Oklahoma Message Board 2017

Happy New Year's. I just told the grocery store paper for the first time yesterday. Starting to stock up. It won't be long now.

 

Hope this season is better than last year didn't even find 1 Okmulgee-muskogee area

 

Hey ya'll! I feel we're due a good morel season after the last couple of springs. Picked probably twenty morels in Oklahoma last spring but was rewarded with 250 lbs in Alaska last June.

 

I'm getting all kinds of fired up for this year. Concerned about the warm dry weather we've been having in DFW and along the state line but still time to get some moisture.

On the cold winters question, I've heard plenty of anecdotal evidence that a hard winter is good for morels. However, some of that anecdotal evidence has said morels won't pop in the spring without a hard freeze the winter before. But I've found good flushes in central TX in winters without a good hard freeze. So lots of the info you'll find out on the web just doesn't apply that well to TX and OK.

In my experience (and according to the best advice I've received), the key around here is the late winter/spring weather profile. Season starts when it gets warm enough (soil temps steadily over 53 for about a week and accumulated degree days of at least 1000 seem to be popular metrics around here), assuming there is enough moisture. Too dry, and not much will happen. If it gets too warm before we get moisture, we get a bad season. So hope for some moist weather ahead (though not looking that way in Dallas).

 

I started finding them in late May, they peaked about the second week of June and found some on a trip in July where the forest didn't burn as severely so there was still shade. I think snow just provides a good moisture release at a critical time for morel growth. Big snowpacks are one of the reasons morels grow so good in places like Michigan.

http://imgur.com/a/Mbj8G

 

If you really want to get nerdy, check out this link. Not very TX specific, but an in depth discussion about when morels fruit.
http://www.namyco.org/is_it_time_for_morels_yet.php

 

Central Alaska, between Anchorage and Fairbanks. August is too late to do any good but as long as a cool/wet summer persists then there may still be some stragglers to find. Just have to find an accessible forest fire site from one to two years earlier, which is definitely the hardest part.

 

I wish that groundhog would have said early spring...

 

Okie Shroom Hunter, they grow as far north as there are trees which is well north of the arctic circle. There wasn't much fire activity this last summer but there were a few large remote fires. My business partner and I may be chartering a float plane in June to one of the fires and drying them on site. If you find yourself in Alaska in mid-June and want to throw in on a charter, you are more than welcome to join the hunt. But it's not so much of a hunt and more like a mushroom picking marathon.

 

Morchellica I want to go too! hehe

 

Howdy again fellow shroomers ! I see the board is starting to come back to life - Only about 6-7 weeks before things start to light up in our neck of the woods. Juneau, Alaska is only a few degrees (latitude) farther north than northern Poland, which is Europe's mushroom capital with Czech Republic - Alaska is largely covered by evergreens and, hence, are prime grounds for the Elata type dark/black morels - which is grown commercially in China now. As far as taste goes, I tend to lean towards the less pungent and more delicate flavor of the Esculenta (grey/yellow morels) associated with ashes/cottonwoods/elms/junipers. Esculenta in general are more prized for that reason and aren't easily found dehydrated in supermarkets. Counting the days folks and hope we can get some serious rains to get out of an ever-growing drought !

 

The flavor is definitely more intense but it would be interesting to cook the different black species seperately and do a taste test to see which is the strongest. I really loved picking and eating m. tomentosa; they are really beefy and dense for a morel bc they are double walled and stemmed.

 

Anyone ever worked on enhancing the forest to promote morel growth? I noticed an ash that recently snapped do to wind damage but there's a thick understory of smaller trees, briars, and other weeds and a fair amount of leaf depth surrounding it. I'm thinking about thinning out the brush and then raking the leaves away in a big circle around the tree.

 

Yo my fellow briar bandits.......kinda feel like ima beat my previous early find of march 17th.....sure has been warm round these parts.......

 

I am looking for a mushroom buddy here in Oklahoma. I am experienced Colorado mountain mushroom hunter but need morel buddy (man or woman) to trek and talk with. I'm in Oklahoma city area but can drive anywhere in the state. I know morel people tend to be very secretive about their spots. I can keep a secret or you can drive me to your spot blindfolded! I have studied mushroom hunting extensively.