Have I got any morels?

[Muddypause]

Anybody care to confirm if this is a morel?





According the Richard Mabey's book 'Food For Free' (which is the only thing I have with fungi in it), I'm pretty sure it is, but it does warn of a poisonous false morel.

Anyway, I just tried a small bit of it to see what happens - if you don't hear from me after a few days, consider sending flowers.

[Rohen]

Looks like a morel to me

You jammy jammy person


http://images.google.co.uk/images?clien ... rch+Images

[Muddypause]

Good-oh. I feel pretty confident of the identification (though have been reading dire warnings about the false morel), so think a mushroom omlet might be in order for breakfast.

A bit of Googling finds that it is the second most prized fungi after truffles.

[Millymollymandy]

Have you looked at this site with photos of both types of morel?

http://morelsandmore.com/morelpics.htm

I think the false morel doesn't really look much like a morel!

I also think you are very lucky and I BET you are not going to tell anyone where you found them!

[Muddypause]

Having now seen some pics., I'm sure it's not a false morel, but even that link, M3, doesn't altogether clarify things: "Always remember that the cap has a nice cone shape" - I'd say this one was not at all cone shaped.

Anyway, 'tis only a tiddler, and it's now going to get cooked.

[Millymollymandy]

I hope you come back to tell us what it was like. Where's Andy anyway, as he's pretty good at mushroom ID.

[Muddypause]

Well, I'm a bit in two minds about it. I can't say I'd go very far out of my way to have some more of it. It was certainly mushroomy, but I think that little one was a bit overpowered by the omlet I put it in. I'd need to try more before I could say much more about it.

It may well have suffered from being left a while before I ate it - probably a day and a half sitting on a tea towel in a warm kitchen while I tried to find out what it was.

[Dave]

I think the false Morel does look quite different and it seems like you're not dead Stew so it must be a Morel.
I've still not found any in Bristol, what sort of environment was it you found it in, they're a woodland spieces aren't they? I must get looking.

[Muddypause]

Hi Dave,

Most of what I've read on the web says they're a woodland spieces, but I found this one in an open field. I suppose it was quite near some hawthorn bushes, but certainly not woodland. Chalky downland just off the Ridgeway path, much used by cows and dog walkers.

I'll probably be back there soon, so I'll keep me lookenpeepers peeled.

[Dave]

Ah excellent, I might be passing through Oxfordshire this weekend-so a trip up the ridgeway might be in order (time permiting). I've spotted some barn owls up that way before. Looks like I might see the even rarer Muddypause in the future.

[Cheezy]

Muddy, you have just given me a shock.

I have a mushroom book, and I am always very careful about picking. If there are anything that look like the one I'm going to pick, that are dodgy, I give them a miss.

So when a got FIVE morels growing in MY GARDEN this year I was overjoyed (jumping around like a loon was the pointed comment). The only way I got the wife to join me in my shroom fest was to point out that in the book there was nothing in the poisonous section that looked "like" a morel QED. And that they had come up exactly at the right time

My book clearly several times does stress that the morel MUST be cooked

PS I think I introduced the spores from the bark mulch I bought two years ago. I saw one last year and left it to spore. And sure enough in a direct line from the first one (prevailing wind) I had four more this year over a 2 meter line.

WHOOOHOOO!

[Muddypause]

So when a got FIVE morels growing in MY GARDEN this year I was overjoyed

Sounds good. I've twice been back to the site I found the first one at, but despite a good hunt around there was not another morel to be found.

My book clearly several times does stress that the morel MUST be cooked

I saw that on one website about them, but others didn't mention it at all, and nor did Food For Free. Maybe Dave or someone can clarify this (I did try a thin sliver of it raw, but detected no ill effects).

Just to confuse things, apparently it is possible to eat the false morel, but it must be cooked and rinsed two or three times before the toxins are rendered safe, and even breathing in the vapour from cooking them can be mildly deadly. Apparently just being in the same room as a false morel can bring on headaches and nausea, yet it seems these things are a delicacy in Scandinavia. It makes you wonder 1) how, and 2) why, anybody would even want to try to find a way of eating something so poisonous.

[Wormella]

Mildly deadly? Such a thing exsisits?

I always assumed there wasn't much to do in rural Scandinavia so working out how to eat something posinus probably passed the time

[Millymollymandy]

Where are those posters from Sweden? They have gone quiet! Or have they been eating false morels......