Morels Morel (Morchella) Mushrooms are tasty ones found out in the woods and brush. This mushroom is great fried or added to other dishes. Picking these can be profitable too. They can bring in $15.00 to $25.00 a pound.

The Matsutake mushroom can sell for $1,000.00 a pound in Japan making this one of the most expensive and sought after mushroom in the world. Starting in the fall, hunter's look for these in the forests of Canada and the United States to sell to Japan. The mushroom hunter can make a living on these mushrooms if they know where to look. My own experience in hunting them resulted in one found. It was a few years back and I received $20.00 for it.

Where I was living in Oregon many of the areas where these can be found are picked clean by groups coming in from outside the state. There will be large camps of people that move in all working under someone who organizes the whole thing. The people picking them just get a commission.

How to Find Morels The trick is to do your homework and go to places where the crowds are not. You might get permission to pick on someones ranch or some place so remote that you won't have any trouble with the crowds. Don't quite your day job until you know how to do this.

Commercial harvesters comb the forest seeking these mushrooms and to be a successful Matsutake hunter you would need to research where to look and find a place that isn't to overpopulated with mushroom seekers. While living in Oregon I read in the local newspaper that one Matsutake hunter was making $1000.00 a day and it wasn't surprising that he would not reveal where he was finding them.

They are usually found in coniferous forest of westerner Canada and the Untied States. Some successful hunters will follow the season starting in Canada and work their way down into California each year.

On this page you will fine them for Sale. Also many books on hunting and finding these gourmet treats are available. How to Grow, Find and Cook them. Pictures and Information and more.

Matsutake Mushroom: The White Goldrush of the 1990s : A Guide and Journal Finding Morel Mushrooms can be tricky but with some research, hard work and some luck they can be found. Sometimes large patches are discovered and pickers try to keep secret the locations of these cash crops. Morel Mushrooms tend to grow in areas after recent forest fire, around certain trees like the ash, sycamore, tuliptree, dying or dead elms, cottonwoods and old apple orchards. Deciduous trees are better than conifers when looking for these Mushrooms. However on my walks through the woods I have found patches of them near conifers.

Always eat the Morel Mushroom cooked. Cooking them will remove the small amount of toxins. Also be wary of mushrooms found in old apple orchards. If the orchard used to be treated with insecticides the Morel mushroom may have taken in these toxins.

I once read a newspaper story about someone in our area that would disappear into the local forest and come out later in the day with a backpack full of Matsutake mushrooms. He was earning an average of $1000 per day doing this. He probably had to be careful that no one followed him and found out where he was finding these. A person could probably make a living on finding morels in the spring and Matsutakes in the fall. They just need to know where to look. Check out these books to help you know what you are doing and don't quite your day job until you know that you can find enough to support yourself.

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Susan Dietel
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Email: susansdesign@yahoo.com