no turkey today, but I did find something to eat

[wabi]

[Grizzly Adam]

Ah, Wabi ... good find, buddy.

Yes, indeed. Morel mushrooms ... yellow and gray sponge.

I've picked many'a'one.

Mmm, mmm, good!

Love 'em with a mess of bluegill.

[JRS]

Finding a feed of morels is almost as good as getting a turkey.

[tuskntine]

I hear you can get good money for them too. Nice way to offset cost of hunting. All we have down here in S. Ga. is the cow pasture variety , lol .

[ecoaster]

Good hunting! I had seen you guys post about them before and wondered what all the hype was about so we did find some last spring and tried them. They were good, but not really worth the effort. Guess that is more for you guys.

[dick195252]

Looks Good

[Fox]

Add that to a turkey dinner, mmm

[DrDan]

Yup, my girlfriend went out today and spent the morning on her knees crawling around the woods. Came back with a nice sack full!

Mmmmm Good!

DrDan

[bbbwb]

That is a sure sign of spring and a tasty treat for sure.
Enjoy!!!!
bbbwb

[Wayne B]

Wabi, What kind of habitat do you normally find these in?( Hardwoods, pasture etc ) Do they like a certain type of soil?

[Rich]

Wayne,

I just read the same question on another forum and the overwelming answer was in an old apple orchad. I cannot vouche for that since I have never seen a morel mushroom in the wild.

Rich

[awshucks]

Wabi, What kind of habitat do you normally find these in?( Hardwoods, pasture etc ) Do they like a certain type of soil?

In Illinois, you look for dead elms. Due to "Dutch Elm Disease", not much of a problem. I "planted" [5/16" impregnated wood dowels] 4 kinds here in Ar. Shiitake, oyster, hen of the woods and chicken mushrooms in living logs for the first two and dead wood/stumps for the latter Only the shiitake and oyster fruited, but did find a 7 3/4 lb chicken mushroom on neighbors property a few years ago. I stole it. The best book I've ever come across on shrooms is the Audabons Field Guide to Mushrooms, nearly fool proof on identity.

Edited to add: neighbor doesn't eat shrooms that don't come out of a can.

[wabi]

Wabi, What kind of habitat do you normally find these in?( Hardwoods, pasture etc ) Do they like a certain type of soil?

I found these along a small wet weather stream through hardwoods. Very rich - moist soil on low ground with a fair amount of dead & rotting fallen limbs & logs. Plenty of dead red elms in that same stand of timber, but I didn't find any right under them.
Had steak & morels this evening, and it will probably inspire me to look for more tomorrow evening.

awshucks - my wife refuses to eat canned mushrooms! She wants me to try dehydrating morels and I may give it a try if I can find enough. They usually end up in my digestive track as fast as I can get them fried.

bstout - I always soak them overnight in saltwater. I coated these with a mix of flour/salt/pepper and fried them in the cast iron skillet in plenty of real butter! Even my "picky-eater" son put away a fair share of them.
I may try some of the trout I've been catching with fresh morels soon (both fried the same way - coat them with seasoned flour and then subject them to the cast iron & hot butter treatment.

[Grizzly Adam]

Some of my biggest morel hauls have come from confiscating bag-fulls from trespassers!

Done that with ginseng poachers too.

Just a little friendly "Grizz-talk" was all it took.

I like to ease 'em out of the woods nice and peaceful like. Tresspassers, that is.

I don't usually get into it with shrooms and 'sang anyway.

[R.J.]

The ever resourcefull wabi ! ... some tasty treats there !