morel mushrooms 2018
 

The season will soon be here after a long winter can't wait. Had the last pack from 2017 on elk steak other night.

Have a fairly recent burn by my house. I'm looking forward to the "hunt" as well!

Counting the sleeps. Thimble caps (Verpa, false morel) and morels are so soon I can almost smell them. I have one cup of dried morels left. Good timing.

Lots of good places for Shaggy Manes near me.

Eugene,

please do not eat the "round Morels" if that is what you call a false morel. There have been some fatalities from it.

Last year was a boomer year for Verpa, and the black top and brown top (fire) morels.

Good wet spring so far, lots of ground moisture. Lets hope for the best!!!

Drewski

Thanks for your concern. It is important to know the what you are eating and how to prepare it.

I have eaten a few fresh verpas thru the years and was told they are ok if you boil them first with lots of ventilation. Boiling releases the toxic gases so don't stand over the pot. Then use them for your recipe. Also, you should never eat verpas and drink wine together. Drying the verpa supposedly removes the 'jet fuel' from the verpa.

Looking up more info I found this article which good info on IDing the Verpa or Gyromitra species. I may consider not picking them anymore just for long term health sake.

http://theforagerpress.com/fieldguide/gyromitra.htm

Cool story alert.....A couple of years ago I fried a bunch of verpas and chased them with a beer and was puking my gutts out a couple hours later. Careful out there shroomers

The wife and I have previously gone through fire burns from the previous year and we make about $200.00 a day each.

Soooo? :thinking-006: Wondering if anyone has been out and if there are any indicators ? Should be any day now....

Alberta Mycological Society
 

Eugene,

One of my office partners is the past president of the Alberta Mycological Society (AMS).

They have an excellent web site.

You are correct about the fumes from cooking the Verpa and the Morel in fact.

I am a rank amateur at mushrooms compared to the guys who are members of the AMS, but pretty good by common standards. My knowledge was passed down by your typical Ukrainian Baba.

AMS does public "forays" every year, and are a great bunch and very friendly and helpful. If someone is interested in learning about wild mushrooms, I encourage contacting the AMS and looking at their web site.

We do have some bad mushrooms in Alberta, but a lot of very good ones as well. Those round false morels the size of a golf ball, and little to no stem, have caused some fatalities, yet other people have eaten them without a problem. But why take chances?

The Verpas tend to have a long stem, smallish Christmas tree "morel top", and are edible. They are not the black Christmas tree top of the prized Morel, and are usually more a tan colour top.

In this day and age, it is easy to download images of safe mushrooms on your phone for comparison.

Drewski

Drew.... I picked wild mushrooms with my parents as a kid and have made it a personal tradition since. I have a few good local locations. The pic shows 3 hours of picking in one location, on May 5 last year. So i'm thinking it's almost prime time.

NOW THAT'S JUST MEAN!!!

I did OK last year, but Eugene, you are the Mushroom GOD!!!

This weekend there may be a few out given the good ground moisture.

I'll check some spots and report back to you.

The irony is that I have had my throat get sore a few times eating the odd mushroom (mild anaphylaxis reaction) so I don't even eat them!!! but I love hunting for them!

Drewski

Not trying to derail this thread. But does anyone have a source for learning about wild mushrooms in Alberta? I’m interested in learning and possibly collecting!

There is this site that lists most of the wild edible mushrooms of Alberta.

http://northernbushcraft.com/

Lots of other internet resources to look up each species. The Alberta Mycological Society has chapters around Alberta. They host mushroom forays and have workshops every year.

http://www.wildmushrooms.ws/

Hardly a god.. more of a geek. :dork: I was at another AO member's house a couple years ago and he had a 5 gallon pail filled with dried morels.

Morels
 

I am going looking tomorrow. Lots of moisture, 22 - 24 degrees for the next few days, a person might get lucky.

Ronji,

When I was a young man, and Spring was in the air, and hot temperatures caused the opposite sex to shed their winter garb, I was trying to get lucky too.

Oh and by the way, good luck on the mushroom hunt as well.

Drewski

I went out today for a look see and came to the conclusion that one of my 'morel patches' needs to green up for another week. Still too brown in the bush. My one patch is pretty close to Ronji's place so I think he will agree. At least I found a dropped antler.

Always picking on mother's day for the last 30 years with my mom and baba

Can't get out until the long weekend but that's only 2 weeks out. Good over night temperatures and the splash of rain we got could have things looking good!

From last year's first day out. My youngin's first morels- was a tad excited.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e97f6eb225.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...31f4bd31fb.jpg

Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk

Verpa heads are fine from what I've found, and read, they are a smoky flavour.
We eat them every May and at times into early June if the season is late.
Mixed a few in to you onion & green pepper omelette, mmm.
But ya, if you insist on trying the stems too which have the white web, like what's been said, cook or boil them.
Don't confuse the verpa with the "bad news" false morel, iron colored, multi-shaped head.

TBark

HAH!
Oh, I tried getting lucky in the mushroom patch once. Something about young, dumb, and.......
No luck on finding any morels this weekend.

Sort of short notice but I thought I would share this ....

The U of A botanical garden is having a spring mushroom day course on May 12.

https://botanicgarden.ualberta.ca/ev...ing-mushrooms/

T-bark, that's the first I've heard that the heads are good, but not the stems...I thought it was the whole thing that was sketchy.
Either way I've been eating them for years (cooked), and I've never gotten sick, but if that's the case, I'll start ditching the stems and only cooking the heads.
I've never gotten sick, but I understand the effects can be more "long term" rather than immediate in some people.

I always seem to find way more Verpas than true Morels in my areas.

I hope to find some this weekend, though it's been so darn dry.

I'm working near Stavely and Red deer this weekend, so hopefully I'll have time to poke around and find a few.

Just in case you've been eyeballing the big burn that crossed the Kootenay National Park highway last summer - Parks Canada has put up some signs ...


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/943/4...8c7ee730_k.jpgDSCN5863 by Andrew Whittick, on Flickr

Went for another check today. Another few days before any morels pop around central Alberta. The bush is still too brown.

None yet around the nw side of pigeon gonna check the Breton land tonight

Anyone finding any yet, I've been looking and haven't found any. Pretty dry in the bush.

Went for a look in the bush around Lac La Biche yesterday and today. Nothing, appears to be too dry yet.

Been checking around in gp area. Nothing yet. Maybe need a rain shower to bring them on?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk