Is growing morel mushrooms on your bucket list? There are people who have successfully grown morels, and these tips may help
Growing morel mushrooms with ease is a dream of many mushroom lovers. Morel mushrooms are one of the major gourmet treats among mycophiles. Some foragers love the hunt for morels as much as they love the taste.
Today we are looking at some methods for attempting to cultivate morel mushrooms. It is a difficult, uncertain process, but some people do have success.
Why people try growing morel mushrooms
Morels are one of the superstars in the wide world of fungi. These unique mushrooms are hard to find and hard to cultivate, but they are also delicious. They have a nutty, earthy flavor and they are meatier than many other mushrooms. These reasons are why people are so interested in cultivating them.
Even though morel cultivation is fairly unreliable, there are people experimenting with it and apparently getting positive results. We have some recommendations for growing morel mushrooms
in this article, where a step-by-step process is discussed.
Research on growing morel mushrooms
I’ve looked far and wide to find methods for growing morel mushrooms. I frequently find the same information: that it is hard to consistently cultivate morels and that it works sometimes and does not work other times. I’ve read that if it works around 40% of the time, then you’re in good shape.
My research has yielded some interesting information. In fact, there was a morel mushroom growing process that was actually patented. My research has also concluded that there are various methods people try while developing an adequate substrate. Here is a look at some of the recipes I’ve found during my research. You may want to try your hand at some of these substrates in conjunction with the morel spawn we offer. One recipe from Curative Mushrooms uses a substrate composed of 50% organic compost, 30% potting soil, 20% sand, and pickling lime to bring the overall pH level to 7.2. This recipe also recommends using woodchips or shavings of elm, ash, or apple trees. Fresh ash from these trees could also be used. Historically, many morels grow in burned and disturbed land, so any of those trees that may have been burnt from fire may also be a useful addition.
You can visit the rest of
this article to learn more about building the substrate, inoculation, incubation, and fruiting.
How to add dried morels to your cooking creations
One way to use dried morels in your culinary explorations is by reconstituting them first. I do this by first grabbing a handful of dried morels and combining it with 2-4 cups of warm water. I let the morels sit in the warm water for about 20 minutes. The morels will grow in size, nearly doubling.
Once rehydrated, you can add these delicious morels to a variety of dishes. For instance, they go great in pasta sauces; red, white, or pesto, even. They are also wonderful as toppings for pizza and a perfect ingredient for any number of stir fry dishes. With the oncoming winter, these morel mushrooms can make a flavorful addition to soups and stews.
Stuffing morel mushrooms is popular as well. If you look closely at morels you may notice that there are holes in them and the hollowness of the mushroom. This makes morels great for stuffing. My recommendation: Stuff with goat cheese, cream cheese, or another type of soft cheese and then roast or bake them.
Are attempts at growing morel mushrooms worth the time and effort?
The west coast is famous for their morel season. When you research about finding morel mushrooms, year-old burn sites are typically what are usually talked about. This doesn't apply to the east coast or the midwest, but the west coast morel mushrooms fruit abundantly where forest fires raged in previous years.
Foragers on the west coast will start in Northern California and head up through Oregon, Washington, Montana and British Columbia looking for morels. In these places, 20+ pounds of morels can be found on a typical good day. These west coast burn sites are the best place to find morel mushrooms in abundance. If it seems intimidating to search these areas yourself. joining an outing can be a great way to seek out the adventure of morel hunting with a guide. This site is a great option to go out with an entertaining and knowledgeable pro of mushroom foraging and identification.
Ultimately, you are better off spending your money for a trip out to California, Montana, Oregon or another place where morels are abundant than trying to cultivate these at home. However, if you’ve found morels in your property before and feel like your habitat is ideal, then you can buy some morel mushroom spawn from us.
By the way, we can help you grow other gourmet mushrooms, too! Morel mushrooms are not the only delicious edible that mushroom lovers seek. There are so many others, like lion’s mane, shiitake, pioppino, and an entire assortment of oyster mushrooms.
We are able to help you grow these mushrooms with the help of our mushroom spawn bags, our
mushroom growing kits, and a wide array of spawn that comes in
plug,
grain, and
sawdust varieties. Check out our whole spawn supply and read through the articles on our website about growing mushrooms and you will be all set for cultivating your own mushrooms all year, both indoors and out.
