Morel Madness! 

Signs of spring have arrived (though you wouldn’t know it from last week’s blizzard) but I have been out walking in the woods several times over the last few days and it’s coming. Nature sends signs; birds singing, ferns, moss and, of course, the dreaded insects, but it also offers up a delicacy, the elusive and delectable Morel mushroom or, as it is affectionately known by many, the humble “‘Shroom.”

There are many varieties of Morels. The Yellow Morel, Morchella Esculenta, is easy to identify, as it looks like a sponge on a stem. The cap (top) starts out as a tightly compressed, dark brown-to-black with white ridges and flares into a bright yellow-to-ochre color, with the ridges becoming thinner and jagged. The Black Morel, M. Elata, looks like a conical black sponge with parallel ribs and cross ridges. They start out black to dark-grey but lighten as they mature. Another Black, the M. (for Morchella) Angusticeps, has a conical dark grey-brown cap atop a cylindrical white stem. There is no division between the stem and cap; Morels are hollow from stem to cap when sliced in half. There are also the varieties that aren’t as sought after, such as the Half Free, M. Semiliberia, which is edible, though not as tasty as the Black or Yellow.

Morels “pop” in the months of April and early May and can be found literally all over the United States in a wide range of terrain and vegetation, from open grass fields to wooded areas. As to the chances of finding any Morels in some of the popular areas around here, well, you’ll have better luck finding my social security number, comprende? You will find that the “Shroomsters’” locations are kept secret to the point of lunacy but, to get you started, look around dead or dying Elm and Ash trees (with the Emerald Ash Borer being so prevalent these days, Ash trees should be easy to spot…). Morels can be found in coniferous (evergreen) forests as well as apple and cherry orchards, with mature orchards being among my favorite hunting grounds.

While hunting, beware of the toxic False Morels, the saddle-backed Gyromitria Infulia and the Gyromitria Escalenta, which resembles a small, brown brain. G. Escalenta contains a cumulative poison and a chemical similar to one used in rocket fuel, which explains why people have said the taste reminds them of gasoline. Similar to the Gyromitria Infulia is the G. ambigua, which has violet tints in its brown stem and saddle-shaped cap. It’s pretty, but still poisonous.

When starting your Morel hunt it is imperative - and I can’t stress this enough- that you find the first Morel as soon as possible. This allows your eyes to focus on your quarry in terms of color, texture and shape and increases your chances of success exponentially. An experienced Morel hunter will insist that this applies to all, from the rankest amateurs to the saltiest ’Shroomsters. Before I get too far into this, I should mention that you do not have to be way off the beaten path to locate Morels but, for some reason, it seems to help the psyche to be way out in no man’s land, if for no other reason than to convince yourself that you are the first human to lay eyes on the area that season. Another helpful hint is to slow down. You will have a much more difficult time finding Morels when you cruise right over them at Mach 2 in hopes of covering more ground. You will want to stop occasionally and look behind you – laugh all you want, it works.

When you locate a Morel, do not, I repeat, do not yell out. Instead, slowly browse the area and clean out all the ‘Shrooms available without raising the attention of your so-called friends. Letting anyone notice or announcing you’ve hit pay dirt will most definitely result in “pay-laking.” This term is derived from fishing, most likely at a pay-to-fish lake, but can occur around any body of water where more than two people are fishing. It goes like this, you catch a fish (size matters not) and suddenly every fisherman within a ten mile radius is now within arms’ reach. You won’t be able to swing a dead carp without hitting at least three other fishermen. Morel hunting is eerily similar.

Shrooming with children can be both satisfying and frightening. Hearing your child’s screams of delight is wonderful, right up until the time you discover that Junior just came face to face with a snake. Did I not mention snakes? While there is no evidence to indicate that the reptiles actually consume these fungi, they do share an affinity for the same secluded conditions. Children are also more effective than finding Morels than you will ever hope to be, probably because they are built so much closer to the ground. You and your kids will have hours of entertainment enjoying hunting and just being outside in general. The hunt will inevitably end with one of the kids (who has vastly outhunted you) saying, “Gee, Dad, that wasn’t as hard as you said.” The moral of this story is: when hunting with your kids, leave your ego at home. Remember, it’s about the quantity. Besides, who’s going to believe a bunch of kids over the “Morel Master?”

While hunting Morels, do pay attention to where you are going. Getting lost isn’t really an issue around our area, but going down south can really change the game. A few years back, in early April, I was walking through the woods “somewhere” in southern Ohio. It was a damp and dreary day; the trees were dripping rain with temperatures in the mid-sixties. I was intensely looking for any signs of moss, fungi or similar growth while, all the while, trying to convince myself that at any moment I would be finding Morels by the hundreds. After approximately six hours I realized that it might be too early in the season. This was followed immediately by the realization that my wallet had snuck off. That’s when the real hunt began. I tried backtracking after having aimlessly wandered around in circles for hours staring at the ground, then had a revelation that I wasn’t quite lost, but was just extremely turned around. Then it was back to aimlessly wandering around in circles, hoping to locate the wallet. After two hours, lo and behold, the first mushroom was located (uh oh). Thus began the tedious task of searching in a circular pattern on my hands and knees looking for the second one. After another 20 minutes of searching to no avail for mushrooms, the elusive wallet was found. (This story has a happy ending so I won’t get into the one about the car keys sneaking off two hours from home.) Pay attention to where you are at all times. When hunting in the big woods you may want to carry a GPS or, for people who actually remember how to use one, a compass.

When the temperature starts to rise into the sixties and seventies and Mother Nature starts growing moss and fungus, it may be helpful to look high on hillsides where the sun warms the ground instead of in the valleys and deeper woods. You’ll have better luck early on. As the season progresses I take a walking stick for moving leaves, debris and low hanging ground cover to get into locations that may be more difficult to reach. It also comes in handy for fending off pay-lakers. If you think I’m kidding about forty year old men sword fighting with their walking sticks over mushrooms, you obviously have not been Morel hunting.

Another nice thing about hunting Morels is it can be coupled with other types of spring activities such as fishing and turkey hunting. In Ohio, it is only legal to hunt turkey until noon, so what better way to finish off the day than to wander around, searching for Morels? Who knows, you may even find a better location to hunt turkey.

When setting out for a hunt, pack an onion bag (or several) to carry your Morels. Onion bags, or other open-mesh bags, are vastly preferred by the conscientious Shroomster, as they allow the spores to dissipate and seed the next crop. Dress for the weather and pack a bottle of water.

What happens when you finally locate a Morel? It’s been argued at great length that you should “pinch” or cut them off where the stem meets the base as opposed to pulling them straight out of the ground. This allows the spores to disperse in the immediate area so when you come back to the same area you won’t have to search as hard. Don’t take this as gospel; I’ve done it for years and finding the same quantities in the same location is a crapshoot.

So what do I do with them when I find one? Well that’s easy, I eat it. “But Matt and Dave,” you ask, “how do I cook them?” First and foremost, rinse them off well. Make sure you get all the debris and dirt and insects off of them. The simplest way to cook them is to melt some butter in a skillet and sauté them to your liking (don’t burn the butter). You can take this one step further by, after washing them off, adding a tablespoon of baking powder (not soda) to flour and frying them as above. You can also grill your Morels on top of steaks. Add them just before they’re done and mmmmmmm. Wrapping meat, potatoes, carrots and, of course, your Morels, in foil and baking the whole thing in a fire, on the grill or in the oven provides a choice meal indeed. It’s called a hobo dinner or poor man’s meal by the Boy Scouts and I’ll put it up against a steak house meal any day!

Morel hunting can be springtime fun for the whole family. It’s a perfect way to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. For more information on Morels such as pictures and recipes, visit www.Morels.com. For an up to date map of where Morels are being found across the country, visit: http://Morelmushroomhunting.com/Morel_progression_sightings_map.htm .

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