The good folks at Locally Grown Northfield have gotten a bit of a buzz going about birds being seen in the Northfield area. Triumvirate member Tracy Davis encourages readers to post their bird sightings in her post “Birdwatching is NOT ‘Fluff’”. I’d like to venture into somewhat more exotic territory, that of the mushroom hunter.
I myself am not much of a mycologist. I don’t trust myself to eat much of anything in the fungus kingdom that I can’t buy in a restaurant or at Just Food Coop, with one exception: the exalted morel.
I have been hunting the wily morel, fabled for both its elusiveness and its wonderful flavor, for more than 25 years. For about the last 15 years, it has been a family rite of spring, shared with good friends Andy and Lizabeth Gockel of St. Paul and their three kids (now ages 19, 17 and 14). Some springs we find a bumper crop; other springs we are skunked, or find just a few, but it’s always a good excuse to poke around in the woods at a time of year when the southern Minnesota woods are both beautiful and mercifully mosquito-free.
Yesterday afternoon Anne, Maia, Jakob and I spent an afternoon poking around in the undergrowth in an undisclosed Rice County location with Andy and Lizabeth, the younger two of their kids, Sam and Grace, and our two trusty terriers Angus and Ruby. We didn’t come away with a bumper crop, 
but we did find enough morels (Jakob, Andy, Ruby and Grace pose with them at right) to make a tasty appetizer for the meal we later enjoyed on our patio on a glorious May evening. 
We’re going to have to work at training Angus and Ruby to find morels…
By the way, don’t ask me where I found these (or any other) morels. It is against the mushroom-hunter’s code of conduct to divulge the location of their hunting grounds! Part of the joy of mushrooming is in learning the ropes and finding your own secret spot(s). Get out there and hunt!
5 Comments
Bruce:
What an elegant meal.
I found 2 morels in my yard the year after an elm tree was removed . . . but never again. Do they come up year after year in other locations?
A neighbor used to take a month off of work (May) to hunt for morels and sold them to fine restaurants in the Twin Cities - he has moved away - and I wonder whether he is now living on the proceeds.
Jane,
Morels are fickle in the extreme, in my experience. You can’t count on them to be found year after year in the same location, even if it appears to be an ideal location (around the base of a dead elm with the bark just beginning to come off, for example). That’s part of their charm! The hunt is the thing…
My husband and I went out “morelling” this past weekend, in another undisclosed location about 100 miles north of here. (Of course you know that morel-hunters NEVER give away their sources!) We found almost all black morels, since it’s a bit earlier in the season up there…. we got about 3/4 of a pound.
Based on the delayed spring temps, I think we can still hunt around here for another week or so! Maybe we should share recipes if not hunting spots. :-)
I love morels simply sauteed, straight up: a bit of butter and olive oil with salt (with or without a bit of garlic). What’s your fave, Tracy?
I found a few more morels yesterday. I agree they should be around here for another week or so–the season is very delayed because of the cool weather…
I’m a purist - just butter. I have raw milk/cream so I can make my own butter in small quantities… fresh morels and fresh butter, how can you beat that?