• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
  • Chickens and Farm Animals
  • Gardening
  • Recipes

Beyond The Chicken Coop logo

menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipe Index
  • Chickens and Farm Animals
  • Gardening
  • About
    • Contact Me
    • Privacy Policy
×

Home » Homesteading » Picking Wild Morels

Published: Jun 8, 2016 · Modified: Feb 19, 2021 by Kathy · This post may contain affiliate links

Picking Wild Morels

Picking Wild Morels - Last summer's forest  fires have yielded an amazing wild mushroom crop!

Wild Morel Mushrooms in a wooden bowl.

Last summer's fires were devastating in the inland northwest. Yet from everything comes beauty.  These wild morel mushrooms are a result of last summer's fires.

Morel mushrooms grow every spring around us, but this spring has yielded amazing mushrooms. In locations where there was fire, the morels are popping up like...well...wildfire!

A closeup shot of wild morel mushrooms.

We headed out to the burn areas to pick the mushrooms. It was amazing to see the fire damage and plants starting to come back. I was surprised to see how the fire traveled.

It just touched certain areas and some were left untouched. I was so amazed at all the morels and  how different they everyone looked. They came in different sizes, colors, and patterns.

Burned forest area with green trees in the background.

The abundance of morel mushrooms were found in these burned areas.

A morel growing in rocking soil.

The mushrooms are hard to see because they blend into their environment. After a while you get used to what you are looking for and can spot them much easier.

In an area with horizontal lines, the mushrooms shoot upwards. Some are just a few inches high. The large ones can be 4-6 inches high.

Wild mushroom growing alongside branches and cedar needles.

I used scissors to cut the mushrooms off at the ground level.  My husband used a knife. Both techniques worked. You do want to cut off the mushroom, rather than just popping it off the base.

A wild morel mushroom with a mini mushroom attached to it.

Picking wild morels was fun and rewarding. We ended up with a few gallons of mushrooms. Morels can be used with in any dish calling for mushrooms.

Morels have a bit more of an earthy taste than a button mushroom and the texture is a bit different. I like to dice the mushrooms, saute them and add them to spaghetti sauce, omelettes or a cream of mushroom soup.

Morels on a dehydrator tray.

Rod was in charge of washing all the mushrooms. For the larger mushrooms, he sliced them in half lengthwise and he kept the smaller mushrooms whole. He rinsed all the mushrooms.

They were a bit gritty and had pine needles stuck to them. We dehydrated whatever we didn't eat right away. Find out how to dehydrate morel mushrooms!

A white flower growing in the forest.

This last picture isn't of morels, but I did take it while out morel hunting. It is the flower from a plant called bear grass. The grass is often sought after for fillers in flower arrangements, but the flower is simply beautiful. The forest was filled with these beautiful white flowers.

Please Note: Picking wild mushrooms can be dangerous. Please know your mushrooms before you pick. 

Like to forage and harvest your own food? Check out these recipes Walleye Fish and Wild Blackberries. 

If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment below and snap a picture and tag me on Instagram @beyondthechickencoop

  • Drying Morel Mushrooms
  • Canning Carrots
  • How to Can Chili
  • How to Use a Pressure Canner

« Chive Vinegar
Basil Mayonnaise »
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mix
  • Yummly

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kim | Low Carb Maven says

    June 23, 2016 at 7:33 am

    How did I miss this lovely and informative post? Morels are so good sauteed in butter and herbs! What a nice experience hiking around the forest foraging. I would love that... Did you take a class or have you been hunting for mushrooms for a long time? I just find the whole thing fascinating. With the large haul, you will be enjoying morels all year!

    Reply
    • Kathy says

      June 24, 2016 at 6:40 am

      No class...just my knowledgeable husband. He has been mushroom hunting for years.

      Reply
  2. Amanda says

    June 10, 2016 at 7:05 am

    How great that you can go out and pick these mushrooms! It sounds like a lot of fun. I'm just imagining how good the soup would be!

    Reply
    • Kathy says

      June 11, 2016 at 6:39 am

      The soup was awesome. Hopefully I can share my recipe soon....just having some difficulty getting good pictures of the soup.

      Reply
  3. Katie Crenshaw says

    June 10, 2016 at 4:55 am

    Wow Kathy! What a very cool experience. That is awful about the fire, but very cool to be able to pick the wild mushrooms. They are gorgeous. I envy your stash! I am drooling over the possibilities of their use! This is a great post, so fascinating. Thanks for sharing your adventure!!

    Reply
    • Kathy says

      June 10, 2016 at 5:13 am

      I just need to make certain I use my stash of mushrooms. Sometimes things get tucked back into my pantry and become forgotten!

      Reply
  4. Anu - My Ginger Garlic Kitchen says

    June 10, 2016 at 1:21 am

    That's wonderful. Kathy. These posts are so informative. These wild mushrooms look so beautiful and dehydrating them sounds like the best idea ever.

    Reply
    • Kathy says

      June 10, 2016 at 5:12 am

      Dehydrating extends the life of the mushrooms. It would be tough to eat that many otherwise.

      Reply
  5. Geraldine | Green Valley Kitchen says

    June 09, 2016 at 10:23 pm

    Wow - I love reading these kinds of posts, Kathy. I was thinking nothing grows wild around here but pretty much every house in my neighborhood has some sort of citrus or fruit tree - so though not wild - it's still pretty amazing the adundance of food that can be found and picked.

    Reply
    • Kathy says

      June 10, 2016 at 5:11 am

      You are right...it is often all around us. I wish I could grow citrus here. It would never survive the winters.

      Reply
« Older Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

The author holding a chicken.

I'm Kathy, a busy working mom who loves to cook from scratch, grow a garden, and raise farm animals. Take a look around and find all my recipes, gardening tips, and country living antics..

More about me →

Popular

  • Oatmeal Banana Muffins
  • Beer Battered Fish
  • Pan Fried Walleye
  • Chicken Pasta Bake

Amazing Breakfasts

  • English Muffin Breakfast Sandwich
  • Puff Pastry Baked Eggs
  • Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
  • Biscuits and Gravy

Strawberry Desserts

  • Strawberry Roll Cake
  • Strawberry Chocolate Shortcake
  • Strawberry Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
  • Strawberry Ice Cream

Featured In...

Beyond the Chicken Coop recipes have been featured in many different sites.

Footer

↑ back to top

Beyond the Chicken Coop recipes have been featured in many different sites.

About

  • Privacy Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact

Copyright © 2022 Beyond the Chicken Coop®