a stem that is enveloped by a series of brain-like folds and with an exterior that is less honeycomb like and more wrinkle like is gyromitra.relatively longer stem that holds a cotton-like tissue and is attached interiorly to the ceiling of the cap is verpa.hollow, oblong like interior that sits on top of a hollow stem is morchella.Slicing the specimens in half reveals a lot of helpful information. A skilled mushroom picker could confidently distinguish them as clearly as a cucumbers vs zucchini. There are also ‘false morels,’ which is a term referring to morel look alikes such as the verpa genus and the more distant gyromitrae genus. As with all new food, if you are consuming it for the first time a moderate amount is recommended. It is possible for some people to have an allergic reaction to morels. Morels are not to be eaten raw or consumed in large quantities because they contain a mildly toxic substance, which is destroyed in cooking. ‘True morels’, that is all morchella genus are edible and incredible when cooked. The more mosquitos biting the more likely you are to find morels. You won’t have much luck where regrowth has taken off, that is where the ground has already ‘greened up’. They like where the needle bed is reddish and are often in between tree roots or the shade of fallen timber. Fire morels like pine, and spruce, but if you are in a burn, look on the outer edge, or for patches where the trees are not charred, we call this the soft burn. Other conditions such as heat, rainfall, sun exposure, elevation all influence the crop as well. A fire doesn’t guarantee you’ll find morels the following year but it’s a good start. The preference is for a July/August fire. Fire morels, will often grow abundantly the spring following the previous summer’s forest fire. They may come one year, or for many consecutive years, and then disappear without any obvious reason. There may be just a couple or there may be bucket-fulls. The naturals grow in pastures, meadows, and orchards. In the industry, we refer to morels as either naturals or fire morels. And most likely that someone has traveled a great distance, hiked a great deal, perhaps camped remotely for weeks, battled the elements (mosquitoes, horseflies, rain, drought, etc.) and somehow managed to get that delicate specimen back to the city in decent condition for you to be able to purchase. This means that every morel that you eat has been picked by hand in its natural environment. It is frequently attempted, even at the commercial level, but if there were a truly reliable method to cultivate morels, global supply would have increased, demand would drop, and the wild morel industry fall apart. The complex, symbiotic relationship that the morel mycelium have with trees is difficult to replicate in an artificial environment.
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