Morels

Do morels come up in the same spot every year? I had about a half dozen come up last spring in the backyard under a pine tree, but nothing yet. Last year was our first spring in the new house.

Morels are very unpredictable year to year. Some spots work year in and out but others are 1 year wonders. Basically morels are as unpredictable as women, but if you can read the tea leaves you still can score.

okay,I will give some hints for the help I have received here,but remember,this is in iowa,other states these places may not exist or the trees will be different.

I have had my best luck as mentioned around the faithful elm trees,red or white,and even the chinese elms.
but there are other areas that do as well,and sometimes better, a lot of it depends on the wind when the spore is released from the trees that carry it.

look in multiflora rose patches,under may apples just as they start to bloom,a few pine groves here have produced them very well.
another spot is where that spongy green moss grows,have found more morels with this present than other places.

dead oaks seem to produce more gray morels than yellows,but only for a year or so,then they are done around dead oak trees.
another place to look is in fence rows that have a lot of wild plum trees or bushes of sorts that are fairly crowded.

river beds and remote lake shores where not much traffic exists can be your biggest producing places as far as numbers go,best year was sixty pounds that took an hour to pick with three people hunting them on a reservoir near my home,but you had to take a boat to get where they were.

the experience around the family farm and other places that we get to hunt has shown that they dont come back in the exact same spot year to year,it really seems sporadic.
I have even found them several years after a tree stump had rotted completely away.

the last several years here,you have to work your butt off to find them,but in my opinion,its due to the amount of fungicides used here now on row crops.
I say this because you could always count on finding several pounds every year with little effort.
since the introduction of the fungicides and heavier use of it lately,the ability to find them has gotten a lot tougher around farm ground areas,especially in the fence rows and field edges that border timber.
but that is just my opinion on the fungicides.

my favorite ways to prepare them:tops is on homemade pizza!!! ( no egg wash is used here ) rolled in andy’s red breading and fried in coconut oil,on the grill plain,throw them in spaghetti, I can no longer stand them rolled in egg and crushed soda cracker or flour and fried in butter.

hope that helps the noob’s!! eating them is not the only addicting thing about them!!!!!

I have the next 4 days off I’m going to be hitting the woods hard. Will let you know how it goes

thewalleyechaser wrote:

I have the next 4 days off I’m going to be hitting the woods hard. Will let you know how it goes

You ba$*#&^! I’m jealous.

Was out all day today in the heat, managed to get about 8 pounds or so. Going to go out for a couple hours tomorrow morning to an area we pulled 5 pounds out of last year.

SE MN.

I’ll post some pictures when I get back home tomorrow.

Found a nice bunch of grays this past week here in Central WI, little bit of rain tonight and a 50 degree night should equal some more tomorrow afternoon.

Nic Barker wrote:

Found a nice bunch of grays this past week here in Central WI, little bit of rain tonight and a 50 degree night should equal some more tomorrow afternoon.

Define, “central”?

Looked around the woods yesterday and didn’t find any up on the north side of the state. Fiddle heads were just starting to pop up in a few spots.

Check out this jumbo morel

Massive Morel Found during Turkey Hunt

I remember when I found my first morels while I was fishing on the river last year….. Found a group of about 6-8 of them, I was excited because I had never found any before. Googled them and confirmed that they were morels because I had heard so many good things about them and how good they tasted. So After I picked them I thought to myself “I wonder what they taste like” (not knowing you’re supposed to cook them) so I took a little bite of one. BAD IDEA. My afternoon fishing trip was cut short by me needing to hit the nearest restroom ASAP. MOREL of the story, I found out you’re supposed to cook morels before you eat them otherwise you get a very upset stomach. I did cook them after though and they were really good. So if I find any this year, at least I know now that I need to cook them first!

I was out in Central MN on Sunday. It’s just way too dry to be growing mushrooms!! I did manage to get maybe a pound in 4 hours of searching….lots of dried up ones. We really need rain, bad.

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To walleyechaser, What makes false2 false the cap color?

gixxer01 wrote:

Do morels come up in the same spot every year? I had about a half dozen come up last spring in the backyard under a pine tree, but nothing yet. Last year was our first spring in the new house.

In I lived in Richfield for about 7 years in this house. One spring I found 3 behind the garage. I have no idea if there were any the previous springs we lived there, I wasn’t looking for them. The next year they were all over. A few behind the garage and dozens upon dozens in the adjacent neighbors yard. She lived there her whole life and that was the first time she noticed them. The next spring, the last spring we spent there, there were none and I looked all over.

Talking morels I was driving though a small town north of me and this guy had morels for sale. He was asking 30.00 a pound. Man you would have to love them to pay that much. Give me hen in the wood over morels any day.

jagermeister wrote:

To walleyechaser, What makes false2 false the cap color?

Those are false morels. They look pretty gross compaired to real ones. Not sure why they’re that color, if I’m understanding the question correctly.

Gary have you tried Morels? IMO they’re way better then hen of the woods. But yes $30/lb is pretty crazy. I love the satisfaction of harvesting and cookin them up myself. Man they’re delicious.

thewalleyechaser wrote:

Gary have you tried Morels? IMO they’re way better then hen of the woods. But yes $30/lb is pretty crazy. I love the satisfaction of harvesting and cookin them up myself. Man they’re delicious.

Yes I have, fry in butter with cracker, just don’t like them.

thewalleyechaser wrote:

Gary have you tried Morels? IMO they’re way better then hen of the woods. But yes $30/lb is pretty crazy. I love the satisfaction of harvesting and cookin them up myself. Man they’re delicious.

If $30/lb is crazy…I was at Bob’s Produce Ranch in Fridley today and they had them for $42.95/lb!! I have gotten them there before and bought a 1/4 pound, was a little over $9.00 for two nice servings. Us “cityiots” have to resort to this. Between work and other commitments and not having time and access to morel bounties, we have to pay the price. It’s worth it though, the window is small. No getting these 11 other month’s of the year and they are spectacular in taste, texture and the euphoria that fills your senses with a primal quenching. Yes, I’m crazy!

I was talking to my neighbor yesterday and out the corner of my eye I see these brown specks surrounding a fire pit that was surrounded by a well manicured lawn. Further inspection resulted in a 2 gallon bucket of morrels. Testement of morrels show up out of the blue. I’m guesing with the cool weather and rain the fire pit generated the heat to promote the right conditions for the spores with a half dead and rotted elm that was 20 ft away. Now that I think about it it must have been the heat from the fire pit because this elm was sitting in a well shaded large composting area and only found 2 morrels in the leaves and brush the rest were in the lawn.

Your probably right HL&S, it was way too chilly for a good crop down this way, everyone is saying the temps should have been 15 degrees warmer, they got a few but not a good crop.

Found a couple morels Saturday on my land in the south metro. The fact that 2 of my 5 trail cams were turned off with the SD card missing, leads me to believe there WERE more morels last week out there. I’m just thankful they left the cameras…