Morels, alomost time

Can't wait! Just hoping that the extended drought last year did not adversley affect the new spore drop & the exsisting older fungi subterrainian masses in the soil.

Thanks Huxbux

Here's some that popped up over the weekend at my place. You need a chainsaw to harvest these!!! and to make them LOL. These are a few I carved out this weekend with a chainsaw. Mushrooms are about the only thing I can do. I tried to carve a bear once and thought I was doing pretty good until my wife came home from work and said that that was a really cute little pig I had made. LOL

Yes, I sell a few every spring

Easiest thing there is to dry. Hope we have to dry a bunch of them this year.

Ok guys, I need help with these little critters. I've looked, over and over, with guys, by myself, in areas people find them and apparently I'm BLIND!

What does it take to break through and start connecting with these guys?

Stick to the woods and take slow pace looking around trees and in heavy cover. You will find them.

I'm no expert, by any stretch of the imagination, but I may be able to help a little.

I've found them on higher and better drained ground earlier in the season, and found the one down low later.

Stay away from sections of woods that are dominated by big oaks. The oak leaves have a higher tannic acid level and the ground covered by them is much less conducive to morels.

Much of the actual finding once you're in a productive area is a matter of training your eyes to seek the details of the mushroom. Kinda like spotting game, the eye doesn't pick up the mushrooms well from the rest of the visual clutter until you've found a few, then they seem to be much more apparent. Checking out pics of them in their natural setting ahead of time may help prep your eyes for the task.

When you find one, check VERY thoroughly in that area before moving on. They seldom are alone, although it may seem that way at first.

Well drained south facing slopes are best in the early part of the season at least.

Dead elm trees are the most surefire indicators I know of. Not all of them have mushrooms nearby, either, but the percentage near a dead elm is WAY better. You want one that is still standing, and that the bark is slipping from in spots, preferably.

Best way to find a dead elm is probably to seek out a tree with bare branches that are curving back in the direction of the trunk. The bark can also be used to identify the elm, but the difference between the bark of the elm and that of several other trees is far less obvious than the curving inwards bare branches.

I've also found live poplars to be a decent indicator, especially for the yellow sponge, and it has always seemed to me that they tend to produce later in the season and at lower elevations.

My mother had an eye for mushrooms, and we would often take long drives through the country when I was very young, with Dad driving and Mom scanning the roadsides and nearby pastures and field edges, and occasionally yelling at Dad to stop the car. I didn't inherit that helpful gene. For a long time it seemed to me that I found more mushrooms if I wore my slick street shoes to hunt them, because when I slipped and fell down I was close enough to spot some before I got back to my feet 8^)

Seriously, sharp vision is extremely helpful. If you need visual correction to have your sharpest vision at ten to fifteen feet, be sure to wear those galsses or contacts when hunting morels. That extra little edge of sharpness can make a tremendous difference when picking them out of their camouflaged hiding places.

And the most important ingredient....good luck.

Thanks for the advice Russ. I'll work on the visual training. I guess I have a little "can't see the trees for the forest" issue to work out.