Morels (mushrooms) 2014

Cooked my four tonight, cast iron skillet my o my, Delicious.
 
My inlaws in Central Iowa apparently found about 400 last weekend but they said they were all the very tiny ones. I don't know where they found them, but I have my suspicions based on where I have hunted with them.

Does anyone else here get sick when eating them? I love them but my oldest daughter and I got violently ill off of them (on a car trip, no less) about 15 years ago and I have been very sensitive to them every since. I didn't eat them for about 5 years and even now when I smell them frying I have a mixed sense of hunger and nausea. I have gotten sick on them again several times since even sometimes when I just eat a few. It sucks, because I love the taste and enjoy hunting.

And no, it is not because they aren't morels. No one else gets sick when we eat them and my FIL has been hunting them for over 60 years. He knows what he is doing. Also, I don't get sick from any other mushrooms, only morels.
 
Yeah, it's kind of amazing what people miss. I hunt a state park in Illinois, along with a million other people. Walking out of a thick area one day I pass a guy walking in. He asks, "How do you find these things? I said, Turn around, take for steps and look down, then follow those out. The guy missed about 10 nice yellows walking in.

Some people just don't have the patience or eye for them most likely.


I love morels, but suck at finding them...I think it's my colorblindness, I can't see the color difference between the 'shrooms and the leaves from more than about 4 feet away. Went with a buddy one time, he found 2 gallon ziplocs full, I found zero.
 
I love morels, but suck at finding them...I think it's my colorblindness, I can't see the color difference between the 'shrooms and the leaves from more than about 4 feet away. Went with a buddy one time, he found 2 gallon ziplocs full, I found zero.

I am color blind as well and it does make it more difficult no doubt.
 
My inlaws in Central Iowa apparently found about 400 last weekend but they said they were all the very tiny ones. I don't know where they found them, but I have my suspicions based on where I have hunted with them.

Does anyone else here get sick when eating them? I love them but my oldest daughter and I got violently ill off of them (on a car trip, no less) about 15 years ago and I have been very sensitive to them every since. I didn't eat them for about 5 years and even now when I smell them frying I have a mixed sense of hunger and nausea. I have gotten sick on them again several times since even sometimes when I just eat a few. It sucks, because I love the taste and enjoy hunting.

And no, it is not because they aren't morels. No one else gets sick when we eat them and my FIL has been hunting them for over 60 years. He knows what he is doing. Also, I don't get sick from any other mushrooms, only morels.

I was going to say they might be false morels, but never mind.
 
I am color blind as well and it does make it more difficult no doubt.

Did you go to sopers mill like you stated earlier or was it in town? When I used to live in Ames we went to Munn woods, but I didn't ever find any there.
 
Found approximately fifty today in a very small area. Delicious.
 
My inlaws in Central Iowa apparently found about 400 last weekend but they said they were all the very tiny ones. I don't know where they found them, but I have my suspicions based on where I have hunted with them.

Does anyone else here get sick when eating them? I love them but my oldest daughter and I got violently ill off of them (on a car trip, no less) about 15 years ago and I have been very sensitive to them every since. I didn't eat them for about 5 years and even now when I smell them frying I have a mixed sense of hunger and nausea. I have gotten sick on them again several times since even sometimes when I just eat a few. It sucks, because I love the taste and enjoy hunting.

And no, it is not because they aren't morels. No one else gets sick when we eat them and my FIL has been hunting them for over 60 years. He knows what he is doing. Also, I don't get sick from any other mushrooms, only morels.

Do they cook the half-free morels as well? I know a lot of people do. They look very similar to morels, only have smaller cap than stem and instead of the stem becoming the cap, the stem actually goes up inside the cap, more like a regular mushroom. They are considered ok to eat, although I do know a couple of people who have gotten ill eating that type. There are a couple of versions of the Half free. One is in the morel family, morchella semilibera, but the others, in teh verpa family would be my guess as the ones that are causing the illness. The Half frees are very hard to tell a part if you haven't spent time studying them. Stick with the morchella esculenta (classic morel) and you'll probably not have the issues.

Look them up on google - "verpa vs. morel" and you can see the differences. I personally have never eaten a half free. I used to be really into mycology and love to just go out looking for all kinds of mushrooms. There are very few that I will eat outside of morels though. And those I do, have no known look a likes.
 
Last edited:
On mothers day six of us found 16#'s in Benton County. Will be going back out on Sat, father in law found quite a few yesterday also.
 
People still finding them in central Iowa this weekend? Thinking about going out tomorrow.