Monday, April 19, 2004

Among the Fungi It's getting to be morel time again.  Here in Wisconsin, traditional woods lore pegs Mothers Day as the best time to find morels.  Unseasonably warm weather this past weekend, though (80s here in the SE, and rumors of 90s in the SW), might have moved that date up a bit.  Judging from the green-up and leaf-out in evidence locally, I wouldn't be surprised to find some of these spring delicacies any day now. The best place to get info on morels in the Midwest is the Morel Heaven website.  Founded by the late Larry Lonik, also known as "Tree," "Spore Boy," and "Mr. Mushroom."  Lonik died this past winter, but his work is being carried on by Shelly and David Mazur.  Morel Heaven holds morel hunting weekend events at Crystal Mountain Resort in Michigan.  They also sell mushrooming products, including Larry Lonik's SporeBoy mushroom bags, which keep morels fresh in the field and allow spores to fall freely to the ground, thus "reseeding" the area you are hunting. Morels are the prime rib of mushrooms.  They sprout in spring, when few other edible mushrooms are available.  Before I knew how to identify morels, I picked some false morels and ate them.  They were delicious.  Then I learned that false morels are poisonous to some people (about 30 percent of the population, one source said).  So I counted myself lucky and quit picking them. BTW, there is an old Russian proverb: "All mushrooms are edible, sometimes only once."  If you don't know a morel from a molehill, get a good book or check out the Morel Heaven website before you go. Most morel hunters are more secretive than brook trout fishermen.  In fact, I think some brookie fishermen secretly go mushroom hunting instead of fishing on their spring ventures. Oh oh!  My battery is on reserve power, so I'm outta here for now. Happy pickin'! Later... 6:45:06 PM    comment []