Hit the morel mushroom motherlode at a secret location on our property in the north this weekend. These are the best mushrooms I have ever tasted. We will eat some of these and give the rest to friends and family. Collected a couple hundred dollars worth in about an hour!

Wow, that's a lot of fungi. I always thought a mushroom hunt would be cool, given the right area and climate where you could actually find a variety. Cool shot. How do these differ in taste from other mushrooms?

Whoa, didn't know you did shrooms.

I love those things. Haven't had any in a couple years.

I'm a mushroom guy, but damn these look gross. they must tast f*cking great!!! what kind are these?

That'd be one hell of a trip.

It is kind of hard to explain taste... But morels to me have a rich, creamy, and nutty flavor, and best served by just sauteing them with some butter. They are super tender - not rubbery.

Here is a description from an NPR piece: "Morels fairly explode with complex flavor, with woodsy, earthy, mysterious notes. They taste like nothing else on Earth; they're in a class with truffles and caviar."

Some quotes from other sources that I would have to agree with:

"It’s been said that there is something almost cruelly tantalizing about morels. No other mushroom in the world, save perhaps the white truffle of northern Italy, offers quite the degree of flavor and fragrance of a fresh morel. The taste of morels is exquisite and indeed addictive."

"Morel Mushrooms are one of the best tasting foods on our planet. The taste is so unique it cannot be compared to any other food I have ever had the luck to eat. The fact that they taste so good and are rather hard to come by makes them food fit for the Gods."

It is so cool to find these on our own property (its a couple hundred acres of woods). They come up in the same place each year. We collect them in mesh bags so that the spores can fall out and spread the goodness. Also, we are careful to cut the mushrooms off, leaving the roots. I am having a great time teasing my sister by not telling her where in the woods they are, though I do generously share the bounty with her.

You own a couple hundred acres of property

Fungi do not have roots. Nice collection there though...makin' me hungry

I think he means the mycelium, which would stay in the ground and grow new shrooms. The tubes can look like roots.

WOW! That is a LOT of shrooms! Another added goodie is that Morels will sop up a lot of butter sauce :-9 Thanks for sharing the photo--Lucky You!

That is an amazing haul! I've always wanted to try some morels.

holy fuck, mushrooms are gross...the first human being to eat mushrooms must've been really hungry.

still, they're soooo good.

Thanks for pointing out my error. I learned a new word, which is always good.

What I meant to say is that we cut the shrooms off, leaving a part of the shaft visible in the ground, rather than just ripping them out of the ground.

If you can believe Wikipedia:

"Mycelium (plural mycelia) is the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. The mass of hyphae is sometimes called shiro, especially within the fairy ring fungi. Fungal colonies composed of mycelia are found in soil and on or in many other substrates. Typically a single spore germinates into a monokaryotic mycelium which cannot reproduce sexually; when two compatible monokaryotic mycelia join and form a dikaryotic mycelium, that mycelium may form fruiting bodies such as mushrooms. A mycelium may be minute, forming a colony that is too small to see, or it may be extensive:
Is this the largest organism in the world? This 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) site in eastern Oregon had a contiguous growth of mycelium before logging roads cut through it. Estimated at 1,665 football fields in size and 2,200 years old, this one fungus has killed the forest above it several times over, and in so doing has built deeper soil layers that allow the growth of ever-larger stands of trees. Mushroom-forming forest fungi are unique in that their mycelial mats can achieve such massive proportions.
—Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running
It is through the mycelium that a fungus absorbs nutrients from its environment. It does this in a two stage process. Firstly the hyphae secrete enzymes onto the food source, which breaks down polymers into monomers. These monomers are then absorbed into the mycelium by facilitated diffusion and active transport.
Mycelium is vital in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems for its role in the decomposition of plant material. It contributes to the organic fraction of soil and its growth releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. The mycelium of mycorrhizal fungi increases the efficiency of water and nutrient absorption of most plants and confers resistance to some plant pathogens. Mycelium is an important food source for many soil invertebrates.
Sclerotia are compact or hard masses of mycelium."

I can verify that the part about the largest living organism being a fungus in Oregon is correct. Very interesting area of Oregon - near John Day Fossil Beds and the Painted Hills.

Hey Geo,

I was reading this book recently that had some stories about picking Morel mushrooms and how I guess there's another type of Mushroom that looks just like a Morel that's actually poisonous (actually I think Morel's are toxic until they are cooked). Do you know the difference? Just curious 'cause they didn't really talk about the difference in appearance or anything. Oh and lucky you to have that patch on your property.

_Ethan

Well, I am certainly not a mushroom expert, but I have been told that for morels you need to make sure that the stem of the mushroom does not go up inside the cap (i.e., no seam between the stem and cap, like the ones in my photo)... There are two different kinds of edible morels - the ones in the photo and then in a couple of weeks some larger ones come up that are shaped slightly differently and are lighter in color - these later ones get huge - up to 5 or 6 inches tall - but in my opinion they don't taste quite as good as the earlier "black" morels and don't have such a nice tender texture. Again, I don't really know what I am talking about - I just eat em!

And we are very, very lucky to have the property. It is my favorite place in the world. It is entirely wooded, and includes a half mile of beach on Lake Michigan - with no other people usually to be seen. Heaven. Last weekend, we tried out an "animal camera" that triggers by itself if something walks by. We caught some curious deer in just a couple of days, going back and forth. Next we are going to set it up near what we think are fox holes and see if we can get a shot of them. Would be cool to get the black bear or coyote too, but they are very elusive.

The non-edible variety are known as "False-Morels". One of the easiest ways to tell the difference is by cutting them in half length wise. Good morels are hollow while the non edible variety are solid.

I grew up eating these and have great memories of picking them with my father. A spring day in the great outdoors picking morels, and fiddle heads!

oh fiddle heads...now you're talking...yummy!
the taste of summer for sure...

Ok... looked up fiddleheads (don't think I have had these):

Fiddlehead ferns refers to the unfurled fronds of a young fern harvested for food consumption. The fiddlehead, or circinate vernation, unrolls as the fern matures and grows due to more growth in the inside of the curl. Fiddleheads are usually located by the bottom of a fern plant.

The fiddlehead resembles the curled ornamentation (called a scroll) on the end of a stringed instrument, such as a fiddle. It is also called a crozier, after the curved staff used by bishops, which has its origins in the shepherd's crook.

The fiddleheads of certain ferns are eaten as a cooked leaf vegetable; they must be cooked first to remove shikimic acid. The most popular of these are:

Bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, found worldwide
Ostrich fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris, found in northern regions worldwide, and the central/eastern part of North America
Cinnamon fern or buckhorn fern, Osmunda cinnamomea, found in the Eastern parts of North America
Royal fern, Osmunda regalis, found worldwide
Zenmai or flowering fern, Osmunda japonica, found in East Asia
Vegetable fern, Athyrium esculentum, found throughout Asia and Oceania

Fiddleheads' ornamental value makes them very expensive in the temperate regions where they are not abundant.

Though available regionally in some supermarkets and restaurants, fiddleheads aren't cultivated and are available only seasonally. In rural areas, fiddleheads are harvested by individuals in early spring. When picking fiddleheads, three tops per plant is the recommended harvest. Each plant produces seven tops that turn into fronds; over-picking will kill the plant. Maintaining sustainable harvesting methods is important in the propagation of any non-farmed food species.

Ostrich ferns are also known as fiddlehead ferns. Fiddleheads are a traditional dish of New England in the United States, and of Quebec and the Maritimes in Canada. The Canadian village of Tide Head, New Brunswick, bills itself as the Fiddlehead Capital of the World.

When cooking fiddleheads, first remove all the yellow/brown skin, then boil the sprouts twice with a change of water between boilings. Removing the water reduces the bitterness and the content of tannins and toxins. The Center for Disease Control associated a number of food-borne illness cases with fiddleheads in the early nineties. Although they did not identify a toxin in the fiddleheads, the findings of that case suggest fiddleheads should be cooked thoroughly before eating. The cooking time recommended by health authorities is ten minutes if boiled and twenty if steamed. The cooking method recommended by gourmets is to spread a thin layer in a steam basket and steam lightly, just until tender crisp.

Fiddleheads are available in the market for only a few weeks in springtime, and are fairly expensive. Pickled and frozen fiddleheads, however, can be found in some shops year-round.

Some ferns contain carcinogens, and Bracken has been implicated in stomach cancer. Despite this, most people can eat ostrich and cinnamon fern fiddleheads without any problems.
In 1994, there were several instances of food poisoning associated with raw or lightly cooked fiddleheads in New York state and Western Canada. No definitive source of the food poisoning was identified, and authorities recommended thorough cooking of fiddlehead ferns to counteract any possible unidentified toxins in the plant.

Many ferns also contain the enzyme thiaminase, which breaks down thiamine. This can lead to beriberi and other vitamin B complex deficiencies if consumed to excess or if one's diet is lacking in these vitamins.

they definitely need to be prepared properly, that's for sure.

i have friends that pick them, but you can usually get them in the markets and they're on most local menus for restaurants that specialize in local offerings here.

the article is correct though, they're only available for about two weeks a year in this area and that does make for expensive eating.

Here is what Wikpedia says (I think it says the same thing I was trying to say about how the cap is attached):

"The early false morels can be told apart from the true morels by careful study of how the cap is attached to the stalk. The edge of true morels' (morchella) caps are intergrown with the stalk, but early morels' (verpas) caps hang over like a thimble, for which they are sometimes referred to as "thimble morel".

Cap: the cap of false morels is wrinkled and irregular, bell shaped or cone shaped, attached only at apex (top) of cap not like true morels which have caps that are attached at the bottom, the color yellow brown to olive yellow or tan, darkens with age."

Here's a quick video from a site I visit sometimes showing the false versus the real morels, and preparation and cooking. Prepare to get hungry watching it.

http://www.mynorth.com/My-North/May-200 ... o-Kitchen/