On the Hunt for Tasty Morel Mushrooms

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On the Hunt for Tasty Morel Mushrooms

 

Fungiphiles rejoice. It’s morel mushroom season in much of the United States, meaning it’s time to hunt down these tasty treasures.

 

They look like sponges or Dali-esque brains, but for those who’ve ever fried them up or experienced them in pasta sauce, their unique earthly flavor can’t be topped.

 

 

Over the past few weeks, mushroom hunters from Georgia to Ohio have reported morel sightings on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

 

And as spring sweeps other parts of the country, more reports can be expected each day, as you can see in these maps, tracking morel sightings across the country.

 

Morels emerge in moist environments with air temperatures in the 60s and 70s and soil temperatures in the 50s, and stick around for about three weeks after that.

 

Although it may seem like the mushroom pops up overnight it actually grows over a period of 10 to 20 days, as you can see in this YouTube video of the morel life cycle shot by Mr. Matherly.

 

The 19 known species of morels in North America — mainly black, gray and yellow — tend to pop up in that order as the temperatures get warmer, according to Dr. Tom Volk, a professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. To find them, he says, look on south facing slopes first because they warm up faster.

 

Though typically one to five inches in height, last year a man in Kansas found a morel that was a foot tall.

 

Unlike most flowers and plants, which spring up under favorable environmental conditions, the morel fungus (which actually lives underground) fruits, or sends up its spore-filled caps, when times get hard. That’s why you’ll find morels after forest fires or near dying trees — Conifers out West, Poplars and Ash down South and Elms in the Midwest.

 

Morel aficionados recommend collecting the mushrooms in some sort of bag or basket with holes in it, so that spores can stay behind in the wild and enable reproduction crucial to future bounties.

 

“Go out with a mesh bag and be Johny Appleseed when you’re in the woods,” said Mr. Matherly.

 

For those who want to take the hunt to the next level, a number of upcoming festivals include competitions. (These include the Mesick Lion’s 57th Annual Mushroom Festival in Mesick, Mich., from May 6 to 8, the National Morel Mushroom Festival from May 11 to 15 in Boyne City, Mich., and the Midwest Morel Fest in Ottawa, Illi., on May 7, where the finder of the biggest morel wins $500.)

 

Fun morel hunting fact: Don’t say the “m” word while hunting; some think the morels may hear you and pop back under the ground.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/science/on-the-hunt-for-tasty-morel-mushrooms.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=science&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Science&pgtype=article