Mushroom wizard

[DouglasR]

So since today’s a recovery day I was like let me slip 50 in this pack and put up a quick 8 because you guys know I’m about that life and as I’m walking the trail I run into this dude with a wizards staff with a morel mushroom carved into the top and he’s like
“You mushroom hunting?”
And I’m like
“Damn, I guess I am now”
He gave me some quick pointers on where to look for them and along the hike I found 4 of them and a new hobby.

Any tips on how to cook these?
Is it safe to eat the one on the left with the hole in it?
Is it safe to eat them if there was a slug crawling on one? I don’t want that rat lung disease.

 

[NEWHunter]

Yep safe to eat. I like to slice them open as they are hollow inside and sometimes there are some bugs/slugs (as you know) in there. They are relatively delicate too so I generally clean them by soaking them in water. Just sauté in a bit of butter. Those things go for $30/pound at farm markets around here. They’re amazing .

 

[MO Betta]

Trim the stem section that was in the dirt, if there are any dried out crusty/damaged sections I like to trim them off as well. Cut 'em in half, quick rinse (soak in salted water for a bit if there are a lot of bugs and dirt in them) let them air dry then saute them in some butter. Some like to lightly coat them in flour and garlic salt and pepper first. My favorite shroom.

The "wizard staff" walking stick with a carving of a morel on top is pretty popular with the local mushroom hunters, there's a guy getting 50 bucks a piece for those.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Nice finds!

 

[SG25]

I love them fried. Like others have mentioned soak them in salt water to get rid of the bugs and dirt for a couple hours. Do not eat them raw or you will get pretty sick. They are delicious and you will want to go find more once you try them.

 

[ashersdad]

Yummy!!

 

[Letthemgrow]

Looks like you found a good grouse hunting spot as well

 

[teej89]

I wouldn't eat the red or green ones, I'm not even sure what kind those are........

Thats awesome tho! I have yet to find one but I'm making it a deal this spring to at least find one and see what all this buzz is about with these guys as I love mushrooms.

Lemme know how they turn out!

 

[DouglasR]

Looks like you found a good grouse hunting spot as well

This is Illinois, we don’t have nice things like grouse here, those are spent squirrel shells. Lol

I ended up soaking them for about twenty minutes in tap water, sautéing them in butter and eating them with scrambled eggs on a bagel. They were pretty tasty.
I went back today looking for some more. I was hoping that by getting off of the main trail I’d hit the jackpot, but I spent a considerable amount of time scouring the creek bottom and only found 1. It was like 2/3’s of the way through the loop I was hiking and I didn’t see any reason my luck would improve so I left it to grow. Hopefully I’ll be able to check back in on it in a couple days.

Anybody got any good tips on how to find these things?

 

[buckbull]

I always check around dead elm trees. If you are in hilly country morels pop first on top and last in the lower valley. When you find some, check the same area again the following year.