Harvesting Morels

Tag along as I harvest morels with my mom. My mom found a patch of morels growing near her garden last year and now we are back to look for more. Morels have a short growing window, so we are happy to have found so many. There is one key thing that you can do that may help increase the morel population - spread the spores! We tap the morels around the location where we harvest them and later we pour our rinse water near the spot as well. To harvest - use a sharp knife to cut through the stem. Make the cut close to the ground. To clean - a lot of folks will tell you to clean your morels in salt water, but we have not found that to be necessary. We fill a bowl with fresh water and rinse the morels. It's that easy. To store - after rinsing the morels, lay them out on paper towels and gently pat dry if needed. Put the paper towel with the morels on top of it into an airtight container and store in the fridge. To eat - slice morels in halves or quarters depending on their size and gently toss with flour. Heat butter on the stove top until melted. Fry the morels until lightly browned. Enjoy while hot! As a pizza topping - Prepare the morels in the flour and butter as listed above. Prepare pizza as desired and add morels only for the last 5ish minutes of baking.