Morels

What are morels

Morels are sac fungi in the division Ascomycota, and in the genus Morchella, Verpa, and Discotis. However, the true Morels are Morchella. These are very tasty mushrooms, and I found a good haul unexpectedly yesterday of half-free Morels (Morchella Punctipes). I was so happy, as I have been foraging mushrooms with my father since 2014, and it has been since spring 2015 we've been looking for the morels, and 5 years later, in 2020, I found them. We cooked some and they tasted soooooooooo good! That's why they are so valuable. But, a good chunk of the value also is thank to them being somewhat rare, though they can be common, but appear rare because they are hard to see. They sell for 200 dollars fresh by the pound, and 300 dollars dried by the pound, but I found them for FREE! Yes, Mother Nature gives them for FREE, if you have very good eyes, like me. The kinds here, well, for now is the half-free morel, but soon, the much larger, a bit tastier, and much meatier yellow morels, black morels, and gray Morels will be out. In Canada, the season lasts a week, while here in the states, depending on if you have a cooler or warmer than average spring can last a month or two. They mostly come in the spring, but there has been occasionally some reported in the fall too. So when looking for Hen of the Woods in fall, if you find a morel, you're super lucky. But chances are if not a Hen of the Woods, a bear's head, oyster mushrooms, Chicken of the Woods, and if your also lucky, a very late season or even off season chanterelle. But in spring, if not a morel, then a Pheasants back, which tastes like mushrooms mixed with melon rinds, which is actually pretty good. The smell of Pheasants back is a specific melon, a watermelon, though maybe a honeydew or cantaloupe, I'm not sure, but it mainly smells of watermelons.