Morel Mushroom fever kickin in.
 

Does anyone else here hunt for Morels? My 4 year old daughter woke me up this morning to tell me that is was raining and its time for the Morels. I am watching the rain come down as I type maybe by the end of the day I will find enough for dinner :) If not next weekend will be awesome.

We found morels and beafsteaks here.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&sll=44.653024,-84.576187&sspn=0.240324,0.467606&q=pigeon+river+forest,+MI&ll=45.181129,-84.433451&spn=0.119063,0.233803&t=h&om=1

Used to go hunting for golden chanterelles (sp?) with my aunt at our cottage. She'd send all of us out into the woods like little mushroom recon soldiers. We'd all come back with the goods, she'd sort them and then make soup. Good memories...:)

Like morels, chantrelles are great mushrooms to show kids because they are so distinctive. I have never taught kids anything about boletes or Amanitas (for example) because there are so many species that can make the consumer sick or dead. I have eaten some boletes and they are quite good.

My friend was a mycologist. He tried Psylocybe cubensis once without anybody around who knew what was going on. Bad idea, even for people experienced with psychoactive mushrooms. He ate way too many and found their taste so awful that he thought tequila would wash the aftertaste away.

He recovered okay but his neighbors talked about it for 20 YEARS!

B

True!

A little OT but...this past summer, I noticed a decaying animal smell in my backyard. Started looking everywhere for a carcass, couldn't find anything. It got worse. Finally, I tracked the smell to an area under my deck where I found...a stinkhorn. The cap was covered black with flies. The tip was oozing this disgusting gunk that was producing the smell. An ingenious way to attract the flies but what a horrible odor.

As to the shape...;) Man, I never laughed so hard in my life. :D

Oh mah ghod... :P Not an experience I'd want to try out.

I've picked chantrelles in WA state and I agree that they're a good one due to the distinct ID.

Not to disparage anyone who like shrooming, but there have been a few cases hereabouts where recent immigrants, who thought they were picking the same shrooms they used to pick back home, ended up ruining their livers behind that.

Bad shrooming and other cautionary tales.

I haven't checked you link but I'll bet the immigrants are either Korean or Eastern European. Both groups eat some species of Amanitas and there are extremely toxic Aminitas (and Russulas. IIRC) in N. Am. that look like Old World edible species.

The progress of the disease is especially gruesome for the Amanitas. It has two toxins that act completely differently. The first makes the subject extremely ill with all the symptoms of food poisoning. Then the symptoms abate. Then the patient slowly dies as the second toxin takes effect. The second one has a peculiar affinity for intracellular membranes, especially of the mitochondrion (IIRC). Often by the time it is recognized that the subject is in peril it is too late to save him.

The stinkhorn has a fruiting structure with an amazing aroma. I'm impressed you got close enough to check-out the hauntingly familiar appearance of the structure.

I think people from both of those groups were among the ones written about as having had the misfortune you speak of -- awaiting a liver transplant. :eek:

Not sure what you mean by the last paragraph. The Chantrelles I picked were not hard to deal with. I even tried it for money with a friend over by Shelton, WA, a little lumbering town w/ lots of remote sticks nearby. An outfit had set up shop nearby to buy the stuff. Oh man, that is a hard way to make a buck. Plenty of Vietnamese families about, scouring the woods, looking to make the same buck. It's a miracle I found any.

Removing it was an uprooting experience.

Shrooms are NASTY. That said, my dad and his sister have been going hunting almost every day for the past week or so. They have their favorite "secret" places and usually come home with 20 or 25, which grandma promptly fries up to what they call perfection. I declined (again) an offer to join them for fresh friend mushrooms last night, so they must have done well in their hunt yesterday, too.

I prefer mine in tea.....