Morel Mushrooms

I LOVE Morel Mushrooms!!  As a kid my Grandpa & I used to go hunting for Morel Mushrooms on his property.  Of course he had cattle that liked to eat the Morel Mushrooms also, so we would have to try & hurry to get to the Mushrooms before the cattle did.  Grandpa & I would walk all over his property looking for those lovely shrooms. 

Now we never found the huge batches of Morel Mushrooms, like I've hear of people finding.  You know the batch's of 100 or more.  If only we would of been that lucky, but we almost always got a good enough batch that we would split them, Grandma & Grandpa would have a good batch, plus I had a good batch to take home & mom would cook up for me, her & dad.

So we would put the Morel Mushrooms in salt water & soak them over night.  Then the next night mom would mix up an egg & milk, dip the Morel Mushrooms in the mixture.  Drop the Morel Mushrooms in flour & fry in the skillet.  When dinner was cooked along with the Morel Mushrooms we would dig in, I always add salt to my Morel Mushrooms before eating them.  I just think it adds a little to the taste.

So every year come Spring time Grandpa & I would go out looking for Morel Mushrooms, of course as I got older I would go on my own.  But I would remember the best spots that we found Morel Mushrooms from the year before & go look at those spots first, then of course I would go look at places Grandpa & I never looked at before.  He'd say I've never found them any other places so after so long I just stopped looking in new places.  He was right, of course lol, I'm not sure I ever found Morel Mushrooms in new places on his property.

It seemed like though every year there where fewer Morel Mushrooms to find.  There wasn't more cattle or anything like that.  Just seemed like the Morel Mushrooms just weren't growing very good.  So it kinda got to the point that if I found some they stayed with me & when Grandpa found some he kept what he found.  I mean when just one of us would go out looking we would usually share with the other person.  But if your only finding 5-10 Morel Mushrooms that barely makes a big enough batch for a small family.

So after I got married, I drug my husband along with me to look for Morel Mushrooms.  He's not really the outdoors type, but I wanted Morel Mushrooms & he didn't want me around the cattle without him.  So I called Grandpa & asked if we could go look on his property for Morel Mushrooms, he said of course.  As long as I shared with him.  So me & my husband went & searched all the old spots & looked everywhere we could.  Guess what!  We didn't find a single Morel Mushroom.  Man did that make my day turn into a very bad day.

So when we got home I need to walk around for a while because I was kind aggravated that we didn't find even one Morel Mushroom.  I wanted them really bad & didn't find any!  So I was walking around outside looking at the ground, that's just how I've always walked around,  & low & behold what do I find,  MOREL MUSHROOMS!!!   In town, in my father-in-law's back yard.  I couldn't believe it!!  I've always lived in the country & when I got married moved to town.  I never in all my years of growing up would of ever thought I would find Morel Mushrooms smack dab in the middle of town.

It's a small town of 3,000 people but still.  The conditions have to be just right for Morel Mushrooms to grow, so who would have ever thought they would grow in town.  So I no longer go to Grandpa's to try & find Morel Mushrooms, I just go to MY front yard & pick Morel Mushrooms.  I've found around 30 in a season, but for being in town in my front yard that's pretty good batch of Morel Mushrooms.

I've even thought about buying some Morel Mushrooms spores & spreading them in the yard to be able to grow even more Morel Mushrooms.  But I just haven't done that yet.  I didn't even know a person could buy the spore's to spread around.  I mean I know you can buy just about anything online now.  But Morel Mushrooms spores?  I see people selling the Morel Mushrooms on Ebay also.  Man now is that crazy or what?

So I guess if you have a few Morel Mushrooms growing in your yard, maybe you ought to think about spreading some more spore’s around & then selling them also.