Morels - and other free range fungi

[WadePatton]

It's nearly time. I'm in the woods every day with a watchful eye. My woods don't grow big monster morels, but there are plenty of them in good years. The blacks come up first...out on the county road and within a couple of weeks the yellows and grays pop up in the woods. I find some blacks and grays in the woods, but they're quite scarce. Blacks are the easiest to find because of their contrast. I have some good pics...

A/K/A "Dry Land Fish", the first way i learned to prepare them was battered and fried, and it's still a great way to eat them. I'd like to hear some other ideas on preparing the little caps.

ALSO, there are plenty of other fungi out there, lots and lots, and i'm sure some of it is good to eat as well (or at least non-toxic). I'd love to positive ID some of the others. AND has thought about buying spores for some wild crafting where i'd "seed" lots of the rotting logs and such where i find mushrooms sprouting.

Do you have morels? do you get the big ones? I have neighbors a ridge or two away who get them large and plentiful enough to sell to restaurants. They tally their hauls in pounds. I still count caps. A good year is a few hundred, a bad year is less than 100. Last year wasn't good. This year is looking great, cool and damp.

Do you collect other species?

Have you grown your own?

What should i do with these dried ones?

A lonesome black-location, near buckshot mudder 2012. (i do find blacks to be less "congregated" than the yellows and grays.)

[Too Tall]

When I was in MN we'd find them on fresh cut lawns and sidewalk cracks after a cool spring thunderstorm by the bagful.

For me there is no better way to have these than with eggs very simply prepared.

[steve garro]

IMG_3972.JPGIMG_3659.JPGIMG_3759.JPGOur Funghi season is fall - I still have big jars of dried SW Ceasars & Lobsters.
Thanks for the reminder, I'm going to re-constitute some.
I just throw then in some water, get it to boiling, boil it for a minute or so, and then take it off & cover it with a towell to keep the heat in - I do this 1st thing in the morning, and by dinner they are good - overnight as well.
This is mostly for the Lobsters - the Ceasers when dried are really strong flavour - I mostly use them as soup flavourings when dried - D. eats them straight up.
- Garro.

[bcm119]

I used to collect a lot of chanterelles in Oregon. My favorite thing to do with them was saute them in a light, garlicky pasta cream sauce with fresh cherry tomatoes.

In norCal my favorite wild shrooms are Oysters. They appear in fall, usually on fallen trees. Hard to get to them before the grubs though.

[spopepro]

BCM119: I find it hard to get to them before everyone else...

Actually, I've given up on foraging. The bay area is too crowded and has too many people looking for the tasty stuff--many of them commercially. Maybe if I was a little bit further out... but I'm not.

Anyway, my favorite thing to do with spring fungi is to make some gnocchi. Prep the gnocchi and cook them, toss in some olive oil when done and refrigerate if you want. Then pan fry with a selection of what is good, and what you've found. Just about any mix of mushrooms, ramps, spring onions, fiddleheads, peas, beans will do nicely. Last time I made it I also roasted some fresh fava beans in the pod, then tossed the gnocchi, favas (now out of pods [obviously]), morels, green garlic, fiddleheads and some sorrel. High heat, a healthy amount of oil, brown the gnocchi slightly and then splash in some dry vermouth and lemon juice.

[rowdyhillrambler]

Oh Man, another week or so up here on the plateau and we will be in the heart of the season.

Morels seem to lend to Italian cooking. I use them in pasta and pizza. Seems to be better with a creamy or garlic sauce.

We make a pizza dough, simple, as described in an earlier thread. Morels, asparagus, and garlic sauteed in olive oill. You want the morels to shine.. Dough down, and coated with pesto or alfredo type sauce. Generous amounts of toppings, add either gruyere or mozz. On the grill or in the oven and done..

Same recipe minus the pizza dough, instead use pasta.

I have had them with an Asian flare. Cook like you would deep fry normally, but instead of your regular batter, use Tempura batter. Homemade Thail chili dipping sauce with a side of stir fried fresh veggies.

Wade., If you ever make it to exit 368, off of the big slab in Buffalo Valley. Stop. Turn right and go to the end of Jacks Hollow, you will run into an old farmhouse. Ginseng Jack lives there with his wife April. Jack has been 'Sengin' for 30 years, wherever there is a patch, he has carved his name into a tree. Everyone within 50 miles knows its his spot, and he don't take kindly to stealin. His wife is a registered nurse, she takes the entire month of April off to collect mushrooms. Great, great people. I was down there in January, they were letting me use there farm for a project i was working on at the rest area on the Caney Fork. Just happened upon them. It was cold and snowy as fuck, i was freezing. She warmed up some XXX, with a bit of lemon. I got real warm, and that is all i remember.

[bcm119]

BCM119: I find it hard to get to them before everyone else...

Actually, I've given up on foraging. The bay area is too crowded and has too many people looking for the tasty stuff--many of them commercially. Maybe if I was a little bit further out... but I'm not.

....

yeah, I don't even think about foraging in the bay area. Mushroom hunting and competition don't belong in the same sentence as far as I'm concerned. My in-laws live in the sierra foothills so that's where I get oysters.