Following the guidelines outlined in Gary Lincoff’s book, The Complete Mushroom Hunter, gathering your own mushrooms in the wild offers a way to enhance the flavors and textures of the meals you now make, allowing you to incorporate a number of choice edible wild mushrooms. If you take this book along with you, a walk in the park or the local woods will no longer be simple exercise or a way to pass time. It will be an opening into a world beneath your feet and over your head that has always been there, unobserved.
Perhaps you have seen mushrooms in your neighborhood and wondered what they were, but knew no way to distinguish the edible ones from the poisonous. The Complete Mushroom Hunter helps you recognize some of the best edible mushrooms and reliably distinguish them from any poisonous look-alikes. One of the best-loved (and very elusive) wild mushrooms is the morel, known for its long-awaited arrival each spring.
Morel Mushrooms
Many natural occurrences are harbingers of spring: the first shoot of color that appears when the trees are still bare, new growth that promises spring is just around the corner. For mushroom enthusiasts, the first sign of spring is the morel. The morel reassures us that life, color, and leafiness are returning. Edible, delicious morels reappear like clockwork every spring—along with the crocus in the garden, the first robin in the yard, and fresh asparagus in the market—and are one of the best eating mushrooms on the planet.
Elusive Locations, Varied Names
The morel is the one mushroom for which people actually count how many they find and make every effort not to disclose to anyone else where they find them. A few actually auction off their sites if they move out of town, or leave them as gifts in their wills; others would rather carry the secret of their morel sites to their graves. Morel hunting is not for the kindhearted, the absentminded, or the slow of foot, and the prize brings with it an incomparable satisfaction.
Morels are called many different things in different places. Morel is the market name, and that known and used most commonly. Morels are also called merkels, Molly moochers, or dry land fish, because the halved morel can resemble a cooked fish. Usually, though, hunters in the field just talk about the “blacks” and the “yellows.”
The scientific names are as various as the common names. The yellow morel is a complex, as is the black. Scientific names for the yellows, which might be several species, include Morchella esculenta (yellow in color), Morchella deliciosa (more white in color), and Morchella crassipes (often 12 inches [30 cm] high).
A gray-colored morel occurs under eastern tulip poplar trees and is sometimes considered a distinct species. Scientific names for the blacks include Morchella angusticeps, Morchella conica, and Morchella elata. The differences among them are not as clear as their unique names might suggest.
Black Morels and Yellow Morels
COMMON NAMES: Morels, merkels, Molly moochers, dry land fish
SCIENTIFIC NAMES:
Black Morels: Morchella angusticeps, Morchella conica, Morchella elata, and others (species differences not yet resolved)
Yellow Morels: Morchella crassipes, Morchella deliciosa, Morchella esculenta (species differences not yet resolved)
FIELD DESCRIPTION:
Grows on the ground, singly or scattered; (yellows) under hardwood trees, in old apple orchards; (blacks) under ash and sycamore, and under conifers and in recently burned areas.
Reaches 3 to 6 inches (7.5 to 15 cm) or more when mature.
Cap is cream-colored to yellowish, light brownish, brownish black, or gray, never reddish; conical, honeycombed (a cone of ridges and pits), hollow, and attached to stalk at base of cap.
Stalk is whitish, hollow.
Field differences between blacks and yellows: the ribs on the black morels are darker than the pits.
Morel Look-Alikes
The poisonous look-alike group is called the false morels, species of the genus Gyromitra. When cut in half lengthwise, morels are hollow. Gyromitras that are typically brownish red or reddish brown are chambered or stuffed.
Morel Season
Morels occur throughout the Northern and Southern Hemisphere temperate zones. There are two criteria that are usually present when and where morels show up: the spring season and alkaline soil. In March through May in the Northern Hemisphere (September and October in the Southern Hemisphere), morels are among the first signs of spring. The local plants or birds that are conspicuous at the same time will differ from region to region, but if it’s spring, the morels are as regular as taxes.
Seasonality of Morels
Black morels come up as early as March in the United States and Europe, and sometimes into June in northern areas and higher elevations (such as the Canadian Rockies). Yellow morels come up two to three weeks after the black morels appear. There can be overlap in some places at some times. Yellow morels fruit through May, and into early June in northern regions.
Where the Trees Are
In certain regions, morels are found by locating particular trees. It might be old apple orchards, a wood of tulip poplar trees, ash trees, or dead or dying elms. In lowland, wetland, areas with cottonwoods or sycamore trees can be very productive, especially for the early black morels.
The common denominator appears to be the soil ph. The higher the ph, and thus the more alkaline the soil, the more likely it is that morels will be found in the area. Knowing an area has heavy limestone (North America) or calcareous (Europe) deposits is all you need to know to determine where to start hunting for morels. Alkalinity in soil varies by region.
APPLE ORCHARDS: Apple orchards are traditionally limed to produce good crops, and a limed soil has a high ph—a good reason to look for morels in old apple orchards. A downside of apple orchards, however, is the possibility that they may been sprayed with lead arsenate, a compound that does not degrade in the soil and that can, possibly, be present in apple orchard morels. Nevertheless, there have been no confirmed poisonings of people who pick and eat morels collected in apple orchards.
Some people have used Geologic Survey maps that were developed in the 1950s. The maps show the locations of apple orchards, a favorite place for morel hunters. Even though the areas searched in are often now housing and business tracts, the morels still come around old and forgotten apple trees.
A systematic search for morels using these maps has netted some morel hunters thousands of morels a season. Envy is the expected response when you hear about harvests of this magnitude, but secrecy is part of the process, and friends who would risk their lives to save yours are still not good enough friends to share their morel sites with you.
Where the Trees Were
It is well known that burned forests are a good habitat for morels. Morels will come up in droves the spring following the fires. Across central and eastern Europe, from Munich to Moscow, fires are set by people hoping for a good morel harvest the following spring. A forest fire in Austria not long ago netted 45,000 pounds (40,211 kg) of morels! Late summer forest fires in the western United States provide some of the best morel collecting on the planet.
Morels in an Olive Grove?!
One mushroom hunter recently found 100 morels in an olive orchard in California. She walked the paths between the plants, and she found morels coming up between the pruned branches that had been cut at the end of the previous season and left on the ground. The explanation for why morels could come up in olive orchards is likely to be the same as that for morels fruiting in apple orchards: the orchards are limed to increase the pH of the soil, and morels love to grow in alkaline soil.
Similarly, forest fires produce ash, a transient alkaline layer that favors morel growth. Morels have even been found growing alongside cement paths in parks, feasting on the lime leaching out of the cement!
Eating Morels
Morels have been brought under cultivation, so it is now possible to find them in fine food stores everywhere. The cultivated ones are readily distinguished by their uniformity of size and appearance. Fresh cultivated morels are also expensive, and they have yet to prove to morel hunters that they have any flavor worth discussing.
With fresh morels, the rule is simple: do not eat morels raw. Moreover, if eating black morels, restrain your alcoholic intake because even cooked black morels can cause stomach upset.
Not everyone likes morels. They taste best when cooked in butter or cream sauces; in culinary traditions in which dairy is not dominant, such as Japan’s, morels are not usually eaten. Even those who love morels don’t agree on the best way to prepare them. With deference to regional culinary differences, people have batter-fried morels until they resemble a light tempura; made cream of morel soup with a hint of nutmeg; and even stuffed morels with a forcemeat of seasoned veal, flaming it over with an apple brandy.
Some people love to eat fresh morels; others prefer drying them, then rehydrating them in something other than water, such as heavy cream, and then cooking them. The simplest and quickest way to prepare morels, though, is just to pan-fry them in butter and/or oil, season, and serve.
Drying Surplus Morels
Whether you have five morels or 5,000, if you have too many to eat at one time, the best solution for enjoying them all is to dry them. Dried morels develop an intense flavor; a little goes a long way. The safest drying method for long storage should include some heat, though air-drying is fine.
The simplest method for air-drying morels: Cut them in half lengthwise and lay them on paper towels. (Morels are hollow, and any insects discovered inside them can be easily removed.) Turn them a few times over the next two days so they dry evenly. Finish the drying in an open oven with the heat turned down to the lowest temperature setting. Leave in the oven for one hour (and make sure the morels are not cooking).
A more efficient means of drying mushrooms: Use an electric food dehydrator. Decent quality dehydrators are available for a reasonable price, and some come with stackable screens that accommodate mushrooms well. The halved morels can be placed on the screens and left to dry for a day or so inside the food dehydrator. They can be stored in jars (preferably clear) with tight lids. Dried morels retain their flavor for more than a decade.
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About The Complete Mushroom Hunter: Do you know your mushrooms? This is the only mushrooming book that will introduce you safely and with confidence to the not-so “underground” hobby of mushroom hunting and gathering. Gathering edible wild food is a wonderful way to forge a connection to the earth. Mushrooms are the ultimate local food source; they grow literally everywhere, from mountains and woodlands to urban and suburban parks to your own backyard. The Complete Mushroom Hunter will enrich your understanding of the natural world and build an appreciation for an ancient, critically relevant, and useful body of knowledge. Amateur mycologists and mushroom enthusiasts will find this is a guidebook for their passion. Mushroom guru Gary Lincoff escorts you from the mushroom’s earliest culinary awakening, through getting equipped for mushroom forays, to preparing and serving the fruits of the foray, wherever you live. Inside you’ll find: -A brief, but colorful history of mushroom hunting worldwide -How to get equipped for a mushroom foray -A completely illustrated guide to the common wild edible mushrooms and their poisonous look-alikes: where to find them, how to identify them, and more -How to prepare and serve the fruits of your foray, plus more than 30 delicious recipes -Plus, dozens of colorful, priceless anecdotes from living the mushroom lifestyle.
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