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Wild Edibles

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    • Wild Edibles: Periwinkles with garlic butter. Eat all you wish, at least here in Massachusetts, no permit is needed. You will be doing the ocean a favor, they are an invasive species.

      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”

      John Greenleaf Whittier

    • It's driving me crazy right now, I look out the door and its perfect morel time. I even checked. Wednesday would be the best day this week. This is driving me nuts... Heres the view out of my front door. And all I can do is dream of dry land fishing........ It's taking a lot of self control right now. I even know a couple of spots close to the road. But I try to save those spots for elderly people to find. Most of the time they end up going dry. I check on them every year. Sometimes their gone.....

    • Foresight wrote:

      Ran across these little lovelies not long ago.....

      (...picture...)


      So I gathered 'em up, sauteed in butter then made some gravy and tossed them in some grits....

      (...picture...)
      I'm envious. I seldom see morels - seldom enough that I've never learnt to make a solid identification of them, and so wouldn't harvest them if I did see them. (I'm generally not sure I'd trust my identification of fungi - I think color-blindness may well be a serious handicap for that.) Anyway, enjoy!
      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.

    • Morels are hard to mis-identify if you ask me. Training your eye to see the first one is the tough part. After that they normally just start appearing right in front of you. The ones in the picture above were the anomaly. I was easing along frustrated because I had been searching for an hour or so real slow (turkey hunting) when those fools just jumped out at me....couldn't not see them.

      Morel camouflage would be the cat's ass.
      If your Doctor is a tree, you're on acid.

    • Foresight wrote:

      Morels are hard to mis-identify if you ask me. Training your eye to see the first one is the tough part. After that they normally just start appearing right in front of you. The ones in the picture above were the anomaly. I was easing along frustrated because I had been searching for an hour or so real slow (turkey hunting) when those fools just jumped out at me....couldn't not see them.

      Morel camouflage would be the cat's ass.
      that first one is really tough. I usually find my first one when I get mad, sit down and take a brake. It's during that brake when looking around that I find my first one.
      Ginseng is the same way. Especially if the seeds have already fallen. But even with the red tos they are hard to spot . But once you find that first one........

    • Foresight wrote:

      Morels are hard to mis-identify if you ask me. Training your eye to see the first one is the tough part. After that they normally just start appearing right in front of you. The ones in the picture above were the anomaly. I was easing along frustrated because I had been searching for an hour or so real slow (turkey hunting) when those fools just jumped out at me....couldn't not see them.

      Morel camouflage would be the cat's ass.

      Unless cleaned and cooked properly cat's ass. Is likely not food.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.

    • JimBlue wrote:

      Foresight wrote:

      Morels are hard to mis-identify if you ask me. Training your eye to see the first one is the tough part. After that they normally just start appearing right in front of you. The ones in the picture above were the anomaly. I was easing along frustrated because I had been searching for an hour or so real slow (turkey hunting) when those fools just jumped out at me....couldn't not see them.

      Morel camouflage would be the cat's ass.
      Unless cleaned and cooked properly cat's ass. Is likely not food.
      You never know. It might have some fungi on it.

    • Beside the obvious appearance Morels should also be identified by slicing them longways. True Morels have a hollow stem. There is a mushroom cal;led the 'False Morel' that has a stem that is NOT hollow (cottony). The False Morel is considered sometimes toxic (seems to have different effects on different people).

      It is considered wise to never eat wild mushrooms raw (cooking destroys some toxins (but not all)), some mushrooms will react with alcohol. Finally when trying something for the first time start with very small portions since what has no effect on me may have a very adverse reaction with you.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”

      John Greenleaf Whittier

    • IMScotty wrote:

      Beside the obvious appearance Morels should also be identified by slicing them longways. True Morels have a hollow stem. There is a mushroom cal;led the 'False Morel' that has a stem that is NOT hollow (cottony). The False Morel is considered sometimes toxic (seems to have different effects on different people).

      It is considered wise to never eat wild mushrooms raw (cooking destroys some toxins (but not all)), some mushrooms will react with alcohol. Finally when trying something for the first time start with very small portions since what has no effect on me may have a very adverse reaction with you.
      Good to know.
      Lost in the right direction.

    • Foresight wrote:

      Ran across these little lovelies not long ago.....



      So I gathered 'em up, sauteed in butter then made some gravy and tossed them in some grits....


      My preference is to sauté with onion or garlic and serve or add a cream based sauce after a light sauté. Adding grits is a new wrinkle.

      Lest we forget.....


      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC

    • IMScotty wrote:

      Foresight, what kind of tree was that you found your morels under? It looks like an Oak, but I don't think morels are usually associated with Oak?
      That's a big White Oak. I normally find mine in moist bottom land which around here is going to be predominantly hardwoods. I have friends in Missouri that find them more on the sides of ridges. They also say theirs are associated most often with a particular downed hardwood which I believe they said was Beech, but I don't remember for sure. There's a small window to finding them and around here that window coincides with our turkey season (late march to early may). I think it's a function of soil temperature more than anything else.

      I will say this, if you find them you need to do 2 things; 1.) keep it a secret and 2.) leave some to spore, don't take them all.
      If your Doctor is a tree, you're on acid.

    • People in Mass. mostly look in old apple orchards in the western part of the state. They associate with apple trees. That is what they tell me anyway, I have never had much luck with morels :(
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”

      John Greenleaf Whittier

    • I like the low lands and look for poplars. The old apple orchards out in the middle of the mountains do good also. In Nebraska we found them around downed trees. We spent a lot of time on the South Dakota border and would find a lot around pines up there. Iowa seemed to prefer the sloping hills.

    • IMScotty wrote:

      People in Mass. mostly look in old apple orchards in the western part of the state. They associate with apple trees. That is what they tell me anyway, I have never had much luck with morels :(
      Perhaps they are trying to divert you from their favoured hunting grounds.

      Lest we forget.....


      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC

    • Not the article I was looking for - but it happens in California quite a bit. "occasional' Vegans, Vegetarians, and professional fungi idiots claiming to be expert... die.


      Man, 82, dies from eating wild mushrooms
      Angelo Crippa loved to forage for wild fungi in the hills above Santa Barbara. After eating a heaping plate of what he thought was an innocuous variety, he died of liver failure within a week.
      March 12, 2009|Catherine Saillant



      An adventurous spirit, Angelo Crippa often foraged for wild mushrooms in the hills above Santa Barbara. But the 82-year-old's lifelong hobby turned tragic when he mistakenly picked the wrong ones in a wooded park near Arroyo Burro Beach, sauteing them with a steak for what would be his last meal.
      Crippa died a week ago at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, seven days after he ate a heaping plate of the deadly Amanita ocreata mushrooms, said his wife, Joan Crippa.
      Known as "death angel" for its snow-white appearance, the fungus has deadly toxins that worked their way through Crippa's system, sickening him and eventually causing his liver to fail.
      Family members had often warned Crippa against indulging in his passion for hunting wild mushrooms, an activity he learned from his Italian immigrant parents, his wife said.


      (well - its a painless death..... Enough said)
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

    • All to often it is the immigrants this happens to because a safe mushroom in their home country may have a poisonous look-alike here.

      I would not try any type of Amanita, too easy to make a fatal error with that group.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”

      John Greenleaf Whittier

    • A friend of mine invited me out lobstering with him this morning. These are perhaps my favorite Wild Edibles'!


      At the end of a beautiful day on the water, I invited a few of these boys back to my house for supper :)

      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”

      John Greenleaf Whittier

    • I was on a mountain tract about a month ago and several of the areas I was in looked like a chanterelle carpet. It was hot hot hot and I was a long way from the truck so I didn't pick any. I did nab a few on a job before that though...



      This was back in June.
      If your Doctor is a tree, you're on acid.

    • Foresight wrote:

      I was on a mountain tract about a month ago and several of the areas I was in looked like a chanterelle carpet. It was hot hot hot and I was a long way from the truck so I didn't pick any. I did nab a few on a job before that though...



      This was back in June.
      Nice, you're making me jealous. The Chanterelles have been eluding me this year.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”

      John Greenleaf Whittier