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Morels and Fiddleheads

13 years ago

Spring has finally come to Minnesota. And nothing says Spring like Morel mushrooms and Fiddlehead ferns!

I did not buy any today but will go back and get them tomorrow. My Sunday treat will be Morels sauteed in butter with garlic and fiddleheads braised in white wine.Served over pappardelle with freshly grated pepper and parmesan cheese.

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Comments (19)

pattypeterson2208
13 years ago
I love it!!! It's finally Spring, I planned to forage in the woods this spring. My broken ankle is not allowing me to do that. I am done with the cast (4 weeks)and only need my walking boot (4 weeks) if I am walking on I unever ground. Yesterday was the first day in real shoes, ankle and foot are still swollen. I was doing online research and realized I had seen ramps in the river bottom when I was hunting morels last year. I have never picked or eaten fiddleheads, did you pick those or were they at a store? Patty
Teresa_MN
Original Author
13 years ago
They were at a co-op that has them every spring.

My mom had tons of fiddleheads on her farm. I told a friend that owns a restaurant about them and he harvested them for sereral years. And then she sold her farm in 2007. She had morels too that my dad used to dig when he was still alive.
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And Fiddle Head Ferns (as the fiddle spools are nice and plump, are an INCREDIBLE side dish for a gourmet meal or mixed with a summer salad. I saw some in a local (upscale) grocery last year for $7.99 / pound! If you'inz are lookin' for a nice cash crop. consider the multi-talented Fiddlehead. PS: Country Boy rarely sets foot in such highbrow joints, but it was late winter and was cookin' up some vittles for a few friends and wanted to let them see how we git along down in these hollas, so went in search of some fresh fiddlehead... It's a locally owned store, and not a major chain so I consoled myself with the truth that I was supportin' the local boys as i turned some friends on to the delicious, kinda sweet & nutty taste of fiddleheads. I'm fixin' to spout my own next spring in the green house Here is a link that might be useful: Fiddlehead & Morel salad-
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I agree with the rehydration idea, just water for an hour or so will be sufficient if they are anything like my dried morels, and definitely use the liquid for soup or gravy, it will have a lot of the flavor. I borrowed an idea from Eric Villegas, he dries mushrooms, grinds them to powder in a blender, coffee grinder or by hand and mixes the powder with sea salt to get a morel flavored salt. It's very nice: Morel Mushroom Salt (Show #203N) From Show #203N - Pan Seared Buffalo Steaks With A Michigan Morel, Fiddlehead & Ramp Salsa Ingredients: 6 tablespoons dried morel mushrooms 2 teaspoons sea salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest, finely chopped Directions: Place the dried the morels in a food processor or blender and pulse until coarsely ground. Add the sea salt, pepper, thyme, and lemon zest. Pulse until fine. Transfer to a small airtight container. 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Rusty
13 years ago
Between you and DC,
I almost want to move back into the great frozen north!

Rusty
sooz
13 years ago
Okay, Teresa, you have rocked my world! I do love living in California, and loved being in Idaho for the steelhead and the morels, but your photos are callllllling to me!
Smiles,
Sooz
annie1992
13 years ago
I've never heard of anyone digging morels, we were always told to snap the stems at or just above ground level, not to pull them up, in order to avoid compromising the next crop.

It's still too cold here and with all the flooding, no morels yet. Sometimes they are available at the local grocery stores in the spring, but they are $25 a pound or more, and I don't like them that well. Actually, I don't like them at all and yes, I recognize that's heresy for a Michigan girl. I like to hunt them, though...

Annie
Teresa_MN
Original Author
13 years ago
My dad would take a mini spade and go 3/4" into the soil and cut the stem there. And the morels came back year after year so apparently nothing was damaged. The ones growing on the dead oak trees were snipped off with kitchen sheers.
jimster
13 years ago
The things we call mushrooms are just one peculiar part of the plant. They are the "fruiting bodies" of the plant and they come and go each season. The main part of the plant is a web which spreads, sometimes for great distances, through the soil. So long as that web remains, it will produce "mushrooms". Harvesting the mushrooms is unlikely to damage the underground part of the plant, even if done carelessly.

The physiology of mushrooms is very interesting and very different from most garden plants.

Jim
annie1992
13 years ago
I'm aware of that, Jim, here in Michigan we celebrate a 37 acre mushroom in Crystal Falls with an annual "Fungus Festival". Not nearly the size of that 2,000+ acre one in Oregon, but still pretty big. Of course we also have the Mesick Mushroom Festival, about 50 miles north of me, with carnival rides, contests, food, mud bogs and, of course, lot of morels. We'll have a festival for anything, I guess.

Still, the "experts" say that the large interconnected root system reproduces more efficiently when left intact. I was also taught that the morels should be placed into a mesh or cloth bag while hunting them, so the spores could drop off and be redistributed, also to encourage better and more reliable yields.

Annie
dlynn2
13 years ago
These aren't morels, but they are some delicious mushrooms. This company supplies restaurants and groceries. These are the mushrooms we use almost exclusively since they are grown right next to our house and we can just walk over and buy as many as we need of any variety. And now I'm kind of spoiled because they are so clean. This link also has several very good mushroom recipes on it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hazel Dell Mushrooms
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
13 years ago
Teresa, that's interesting, fiddle head and morels have not shown up here in NY yet. You are very lucky. Here fiddlehead is around $12 a lb, and morels are about $100 a lb.

I have been checking the stores everyday. Because when they show up, it's only for a few days, then you will have to wait until next year.

Dlynn, I am surprised that you said those are not morels. What are they? As far as I know, no one has yet been able to grow morels commercially.

dcarch
Teresa_MN
Original Author
13 years ago
Dcarch - I think the sign said they came from southeastern Minnesota. But I'm not sure - and I don't care!

Fiddleheads - $17.99 a pound
Morels - $59.99 a pound

As I said this is going to be a treat!

DLynn - a few years back there were a couple of guys that sold bags of mushrooms - yet to be grown that is - at the Farmer's Market. I believe they are still in business and sell to restaurants. The blocks/bags they sold just had to be punctured and mushrooms would start growing! They had one product that just produced Oyster mushrooms. And the other product grew 4 types of mushrooms. The bags would produce mushrooms for a number of weeks if I remember correctly. They had one of each product on display and of course the bags with clumps of mushrooms protruding attracted every kid around.

It must be heaven living next to a place like that!

Teresa
jimster
13 years ago
Wow, Annie!!! I had no idea mushrooms could get that large.

I probably overstated the resiliency of the mycelium. Of course, some care should be taken not to damage it more than necessary.

My son and I have collected morels in southern Ohio. We didn't find a lot but we cleaned up on shaggy manes. No morels around here unfortunately but we have some pretty good boletes.

Jim
triciae
13 years ago
dcarch,

Why don't you grow your own fiddleheads? Aren't they the newly emerging fronds of Ostrich and/or cinnamon fern? Both grow rampant here and I'd imagine they would in your area also?

/tricia
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
13 years ago
Tricia, I want very much to grow my own Fiddlehead fern. My property is mostly shaded. I have not been able to buy the right kind of ferns here.

Not all the ferns are edible.

dcarch.
Teresa_MN
Original Author
13 years ago
Tricia - I have fiddleheads at the bottom of my hill. I have not checked on them this year because the snow just melted Friday. I moved a clump of 4 (ostrich ferns) from my Mom's farm before she sold it. They multiply like crazy and last year I had at least a couple dozen. Maybe I have another treat in my near future! :-) Unless we get that 4" of snow they say is coming our way. Upper 70's today - winter later in the week. I've got both flip flops and boots at the door.

Jim, your post gave me a smile. Goes to show the MOREL of the story - there is no room for strife on a "yay - it's spring!" thread. Even a simple discussion can sometimes MUSHROOM into a big fight. [ pun intended :-) ]

My Dad had so many morels on his property that he would dry them and give them away to his co-workers at the airline and the neighbors. I like them as a treat - on occasion. My dad could eat them everyday and often did as he had a never ending supply of dried morels on hand.

Dcarch - too bad I did not know you 6 years ago when my Mom still owned the property! You'd be getting boxes of Morels!

Teresa

This post was edited by teresa_mn on Sun, Apr 28, 13 at 16:00
jimster
13 years ago
No Teresa, there is no disagreement here. Just a good "yay - it's spring" discussion.

Speaking of "yay - it's spring!", maybe this thread should be titled 'Morels, Fiddleheads and Ramps". Where I am from ramps are called leeks, although they do not resemble cultivated leeks. I once found an enormous patch of them and took a bucketful to plant in the shady back corner of my urban lot. They have remained healthy for years but have not multiplied as much as I had hoped for.

Jim

This post was edited by jimster on Sun, Apr 28, 13 at 18:49
Teresa_MN
Original Author
13 years ago
Jim - no ramps here although they do grow with abandon in Minnesota. Doucanoe has them on her property if I remember correctly.

Has anyone ever dried ramps? I wonder if they would be good for soup in the winter.

Teresa
KatieC
13 years ago
$59.99/lb...holy carp. I think we will be taking a walk next weekend.

We haven't had good luck mushrooming the last several years. Last year a neighbor brought us enough for a feed of chicken fried morels and mushroom gravy, but we never found more than one or two at a time.. We've had some dry springs, and this one s no different, but my jar of dried morels is dwindling, so it's time to go hunting.

We picked (what we thought were) fiddleheads one year. They tasted the way my gramma's Jergen's hand lotion smelled. Pretty sure they weren't the right kind of ferns.

-Have yet to try ramps. I don't think I've ever seen them here.
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
13 years ago
I have ramps growing in my garden.

dcarch

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