Morel mushrooms

[tomdc]

My one foraging for mushrooms story takes place after I had just moved into my first apartment in a brownstone on E. 95th St in NYC owned by an artist, Giorgio Cavallon and his wife.

One day Giorgio asked me if I'd like to go mushroom hunting with him and a friend who was a mycologist. Not terribly excited by the prospect of spending time with a mushroom person, I agreed, just to ingratiate myself to Giorgio.

The morning of the hunt arrived, I knocked on Giorgio's door to discover that my idea of a boring mushroom person was, in fact, John Cage accompanied by his partner Merce Cunningham.

We found a huge cache of chanterelles and John taught me how to use them in scrambled eggs. Not a word all day was spoken about art, dance or music. The only topic of discussion was mushrooms.

I never again looked at mushrooms the same way.

[DonRocks]

my idea of a boring mushroom person was, in fact, John Cage ... Not a word all day was spoken about art, dance or music.

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I was once criticized for playing 4'33" too slowly.

[bbq4meanytime]

Monica, both Whole foods and Sutton Place have the dried. Not the best prices but it won't break the bank either if all you need is a few. If you were going to stock up, I'd mail order dried. Lots of sources on the internet. As pointed out above, fresh are seasonal but the dried will work great for most everything.

[bakerboy]

Gotta go with fred on this one. I forage for morels in the spring , but i have a degree in mycology and know exactly what i'm looking for. The false morels are real. You don't need a degree to know what your looking for but its not wise to romantcize foraging for morels or any other mushroom. The toxins don't just make you ill, they make you dead. This isn't scare tactics, just facts.

Fresh morels are expensive and there's not a big window for that market. Dried are always available.

Why aren't they grown commercially? Well, researchers, including a few in my dept., have had success growing the fungus but no luck getting it to friut. The last i heard there was a company in lansing, michigan that successfully fruited blond morels. It's ok, i kinda like the seasonality of them.

[stovetop]

They can not grow them on logs, lke oyster mushrooms and shitakes, somebody I am sure will fiqure it out, Otto would for sure would have done it, if it could be done??

Chanterels also can not grown on logs, they also are still wild muchrooms in the commercial market

false morrels are easy to pick out, like I said before pick one mushroom stick with picking it, once you a very confident, then move to the next one,one at a time, I am not a fool, we all should be carefull in the woods, but it realy is not that difficult to indentify a morrel, i made 600 dollars in a week when I was eighteen, I had know idea about mushroom, if I can learn then anybody can learn.

steve

[tomdc]

my idea of a boring mushroom person was, in fact, John Cage ... Not a word all day was spoken about art, dance or music.

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I was once criticized for playing 4'33" too slowly.

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It probably wasn't your tempo, as much as your damned rubato. Stop tapping your foot !!!

[percyn]

I have seen them in early summer at the Arlington farmers market and at Wegmans.  Never bought them at Wegmans, but if I remember they were $16 or $17 for a small paper sack.  That was a lot in terms of quantity - maybe 15 or 20.  They're pretty lightweight mushrooms.

Those were the only shrooms I bought from the mushroom lady that I thought weren't all that great, but it may have been because it was her last bag that day.

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Bought some "fresh" Morels from a PA Wegmans yesterday for $29.99/lb.

[Alex]

I have seen them in early summer at the Arlington farmers market and at Wegmans.  Never bought them at Wegmans, but if I remember they were $16 or $17 for a small paper sack.  That was a lot in terms of quantity - maybe 15 or 20.  They're pretty lightweight mushrooms.

Those were the only shrooms I bought from the mushroom lady that I thought weren't all that great, but it may have been because it was her last bag that day.

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Bought some "fresh" Morels from a PA Wegmans yesterday for $29.99/lb.

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Hmm. They're the same price here in MI at a local supermarket chain. I smell a price-fixing scandal.

The store said they get their morels from a supplier who follows the morel trail, so to speak, all over the country. For example, a week or two ago the morels were harvested in Nebraska.

[bilrus]

At the Arlington Market yesterday the Mushroom lady had the best looking morels I've seen for $20/container. Not cheap but these were huge, golden, beautiful specimens.

[aliénor]

just finished my dinner. we had sauteed chicken breats with a fontina cheese topping and i served it with morel mushrooms. i bought them fresh for $19.99 a pound at my local coop food mart. here in hanover, n.h. we are lucky to have a wonderful coop supermarket with an absolutely great produce department that provides us with wonderrful fresh produce. today i could have boutght fiddleheads, ramps, morels and other fresh spring produce. so even tho it is a small town of 10,000 we are lucky to get big city food

[xxdxxd2004]

Locally? Online? suggestions on how to tell if they are "good"? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

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Dear Monical Bhide:

if you need the dried morel few,i can sent it to your door by free charge,if you need much,i can sent you some morel to have a taste for free charge,when you like the quality i can sell it to you.why?i live in yunnan china,the yunnan's morel is very cheap,it is far more cheaper than your countries' morel,even include the transport fee to your door.the quality is very good.the yunnan'morel is very famous on the world.

if you like i can tell you the price,and sent some to your door for free charge.