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Departments | Conservation | In the News | Stalking the wily morel - May 10, 2007

Stalking the wily morel

It's peak season right now for the tasty, elusive fungi

Article written by Bob Link and used with permission from the Globe Gazette, published on Thursday, May 10, 2007.

 

MASON CITY - The woods are full of hunters - in search of the wild morel mushroom.

 

"Our parking lot has been full the last couple of weeks," said Cerro Gordo County Conservation Director Fred Heinz, whose office is at the Lime Creek Nature Center.

 

"People are here sunup to sundown," said Heinz. "They're coming back with bags full."

 

Lime Creek is one of many public areas where hunters search for morels, following nearly nine miles of wooded trails.

 

"The morel mushroom is a fungus that survives on dead or decaying vegetation," said Todd Von Ehwegen, a naturalist at Lime Creek. "Dead elm trees seem to produce the most. You find them at the base, when the bark is falling off.

 

"They're reat to eat and challenging to find," said Von Ehwegen. "If you like mushrooms, the taste is definitely out of this world."

 

Looking up, Von Ehwegen assessed the trees. Spotting one deep in the brush, he made his way around live trees to the stump. Looking down, he spotted several mushrooms.

 

The white and light brown mushrooms are anywhere from two inches to several inches tall.

 

"They're sometime a challenge," he said. "you can't just walk out and find them. You have to hunt for them.

 

"Sometimes there are just a few, other times you hit the mother load with a couple dozen," he said.

 

Prime hunting season, according to Von Ehwegen, is late April and the first two or three weeks of May.

 

Bobby Wolfram, Ventura, said the morels are now starting to pop up.

 

"I've had pretty good luck already this year," Wolfram said. "But some of my best spots haven't started producing yet."

 

Conditions in Cerro Gordo County should be just perfect during the next couple of weeks. The good moisture followed by warm weather conditions, brings out the morels.

 

"There is a lot of Dutch Elm disease going around," Wolfram said, "with many trees in the woods falling. They're perfect for the morel."

 

"I came across a tree that had 15 of the bigger white ones - several as big as a small pear," he said.

 

Wolfram said the locations of the best hunting spots are "pretty much top secret," around here. "People don't just share that information," he said.

 

Von Ehwegen cautioned people to know that they're picking and eating morels. He suggested getting a field guide book to properly identify mushrooms. He said some mushrooms are poisonous.

 

Von Ehwegen said there are many ways to prepare the mushrooms.

 

"A lot of people roll them in flour or cracker mix and deep fry them," he said. "Other people just put a little butter in a pan and saute them."

 

Von Ehwegen said the mushrooms are also popular in soups.

Cerro Gordo County Conservation Office