About time for Morels, Hickory chickens, Molly Moochers.

[smoooth]

I love eating a variety of wild fungi but have never acquired much of a taste for morels. Blasphemy you say? Well, I just don't understand all the hype? There are many other species I greatly prefer, but to each, their own. I do enjoy hunting for them, though, much like hunting for shed antlers!
Don't forget to grab those Pheasant Backs, they are delicious!

Saute' Morels in butter with minced garlic is how I prepare them, and many other species.

Also, save your morel rinse water, it contains millions of spores! Pour it in areas where morels might grow, shaded sandy/gravel soils around your home or yard. You may get lucky and have them popping up in a year or two.

Those Shaggy Manes look tasty!!

 

[Tommie]

For morels, I soak in salt water shortly, dust with flour, and fry in hot butter. I like the outside kind of crisp, with the inside soft, then shake some salt on them. Just like a french fry.

This

 

[Zebragun]

Also, save your morel rinse water, it contains millions of spores!

I was told to tap them gently a couple times where they were picked to drop some spores, and saved the rinse water this year to dump back where we found them. Will see if it does any good in a few years.

 

[Frankr]

when I was a kid my dad would go sheepshead mushroom hunting. I don't know how they cleaned them but after they cleaned them I think they boiled them. then caned them in quart jars with distilled vinegar and olive oil with several cloves of garlic and hot banana peppers. they would turn the jars upside down and every two weeks flip them so the olive oil went back threw with all the garlic flavor.About a month or two they would be ready to eat.. So good I loved eating them. I have his recipe for the caning into jars for the hot banana peppers with the ratio of distilled vinegar/water and olive oil with the cloves of garlic. I just don't know how to clean the sheepsheads so they are good to eat.

 

[cheek9075]

Only found 1 so far.....

But it was good!!! Flour, a little corn mill, fry in oil with salt and pepper.

 

[T 700]

I love them morel mushrooms, does anybody grow them? I seen a kit to grow them a few years ago but for the life of me can't remember where I saw it.

 

[smoooth]

Morels are very difficult to cultivate, but it can be done. If you saw a "kit" it was most likely grain spawn which you would inoculate cardboard or stir into a prepared soil bed.
I made my own grain spawn last year and inoculated layers of cardboard placed out in the woods; will be interesting to see if any pop up this spring. Morel mycelium grows amazingly fast but conditions must be right for the mushroom to fruit.

 

[butchlambert]

At times in the spring we have "toad stools" growing in our yard. Never ate any, only store bought around here.