mushrooms

[kads]

anyone finding any mushrooms yet, when not fishing..

[Grover]

Yesterday (4 April) found a dozen here in Oklahoma. They were very small though. If our temp would remain constent for a couple days we should start seeing more.

[bttmline]

I heard someone here in my area of Ohio found 4 tiny grays but I didn't see them. I agree with Grover, If we can just keep our temps up and constant for a week. Check out [url=http://www.morelmushroom.com]

[LSUguy]

I love eating them, only problem is I am highly alergic to poison ivy... everytime I have hunted for them I am covered the next day in a nasty itchy rash of poison ivy. If it weren't for that i'd be out looking.

[skeeter]

Whats the deal with the mushrooms? are they really that good? My luck i would get one of the ones from college..... NOT GOOD!

[Mohawk]

I found 4 yesterday here in Virginia. Going to give them a couple days.

Skeeter, if you type in "morals" in the google search you will find plenty of pictures and information about them. Morals are easy to identify, and are usually the first, or one of the first, mushrooms to come up in the spring. We find them mostly around stands of poplar trees. They grow in damp, well drained areas. They blend in well with the leaves, so you have to look close for them. Once you get the eye for them they are a lot of fun to look for. I enjoy looking for them as much as eating them. Better than Easter egg hunts. :D The black ones come up first around here, then the yellow and grays. I've found some that are tannish. The yellow morals get the biggest usually, but the black ones taste the best to me. But I love them all though.

Around here we call them "merkels," though some call them "miracles." I guess they feel it is a miracle if they find one! People call them different names in various parts of the country. In parts of W.Va they are called "mollymoochers."

The way I like to fix them is to cut them in half longways, rinse them good (get all the little bugs out) roll them in flour and fry them in butter until golden brown and crispy. . I recommend trying them like that first before putting a lot of other stuff on them so you taste the natural flavor. They are naturally salty, so I wouldn't put any salt on them. Some people use seasoned flour, or even fix them in scrambled eggs.

I used to eat various kinds of wild mushrooms a lot, but mainly just get the morals now. Some other mushrooms that are good to eat and easy to identify are sulphur shelf and hedgehog mushrooms. Sulphur shelf is found on logs in spring and fall after rains, and is orange and yellow banded on top and the underneath is yellow and porous. Tastes like chicken! The hedgehog mushroom gets fairly good size with a stem that grows off center. Underneath it has what appears to be hundreds of little teeth sticking down instead of gills. Good idea to look at them on internet or get a GOOD book on mushrooms before going out if you are new to mushroom hunting. (Mycology) The morals are hard to describe, but as I said, the internet has oodles of sites and pictures of them, and they are probably the easiest mushroom to identify. Puffballs are good to eat too, if you get them before they turn to spores. ALways cut them open to make sure they are white with a consistency sort of like cream cheese. There is one kind that is purple on the inside--DONT EAT THOSE. Cutting them in half also ensures you have not picked a little mushroom that has not opened up yet. Puff balls don't have much flavor, but they will take on the flavor of anything you cook them in or with like bacon grease for example. Some people like the little gem puffballs raw in salads. Puffballs are also supposed to be good at keeping stomach cancer away.

Other than puffballs, NEVER eat a white mushroom. The amanita, or "destroying angel" is a deadly mushroom. It is solid white, has a skirt around the top of the stem. A lot of Koreans get poisoned here in the US because they look like a certain mushroom they eat over there. It takes about 8 hours to get sick, and then you puke and have diarrhea for a few hours. THen you get to feeling better, but then you get sick again about a day later, then you die. It eats up your liver and kidneys. So, you can see just jumping in and picking a mushroom at random is not a good idea. Not meaning to scare anyone off from getting the morals, but as with all things you are new to, be careful!

[skeeter]

well i will have to try to find some when i go down to east texas... and after i get a good book...thanks for the info..

[poppop]

mohawk...what part of virginia are you in...I have a place in Grayson County...and thought of looking for some there.

[WhitePerchJerker]

Skeeter if you learn how to find them here in East Texas please teach me.

[skeeter]

LOL i dont know if i will find them but Im sure gonna look!