where to buy morels?

Looking for help finding morels in Chicago or near suburbs. I bought them from Whole Foods this week at 39.99 a pound, and was not completely satisfied. They had been packaged slightly damp, and damp morels lose flavor quickly. Suggestions?

Hi,

I was the IL State Morel Championship last weekend. They had an auction of 1/2 pound bags for morels with really wild prices. Toward the end, they were at $16-20 per half pound. The prices were sky high at the beginning.

e-Bay has a number of fresh morel auctions being conducted at this time. As always I would check on shipping and handling before making any commitment.

Last year, I saw morels at the farmer's market in Madison, WI. The condition of those morels were so poor, if I saw them in the forest I would leave them to their fates. Yet the prices were still quite high for such low quality morels.

The conditions in this area are pretty dry, though pick-your-own morel season is right now.

Below is a t-shirt from the Illinois Mycological Association:

In the past I have bought them at gas stations off the interstate (I-90) between Chicago and Madison. Ususally about $6 - $10 for a lunch bag full of them.

This is nothiing official - Kids selling them from a card table with a hand written sign. Still tastey though!

They have them at Fox and Obel.

Morel hunting last month downstate I collected nearly two pounds(a couple beer can-sized). They were great incorporated in a beef and asparagus ragout with a tantalizingly salty pecorino all over homemade papardelle. The rest I enjoyed prepared with that Midwest classic, mushroom gravy.

Hi,

The first morel found in Illinois this year was March 22nd. I know people who use their vacation time to follow the morel season from tip to top in Illinois.

Morels are present now in this northern most tier of Illinois.

Once the Chicago Farmers Markets start up you might check the mushroom stand(I don't remember the farm's name) for dried specimens.

Christopher Gordon wrote:Once the Chicago Farmers Markets start up you might check the mushroom stand(I don't remember the farm's name) for dried specimens.

The one I see most frequently at farmers' markets isRiver Valley Mushrooms.

T. I. also tends to have them when available, though the condition can be variable so you have to inspect them. Prices tend to be no better, but no worse than whatever is going. I'd expect that $40/level to hold.

That's the one. Despite the overly cutesy 'shrooms moniker(ick), they make a tasty hot mushroom pickle. Samples to boot!

WE OFFER RARE MOREL MUSHROOM DIRECTLY FROM OUR COLLECTION UNITS. PLEASE COME-UP WITH YOUR INTEREST AND FEEL FREE TO ASK ANY QUESTION THROUGH OUR E.MAIL: INMAILEX@YAHOO.COM

THANKS

Kennyz wrote:Looking for help finding morels in Chicago or near suburbs. I bought them from Whole Foods this week at 39.99 a pound, and was not completely satisfied. They had been packaged slightly damp, and damp morels lose flavor quickly. Suggestions?

Hi,

If you really want to learn how to find mushrooms, then join the Illinois Mycological Association. I am a member, former President and still quite involved. For $20, you come to topical meetings where we always have an identification table, you recieve a newsletter with foray information where we go to various locations looking for mushrooms with fellow members.

I post meeting information on Events board usually within 10 days before their occurance. We meet the first Monday of the month except January, February and July. The September meeting is moved due to Labor Day.

Fresh from the forest is certainly worth the effort.

Regards,

I refrained from posting earlier because I know that people far more knowledgeable than I on this matter inhabit this board.
Foraging for mushrooms is great fun. Seeing lots of mushrooms at the base of a tree near our apartment, being sorely tempted to pick them but not knowing whether we'd survive, prompted us to look for people who could help identify mushrooms. We joined the IMA around this time last year and we found our first morels, later chanterelles and maitakes among other interesting edibles. It's great fun going out in the woods in the morning for a couple of hours looking for mushrooms. Finding the mushroom peeping out of the ground is even greater fun than finding the link to the IMA at the end of this sentence...

Some motivational pics from the past couple of weeks


Then you come home to

The mushroom people at the Evanston Farmer's market had them, but not many and he said he thought they were pretty much played out for the season. They were big and very open, which he says means they are pretty old.

$36 per lb.

The mushroom guy at green city market had a bunch of morels as well.

Rare Morel species? All it really takes is persistence.

This fine Morel Hunter did not place at the Illinois Morel Hunting Championship:


Yet for his two hours effort, he collected 51 morels amongst heavy competition:

nr706 wrote:

Christopher Gordon wrote:Once the Chicago Farmers Markets start up you might check the mushroom stand(I don't remember the farm's name) for dried specimens.

The one I see most frequently at farmers' markets isRiver Valley Mushrooms.

I just returned from the market in Federal Plaza at Adams and Dearborn. River Valley Mushrooms had two big bins of large morels for $32/lb. I passed on them but I did pick up a jar of their jalapeno-spicy pickled shrooms. (Also got a nice ciabatta loaf from the bakery next door).

Best,
Michael / EC

Has anyone seen fresh ones in the stores yet? and if so, where?
thanks!

or in the woods anywhere nearby?

Hi,

I saw some tonight at mushroom club.

I heard they had as many as 60 people for a foray last Saturday in Kankakee. On average, 16 morels were collected per person, which is pretty darn good.

Regards,

Morels are a bit late this year on the s/o's mom's land. We found a few last weekend.

We went to River Valley Mushroom Ranch in Burlington Wisconsin on Sunday and bought these:



4 oz. for $10

http://shroomskitchen.com/

we went to Henry, IL on saturday to join in on the Morel Hunting Championship. we picked about 35 morels, which weighed in at just over a half-pound.

Then we stayed for the auction afterwards and there was a huge amount of morels up for auction, not only from the area but also from as far as SE Iowa, southern Indiana and some beautiful black morels from Michigan.
At the start of the auction morels, mostly yellows, were goinng for $60 per half-pound bag or $120/lb. That was nuts. I think it was just the over-zealous enthusiasm and people with money to burn. The auction lasted about 3 hrs and by the end you could get them for $15-20/lb. We stayed long enough to come away with about 6lbs of morels including what we picked. We brought home about 2lbs ea. of big yellows, small greys and those really lovely blacks from Michigan.

So far I have made a breakfast of omelettes with morels and home-made peppered bacon, we made a pizza with sun-dried tomatoes and morels with garlic, last night I made pumpkin ravioli with a morel/garlic/butter/sage cream sauce and I also made a big batch of cream of morel/leek/fingerling potato soup. I plan to make some homemade morel/goat cheese ravioli this week as well. I have some pictures as well. will post them soon.

I hope to go back out hunting next week, but up north this time.

Hi,

The price of morels in central Illinois (That is Southern Illinois to you!) dropped to $20 - $25 per pound this year. Unfortunately, the season is almost finished.

Tim

I saw small boxes of morels at Whole Foods at Cicero/Peterson this morning. Didn't see a price, though.

We went out today and found 228 morels, weighing about 5lbs (one huge find). I was wondering too if anyone knew how much they were going for at stores? We were considering going to a street market, perhaps.

thyroidless4 wrote:We went out today and found 228 morels, weighing about 5lbs (one huge find). I was wondering too if anyone knew how much they were going for at stores? We were considering going to a street market, perhaps.

thyroid -

I would buy some off you. Are you in the chicagoland area?

Here are pics of some of the morels we came back with and what I did with them.





a black morel


Cream of morel leek and fingerling potato soup


pizza with garlic sauteed morels and sun-dried tomato


pumpkin ravioli with a morel garlic cream sauce


and finally I hand-made some morel and goat cheese ravioli


what a week! (burp)

Looks delicious!

We're having quite a bit of luck here too. Finding more than we can make, but at least that gives us a chance to share the wealth and sell some. Doesn't look like they've hit stores yet this season.

There were Morels at the Green City Market yesterday morning. I can't remember the per pound price.