Readers of this post, and morel collectors in general may wish to read of the results of a study http://www.fungimag.com/winter-2010-articles/shavit-morels.pdf conducted last spring which examined Lead and Arsenic contamination in both soils and morels collected from Old Apple Orchards. (See above April 11, 2009 entry)

In general, in orchards treated with Lead Arsenates, residual amounts of both toxic heavy metals remain in the soil and have been found in the fruiting bodies of morels collected from these sites. The authors conclude that there are modest to severe health risks associated with the consumption of morels collected from contaminated orchards and advise to have the soils from your favorite collecting areas tested before consuming the morels.

I would add to these caveat that morels (or any mushrooms collected from roadsides used prior to the introduction of unleaded gasoline would presumably carry some of the same risks for lead, though not for Arsenic.

There is specific information on the various health risks of exposure to both lead and arsenic found in both of the articles referred to in this comment.

Children and pregnant mothers are at particular risk. Because even low levels of Lead are collected and stored in the bones of our bodies, young women who hope to bear children at a future time should also limit the amounts of lead to which they are exposed.

About your question: I have never been in Maine during morel season as the collecting (and fishing) in New York in May and June is so good at that time of year. Usually the best collecting for morels comes as soil temperatures are in the low mid-fifties. One collector I know sets his clock by 53 degrees Fahrenheit! So I would expect the morels in the mid-coast area to appear in a progression following this warming pattern; the sunny dry slopes and quarry areas first, the oak forests around lakes, next and the boggy areas last. In the Adirondack region of NY morels can appear a month later than in the mid-Hudson valley.

Leslie tells me that she has found morels in Maine but only on occasion, once a large collection in a recently spread wood-chip mulch bed, but usually there has been nothing to find.

I recall seeing elms along the Old County Road, between the quarry sites. Remember too that morels may be found under ash, a tree that seems quite happy to grow in Maine.

You might check with Greg Marley, Mushrooms for Health, in Camden Maine. He gives mushroom classes and does find morels in the area you are interested in. He writes a swell mushroom newsletter and if you write to him at innrneuf@midcoast.com I believe he will put you on his mailing list,

Good luck, I think you will need it.

Stan

I think I found this particular creel in a second-hand/antique place near Old Town (or Bangor) Maine. I don’t think it is an antique, or was even used, in fact I am pretty sure it is a cheap Asian-made basket. I got a couple of old neckties and from them fashioned a shoulder strap, but the whole thing is rather rickety. The nice thing is that it does hang well at my side and holds a larger collection than the ‘trout-sized’ creels.

I always keep my eyes open for collecting baskets and by this time have a dozen or so, small ones for the short jot into the brush, larger ones for the hour-long walk, and a ‘boy’s’ Adirondack Pack Basket for the really serious exploration.

Sorry I can’t be of more help.

Bill

Are you a member of Maine Mycological Association? I see that Greg Marley has just posted his latest Coastal Newsletter, all about morels in the MId-Coast area, along with specific local tips you are looking for. Contact him at Mushrooms@midcoast.com. You might also want to subscribe to his newsletter and take some of his courses. He is a great resource, bright, knowledgable, and possessing great social skills.

…………………………………………..

Hello also to all of you from the ‘lower Northeast’ who have written and followed these Morel posts,

The season here is drawing to a close and, for most of us it was a bust. If you didn’t score this year, join the crowd.

There were some blacks early, but then the four day heat wave in late April seemed to affect the rest of the fungal mycelium in a somewhat drastic fashion. Here is the run down:

I found a good collection of blondes in very early May, and indications that they had fruited a week or so earlier. Many were already over the hill, and at one spot, indications that someone had been there before me and made a sizeable collection, probably collected during the four days of 90 degree weather .

Most collectors found few, if any blondes this year. The Culinary Institute of America, for example, had not a single local collector approach them with mushrooms for sale this spring, unlike most years when they can count on local morels in their kitchens and on their menues.

The scientific collectors with whom I have been collaborating, looking for the Lead Arsenate accumulations, had a hard time finding enough morels for statistically valid comparisons. Even with interval or ratio analysis data, and a large rejection region of .05, a sample size of 10 is absolute rock bottom, and we were hard pressed to meet that meagre mark even after spending 8 to 12 hr days in the field for the better part of two weeks.

The New York Mycological Group at their Morel Foray found but one morel. Yep, ONE. Reports from New Jersey were equally bleak. I understand that the some spots in the Poconos were moderartely productive, if you knew where to look.

At the CIA Foray last weekend, a group of 40 or so eager collectors found a grand total of six morels. (Well six and a half if you count the rotted stem of another.) And the morels found were almost all ‘over the hill’ members of the late season spathulata/tulipifera/deliciosa group. Other evidence of the fat lady’s song was the sizeable collection of Honey Mushrooms, that weed of autumn, and a smaller collection of Leccinum scrabrum, a typical fall bolete. These fungi are NOT Spring Mushrooms. Bob Dylan was right: Something here is happening and we don’t know what it is; Do we Mr. Imhoff?

During the last week I have conducted several hundred-and-fifty-mile excursions over a three state area and aside from the ocassional (elm) tree with a sizeable, but aged, fruiting, found little or nothing.

Here and there an area was productive: Dennis Aita and crew found a peck or two of bug-filled but still young morels within the past week. He said they were so befouled by the vermin that he couldn’t give them away so had to spend the week eating morels. Poor Dennis! Poor crew. Poor us all.

There is an alternative hypothesis about this scanty season. Quite often a productive year is followed by a scant one. This seems to particulary so with morels which form their sclerotia for the next season in the summer months following a spring flush. The hypothesis is that the mycelium is spent forcing a flush and needs a season or two to recover. Could that mean 2010?

Get ready, hope springs eternal when the fungus is among us.

Bill

Ain’t that the way it goes. Your own place, perfect conditions and interlopers undercut your collecting chances!

If it was black morels your neighbors were collecting they do have a head start on you since it often takes quite a trained eye to spot them. See the post on ‘The Firdt Morel Of the Season”. If they were the blondes, at this early moment in the saeason they might be small and gray. When you get to a likely looking spot you might see small hollow yellow cup-like stalks. These would be where your neighbors harvested the morels. Next year you can beat them to the spot!

In Dutchess County NY blacks have been showing for about two weeks. I expect blondes any day now.

good luck,

ps Call or email John (Jay) Stein at the Culinary and see if you can come to the illustrated lecture on Spring Mushrooms Thur. 5/14 from 9:00 to 11:00 in the evening. Yep, those chefs have to keep odd hours; it is sort of like getting into shape for the rigors of running a restaurant.

Bill