Thanks! this is what I need.. reassurance!
Any tips on the best areas to hunt? Any tell-tale signs saying "morels may be here" that you can recommend??
In the Midwest, we found them in oak and elm forests and also along fallen limbs and trunks that had begun to decay. They sometimes push up under leaves, so you have to look closely since the leaf will be partly covering the mushroom.
Here is how it works. You will look and look and look and not see a thing. Then you will find one, and suddenly you will see them all around you. I remember being 8 or 9 and hunting with Dad. I was getting whiny about all the walking I was doing and not finding any. Dad had found a few.
So I'm standing there whining, and Dad is getting tired of me whining. He says, "You gotta LOOK! You're standing right on one!"
Looked down at my foot, and right alongside it was a morel. Bent down to pick it, and by the time I stood up I had seen 8 or 10 more, all around me. We picked that site good, that day.
That's just kinda how it works.
My sister had a place right outside her door, practically, where they came up reliably every year by the grocery sack full.
They come in a couple sizes, smaller gray ones and larger yellow ones. I have seen some HUGE mushrooms.
So happy hunting next spring! You already know how delicious they are.
