Re: MMMmm , morels .....
Looks good. A word of advice on the Morels. Do not pick them all. Leave a few so they will come back. If you pick them all they won't come back in that spot again. That's why most people who hunt for Morels won't tell you were they found them. They can be worth up to $70.00 a pound. They spawn off of each other so if you pick them all there will be no more. Trust me i'm in the mushroom business and sell about 10,000-20,000lbs of mushrooms weekly. We grow mushrooms at our Pennsylvania location all varieties but Morels are not yet grown commercially. Only in the wild. They are starting to find out how to grow them comercially but not yet there yet. The lower picture looks like a variety of ****ake mushrooms. Good eats.
That I do and more ...
I always leave some , and , they are so bloody hard to spot that you always leave some , anyway .
The water from soaking and any trimmings are always returned to the areas I collected , and , other areas that look like suitable habitat .
There is some small-scale success stories with morel cultivation , but , they have a very strange , multi-stage and multi-path reproductive cycle .
That is why I always cut them with a knife , so , as to leave any mycelia for future regeneration .
I am going to try some cultivation if I ever have the time , lol .
I remember picking them by the bushel up north , as a child .
Down here , you feel lucky if you find a couple dozen .
The saving grace is that many do not even look for them here , and , I look in places that are largely ignored , being in a suburban environment .
Morels are not so fragile that they die when concrete or asphalt comes within a few hundred feet of them , and , most city dwellers will not touch a mushroom , even if they see it in some odd corner of thier yard .
They are strange , they like very specific micro-climates , yet , can be found in so many different settings , relating to a huge variety of associated flora , none of which , in ANY combination , is a solid bet .
I did find several more tonight , just a few hundred feet from my back door , in a neglected piece of ignored woods and scrub .
I have some old places to check this weekend , and , some new "forgotten lands" to walk .
Temperatures will be in the 60's , after some rain showers .
