eatable?

oh yeasssss. OMG! barbecued on open fire, yummy-yum-yum.
Those darn things are out of my reach.
Some can grow as toll as 8 inches

Oh my God Mercles!!! Well at least that's what my neighbors in Craig county used to call them. It's been so long since I've seen any morels anywhere as the darn deer get everything possible. Those look so wonderful. Roll in flour - fry in butter. hmm hmm good. I haven't had fresh morels in over 5 years and then I only found enough for one huge omelet. I used to have a fool proof spot in the 80-'s - an old abandoned apple orchard of about a dozen trees. The last time I went morel hunting I was living on a farm in SW Virginia and the forest was just stripped bare of anything edible. We need a deer depopulation program!!!!!!
thx Bob.

Nice. I need to go check. I found a small patch growing on our farm last year. My brother has some pretty good spots. Old apple orchards always seem to work for them.

I have a lot of those on my property but I have been afraid to eat them. Is there anything that can be confused for morels? I have all sorts of mushrooms exploding from the ground, but the ones that I believe are morels are absolutely different than any other mushrooms I have seen.

Nice find Bob! Thanks for sharing this.
Yep, I was thinking about going on a foray either this week or next. When the apples and lilacs are in blossom and the cottonwoods have leaves around the size of dimes to quarters, the yellow/white morels are starting to appear.

Paul, there are poisonous false morels but they are easy to ID when you get the hang of it. Until you know just by looking the best way to know is slice your keepers in half lengthwise before preparing. In a true morel the inside is completely hollow and the cap and stem are a continuous line on the cross-section. (actually there is a morel called a half cap or half stem or something like that but I've never seen one, and for most people they are not common) In a false morel the cap sits entirely on top of the stem and the stem contains at least some cottony fibrous material inside.

Google "False morel" and look at the pictures. There will be plenty of pictures of both true and false morels.

This link is one of many that explain it well.
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/may2002.html

I had fantastic luck in a previous forest fire area for 3 out of 4 years following the burn. The one bad year was a dry year. I would foray for about half a day and bring home around a half a bushel. My best year ever,  I brought a large paper grocery bag 2/3 full (these were my extras!) to a fine Italian restaurant that specialized in fish dishes and traded them for a four course meal for my wife and I and a very nice bottle of wine.   Both parties walked away grinning from ear to ear.

never really looked for them.. where is a good place to look for them? love shrooms. 

Those look beautiful...which I had some right now

Look great. Coincidence, a friend of mine just north of KC sent me a picture of Morels he gathered yesterday.  YUMMY

Gotta go on a hunt!

Can these be found in a wooded fence row? I am always on the lookout but have yet to find them anywhere. Meanwhile there are guys with roadside stands selling them by the wheel barrow full. Also I have seen people kayak through the wooded channels at my parents lake and they said they found them right off the shoreline. Is this true or just a wild goose chase?

i guess like everything else, you just have to get used to what to look for. i'm going to start looking into morel hunting. this would be fun. 

They are pretty easy to ID. They are selling on CL here for around $35 a pound.
Here's a look at the closet look alike. Not hard to see the difference.

http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/false-morels

Here's what they look like.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/36169603227676838/

Here we used a jerky gun that I cut a tip a little larger to inject stuffing into morels. You just need to cut a small hole near the top of the shroom so the stuffing will go in without bursting the morel. Brushed them with butter and baked them.


 


 

The device looks like something out of an Austin Powers movie but the 'shrooms do look good!

Those look GREAT!

Those look delicious! Here's a guide to hunting Morels-

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

You can stuff them with various meats, poultry, fish or shellfish.  Cream cheese with garlic and herbs is also a great stuffing.  Sauteed in butter and garlic is wonderful.  As part of a cream sauce they're amazing.  Deep fried they're wonderful.  I even did a spiced ground beef stuffing and put a piece of dried but soft fig in and that was great.

Haven't found any yet, it's still a little early for my area. I find them around dead elm trees.

Bob, You got me drooling. Love them morels.

Just fried up a pan full a couple of days ago.  Good stuff!

My house sits in a former apple orchard and we still have 20 or so trees.  I typically harvest several handfuls a year.  It's been such a long winter that the apples haven't even started blooming.  I probably have at least a few more weeks before I need to keep an eye out for the morels.

Steve,
  "Honestly, it's not mine!"
Jim

You mean, "that's not my bag, baby"

They are starting to pop up around here. I hope to get more today.