[jonesey]

I got tired of hunting the same old spots and not finding anything, so, on a whim I took to google maps to see if I could find some new hunting areas. So many seas of green. Then I realized that I knew an area with a ton of tulip poplars (my "same ol spots"), so I zoomed in on that area just to see what it looked like on the satellite imagery. Fortunately, I could see that when google took these images all the hardwoods were bare of leaves. Thus, I knew that all the very green forested areas were pine and all the brownish green woods had more hardwoods. I found a promising looking spot and jumped in the truck and headed over there. There were so many tulip poplars that I didn't know which way to head next. Found about 25 greys and yellows in about 2 hours. It seemed a little dry, so I'm hoping this area will pop if we get some rain.

Side note: I've heard many theories on why hillsides are good for morels. This area had a number of hillsides and I realized something. Certain hillsides seep water. It trickles down through the soil layers and comes out in certain spots. I was in areas that were bone dry. Then I'd move twenty yards away and the soil was totally saturated. Just a thought. Was wondering if anyone else had thoughts about this?

 

[jonesey]

Forgot to mention that I'm in Greenville, and that I didn't find a single morel last year, so this small haul was BIG for me! Took them to work and sauteed them so that everyone could try a bit. It's hard for people out-of -the-know to understand this obsession of ours!

Coincidentally, our banquet chef, who is also an avid mushroom hunter, had just asked me yesterday about where the morels were. I told him I hadn't found anything. Today, I walked in with my tiny sack of morels proud and ready to show them off, only to see a tray of about 300 nasty looking morels. Turns out he had ordered them from our food distributor for a fancy art ball. For two small bags he paid over $600! Finding them yourself is waaay more gratifying!