[Jpuette]

I’ve still got some of last years bounty. Any ideas? I usually rehydrate and fry in butter or use in gravy.

 

[Jpuette]

I've seen recipes where they're rehydrated and used in pasta. I also came across this recipe, if you want something a bit more similar to what you've done with them in the past. The author, Kenji, is very well-known and respected in the world of home cooks.

Excited to be hunting this year. It'll be my first time out! I'm not too far from you - hopefully, the pickings are good in my area as well!

Looks good, I may have to try that recipe. Good luck out there. Once you find one, you’ll be hooked.

 

[Jpuette]

They're good in a cream sauce with a bit of medium sherry added. It's good over asparagus and chicken and pork chops. Rehydrate in half and half or milk which holds a lot of the morel flavor. Or use just enough half and half to rehydrate them add butter and use it when making mashed potatoes. They're delicious that way. The morel flavor permeates the potatoes. You don't have to completely cover the dried morels when rehydrating them. Put in a thin layer one or two morels thick and add water or milk to part way cover the morels and then put a same sized container on top and weight it down with water. As the morels rehydrate they get soft and the parts that were not covered get wet. I just hate to throw out morel flavor. If using water you can soak them and squeeze out the water and freeze it to use over. After 3 or 4 soakings the water is heavily infused with more flavor and makes a great reduction sauce for heavier flavored foods such as steak.
Since you have what I call scalps I use a small spray bottle to wet the morels. It can take a few times spritzing them and you need to turn them over to get both sides completely rehydrated. I then put a little 'Cavenders all purpose Greek Seasoning' on them, use a sifter like used to sift flower. Just a small and held sifter. It covers the morels evenly and doesn't get bunched in the pits like when dredging them. I then saute in a little oil with lots of butter, flipping part way thru until you get the consistency you want. A short cook will make soft morels and if you cook longer they can turn out like crispy morel chips. VERY VERY YUMMY. It's one of my favorite ways to eat dried morels.
I don't like to add them to things like tomato based sauces as morels to me have a delicate flavor which can get overwhelmed by some foods. That's my pesonal feleing, though I know of others who usaed thme in pasta sauces.
To each thier own.

Wow, thanks for the reply. You’ve got some good ideas there. Now I’ve just got to get off my butt and do some cooking.

 

[Jpuette]

My Mom did the same thing when she would make sauce from scratch. Add just enough sugar to cut the acidity. I live in NE Ohio and there are a bunch of folks around here who like an overtly sweet spaghetti sauce! Growing up as I did on my Mom's sauce, I can't stand it! I sold fine wine to make a living for quite a while, and had an Italian restaurant that made incredible sauce. One day I stopped in for lunch and ordered pasta. The sauce was sweet! The next time I talked to the chef/owner I asked him why. He said far too many customers found his sauce "bitter", and he had to give them what they wanted.

The first time I make a recipe, I will go pretty much by the book. At least as long as the ingredients aren't too exotic. It's when I taste the finished product that I begin to get ideas. Okay, more of this, less of that, maybe I'd add some of this or that. I've made chili for people who have asked me for my "recipe", and I have to tell them that I don't have one! What I have is a general formula that shifts around depending on my mood. But my chili always seems to turn out great!

And if you're wondering why some yankee from the frozen tundra is looking in, i just love reading about the first reports of finds! Georgia and Texas seem to lead the way, and then I get to follow the progression northward toward where I live. It heightens the anticipation and really gets me jazzed for hiking the woods. Here's to good luck to us all this season!

Lol, Yankees are always welcome here! 😬

 

[Jpuette]

Anyone get out this fall for any fall mushroom hunting? I had some good luck this year with lions mane and chanterelles. Both are very good to eat, but I’m always wishing I had some fresh picked morels. I also inoculated some logs last year with shiitake and had a pretty good flush when the weather changed.

 

[Jpuette]

🤠🍄🍄 Howdy @Jpuette and Everyone
I haven't been out fall hunting for 3 yrs
But I'm wondering what Fresh Fungi I might find after these warm rains 🌧 🤔 We are having across South-central Indiana this week...It sure feels like Spring here today..

Hmmm. I’m really not sure what to look for this time of year. I suppose if the temps stay up long enough maybe some oysters. I went out this evening looking and didn’t see any fungus activity.

 

[Jpuette]

Here’s a huge lions mane me and my brother found back in October. It also filled the entire inside of the hollow. We ate off of it for more than a week until the cows tore it to pieces.

 

[Jpuette]

Nice find ,
Looks very young and tight. It's hard to tell from the picture the size. About how wide and tall is it. It appears to be 12" or more wide and 18" tall, but this is just a guess.
WE used to find one every year on a wound of a sweet gum tree that was the size of a basketball.

Id say it was the size of a basketball at least. There was a piece growing inside the hollow earlier that was fully toothed out and was the size of my head. I tried to upload another pic but something keeps going wrong and it won’t let me. This thing just kept exploding out of the tree, it was wild to see it grow.

 

[Jpuette]

 

[Jpuette]

Is that Lion's Mane growing on a sycamore? I don't know if they have a tree preference since I've never found a single one. About the only success hunting Fall mushrooms that I've had is for Hen of the Woods. I had a very good season last Fall. I had an outstanding Chanterelle season last Summer, and only a so-so Morel season. Why? Because I farted around too long waiting for things to be "perfect"! What a dumbbell! If things are perfect, you're just lucky if you run into them and enjoy the success. I won't discount keeping records and planning, but the big wild world is under no obligation to make sense to us! But, sometimes is does, like last Chanterelle season.

Bearcorn, or what some people call squawroot, grows in my Chant woods. Last year it came up like I'd never seen it before! When it came time that I thought the Chants should be showing, it seemed that they were a little late. Then I saw a video from Learn Your Land, IIRC, about bearcorn. It is a parasitic plant, since it has no clorophyll and does not photosynthesize. It seems to like oak, beech, maple woods just like Chants do. It was thought that the bearcorn parasitized tree roots, but further investigation found out that they parasitized mushroom mycelium that was in a mycorrhizal relationship with the trees. This made me wonder if my Chants were in trouble. Veteran foragers will know that bearcorn starts to die back around the time the Chants should show up. It was the same here. The more the bearcorn died back, the better the Chants flushed!

I don't know if there's a cause and effect relationship here, but it sure seems like it.

It’s a very large pin oak I believe. I find most of my lions manes on oaks. Also, last summer when chants were coming in they seemed to congregate around the large pin oaks as well. Probably doesn’t mean anything in this case, there are oaks everywhere here.

 

[Jpuette]

I'm driving from Ft Lauderdale to Chicago in mid April. When do you get into the peak part of the season in your area. Was planning to spend a day or 2 walking the woods if I can figure out the right place at the right time. Any help is greatly appreciated

Last years peak in Danielsville Ga, for me, was around March 4th. I got sent to India for 2 weeks after that so I can only give my opinion. Last year started pretty early though. The previous year I was getting good action from mid March to early April. The last few years have been early to start followed by a freeze which kills everything back, then a second round of sorts. Hope this helps.

 

[Jpuette]

I’ve actually used strictly lions mane to make some really delicious crab cakes. I believe my favorite was a sweet Thai chili stir fry I made years ago with these That’s my soft spot lol. Anything Thai , Laos

I love me some Thai food. One of my specialties is Pad Woon Sen, which I’ve actually made with some morels mixed in. 🤌

 

[Jpuette]

Just a Rando here, but what time pray tell do the drive through services open for this page? I can't quite figure out when to put down my bon bon's and get my arse out of my recliner. Help me out here peeps, I-ma-Jonesing.

Any day is a good day to get off ur arse and get outside! 😛. I’ve already been looking, though I’m sure it’s way too early. I’ve used this time to work on opening up some of my spots so that they’re a little bit more accessible. This weekend is looking nice weather-wise. Temps need to come up a tad more I think. Daffodils are starting to bloom so I think we’re getting close. 🤞

 

[Jpuette]

I wouldn't put too much weight into what is found on a FB page. History has taught me that that page is more of a drive through service for people who wanna be morel hunters. You know the type, sitting in the nice warm heat of their house and waiting for a green light to leave home with the possibility of putting in the least amount of miles and energy in pursuit of what everyone else is looking for. Of coarse after the serious foragers have done the hard work (meaning the miles, tick bites, sticker wounds, etc, etc, etc). It also seems to be a hornets nest of attention seekers and insult throwing opinionated folks IMO. Everyone it seems wants to be the first. If that's the case my money is on JP. 3 years and running strong. Unless of coarse u live in Texas where they seem to think JP's a scammer. LMAO. I personally wish sites would do away with first find posts until the end of the year. It would do away with most of the bottom dwellers. These sites were a far better place before the first find craze took over. Just my opinion. But heck, get out there. Got-ta be in it to win it, huh wade?

I haven’t seen any activity on my spots yet, though I will go and have a look after I get home this evening. I don’t have high hopes that anything will start until we get some more rain, and the forecast looks kinda crappy at the moment. We’ve also been having decently low night/morning temps so that could keep us held up for a little bit I think. We shall see though. Being first doesn’t do much for me, what I enjoy is eating that first fresh morel of the season.

 

[Jpuette]

Found one!

 

[Jpuette]

Vegas wins. So does this mean we have to deal with being accused of being Georgia cheaters again this year?

“No timestamp? Get outta here!” 😆

 

[Jpuette]

"Georgia always cheats"? Hilarious. I get it. Constantly losing is a bummer. Sometimes its not always bigger and better in Texas. One thing for sure that is bigger, ur heads! Maybe next year flatlander. LMAO.

😂 I can feel the love in here! Careful now, I lived in Texas for 4 years. 😂

 

[Jpuette]

Well yeah.....Georgia always cheats. We just now getting some rain in over 2 weeks so guess what this means...we should see some here in Texas tomorrow. Season sucked ass last year.

Get out there and find some! Hope your season is better this year.

 

[Jpuette]

Not to be impertinent here, but wouldn't a 1 inch black be too small to have even turned black yet? I did see pics of some babies where the ridge and pit structure looked like those of blacks. Listen to me, acting like I know something when I've never found a black in my life! All I've ever found is tons of images of them.

I may or may not have ever found a black morel. I’ve found some small morels with less dense honeycomb structure that I assumed were possibly black morels, but never have for sure seen one. I’m just happy to find anything 🙂