Finding and identifying morels

Anyone getting any?

Early here, but think i will look tomorrow. should be able to find some poke

We just checked for poke and ours isn't up yet. No morels yet either and I think it's late for them here now. Our son says to look after the first warm rain and I don't think we've had that yet...he used to find bags full in the National Forest near here. My eyesite is geting bad enough that I am looking forward to finding summer (orange) chanterelles instead!

How do you tell the difference between true morels that are safe to cook/eat and the false morels that will make you sick...?

true morels have the bottom edge of the caps attached directly to the stem so you can not look in under the cap . falses are attached at the top of the stem inside of the cap.

The false are usually red here, here too.

It was a good year, here

Still finding them.

Wow! that is a wonderful harvest! Are you drying them? A friend of ours cans them.
We didn't get out to look this year and haven't heard if it was a good year here or not.

Yea, i dehydrate whate i dont use myself or share.

Canning is something i hadnt heard, but makes sense!

getting quite warm in town but the mountain still has snow that i can see from the river so im thinking ill go check again next weekend where there were fires last year, last time i wnet up there i saw a lot of mycelial mats near all the snow banks so i am hopeful i will find something
currently eating some Coprinus Micaceus that fruited like mad around a stump in the front yard today

Someone asked about false morels. i found these in a yard where i am builfing a shop. the cap is not attatched to the stock. once you see both, there is no comparrison.

mick mclaughlin wrote:Anyone getting any?

Early here, but think i will look tomorrow. should be able to find some poke

My guy found some but won't tell me the location! Lol. The stinker. I hear they are shipped to the cities and bring in some nice cash.

My yard once had thousands of morels in it, when it was a "new yard" back in the early 1900s. When I got it, it had Six morels growing in the apple orchard. Morels occasionally popped up in the woods, but not many.
I decided to study the Six Morels. I noticed they fall over sideways (east to west) on the mountain. I read somewhere that morels spread in a band horizontally, so this must be why....maybe the sun dries out one side of the stalk. It took 25 years to grow 60 mushrooms, which were wiped out overnight by my father driving over them. They never grew back.
It appears they need super soft soil, and my soil is "tilled" b y rare, endangered shrews that make the dirt soft, like moles. They are not moles and do not eat any garden vegetables, only the insects that bother your garden.
Enough said: I am afraid that people are picking the mushrooms towards extinction in the same way they dug ginseng to near extinction. I have seen 2 ginseng plants in 25 years on my place, which is the heart of ginseng digging country.
Morels spread so slowly that you should pick one and leave 11 of them. I checked my orchard after the first warm rain this spring, and yes, they are gone. I have not seen ONE up there in ten years. They are gone, gone, gone.

I have read and stydied and watcged, and i cant figure them out. i have tried leavubg morels, only to never see them again. i have harvested everyone, to see more next year. This was a great year, maybe the best i have seen, but who knows?

Oh, and all moles are carnivores, as i believe are shrews, although we dont have shrews. gophers are another question.

mick mclaughlin wrote:Someone asked about false morels. i found these in a yard where i am builfing a shop. the cap is not attatched to the stock. once you see both, there is no comparrison.

though it seems you are well aware these are not morels, i once thought that some similar mushrooms may have been last summer, and upon looking it up ive found that the one i found and the ones in your picture are actually stinkhorns, technically edible but definitely not choice from my understanding

Bump


It's that time of year again...who's after it?

I'm in Southern Indiana near a Morel Festival http://www.morelfestival.com/

...so I guess it's quite a thing around here. I've still never harvested one, so I'm going to try this year. I attended a discussion about morels at a winter market in Bloomington, IN a few weeks ago.

A few points I recall:

*Oaks are a poor indicator for morels

*Poplars are a good indicator for morels

*Ashes are a good indicator for morels

*Cottonwood, Aspen, Elm & Crabapples are also all good indicator trees

Here is a clip from Mother Earth News:

White morels, which appear later than the blacks, have a more diverse range of habitats. Forests, fields, orchards, fence rows, hedgerows, islands, railroad tracks, floodplain's and grown-over strip mines are just some of the places the white and giant morels can be found. Unlike the blacks, the whites sometimes tend to congregate around certain types of tree usually ones that are in some stage of dying. Elm, ash, sycamore, cottonwood. Bigger, older trees. As the trees die the root systems break down and are desirable and readily available food sources for morels. This availability of nutrients may allow the growth cycle to advance, shortening the five-year cycle. Good results occasionally can be found in consecutive years in the same location.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/guide-to-hunting-for-morel-mushrooms-zmaz02amzgoe.aspx#ixzz2z4EyVEtd

mick mclaughlin wrote:Someone asked about false morels. i found these in a yard where i am builfing a shop. the cap is not attatched to the stock. once you see both, there is no comparrison.

some of those could well be morels. can't tell since they're in the mud. half free morels are not choice, but none of those are 'false morels' which are Gyromitra esculenta. Half free morels are indeed not attached to the stalk at the base of the cap, hence the latin name Morchella semilibera .

The three on the left side of your last pic could possibly be half free morels, but i'm not sure, and at least around here taste very similar to true morels. If I can't positively identify a mushroom then it stays where it is.

unless there is another picture that my computer is not showing, the last pic is all stinkhorn mushrooms to the best of my knowledge, i am as certain as i can be from one picture over the internet
i apologize for possibly coming across snobby with that comment, i dont mean to, but i am certain they are not morels or false morels, and ive spent a few hours one afternoon identifying a stinkhorn a couple years back, being one of my first indentified mushrooms i find the experience and the result hard to forget and i'd hate to watch everyone get their hopes up that it may be a morel or something close to it, but alas it is is not:(

Yep, I learned shortly after posting that pic, that those are stinkhorns.

technically an edible shroom, I have been told, but you would have to be 36 hours hungry to eat them I would think.

Regardless, when it comes to morels, they are hard to confuse, but go with someone who knows what they are looking for the first time.

It takes a practiced eye to find them.

Morels in Minnesota now, although probably done after the heat we got this weekend(80 F and sun)
I've always gotten them from our property, but never in the same spot yet, this year I got about a pound right on the edge of our lawn under silver maple trees which isn't typical from what I've read.
Man o man are they tasty.

You can not confuse a stinkhorn with a morel because:
1: they really do stink
2: they fruit at the wrong time of year (fall).

My husband found 1 lb on our property last night and I'm cooking them right now:


More proof for my theory that all men are really 12 years old (all women are 16 - that accounts for some male/female issues):

Also, about false morels. They are easy to distinguish when you cut them open. A morel is hollow and a false morel is chambered.
Morel=hollow:

False morel≠hollow (aka chambered)


Also they've got a kind of scrunchy look to 'em.

Excellent explanation, CJ, including pictorial.
John S
PDX OR

HI everyone! My partner and I are new to this forum. In the past we posted in a forum on a different mushroom website. We are both very positive people who share a passion for mushrooms and wild edibles. The other forum was full of negativity. This forum seems much friendlier so we are hoping we fit in better here!

We have started a Youtube channel dedicated to our passion for mushrooms and want to spread the mushroom love! in the first few videos we give tips on finding morels. We don't claim to be experts but we are certified in identifying a variety of mushrooms, including morels. Please check out our video and subscribe if you like it! Also, feel free to leave comments! Thanks!