During my half-hour stroll, it snows, then hails, then becomes fabulously, luxuriously sunny. I’m watching a wet fox sun himself on a rock, steam rising from his back, when I notice a morel mushroom, like the hat of a little forest gnome, poking up out of leaf litter. Within a minute, I’ve found four more.

It’s nice. It takes you there. It reminds us of why simple things are good and how  nature remains tantalizing beautiful and mysterious despite the technological might brought to bear on trying to understand it.

Take a minute to read the whole piece, Getting Rich on Fungus, and enjoy the simple things. It won’t take much time and will be well worth the trip.

Morels, caught and cleaned (Michel Ngilen/Flickr)

Word on the web is that people are getting excited about morels. One of the guys MycoRant follows on  twitter has mentioned getting his gear ready and making a few preliminary forays to check things out. In fact reports are already starting to come in about successful hunts.

‘Shroom, ‘shroom, ‘shroom: Guess who went morel huntin‘

The weekend hunt yielded 30 pounds, and the wild morels are within an hour-and-a-half’s drive from Dallas-southish, if I can surmise correctly from the clue that he couldn’t resist a stop at the Czech Stop in West. He’s asking $2 an ounce retail.

Morels: Hunting for Wild Mushrooms

April is morel-season here in Missouri, and much of the Midwest. Morels are one of my favorite wild mushrooms. They’re delicious of course, but they also symbolize the beginning of a long stretch of foraging opportunities–chanterelles, oyster mushrooms, blackberries, service berries, elderberries, pawpaws, wild greens, and more.

Early morel mushroom season for 2010?

Sure, the warm weather we have been having has been nice. Maybe a little too nice. Very warm temperatures this early could be good and bad for the upcoming morel season. If temperatures stay on the above normal side and if we receive adequate moisture on and off, we could be in for an early morel mushroom picking season. However, if morels start to pop early and then a string of cold weather hits, it could really mess up the whole process.

Morel mushrooms are a taste worth hunting

Warmer weather to usher in morel season in Neb.

Warmer weather is bringing with it the promise of a time-honored tradition in Nebraska: morel mushroom hunting. Morels begin to appear in mid- to late-April. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has a few tips – and some warnings – for those planning to go out on the hunt this year.

For a pretty active community of morel folks who post information on where things are happening check out The Great Morel Forum.

Dear Sir —–

I am trying to locate Dr. Gary Mills, who once worked for Terry Farms, (producer of farmed morels, based on Dr. Mills’ work.)  He left Terry Farms some years ago and I believe returned to somewhere in Michigan where he did some morel growing.  I need to contact him, if possible.

I am Don Hardiman.  I am a small farmer and sometime mushroom grower.  I met Dr. Mills while he was at the Terry Farms Auburn, AL plant.

Any assistance you could lend would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx —- don

A web search for Mills turns up plenty of mention of him and his work with morels, but no recent contact information. Dr. Mills, if you are out there and wish to communicate with this gentleman, let me know, and I’ll pass on his contact information.

The University of Illinois extension service will offer a morel mushroom hunting workshop on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 from 1-2:30 PM. According to Morel mushroom hunting workshop at the U of I Extension:

University of Illinois Extension Henderson-Mercer-Warren unit will offer a workshop on morel mushroom hunting at the Warren County Extension office, 1000 N. Main St., Monmouth. The presentation will be via the University of Illinois telenet system and local computer PowerPoint presentations, allowing live discussion between the instructor and gardeners throughout Illinois.

It would be interesting to find out how this sort of hybrid “webinar” format works out. Any attendees are invited to let us know.

Beer Company Introduces Curry Sauce with Morels

And now for some news from the pub. The Publican that is. According to Cobra Beer unveils the ultimate curry sauce, the brewery is celebrating “National Chip Week” (a fine British tradition no doubt), with the introduction of a curry sauce that includes in its ingredients real gold and morel mushrooms.

The sauce will be on sale all this week in London’s Cafe Spice Namaste restaurant where head chef Cyrus Todiwala helped Cobra develop the unique recipe, which includes gold leaf and other premium ingredients including Morel mushrooms worth £150 a kilo.

Scatter My Ashes Over My Favorite Morel Grounds

The recent obituary of Carl Edward Stewart notes his passion for the outdoors and mushroom hunting in particular. So great was his love of mushroom hunting that his ashes will be scattered over his favorite morel hunting grounds later in the spring. The spot has been identified only as being “somewhere north of the equator.”

Earl had a passion for the outdoors, centered around activities with family and friends at his beloved lake cabin in Minnesota. He had a special gift for building webs of connections with friends through ice fishing, acting as a judge at local bicycle races, and mushroom hunting. An accomplished mycologist, he was familiar with dozens of edible species. Earl pursued mushrooms with such zeal that it was not unusual to find him scratched and bleeding from crashing through the woods, yet smiling joyfully – morel mushroom in hand. His enthusiasm for introducing friends to mushroom hunting was matched only by his reticence in divulging the locations of his precious mushroom spots.

A true morel man, through and through.

From the pictures, they look like they “might” be black morels (Morchella elata), which are known to pop up in a year following a fire.

See Gathering Gifts of the Boreal Forest by Shawn Bell appearing at the website of the Slave River Journal. Heck maybe they call them morales way up there.