Morels in July

[John S. Watson - FSC]

6 July 1996 (Saturday)

Found about 3 and  1/2 dozen yellow morels at the a store
in a city in the south San Fancisco bay area,  
most of them were in the planter box, on the right
as you go in the front entrance.
But there were a few in the other planters around
the area.  The entrance to this store faces north,
and the planter box was well shaded from direct sun.

Most of them seemed a little old 
being somewhat dry at the tips, 
and a little ragged  from what is probably 
sprinklers, since it hasn't rained here for 
months.  Today was hot, maybe into the 90's.
A week ago it was the same, with some cooler weather
in between.  We had a couple of days of some really 
cool fall like weather about 2 weeks ago.  

A lot of these morels  look 
like they would have been in their prime
a week ago.  A few of them are just in their prime,
and there are some I left that should be in their prime
in maybe a week.

A couple of the older ones seem really big, with bulb
parts (part above the stem) over 2 inchs long.
Over a dozen had bulbs between 1 & 2 inchs, 
and over a dozen had bulbs around 1 inch.
Then a hand full had even smaller bulbs,
which normally I wouldn't pick, but they were
drying out so it was no use in leaving them.

John S. Watson                  
NASA Ames Research Center MS/257-7, Moffett Field, CA 94035
http://ccf.arc.nasa.gov/~watson

"If aquarium gravel is so bad for you, how come it tastes so good?"
                          --- Ralph Wiggum