With all the varities in your produce section, I was wondering if you carry sponge mushrooms? They are usually found in early Spring which is coming upon us quickly

quote:

Originally posted by Admin:
We will have morel mushrooms (sponge mushrooms) within the next 3-4 weeks. Currently we gave dried morels until the fresh ones are available.

Thank you,
craig steiner - jungle jims

How come Jim's doesn't try to arrange a deal with Diversified Natural Products - Midsummer Exotics where
Gary Mills ; the guy who holds the US Patent for growing them indoors all year round, is located?

They are based in Scottville Michigan or Scottsville Michigan. The one near Ludington, Michigan.

At least you guys could carry actual yellow morels or black morels like the ones that grow in Ohio, in addition to those alpine burn-site morels ("Morchella tomentosa") that you guys have been getting from up north like northern Michigan, Canada or from the northwestern side of the country.

Just like our local black morels, alpine morels lack the aroma of the yellow esculenta morels that many around here are familiar with. Yet we wouldn't pass up any type of morel, because they all fry up well in butter.

The actual yellow esculenta morels are more desirable, they have a fragrant sweet iron-copper rusty aroma.
I believe the deer hunters prefer yellow over black morels or even alpine morels.

West coast people have mistakenly coined the labels "blondes", "greys", "yellows" to the alpine morels because that is really all that they encounter out there. In fact the alpine morel is the Michael Jackson of morels, it changes colors from a fuzzy metallic steel grey to a fuzzy flesh-tone blonde color when mature. They are part of the group of morels that are the black morels.

There are other types of morels out there as well. Morchella rufobrunnea also called "The landscape morel" which is suspected of being the one that is easy to cultivate because it appears that it needs no trees or plants to associate with and is found in landscape mulch/wood chips after rainfall in areas in California such as San Diego. It is also suspected of coming from Mexico or further south.

There is a species of morels that grows in northern Israel too.

There are a few species in Mexico, Central America and South America, some found at high altitudes on mountains.

The yellows in Ohio are Morchella esculenta aka Morchella deliciosa aka Morchella crassipes.

And the "snakeheads" in Ohio are Morchella semilibera.

The species of black morels we have in Ohio is called Morchella angusticeps which appears to be the same morel that the British know as Morchella elata.

That shows you how far those spores travel and when traveling over the ocean you have to remember that moist air is lighter than dry air.

Morels sporulate when the humidity is high and there is vapor pressure, and this can occur at any temperature. Morels will sporulate in a refrigerator. Once they completely sporulate they turn dark brown and turn to goo.

Morels are kept best in a cool 50% RH dry ventilated environment, temperatures at around 46°F-50°F.
Contact with moisture should be avoided.

This is good practice because morels sometimes carry a parasitic mold called "Mucor mucedo" in their tissue
and reducing moisture and humidity helps prevent this bad mold from growing on the morels. This is why
it is a good thing to cook any type of mushroom because they all contain this from time to time.
Mucor comes from the soil.

I had a significant result with a culture of Morchella tomentosa that I acquired from Jungle Jim's back in 2007.
I had managed to get spores from the large flesh-tone colored ones.
I had posted a picture of the growth in the pyrex bowl of agar I have, and have pictures of it even at a larger stage. But alas it did not fruit, which makes me think small plants with tubers may be required, maybe something like a "sunchoke" which Jungle Jim's also carries in addition to "agar".

In the 1800s an individual by the last name Roze reported cultivating morels on "sunchokes" aka "Jerusalem Artichokes". But he couldn't reproduce the circumstance. However that was before they knew of the "sclerotium","sclerotia" and what it's purpose was good for. That realization didn't happen until 1986.

"Sunchokes" are good for diabetics, diabetes; they contain a polysaccharide called "inulin", and levulose a type of sugar similar to fructose. They contain no starch like potatoes. They have a nutty flavor.
They emerge at the same time as morels and are usually cooked together with them.

But morels in the wild are usually found growing under sugar maples and white ash trees, these may be havens for them during the summertime where they can drink the moisture up that resides around the tree roots along with nutrients.

I haven't came across any wild "sunchokes" out there. I wonder why.

Here's how big my pyrex bowl result got.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: AcidHorse,

Yes, they really are that expensive. We pack them small, just a couple together, and they are very light. That helps with the price. Check out www.morelmushroomhunting.com. They have sighting maps and lots more. (We have no affiliation, just a neat site to look at on morels.)

Thanks,

Jungle Jim's Produce Dept

Wow! I did not know that a store would carry those kind of mushrooms. I thought I had to wait for my Dad to go and pick some, he loves going and doing that, but does not like to eat them. Now I don't have to wait on my Dad yeahh I can't wait till you get them in then. Are they really that expensive though? $40.00a lb.?

Thanks
Tarzen6

We will have morel mushrooms (sponge mushrooms) within the next 3-4 weeks. Currently we gave dried morels until the fresh ones are available.

Thank you,
craig steiner - jungle jims

In the past they have carried the morels (sponge mushrooms) during the season which they are found. I think usually sometime in April is when I have seen them come in. However they have run around $40 a lb. Hope this helps.