Morels in Springtime
Paul went for a walk in @kantrowitzbackyard to check for a mysterious water line and were pleasantly surprised to find...MORELS!
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Morels are enigmatic in their sudden appearance and disappearance, especially in disturbed grounds - after fires, in and around construction sites, gravelly road edges, in washes where streams have overflowed, under elm trees, young fir trees, sometimes randomly for unknown reasons. And they have this strange proclivity for cardboard and disintegrating gypsum board. But, one habitat consistently supports morels - aging apple orchards. They usually appear the last week of April through May in the temperate regions of North America and Europe. (I do not know about Eurasia, but suspect they also appear at a similar time.)
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Although one of the best of edible mushrooms, there are some caveats:
Morels contain volatile compounds which can be t*xic so which is quickly vaporizes upon cooking. And never eat morels raw, or let them rot with bacteria and eat. Some people get very ill.
Also, morels can hyper accumulate lead arsenate - formulations of which were commonly used in insecticides around apple orchards – until we knew better. So, my advice is to cook your morels thoroughly in a well vented area and don't pick them in areas where copper arsenate insecticides have been used.
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And not only are they delicious, but their stem butts regrow into mycelium when pieces are placed into cardboard. See photos here on how to do this. Once grown out, plant the cardboard in your garden in the fall to mulch weeds and post-harvest vegetable matter...and hopefully they will pop up in the spring. Or spread the myceliated cardboard around apple trees. No guarantees but you don't know what will happen until you try to get mycelial mileage from the stem butts.
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We all need better morels!
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Oh, by the way, Grizzly bears like them too, so look over your shoulder if you are in bear country. Bears may treat you as competition for this delicacy.)
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"Taxonomic revision of true morels (Morchella) in Canada and the United States". Mycologia. 104 (5): 1159–1177. doi:10.3852/11-375.
Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
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Filming by Pam Kryskow