My lower back was aching, and felt as if my spine had been permanently bent in the wrong direction. Almost everyone I saw that day periodically stood upright, flexed their back muscles, working out the kinks.
Picking morel mushrooms was the cause for my sore back, but picking morel mushrooms had been on my May list of things to do. There is something about picking morels that make people willingly assume this painful bent-over position.
Morels are tough for many to see, and by bending from the waist, it puts our eyes closer to the ground. The "mushroom-back" syndrome applies most often to those who have attained senior-citizen status.
The first morel I picked was in the early 1950s, and it coincided with steelhead fishing trips to the Sturgeon River near Wolverine. Sometimes the steelhead runs were late, and the morels came early, and this overlapping of events was a marriage made in Heaven.
As the years passed, and I've watched how these fungi react to weather patterns, the less I think I know about timing the fruiting season. As long as I can remember, Mother's Day was touted as the peak of the morel fruiting season. Today could mark the peak of the season unless the weather remains cool and cold rains fall.
It takes some warm weather with air temperatures in the high 60s and 70s and some moisture that hastens mushroom growth. There are good mushroom years and bad ones, and no one can predict with any degree of accuracy which type of season we will have until after it is over.
Morels have been picked since that warm spell in late April, and chats with some friends who spend time seeking these delicious fungi indicate the black morels are done and the white morels are coming on.
Everyone has their own 'room picking style. Some work up-hill which seems to put the viewing perspective of the ground closer to the human eye. Others prefer heading down the hills, and years ago when my vision was keen, I preferred taking a hill-side and walking across it. This style gave pickers a chance to look up, down, backwards and sideways.
My morel picking days are mostly over because of my vision problem. Show me a white morel that stands tall and proud, and is big enough for me to trip over, and I may see it before it is trampled flat. I can't see the black morels at all, and it takes a big white to catch my eye ... sometimes.
A buddy picks morel mushrooms to sell, and readily admits that a white morel that tall may stretch a fine point. It's difficult to pick enough of these delicious fungi to make much money. With the high cost of fuel, he finds himself picking some of the same places more often than he once did, thereby failing to spread out to discover new places.
Some pickers move steadily while others walk slowly and hope to spot a morel. If they find one, chances are that others are nearby. If morels are found on a hill-side, look uphill and down for other fungi. Use a sharp knife to cut the stem just above the ground. Never pull mushrooms from the ground.
It doesn't take long for good mushroom areas to be picked clean. There are several places southeast of Mesick where morels are commonly found, and this year, it seems there are fewer pickers than usual. High gas prices and cold rainy weather has kept many pickers close to home.
What has happened is the minor heat wave and warm rains in late April did their job. Many (but not all) mushrooms fruited then, and the black morels came first and were fairly abundant, and then the first whites were picked two weeks ago.
Does this mean the mushroom season has ended before we reached the normal peak of the fruiting season? It's hard to say, but many folks I spoke with look for more morels for another two weeks. I've seen years when foragers were still picking morels in early June.
Morels sprout when the earth warms up and there is adequate rain. A deluge drenches everything, and then the mushrooms disappear. Too little rain, and what fungi are found are very small and all dried out.
I've heard of mushrooms selling for $20 per pound, and also heard of a pound selling for $40. The first number is much closer to the fair market value for a pound of fresh-picked mushrooms.
Anyone who wants to go out and pick mushrooms to sell them for $20 a pound or less had better have on some comfortable boots and be willing to walk 10 miles or more to make any kind of a living. A guy I know often picks 200 pounds of mushrooms over six weeks. At $20 per pound for 200 pounds, it comes to $4,000. Out of that comes gas, wear and tear on a vehicle and the human body trying to find places that haven't been picked. This man is in the woods at dawn and seldom leaves before 7 p.m.
Long hours, plenty of mosquito bites, chance encounters with poison ivy, and some sore feet come from such foraging efforts. Many foragers try to pick and walk over 10 miles in one day, and they usually aren't out picking the next day. So consider what it's like to pick mushrooms for a living. It's work!
It means hiking up and down hills, looking for the right mix of ash and popple trees. Most of the best pickers I know can spot a mushroom at 20 to 30 feet, and I've been with a few people who can see a big white morel while cruising down the highway.
For many foragers who pick for their own use, a half-pound of mushrooms per day is a good day. For a professional picker, a half-pound of fresh morels means a poor start. This man I know has, on the rare occasion, picked 40 to 50 pounds in one day.
Twenty to 30 pounds can be done on a good day once or twice a season, but the very large harvest may only happen once or twice in a season. And then, there are the "daisy chains," an almost legendary place where mushrooms seem endless. I've seen just one Daisy Chain in my life, and three of us picked at least 10 pounds each in an area not much larger than a small living room. Morels grew in clusters, and the one shown above was from that spot. It featured over 40 morels in one cluster that sprouted and grew together.
Daisy Chains are the things of which morel mushroom dreams are made.
Once, while picking a hillside in Wexford County, I came across a place where the cut-off stems of white morels dotted a hillside and the stems had not turned brown. Far ahead, I spotted a man walking fast away from me with a big bag over his shoulder.
That location had produced, by my count, over 500 mushrooms for the stranger. He had been the first one there, and I was the second. He got all the mushrooms, and I got what Paddy shot at.
Finding morel mushrooms is great fun but it's not for those with bad hearts or weak legs. There is a great deal of up and down climbing, and travel through wooded areas can trip up an unwary picker. Most pickers know to look near ash, elm or popple stumps and trees.
White morels can be found almost anywhere. The occasional white is found in my yard, in pine trees, along the edges of open fields, on south-facing steep hill-sides, and in abandoned orchards and open woodlots.
It's days when foraging is easy that draw people to the mushroom woods every spring. We all share that one dream of finding the Mother Lode of morels. It happens, but my one experience with a large number of morels was as close as this forager ever got to being surrounded by morels.
Have fun, and remember that turkey hunting season is underway. Sharing the woods at this time of year is important for both types of hunters.
Morel recipes
Thoroughly wash all mushrooms before cooking, and slice them in half. Insects, dirt and rotten leaves often are found inside morel mushrooms. Here are a couple of tasty recipes to try with morels.
Scrambled Eggs With Morel Mushrooms
3 eggs
1/8 cup cleaned, sliced and chopped morel mushrooms
2 ounces milk (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Whisk the eggs and milk into a smooth mixture, stir the mushrooms into the eggs and milk and pour it into a small fly pan. Cook over medium heat until the eggs start to solidify, and then use a spatula to flip the scrambled eggs over. Cook until done. Serve hot with two slices of buttered whole wheat toast. This will serve one hungry angler or hunter.
Cream Of Morel Mushroom Soup
2 tablespoons chopped onions
1/4 pound morel mushrooms
2 tablespoons enriched flour
2 tablespoons of margarine or butter
2 cups beef or chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of light cream
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Clean and slice morel mushrooms in cold water. Cook morels with onion in butter for five minutes. Add flour and blend. Add broth, and cook until mixture is slightly thickened. Cool slightly, and add cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and add nutmeg. Heat through and serve immediately. This will make four to six servings.
-- Dave Richey
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