Mushroom Hunting

[Leigh Costello]

Every year we search for the elusive whopper morel. One year shortly after we moved to our new home, my nephew saw a "huge moldy thing." So he kicked it. I felt as if time had stopped and he was in fast forward. I hollered "stop" but it was too late. He had kicked and proceeded to stomp a whopper morel-12" tall. We have never seen one that size since and he still says, "remember that mushroom?" and I still say, with a crocodile tear in my eye, "yes, and (sniffle or two) it would have been so tasty too!" He lives in Broken Arrow, OK now. Maybe I will be able to taunt him with a picture or two of some morels this year!

[Darius Ferlas]

Where I come from people pick wild mushrooms every Fall. The time when mushrooms are picked is so rooted that it even has its own name in the language This is probably the biggest migration of people each year within the country, as some areas abound in some varieties, others don't. Millions of people pick literally tens of pounds per family. Some mushrooms are then dried, some are pickled.

There are specific kinds of wild mushrooms for various dishes, and some are quite expensive. I buy them in local ethnic stores here. I decided I won't pick mushrooms in North America. I wasn't born and raised here so I don't have the feel for the local plants and I don't know the local mushroom varieties It doesn't take much to get poisoned. Some lethal mushrooms may be very hard to distinguish by an untrained eye from some of the best ones.

A day's worth of picking

[Joe Chritz]

Looking for Morels is a time honored family tradition. Secret spots (mine included) are guarded closer than the recipe for original coca cola.

I happen to have in laws who love to look for them but don't eat many. A decent bag of mushrooms shows up every year to supplement my supply.

Joe

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Is anyone else interested in finding and eating wild mushrooms?

I take the morels in my yard but that's about it. As a kid I used to take off up Boy Mountain in Jefferson NH picking mushies. I'd most often get a species of Boleta (pores not gills) and fry that up with butter.

If so how was your luck? Did you find much?

These days the thing that puts me off it is the bugs. Ya gotta get purdy early in the morning to get there before the scads of bugs do.

[Jose Kilpatrick]

don't mean to be condiscending, but leaving part of the stem when picking a mushroom does not really help propigate the species. Some people even believe that tapping the cap of a mushroom before picking it causes it to release spores. The spores are dropped when pressure in the basdidia reaches a certain point and then the spores are carried away by the wind. Their size and weight relative to barometric pressure allow them to virutally suspend in the air. If mushrooms do grow in the same area each season, it's generally because of survival of the mycelium network under the ground. Though 1 mushroom can release billions of spores, and though it only takes two spores to come in contact and sporulate, the conditions for sporulation to take place have to be perfect, and the microcosm in which it happens either has to have the ideal symbiosis or sterility.
To ensure responsible hunting, it is best to leave a few mushrooms in the general area to complete the life cycle, and carry your find in a mesh bag to allow your spores to continue their journey as you walk through the woods. The method of survival of mushroom species depends on their fruit being picked and eaten to provide a method of mobility for their spores. Some mushroom spores can even survive ingestion and excretion by bovine animals where they later sporulate in manure in symbiosis with a bacteria referred to as firefang.
Though I doubt humans could impact fungi on a global scale to the point of scarcity, the fact still remains that without fungi, this world could not support plant life.

[Westley Rosenbaum]

A guy I work with just introduced me to Morels last year. He gave me a couple and on the same day we even went out into the woods during lunch at the jobsite we were working on at the time, and found more there. They were delicious cooked in butter. I hear they are usually found around dead Elm trees? Anyone know if that's a good starting point? He also said a good time to start hunting is around Mother's Day. I'm in Southeastern Wisconsin, anyone else find that to be a good estimated time?

[David G Baker]

I have heard the Elm tree thing as well. I have several dead Elm trees and have never found any morels around them. The time for morels vary with the weather and vary from area to area. I always ask the experts when I think the time is getting close or I walk through the area where they generally grow on my 5 acres. I have heard that they don't grow under pine trees but that is where I find most of mine. I don't get too many on my place, around 50 is a good find for me.

[Jon Grider]

I'm a frustrated morel hunter. If I get ten shrooms, my coworker will get fifty or a hundred. He just has an eye for them. He claims they grow under dead Elm trees[killed from Dutch Elm Disease] and old apple orchards but I've never found those two areas to be 'sweet spots'.

[Wyatt Holm]

I think it might be where I live, but I haven't found hardly any mushrooms. I think I will have the best chance with shaggy manes and blewits.

[Fred Belknap]

morel.JPG Some I found last spring.