Morel Hunting

Mushroom location 

The husband with a morel 

After more than a week of rain and cold, the sun finally came out, and so did the mushrooms.

The hubby’s brother invited us to go morel hunting! This was my first time, I was very excited.

At 8:30 am we met the brother, his wife and their two kids a little outside of town. The wife, who has a masters degree in botany, has gone morel hunting before and knew where a good area about an hour and a half away.

When we arrived she gave everyone a bucket and a pocket knife. She showed us pictures of what the mushrooms would look like and sent us out into the wild.

In the beginning we found lots of mushrooms...that were not morels.

one kind that we found that I thought were interesting were some coral/brain mushrooms. They are eatable, the same way that a puffer fish is edible (poisonous unless done right). Best just to stay away from them.

Coral/brain mushrooms 

It took us about 20 mins to find our first morel.

They like to grow where it is nice and shady in fallen pine needles.

Not a morel 

Also not a morel 

After your see your first morel in person, they are very easy to spot after that. I think they look like little gnome houses.

I was lucky enough to find the first morel. The 9 year old self proclaimed mushroom expert told me that it was indeed a morel and safe to eat, but to be on the safe side I waited for the mushroom expert with the masters degree to confirm that identification.

When you cut a morel, cut them at an angle. There is no need to dig the mushrooms out because they get hard and mud caked the further down you get.

Morels like to grow where it is nice and shady in fallen pine needles

If you see a morel don't go running to it.

You will probably step on more on your way to it. They grow in patches. If you can find one there will be many more with in 4 or 5 feet of it.

Mushroom discussion group 

After about 2 hours the hubby and I had filled our buckets. We continued to help the two kiddos find more morels.

Pretty soon we all had full buckets and it was time to go home.

If you have any fun mushroom hunting stories, or good recipes let us know in the comments.

~ Laura  

beginners luck