Morel Season, 2010

First posted on 05-07-2010

Some things I look forward to all year because they only occur for a brief time and then they’re gone, like Christmas or the Super Bowl. Morel season is like that, too. The tasty little mycelium fruit only issues when the conditions are just right in a very brief window of time, a few weeks in April and sometimes into May.

Last morel season, I happened to find myself smack in the middle of a huge crop that I may not have noticed had the fishing been better that day. It was a warm spring day but the fish weren’t biting at all. It had rained heavily the day before so the creeks and rivers were swollen but, of course, the morels didn’t mind that weather one bit.

I reeled in, looked around as I gathered my fishing gear, and spotted a small mushroom. As I scanned the ground, I found another, then another, and I realized I was standing atop a sizeable field of morels. The next day brought even greater success and I dragged home several bags of edible fungus.

But that was last year. This year, I was not able to travel to that patch of ground during morel season as it lies some distance from my home. I did have access to a very nice spot that has been known to produce morels in the past.

Leaves were dry and crackled like potato chips under my boots during the first hunt. Creeks had been reduced to a trickle and the excursion revealed no mushrooms despite a diligent effort to comb the area. The second investigation was on a sunny day immediately following a rain, not a good soaking rain, but enough to wet the ground. I found two tall morels but they had already begun to rot and wither, meaning I was a day or so too late.

Finally, the weather looked right for ‘shrooming: a very nice rain followed by warm, sunny days. I was out. I checked the spot where I had found fruit earlier since I knew morel mycelium was at least present there. But the morel fruit was not. I checked a few more spots nearby but without success. So, my 2010 morel season closed without as much as a panful of sauteed delight.

But, like all trips to the woods, I brought back more than I set out to find. I watched momma herons feed their babies, snorted and wheezed with deer for several minutes, spied an indigo bunting, observed five squirrels whose coats were nearly black in color, came across a fresh set of bobcat tracks and saw more wildflowers in bloom than I could imagine.

A few morels would have been a crowning achievement, but there is always next year for that and it leaves me something to look forward to. The other gifts the woods provided me have become my memories and will last a lifetime.

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