Fungal beauty: Morel mushrooms

Scavenger hunting was never so difficult. Trying to find a morel mushroom on a ground that is covered in dead leaves and dirt is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack-- they just blend in too easily. Hunting for them is made that much harder-- and that much more exciting if you are a die-hard morel hunter like my college pal, Keith Wilson. After spending several hours last weekend searching high and low for these elusive fungi for an article I was writing for the Examiner newspaper, I now consider morel mushroom hunting an art form-- not to mention the perfect topic for this blog, which highlights the abstruse and unappreciated beauty that nature so often hides from us in plain sight.


Morels come from the Morchella genus, and are considered a prized delicacy by chefs and foodies alike (especially the French). Their pruney, sponge-like heads have a unique, meaty taste, and since they are only available seasonally, they are quite costly. They typically come out mid to late April on the East Coast and although they are found in all 50 states, morels are most prevalent in the mid-West. That said, Keith assured me Maryland has a decent crop, you just have to be stealth-like and get out earlier than the competition.


Morel hunters take their task very seriously. Keith knows this better than anyone, he's been hunting them for years and singing their culinary praises. He swears they are the best of all the mushrooms taste wise. So I asked him to take me on a hunt to show me what the hype was all about. And then cook for me, it was research after all.


Keith knows exactly where to look and I've been sworn to secrecy not to reveal any of the places we covered. The first spot was in the mid-section of a very wooded state park, and even though we were there on a mission, I still found my eyes wandering towards the pastel colored wild flowers and moss covered branches and tree trunks. Things were blooming quite rapidly as the temperatures here in the mid-Atlantic this spring have been in the high 80's for several days. All sorts of life had come out of hiding, including a family of eight deer that we saw as we walked up our first hill.


After about 10 minutes, we were both sweating, and all I could think was we better find some mushrooms for all this work. While we continued our seemingly endless search, Keith told me morels come in three colors--yellow, gray and black. The yellows and grays tend to grow close to or under elms, sycamores and tulip trees, while the black ones can be spotted in coniferous forests. All varieties are known to grow at the sites of forest fires and disturbed areas, and most morels are found in the wild...hence, the guarded secrecy of locations among hunters.


We finally found a few young ones growing near some tulip trees about 40 minutes into the search, but Keith seemed disappointed that there weren't more, so on we went to location number 2. And no, I can't tell you where again, but I will say we went through an endless amount of thorny brush to get there and I was ready to turn around at least three times. When we arrived at a slight clearing, Keith spotted another small patch, although I think he suspected the competition had beaten him to much of it, leaving a only few stragglers behind.


Maybe morels have off years like perennials. We only scored around 30 mushrooms on this hunt, which is considered a small amount by Keith's standards. By the end of the day, my head was spinning from all the walking and staring at dead leaves in hopes of finding a brownish root peaking through the earth. I now understand why morel hunters are such a rare bunch; the hunting takes time, patience and steadfast tenacity. Having a slight obsession doesn't hurt. Still, I am glad I went to see what the hunt was all about. I can honestly say I respect the hunters that embark upon this seemingly dauntless task each spring.

The Remnants of a house in the woods

Young Redbud blooms on a limb

Jack-in-the-Pulpits

Wild grapevines in the woods

Wild geranium

For more information on morel mushrooms, please visit:
http://thegreatmorel.com/