Get your eyes on. Morel mushroom season is almost here."You have to be focused," says Bob Girton, a mushroom hunter since his boyhood in Plymouth. His family has hunted Marshall County's morels every spring for nearly a century. Family matriarch 90-year-old Mary Girton remembers hunting them as a girl with her father and brothers. "We'd go to the woods in back of the cemetery,"Mary said. "You had to have a stick to push back the leaves - or scare away snakes." Her son Bob collects more than 1,000 morels annually. "I think he can smell them."
A morel found along the bank of the White River just north of Broad Ripple in Marion County. © Photo courtesy of Tom Frederiksen
Magic Mushrooms
Many edible mushroom species grow in Indiana, but the morel, Morchella esculenta, lures foragers of all ages into the early spring woods. Morels are “sponge” mushrooms, hollow and ranging in color from black to yellow. They are usually 3 to 5 inches tall, the fruiting body of a much larger organism that feeds by underground filaments.
Indiana morel season lasts from early April in southern Indiana to midto late May farther north. Take a guide (either a book or a person) with you if you are a novice because some wild mushroom species are poisonous. “If you aren’t 110 percent sure what you have, don’t eat it,” advises Donald Ruch, professor of biology at Ball State University, who is currently writing a book on wild mushrooms.
Hobby or Obsession?
Ruch starts looking for morels on May 1 near his home in central Indiana. He enjoys the hunt. “There’s a mystique to hunting mushrooms. And it’s great getting out into the woods after a long winter,” he said. Morels are most often found in heavily wooded areas. David W. Fischer, author of the book Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America and the brains behind the Web site http://AmericanMushrooms.com, hypothesizes that morels might associate with dying or dead apple and elm trees, but the mushroom has also been found in places completely devoid of trees. Morel’s unpredictability adds to its mystique. For some people, that creates an irresistible urge to start looking. Morels tend to come up in the same place every year, so every mushroom hunter has his or her “spot,” passionately concealed from other mushroom hunters. A mushroom seeker needs to use caution; however, if the spot happens to be on private property. Always get permission to hunt for mushrooms on someone else’s land. Morels don’t mind growing around developed property, but be aware that morels found on developed land may be contaminated by pesticides or herbicides.
A forest of mushrooms thrives in Boone County. © Photo courtesy of Ed Rose
Most mushroom hunters share similar traits. First is secrecy. “The universal rule of mushroom-hunting is that the location of one’s patch must be jealously guarded,” Fischer said. Bob Girton echoes that view. When he finds a new spot, “I don’t advertise.”
Another trait is stamina. Girton goes out every evening after work during morel season. His mother remembers a time when he and a friend hunted with a flashlight.
“There have been plenty of times when I found few or none for hours, then hit the mother lode,” Fischer said. Ball State’s Ruch has coined the term “monomorelitis” — you know you have it when you can only find one morel at a time, but never a whole patch.
Preparing the Feast
Appreciation for the taste is the last trait of a successful mushroom hunter, and it goes a long way toward instilling secrecy and stamina. The morel's flavor has been described as smoky, nutty, woody, mild and smooth. Whether combined in a sauce or scrambled with eggs, they are a delicious addition to a spring meal. They can also be frozen or dried for use at other times of the year. Mary Girton uses her mother's recipe to prepare her morels. After cleaning them, she dips them in flour and fries them in butter or shortening. Ruch also enjoys them fried, but his favorite way to eat morels is to halve them, stuff them with cheese, and bake them in the oven until the cheese melts. Morel recipes are widely available on the Internet, but Ruch recommends a cookbook by Hope Miller, Hope’s Mushroom Cookbook, for wild fungi recipes.
“I always enjoy the game of seekand- find with morels,” Fischer said. “But these days, I find myself even more consumed by a fascination with the incredible and often mysterious biology and ecology of this very special kingdom of organisms.”
Morel mushrooms will soon appear on a forest floor near you. Grab a stick and a basket and learn to forage for this native species.
Amazing Mushroom Facts
- Mushrooms are not plants, but members of the fungi kingdom.
- The visible, edible part of the mushroom is the fruit. The mycelium, the body of filaments that extends itself underground and feeds on the surrounding medium (soil, decaying wood), is much larger.
- Morels contain an assortment of amino acids and other compounds that give them their savory taste, and they are very low in calories.
- Hunting advice from David Fischer: when you’re hunting for mushrooms, stooping or squatting helps, because you can see them in profile.
- A few mushroom species in Indiana are poisonous. Never, ever consume a mushroom unless you have positively identified it as edible.
- Morel mushrooms are not safe to eat raw. Always cook them first.
RESOURCES:
- Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America by David W. Fischer, 1992, University of Texas Press.
- AmericanMushrooms.com, David W. Fischer's informative website.
- Peterson Field Guide Series A Field Guide to Mushrooms: North America by Kent H. McKnight and Vera B. McKnight.
- Common Mushrooms of Indiana State Parks and Reservoirs, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of State Parks and Reservoirs, Interpretative Services, is a brochure available on www.in.gov
- Hope's Mushroom Cookbook, by Hope Miller, www.mushrooms-millers.com.
- For specific questions about or identification of mushrooms, contact Donald Ruch, professor of biology, Ball State University, E-mail:
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