I found a lot of these today, but never took any home because I wasn’t 100% sure if they were okay to eat.

The thing that threw me off is that they were very floppy and soft compared to the yellow morels that I find.
The cap was very velvety feeling like a horses nose, and could tear apart very easily.

Are these Black Morels?

Yep those are the kind we get here,but a couple of those look over ripe.

Yes it's a Morchella elata, also known as a black morel. Those are the first morels of the year in my area.

Keith

And people like to eat them?

I’ve only eaten yellows and they’re great!

Does it make sense that yellow morels are firmer than these black morels?

The black morels in the pictures are old and on the way out. They are better when they first come up. They get slimy and mushy when they get old. I've eaten many more blacks than commons/yellows.

Keith

Ok good to know! I’ll pay attention to this spot next year and see if I can find them a bit earlier.

Impale it on a stick, drizzle some olive oil on it and roast a bit over a campfire, spinkle on some steak seasoning, and you'll think you are eating steak. Yum.

The black morels are the first to come up. The earliest I've picked the black morels is March 5th, 6.8 miles South West of here, on a friend's farm. I got about half a plastic grocery bag. I have another friend, whose farm is across the street from that farm. The earliest I've picked morels there is April 7th. They are much less abundant there. I've never found a morel on my farm.

Keith

Sounds good!

Better Than Brown Bear steaks???

LOL!

JP here is some BC morels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNuT7JSGKGw&t=601s

Yes, they'll be more gray without nearly so much black when they first pop out. They are what we have here, never heard of yellow morels until I got the internet.

Those have a couple of slang names around here. Really can't say on here. Never heard them referred to as any type of morel.

Thanks Tatiana ....

I read there is a Morel-looking mushroom that's not safe to eat. They way to tell if it's a true Morel is if it's hollow or not. The real Morel is hollow, the other isn't. But, I'm sure no expert on the subject.

I think morels are likely the easiest mushroom for an amature mycophagist to identify.