# picking etiquette



## loveskin

Hello all - appreciate your opinions.

My family owns a cabin in Itasca Co. For years we'd heard that morels grew in a certain area - public land - very close to our cabin. Last year, we were fortunate to find a good number of mushrooms in this particular "spot".

We returned to this spot the next day. Shortly after our arrival, a man came charging into the area and begin picking himself. He then confronted us (not aggressively) and told us that he lived in the cabin across the gravel road and had been picking this spot for years.

We are new to morel picking and are unfamiliar with appropriate picking etiquette. While we were picking on public land, this gentleman clearly felt he had some title to it as he'd been "picking it for years". This area produces a good number of mushrooms and we'd like to return this year but don't want to feel like we're "trespassing" on someone's spot. 

Should we let this person know we'd like to pick the area this year? Compromise in some way? Or simply pick without thinking twice since this is public land?

All opinions welcome. Thanks!


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## shroomtrooper

Every shroomer knows that there is a chance your spot might be found out, that's why you do not tell any one. If it is public land you have every right to pick there, period! I would never confront someone on public land and imply that this is my spot. I would be bummed out, but that's the way it goes. No good shroomer unless he has his own land only has one spot. Mabey dont pick everything you see, and see how he picks. Tell him you have a cabin not far away also, even tho if I drive up and pick in your spot if its public land, would not bother me if someone came out and implied it was his spot, hey I just drove 3 hours. Remember it is public land, I feel for him but you have to be grown up about it.


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## crazymushroomguy

If it's public theres really nothing he can do to prevent you from, hitting that spot. Like trooper said, just talk to the guy, explain your situation and maybe reach an agreement where neither party completely bilks an area. 

Sounds like you may want to explore the area some more, that couldn't be the only spot, there may be more or better than are less headache.


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## shroomster

Yeah , we all pay taxes that's everyone's land. Like trooper said its a bummer when you walk up to your spot and find a bunch of stumps, but if it's public land then there's not much you can do


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## shroom god

Bottom line--this is competitive. Those willing to pay their dues, go early, go often, and pound the living hell out of the woods--especially in public areas where we know others will tread--deserve the fruits of the effort. Nobody owns it. Anything found is the rightful prize of whoever manages to be the first one willing to pay the dues, put in the time, and have the skills and expertise necessary to find the early ones. 

Do not cede the ground and do not restrain yourself. Go forth. Finding the earliest ones (before others) is the essence of the early season quest. Go early, go often, go deep, and go long. Become one with the woods--meld with nature. Go wild. And do not let anyone distract you from your singular mission to integrate with the woods in pursuit of the first finds of the season. Immerse yourself in every single thing in the awakening woods and the totality of the sensory experience becomes a part of your primal renewal. Once you attain that level of consciousness there is no such thing as ownership, privilege, rights, etc. At that point you will know freedom in its most fundamental sense. 

Do your thing. The whiners will whine and try to deter you with specious and contrived rules. Ignore it. You'll be much richer for allowing yourself to <strong>go wild. 


</strong>


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## buckthornman

Really! If you time it right there yours. If not there someone else's! If you go were I go great. I know you went through hell to get em if you hoard a easy spot from some oldtimer then you have to enjoy eating them with that on yourself. Get out in the wild...buckthornman out!!


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## shroom god

Hear! Hear! One might leave the easy picking for the old, frail, and weak of heart, and instead go deep, go far, go long, and feel the pain of the thorns. Occasionally, a person has to bleed to know they are alive. For some inexplicable reason I savor the comparatively richer taste of shrooms procured from thorny thickets by hands and arms bleeding profusely from the hard hunt over those reaped from easy pickin's.


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## buckthornman

I love you SG. Never give in my friend! Ever!!!!and I mean know disrespect to the better generation!


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## alaskajim

if someone came up to me, on public land, and even remotely implied that this was ' his' spot for picking, I'd make sure he never found a single mushroom there again. If it was 'his' spot, he shouldn't of told anyone about it. I never, ever, EVER, tell anybody about my secret spots, I search early and late, and I never tell the truth to whomever I meet in the woods.


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## mattshroom04

I was a little upset today. I have been hunting a spot that I have never told or brought anyone to and I was there today and someone had been there. It is public land, I do not own this land, but it's still upsets me that someone found my spot. Granted its still early and there weren't as many as whoever found them could actually realize how productive that spot is. I'll go back in a week and pull a couple more pounds.


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