Morel Mushroom Hunting

[HunterGatherer]

Hey all I would like to get into hunting some Morels this year and was wondering if anyone here does it too. I hear the deleware water gap is a good place to start. End of April to beginning of May. I wonder if they can be found in the pines too? Thanks for any info. Jim

 

[bobpbx]

Jim, I have never seen a morel in the Pines.

 

[46er]

Hey all I would like to get into hunting some Morels this year and was wondering if anyone here does it too. I hear the deleware water gap is a good place to start. End of April to beginning of May. I wonder if they can be found in the pines too? Thanks for any info. Jim

If you go, go with someone that knows what they are doing lest there be a bad moral to your morel picking story.

Some of those things can kill ya.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

I have found a few morels in Mercer county along the Delaware River, but never in the pines. The buzz out here in morel country is that you need fires and elm trees in order to create the right microenvironment to support them. I admit that I haven't looked that closely for them, but I can't recall ever seeing elms in the pines. I know they are basically extinct, but small trees and saplings do grow for a bit before dying of elm disease.

 

[Boyd]

I am no good at identifying mushrooms, but am pretty sure that morels grow all over my property. Guy posted a photo of one from the Parker Preserve in this thread, and I posted a photo of one in my yard as well: http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/revisiting-the-parker-preserve.7471/

Here's a big one that I photographed in my woods last summer. It was there pretty much all summer, getting bigger and bigger.

My property is sort of like a big mushroom farm. I don't know anything about them, and certainly am not going to chance eating them, but I enjoy photographing them.

 

[46er]

Boyd, I don't think either of those 2 pictures believed to be morels actually are morels. Lots of Chinese knockoffs out there

A good link; red border around a picture means if you eat it, you might turn up dead.

http://americanmushrooms.com/morels.htm

 

[PINEY MIKE]

I visit a buddy outside of Quakertown PA in early May and we usually find lots of them. He is the expert though. Never saw them in the pines, but maybe they are here. My neighbor does shroom hunting locally in the pines, but I dont know what kind they are. I will ask and let you know.

 

[Boyd]

Boyd, I don't think either of those 2 pictures believed to be morels actually are morels.

You could be right. Like I said, I'm clueless. But there's quite a variety of mushrooms around here. My land is adjacent to the Maple Lake Wildlife Management Area and the new Lenape Farms WMA is across the road. So if you're good at identifying mushrooms, you might try wandering around these places.

 

[46er]

So if you're good at identifying mushrooms, you might try wandering around these places.

I used too, not anymore. Learned from my Grandfather who took me along on his picking trips to Willowbrook Park in Staten Island when I was very young.

 

[manumuskin]

Boyd your second picture down,the yellow bunch I believe are Honey Shrooms.I used to have a friend who used to collect them (I helped occasionally) and Brick Tops.He put them in a pickling sauce and then we ate them.Very Good!they grow on pine and oak stumps and I have seen bunches that must have weighed 30lbs.

 

[amf]

Good photographs, but no morals, I mean morels!

 

[HunterGatherer]

Thanks all for the info. I know they are easily identifiable. Guess I'm traveling north.

 

[HunterGatherer]

Black and yellow Morels.

 

[bushwacker]

Remember there is something called a false morel that is extremely toxic....be careful

 

[manumuskin]

Stay away from Psilocybe morels. They grow on cow pies. they take you on trips to places you don't want to go.

 

[HunterGatherer]

Manumuskin, it can't hurt to go to those places once in a while

 

[HunterGatherer]

False Morel

 

[RednekF350]

I subscribe to the old school magazines Fur, Fish, Game and Trapper Predator Caller. It is often noted in articles or letters about the money to be made picking morels.
This place gets $40.00 a pound.
http://thedavidfarm.com/morels.html
You can also join the Morel Hunting Club !
http://www.morelmushroomhunting.net/report/current/mmhc_report_page1.html

 

[Sue Gremlin]

I just thought I'd post a little brag about the morels we picked from the lawn in the back yard. (For the uninitiated, we are in Michigan, torn away from NJ a few years ago).
We spotted most of them when they were small, so Joe flagged them and we watched them over the next week or 10 days, and then we had a feast.There is nothing like risotto made with fresh morels.

 

[jburd641]

You can also join the Morel Hunting Club !
http://www.morelmushroomhunting.net/report/current/mmhc_report_page1.html

Little late to the party but after checking out the club site, the words used, "may be" and "probably" don't make me feel real confident about mushroom hunting. They do look tasty though...maybe.