Finally !!!

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It’s been 5 days since my last post, and it’s been good. Lots of rain and the nightly temperatures are finally above 50. We began April with 7″ above normal rainfall for the year. We are ending with 11″. Fuzzy math calculates we had 4 inches of rain above average in April. I can vouch that. Over 3-inches this weekend. Pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday. So, Monday morning was the time to look – picture above.

Backing up a little, a friend wanted to try morel hunting, something he had never done, so I took him along  the heavily hunted creek and we found two nice, medium size yellows. Friday I had to teach class, and then I had my voice lesson, so a quick trip to the orchard was all I fit in. The orchard was a bust. I guess the six I have found may be all that it produces. I’ll give the rains a few days to work their magic and then visit for the last time this Friday.

Saturday, Rich and I met early and went up the mountain to where he, myself and Steve had found some earlier in the week (Tues 4/23). We found about 80 – a mix of yellows, grays and two blacks. Also, a half dozen prime half-frees. The rain set in about noon and stayed through Sunday. Not be be denied, however, I got up early Sunday morning and went back along The Creek and found two large “fresh” yellows (pix left). Oh Boy! I couldn’t wait for Monday morning.

Monday I went back to the mountain the club had bombed out on April 6 (23 days earlier) and picked 248 !! Mostly yellows and grays in the 2 1/2 to 3-inch size along with a few blacks hanging on.I had to walk out the long way (took an hour)  so I could be on an old road. I didn’t want to risk tripping while bushwacking and spill the gold.

On the way out I noticed why turtles don’t eat the morels. Their mind is somewhere else.

 

 

 

Today, Tuesday 4/30, Ed and I dug a few more ramps for pickling and went back into last Wednesday’s hollow. We picked up 20 more blacks along with one 3-inch yellow. Wow! Black morels in East Tennessee the last day of April. After writing all these posts, I am comfortable saying that we were three weeks behind this year. AND yesterdays find was on TOP of the ridge, so there still may be good yellows this week down low. Look for them !!

Happy Hunting. I’m about done here. Might drop in a patch Thursday, but I’ll be speaking at the Georgia Mushroom Club monthly meeting in Atlanta tomorrow. They are a great group, and it gives me a chance to visit with my good friends Sam and Cornelia. Then the Knoxville Market Square Farmers Market opens the season Saturday May 4. I’ll be set up there every Saturday until Novemeber.  HOWEVER – I have two days morel hunting in southern Indiana planned for mid-May. That will be another story.

 

Ramps & Morels

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Pretty nice ramp patch

Ramps and morels are a perfect match, and added to scrambled eggs are heaven incarnate! So, Wednesday Apr 24, Ed Scott and I set off out of the valley and up on the mountains to gather a few pounds of ramps. Rain was (and did) supposed to set in around noon so we headed out of our meeting place in the cool at 7:30 a.m.

After arriving, we dug for about 2 hours going for the most mature plants with large bulbs good for pickling. I wanted to get a few pounds extra to deliver to Steve and Rich on

Mature with large bulbs

 

Saturday when we’re going out together again. The sweetest ramps are the earlyones without any bulb to speak of, but after growing for a couple of weeks they develop a bulb about the size of the last segment of your thumb.gathering what we needed we headed out, and started talking about how some of the hollows had a lot of poplar and might be good for morels. On a whim, we stopped and found about 25 in one of the hollows. They were an eclectic mix of black from very fresh to old and rotten and small yellows from fresh to dry. The yellows looked like they were the first of the year and coming back in a week might be just the ticket – especially with the weekend rains predicted. Evening temperatures have been around 40 the past two nights, but are expected to rise and stay in the 50′s after the rains come through.

All in all it was a good day and I enjoyed being with Ed. To those reading this post I say – don’t give up yet. The ground is wet, warming up and if black morels aren’t around be on the lookout for the yellows. They’re beginning to show up.

Going High to Look

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Tues, Steve, Rich and I headed out of the Valley to a higher elevation where spring was just beginning and the poplar leaves were like squirrel ears. Morels were spotty, but we got around 85 between the three of us. There was a mix of fresh blacks and small yellows. Who was low man? Moi, with 15. It was a wonderful day with good fungi friends. Cool, pure mountain water may have been the best part for me