# Somertime morels



## stealydawn (Mar 21, 2004)

I have read that there is a variety of morels that I think is called a giant. From what I remember from the book they are found in pine or cedar, sometimes along the great lakes shores. Suppoes to grow to over 1' tall. Has anyone found one recently with pictures. Thanks.


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## IT pimp 2002 (Apr 2, 2002)

I think, the ones you are speaking of still come up in the spring, just that they follow the darks and also the greys. I have found some that are over 12 inches tall but its just towards the end of the spring season not durring the summer months. Great site for information is the:www.michiganmorels.com

Happy hunting!


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## allegan whitetailer (Jul 9, 2004)

are you talking about the white ones or different yet


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## stealydawn (Mar 21, 2004)

I saw a discription of them in a mushroom hunters handbook, about 10 years ago. The article specifically mentioned, along the nortern great lakes shorlines, somtimes found all the way into July!


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## trout (Jan 17, 2000)

I would not doubt a July Morel.


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## otown (Jul 11, 2003)

trout,
My brother and his wife, who are morel freaks usually go up in late July to the lake and stay well into August.
Neither one of them, unlike me, could tell a fib if their lives depended on it and they go for evening walks in the area up in back of the cottage (you know the area). 2 years ago they found a mess of whites up there about the first of August. If they were amateurs, I'd question it, but Jan hunts every day near their home in IN for almost 2 months and knows her stuff. She hunts for so long as she discovered years ago that the 'usual' season is sometimes a bust but they still come up much later anyway and times will even be spread out from area to area.
I have a patch of King Boletes under a cedar tree in the front yard and it's 'pop time' has varied up to 3 months in the last 6 years.
Year, it sounds wacky and I did a double take when he told me but I absolutely believe them.

o town


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

This rain has the russula's and bolletes out big time. I found my first dark bolletes this year. Pretty cool.


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## kingfisher2 (Mar 22, 2001)

I have found the giant yellows in late May in the Plymouth area. These get well over a foot tall. Some look like basketballs the get so large around.

Marc


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

Finnally got my girlfreind out with me which was a miracle and we had a blast! Found my first ever chicken, first bluettes, and what I think to be about a thousand honeys... and one more bollete. Im still pumped up and cant wait to see the spore print results if so Ill have a surplus of them for a long time.


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## otown (Jul 11, 2003)

Lunker,
When a lot of Michiganders learn that the best and most abundant mushrooms occur in the late summer and early fall and learn to identify them, the woods will be trampled with mesh bag carriers.
I've found clusters of oysters and fried chickens that filled a 5 gallon bucket. Glad to see your enthusiasm and wish you more luck in the future.

o town


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## kingfisher2 (Mar 22, 2001)

Can somebody post pics of these other mushrooms? I see quite a few in the woods this time of the year, but have no clue on what's good.

Thanks,

Marc


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

O town thanks brother! I almost didnt want to post on here but I couldnt help myself. Its too much fun not to share with people. I hope I have some left after I post this.

Heres the ones I found Kingfisher....
http://www.bluewillowpages.com/mushroomexpert/images/kuo/armillaria_mellea_04big.jpg

The honeys will be a yellow to a brown and may or may not have a ring around the stem. I dont recomend this one to the beginner because of the many shades it takes on. Always spore print!!! The honeys should have white spore print.

Chickens, hens of the woods, oysters, chantrelles are the real good ones and easier too not mix up.

I do recomend the the National Audobon Society feild guide to North American Mushrooms. Its a maroon colored soft back with tons of color pics thats held up well with all the abuse I put on it. Also very fair priced at around 20 dollars at Barnes and Nobles. its the only book I need and when I need more pictures. I go here...


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## trout (Jan 17, 2000)

Lunker,
You need to take a drive up here sometime this Fall.
In good years you could fill a truck up with honeys/stumpers.
But everytime people post about shrooms we get a hot dry spell so I am sitting here waiting for cooler temps and nightly rains.


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## otown (Jul 11, 2003)

You're all coming into the best 'shroomin' time of the year so go for it.
Was up in MI almost 20 years ago with Doc and his wife bird hunting when we started to see mushrooms everywhere and were tempted to try some. Having been raised on morels as the queen and everything else was probably poison, we all decided to go into town and check out references at the local library.
Deal was we each selected a delectable species, learned to identify it and picked only that one. No mixing and the back end of the deal was we each had to eat what we picked first.
We ended up making complete meals out of mushrooms and pigging out. That fall opened up a whole new world and I love it. Take a specie or 2 at a time and learn them. Can't miss and you will eventually get down to 5 or 6 types and hunt only them.
Lunker was right about the Audubon guide being the best, but a word of caution is to check as many references as possible. Pics of the same specie will vary from book to book because of lighting and maturity. 
Only rule I have is to never eat anything all white except puffballs, horse and meadow mushrooms, which are easy to identify, and, if it grows on wood, it's probably OK. Only a few obscure species of wood-feeders are sickeners and they are easy to identify.
Go get 'em!!

o town


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## kingfisher2 (Mar 22, 2001)

Thanks for the reply. I think I'll wait and hunt them with somebody that knows what they are doing. I pick Morels yearly and only do it for the enjoyment of being out in the woods. I am deathly allergic to them, almost dying the last time I ate them. I do not want to get in trouble with another shroom....


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

O Town how do you store your shrooms for winter. I hate to dry them to a wrinkly paper like things. Im trying to get my Grandma to teach me to can and I sautee alot of the oysters and freeze them afterwords in ziplocks. Those were a big hit at a party last month with venison steaks... how do you do it? 


Trout I d enjoy the Trout mushroom tour. You should put together a mushroom hunting meet and greet. I hear the Lobsters are going strong up North of you by an hour. Im really looking forward to getting into some Lobsters and Chantrelles , two I havent found yet.


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## trout (Jan 17, 2000)

I'd be up for a Shroom M&G.
Best time would be Mid to late Sept, Early Oct.
We have 10K of playground near me.


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## otown (Jul 11, 2003)

If I remember right, seems I sent one Trout dude out in back of my boathouse one early AM with a flashlight to pluck up some shaggy manes for the scrambled eggs. That was a few years ago when we were hunting birds and it was fun.
He did an admirable job and didn't get lost. I've hung out with some hairy survival types and none can beat Trout for general observation. None.
Looks like I'm going to be tied up with projects, hunt tests and field trials this fall as I'm now a 'gunner' for AKC. Probably won't make it up but will post later.
Shrooms, shrooms, shrooms.
Best of luck and health to you and yours and hope we all meet sometime.

o town


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## trout (Jan 17, 2000)

We can FED EX some to you if you can't make it up.


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## stealydawn (Mar 21, 2004)

Can anyone show soom pictures or links for these treats.


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

O Town Ill trade you some dried honeys, blewits, or chickens, maitaki for some for some dried florida kings. I can find every other bollete but the porcini.


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## otown (Jul 11, 2003)

Okay, we are up to our butts in water from Charley, were without power and water for 8 days, can't get out the tractor to pull out dead trees and are looking down the barrel of a worse hurricane.
Other than having developed a bunker mentality in 3 weeks, shrooms are on my mind.
Lunker, I have the dangdest patch of Ceps, or Kings or Porcinis or whatever we call them locally under a big Cedar tree in the front pasture. We discovered them 2 days after we bought the place some years ago and felt blessed. Lynn came in last year dragging a 5 gallon bucketful. Strangely, none showed this year. OK, we didn't treat any of the area with any chemical substance or fertilizer, so it's a head-scratcher. Otherwise, you'd be getting a package or 2 in the mail.
All your kind offers to ship stuff are much appreciated but I'm into the oyster harvest right now and they are everywhere. We are flush with shrooms and the fall run of Mahi-Mahi. I think I will sprout gills of one sort or another soon but don't know what my spore color will be.
You guys are one of the few sane links I have left, so keep this thread going.

o town


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

Wow I was hoping you were untouched by the hurricane, Im glad none of your family got hurt and no damage. Ok to keep your mind on the right track.. My favorite mush hunter and I found about 20 giant meadows maybe horses there so huge and tons of the brown ringless honies today. Also some giant green spored lepiotas..if only there were parasols and . Also some baby chikens and oysters and hens that will be ready in a few days. I found 2 clumps of oysters last week but were too far gone.

Now heres the real question ..have you done any cloning from spores?
Im very eager to learn how.


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## otown (Jul 11, 2003)

Glad you all are finding some good ones.
Cloning from spores? Haven't come across that one and once I thought about it, it should be possible, given the proper medium.
Cell culture has been going on in agri-business for years, a lot of it in the plant nursery business. Take a plant, say an orchid, pulverize it in a sort of blender, sort out all the whole individual cells, put them in the proper medium and 'bam'!, a bazillion clones. Might work with spores.
I've been away from it for 20 years but helped set up one lab in Lantana, FL. They were super sterilization freaks as just about any old mold or fungus loves their mediums. I mean air-locks, space suits, the whole thing.
Now you have me thinking.
Anyway, keep hunting. Season of plenty runs 'til October.

o town


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## otown (Jul 11, 2003)

What threw me was 'cloning'. Spore replication isn't cloning, it's just doing what nature would do anyway, unless they've changed some definitions.
There are a bunch of spore sources and information on how to cultivate. If I were starting out, I'd start with learning how to preserve the spores you all will have access to in the next few months, then on how to cultivate them.
Anyone with access to larger population center with upscale restaurants and markets should be able to sell everything they can grow for a pricey amount. Heckuva cottage industry for your garage. I'm going to look into it.

o town


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

At least 15 pounds of hens ( maitaki)
30 pounds of GIANT meadows.
One blue staining bollete
Lots of fairy rings
way too much work cleaning them all


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

Hope your doing well O town. I know theres lots of people without power down there. My girlfriend found the greatest chicken ever!! ITs huge and very tasty. It made my day and is about 5 pounds ...well now a half pound less after lunch. It was almost as beautiful as her but not quite  Shes only been hunting with me for a few weeks but found a chicken which took me 5 years 
Hope your doing ok...


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## fmarke (Jun 28, 2003)

hey trout, sounds like you've hit it!! midland cty has quite a few hen of the woods in the falll, and gladwin rocks in the spring with morels and oysters. where are you finding the stumpies as it sort of looks like a dry, nonproductive fall around here.


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## skulldugary (Apr 12, 2003)

Yep that shroom hunting is a blast,I found a 6# cluster of honies last Friday, the biggest one was 6 1/2" across.I guess that there is still some lobsters to be found.


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

Nice find Skullduggary! Were getting rain here right now which is very nice! I love the rain now I havent found any lobsters or chantrelles now but have found just about every other. Cant wait to see what this rain will bring.


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## otown (Jul 11, 2003)

Glad you all are having a blast. We just got power back, off since fri eve. 
Too much rain, anyone know about aquatic mushrooms? Best time is coming if you have rain. The woods will blossom.
One thing I never found too many of was chanterelles. Would appreciate when and where if you find any.
Everybody OK, lost ther barn roof and misc. stuff. Battle impending with the ins. co's. Think I'll go hunt shrooms.

o town


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

Good to hear from ya Otown. Glad everyones ok.
I found a 5 pound giant white puffball and lots of burnt sugar russullas ,rosy russullas, detroying angel and baby bollets going out now to investigate the shroom situation today.
Looking for more fridge space or am going to have to sell some soon.

Just got back and found 2 onion bags full of red gilled agaricus.


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## otown (Jul 11, 2003)

Wow, you all are in shroom city right now. Dry, dry, dry for the lean seasons.

o town


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## Banditto (Jun 9, 2000)

I found some volleyball sized giant white puffball around this time last year. I heard they grow in the same place from year to year. I am due to take a ride anyway, maybe I should check it out.

I found the oddest looking fungus growing 20ft up in a dead oak tree. Yellow about the size of a basketball, kinda resembled a brain. Struck me odd it growing so high up and nothing else growing around it. I will try to get a picture next time I am north.


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## StumpJumper (Nov 13, 2001)

Lunker did you post about those on a mushroom board too? Those aren't edible if you didnt


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

The destroying angels are deadly, yes. The giant puffballs are great and russullas and milkys are ok nothing exciting. It was just the first I found and posted the find ... I get excited on every new species I find.

Banditto that sounds like a chicken and is great eating. Ive been frying mine up the last 3 days and adding it to omlettes. Or with tomatoes and chicken spices w lots of garlic and banana peppers. It was good.


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## Sailor (Jan 2, 2002)

Being a Boheimian mushroom freak who has over 60 years of gathering and drying experience I was surprised to learn about freezing shrooms!
A friend of ours told me last year to fry up my Stumpies (and others) and freeze the cooked mushrooms. I thought she was nuts but tried it. They're
as good as fresh! I just fry them in butter (sprinkled with some caraway seeds) and freeze them. It shure beats drying them.


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## trout (Jan 17, 2000)

I'm going to start a new thread titled "Fall Shrooms"

That way this one won't get too long and the title is mis-leading.


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