Morel Mania

Hooked!

by John Dunning

I am 43 years old and have never shroomed before. I have a few friends that have gone out to search morels and have been nice enough to share there harvest with me. Of course as you all know they are delicious. I am a outdoorsy kind of guy. Hunt, fish, camp, you name it I like to be outside. Love the anticipation of that nice Mallard Drake flying into my decoys, netting a 28" Walleye, its great. As I said I have never shroomed before, until yesturday 5/31/04. On cloudy wet Memorial Day late in the afternoon I say to my wife lets go looking for some morels. She looked at me like I was nuts. I finally convince her and my daughter, hey family outing, right, great idea. After spending about a hour and half walking thru wet brushy woods my daughter yells over to me, hay dad is this what were looking for? Yep. We did not have to look much futher, within about a 1/2 acre we filled 7 grocery bags full. My wife, daughter and I are hooked and planning our next hunt. Can't wait. Love Minnesota. Oh, I took the harvest to one of my friends that has picked morels for many years to inspect what we had picked. There were no false ones in the bunch, cream of the crop. :)

Good shroomin!

Reprinted from - http://morelsandmore.com/motherlode.htm

“Your Honor, the jury finds the defendant guilty.”

Keep a Sharp Eye Out for These Babies!

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Worth the Effort!

by Becky Jackson

I have been hunting morel mushrooms for 9 or 10 years now but with pretty limited success until last year. Trying slightly different spots each year and getting maybe 10 to 30 good mushrooms each year, I was certain that there must be a bunch growing somewhere near where I was hunting. About 3 years ago a friend and I wandered into some new areas and had better luck, we found about 50 good ones. I have been returning to the same general area but always find that I run into several other hunters in the woods no matter what time I hunt. This area is heavily hunted but I would still come home with 30 or 40 really good ones by looking in places that were difficult to get to, like under low hanging branches and places hard to walk in the brush. I would think of my natural instinct and then go the opposite, assuming that other hunters would "take the easy way". Last year I was hunting and found a spot about the size of my living room that was surrounded on all sides with fallen trees, and some climbing over them was required to get in to the middle. I looked over one of the fallen trees and couldn't believe my eyes! Here in this maybe 16 foot by 16 foot area were a bunch of perfect beauties all 4 to 6 inches tall. I picked almost 70 huge morels in this small spot, they filled my mesh bag. From now on, I will be hunting the spots that are hardest to get to if there are other hunters in the same area, it sure paid off last year! I ended up with 300 morels and was able to share them with others, they loved it!

Reprinted from - http://morelsandmore.com/motherlode.htm

One Like This is Just About the Right Size.

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