Shooting the bow and shroom hunting goes hand in hand. And is a blast. I had a guy tell me in this picture there is two kinds of mushrooms morels and the other ones will make you sick. I told him the other ones are considered black morels the ones with the pointier top to them and as long as the stem doesn't go up in the cap they are ok to eat. All you mushroom experts out there. What do you think?

Don't eat them send them to me to be safe.

Yeah, I wouldn't take a chance send them to me. I will get rid of them for you.

Lucky dog :-) JF

Yes, in a False Morel, the stem goes up into the cap. In true Morels, whether blacks, yellows, or grays, the stem stops where the cap begins. Either way, it's easy to see if you slice them in half longways.

One of my mushroom hunting pals sent me a picture an hour ago of the first morel he found this season, found this morning.

The rain we got thu-fri is helping. I'm going to give them another day or two to grow, and then I'm gonna do some serious stumpin & shroomin. 4 day weekend coming up... perfect timing :^)

My buddy said the overnight soil temperature is finally holding at 50 degrees.

Is it weird that I get more excited about mushroom hunting than deer hunting nowadays? Lol

Everything else stops once I see some morels.

Dry year. Tough.

Awesome. How far South do Morels grow? I have found them in the upper half of SC, but never found any down in the Coastal Plain where I live.

Great times. My wife went to work with me on Saturday. While I did my thing (Land Surveyor) she tromped around looking for shrooms. She found quite a few early in the day and left them in the cool shade under a tree. I had about another hour of work and when I got done we forgot them and drove off. Dang!

We found about 30 of them in our side yard last week. They were a bit small so I thought I'd leave them to grow a few days…you know, maximum harvest. Next morning the deer had ate half of them! So much for max harvest!

You are lucky men. I love those things but have not had any since I moved to Alabama 23 years ago. Enjoy them!

I'd love to be out on a new property that don't do me any fine dining.

Didn't find any this morning here. I'll give it a few more days and check again.

Lucky Duck! Looks like yellows and blacks to me. I am envious! I am in Northern Wyoming, been out twice this year and cant buy a morel. Just a few small oysters mushrooms starting.

I couldn't possibly send these to anyone in fear of making them sick. I will just have to eat them with the family and see if they are good. I am in east central ohio bordering PA and west Virginia. Going out tomorrow hope to start finding some of the blonde ones.

Hey Bob! What county are you in? I've yet to find one in Union County this year. The woods seem to be taking a little longer than usual to green up. Not sure if its past time up here or getting to be time for them...

I live in columbiana county

Youre a bit north of us. I grew up close to columbiana--- portage county.

Good hunting,

John

Last year when I was checking some old apple trees for morels, I found Dryad's Saddles growing on a nearby old elm stump. Five days ago, I checked there again. No morels, but I saw what I thought was a baby Dryad peeking out of the stump they grew on last year. See the little guy?

Here's the same stump today. There were several growing around it.

Comparing the two pictures closely, several more can be seen just starting to peek out.

Nice shrooms but wanna see arrows sticking out of stumps!

Do they grow in Mississippi or Arkansas?

Not morels, but edible, and plentiful.

I finally had a chance to get in the woods Saturday. Finally able to shoot my bow again after a tough winter and couple surgeries. This made my day.

It was a good day

how do you prepare them

What's the best way for a newby to tell something delicious from something that kills you?? Thanks Bill

Bill, Safeway Produce Department... :) Seriously, as a newby, go with someone experienced, or at least show them to someone with a lot of it before eating anything.

Found some nice blonde ones today.

They are great just sautéed in butter and wine sauce over steaks and burgers. Or you can dip in egg flour and bread crumbs and pan fry.

Love the Morels.

I found two blacks last Sunday. It's been a cold spring and they seem to be at least a week behind schedule here in E. Pa.

Big Bear, Pheasantbacks get tougher when they mature. When they're young, to middle aged, they cook up very tender. The young can often be eaten in their entirety. Those about halfway through their growth, often are only tough back near the stem/base and when it's trimmed off, the rest of it is good.

That said, you can't just go by size alone because some just won't grow as big as others depending on the conditions. Sometimes they just stop growing if they dry out. They may get as big as a dinner plate, or stop growing when they're smaller than the palm of your hand. But here's a few things to try.

The bend test. I do this on some mushroom varieties. Good, young, fresh ones should bend 30-45 degrees or so without cracking or breaking.

Also, Pheasantbacks are polypores. If you look at their underside, you'll see the little holes/pores where the spores will fall from if allowed to mature. When young, the holes are quite small and hard to see... for my aging eyes anyway :^) And when they get older, the pores will open bigger and be much easier to see.

Once you're familiar, you can just feel the size of the holes on the underside without even picking it.

The biggest one in the second picture of mine is almost prime for picking. It's about the size of my whole hand, 6" or so? It could be let go to grow a few more days, and still be very tender.

My wife wants me to pick all of the Pheasantbacks I can, but they're usually pretty easy to find so I'm going to let those ones go, and just keep taking pictures of them.

I found a half dozen morels and some more pheasantbacks yesterday... a nice big patch of watercress too.

Don't shoot this stump ;-) JF

Jeff, you and your golden oysters. Those things are beautiful. Is that from this year already?

Yes Jeff D, I just found my first ones last night. We are a month to 6 weeks behind from last year. I got a little bit of everything last night and asparagus too.

Little of this and that. That's a good gathering trip right there.

This watercress is in the very beginning of a stream that comes from an old farm spring/cistern from the middle of the last century and is nestled into the bank in the brush in the background. It used to be a beautiful grassy oasis, but time, and undergrowth have taken their toll.

There are four old apple trees at my back, and my old stand site is 15 yards to the right. I shot a nice buck with an osage bow as he stood on the bank above the spring, surveying the apple trees one cool October evening. He fell within spitting distance of where I stood to take this picture.

My favorite way to eat the mushrooms on a strip steak with fresh asparagus and cucumbers in mayo sauce. Mushrooms were made in a pan with a little olive oil and a pad of butter. Cooked till all the juices come out of mushrooms and then add some garlic and two table spoons of wine and when the wine cooks off add a tablespoon of soy sauce. Mmmm mmmm mmmm

I haven't found any mushrooms yet, and our dew berries are about 3 weeks behind last years crop. They are just now getting right and I may have ate my weight in them. :D

-Bones

Dry bones, what are dew berries? Jeff, how do you prepare watercress? hunterbob, that's pretty awesome looking! TK

Can I eat these? They're everywhere.

Kodiak yes you can eat those, after cooking. Called pheasant backs or dryad sadle. I would only harvest them no bigger than your hand. Closed pores on the bottom. They smell like watermelon rine. JF

Thanks, that's what I thought they were, but wasn't sure.

Are they any good? Bumper crop in my woods.

Hunterbob "All you mushroom experts out there. What do you think?"

ENVEY , I sure miss my Michigan stumping & morel grounds. John

Kodiak, yes, they're pretty good. My wife likes them more than I do, which is rare when it comes to the wild mushrooms I bring home. Try to take the young tender ones like Jeff said, size of your hand, very small pores underneath, and cut off the stem and where it attaches to the shelf if at all tough. That's where it gets tough first.

You can freeze them fresh in ziplock bags. I leave some whole for grilling, and slice the others up about 1/4 - 3/8 thick, then freeze for general use.

It should be noted that size shouldn't be the only consideration when checking them. Some just don't grow as big as their neighbors, and they'll get mature and tough, but not big.

We're having a pretty good year for them here too. I've just been too busy to get out there and get them. The few times I went, the ones I found were already past their prime for palatability.

I just fried some of those pheasant backs yesterday to put in the venison stew I made in the crockpot yesterday as well. Picked them when I went out bird hunting that morning. They aren't bad, but not as good as the old standby wild field mushrooms.

Seems to be a lot of dead trees around.

Ended up with 120 morels this year. Not a bad year at all

Anyone finding morels in Wisconsin? Planning a trip to the farm next weekend. Finally some rain

Sorry for the delay in response. Just saw the question. Dew berries are very similar to the black berry, except they grow on a vine along the ground or crawling up trees, and fence post. Where the Black Berry grows more on a stalk type plant. Both have thorns the dewberry has much smaller, but more abundant thorns. I have always found the Dew Berry to be sweeter, but that's strictly opinion based. They grow ALL OVER East Texas. Whenever I am out on properties working and stop for lunch during the Spring I always find a handful for dessert.

-Bones

Found about 2 dozen morels today, some dryads saddles, crown tipped corals, and sulfur shelfs.

All I could find are more Golden Oysters :-) JF

No oysters here yet.

These were from about 2 weeks ago.

"Either way, it's easy to see if you slice them in half longways."

"how do you prepare them"

Spotted these this morning...

And these...

Was a beautiful morning in Penn's woods today.

Went for a walk about yesterday at our archery range and WOW. I hit the mother load. Chantrelles and chicken-of-the-woods. JF

Nice find Jeff. I haven't found any fungus among us lately.

-Bones

Nice finds Jeffro. I found some white oysters a few days ago, but I was too late. We finally got a little rain, so I'm getting itchy to get back out there. I don't think it was enough though. More rain is expected in the next few days so I'm hopeful the chants will jump up again. My best spots are late spots.

The couple down the street went mushroom hunting this spring. The score was 5 to 36. 5 mushrooms- 36 ticks. They didn't know that we had ticks.

I just got back. Picked a big bag full of chanterelles on the game lands. Saw some corals and oysters that were too old, and some sulfur shelfs that were too young. Found some good deer sign, and some bear sign too. Saw one tick crawling on my arm.

Here's a unique one.

Picked half a bag of them today. Slim pickin's out there. It's not a great year for Chanterelles here. The lack of rain and high temps happened at the most inopportune time.

Grilled shrimp over Chanterelle risotto for dinner. Holy crap... my wife's a good cook.

Yummy :-) :-) JF

I guess a little bit of rain is all they need. Guess what I'll be doing for the next few days?

You know, there's guys selling these things locally for $25 a pound. That's $500-600 worth of Chanterelles there on that table... and I'm gonna eat em!

Dontcha just love going up to pull your arrow out of a stump, looking beyond it and seeing Chanty Gold in the sunshine as it filters down through the trees? Oh my, my. Life is good.

I'd like to go out and keep shooting, but I DON'T want to find any more mushrooms right now. As I was walking out the last trip, I looked at the ground in front of me so I wouldn't see any more shrooms. LOL

Those are awesome and yummy :-):-) JF

Thought I’d share this picture with my fellow stump shooting shroom hunters.

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