...

I'm assuming they grow in specific conditions, only in certain areas? I live not far from Kennett Square PA, the so called "mushroom capital of the world", due to the large number of mushroom houses and the ever present scent of manure based mushroom soil, where common white mushrooms are grown in pitch darkness, under specific temperatures and in specially mixed, specially treated and aged soil(which must be removed and gotten rid of after just 1 planting).

I've stumbled upon wild Boletus mushrooms in forests and even shaded lawns around here. Someof which are edible and very popular(porcini). But the ones I've found are bright red on top and bright yellow underneath, with bright yellow stems that bruise very easily. The problem is that there are at least 2 boletus varieties that look like that, and although 1 is edible and supposedly tasty, I don't think the other(s) are!

I've also found red and yellow amanita muscaria.

GDViking said:

Spring is here and the mushrooms are up.

Anyone else out and picking???

Click to expand...

Not hunting but a couple mushroom stories...

I used to say I had a mushroom job - they kept me in the dark, fed me bull****, and eventually canned me.

When I was a kid, Dad gathered morels. He'd wash them, split them lengthwise, flour them and fry them. He tried and tried to get me to taste them but I wasn't going to eat those nasty-looking things. When he finally convinced me, he regretted it - I'd stand by the stove and eat them as soon as they came out of the pan.

There's a youtube woodsman guy filming himself walking in the woods, if you note a place and time in his vid where you spot any, he'll retrace his steps and pick them for you if you're right. It popped up in my recommendations. Morel mayhem/madness was something like the title.

Fried pumpkin blossoms taste a lot like morels - not quite as good but close.

CHuDWah said:

Fried pumpkin blossoms taste a lot like morels - not quite as good but close.

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Really? Fried pumpkin blossoms? Are you talking about the pumpkin plant's open flower, or unopened bud?

ModerationNow! said:

Really? Fried pumpkin blossoms? Are you talking about the pumpkin plant's open flower, or unopened bud?

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The open flower - google for recipes

Angel said:

I live in a big city. The only mushroom picking we do here is between baskets at the market.

But a question to you. I grew up warned to beware of poisonous mushrooms in the wild. How do you know, in your picking, which mushrooms are safe to eat?

Click to expand...

Actually very few mushrooms are poisonous, however everyone reacts differently, I know people that get ill from morels. There are some mushrooms that are perfectly edible unless mixed with alcohol, and it only takes a little even as much as a week before or after the mushrooms are ingested.

Morels are a very safe mushroom as even the false morel is easy to tell apart.

Morels only appear in the spring and only for a short period of time.

Until you have had fresh sauted morels on a good rare stake, you have not lived.

That was our supper last night...

GDViking said:

Actually very few mushrooms are poisonous, however everyone reacts differently, I know people that get ill from morels. There are some mushrooms that are perfectly edible unless mixed with alcohol, and it only takes a little even as much as a week before or after the mushrooms are ingested.

Morels are a very safe mushroom as even the false morel is easy to tell apart.

Morels only appear in the spring and only for a short period of time.

Until you have had fresh sauted morels on a good rare stake, you have not lived.

That was our supper last night...

Click to expand...

That sounds intriguing.... What's the flavor and consistency of a sautéed morel?

I'd love to go hunting for morels, but don't know a thing about them and better take someone along who knows their stuff. But either way, it is the excitement and anticipation, not to mention to be out and about. It is like fishing, just sitting there, being outside, catching something is optional.