Hard to mistake for anything else, morels are a great beginner's mushroom. There's just one catch: morels are really, really hard to see. For years, we looked during the last two weeks of April in all the places people said to look: in old apple orchards, by dead elm stumps, and under tuliptrees. Nothing. Until we went out with experienced mushroomers who were willing to share their morel spots. Suddenly, the forest floor was dotted with these gourmet delicacies.
The pocked brown surface of morels is perfectly camouflaged to mix in with crumpled dead leaves. Several times, I've sat down to take a break while mushrooming, only to have my new perspective reveal a morel in the exact patch of ground where I was just looking. After finding a few, your brain forms a search image, and they start standing out a little more from the background. Until then, hunting for morels can be painfully frustrating. It's important to remember that even if you don't find anything, you're walking in the woods. And it's spring.
The earthy flavor of morels is like nothing else -- and their value among those of us who hunt mushrooms is heightened by the fact that they're the first mushroom of any note to come up after a long, mostly mushroomless winter. They usually start to emerge when the ground gets up to around 50 degrees -- around the time that the redbuds are blooming. Around DC they peak in mid to late April.
There are several species of morel that are most common in the DC metro area, listed here in approximate order of when they come up:
- Morchella semilibera (meaning semi-free) -- the bottom of the cap is not attached to the stem.
- Morchella elata (meaning erect or exalted) -- known as black morel, because the cap is blacker than in other species.
- Morchella esculenta (meaning edible) -- often called yellow morel; the cap color is beige to brown, but yellower than other species.
- Morchella crassipes (meaning big foot) -- much larger than the other species.
- Morchella deliciosa (meaning delicious) -- known as white morel because the ridges on the cap are whitish when young.
Go out with experienced mushroomers if you're just getting started. You'll be happy you did, not only for the help with identification, but also because they will generously take you to spots where they have found morels in the past. Look here for the Mycological Association of Washington's upcoming forays. Or sign up for Matt's wild edibles hike to Scott's Run on April 17, where we found dozens of morels last year.
But we're not going to tell you our favorite spot. Two years ago, at about this time, we found over 500 morels in one small patch of forest in the DC metropolitan area. This picture is your only clue of the location. The search is half the fun!
Have you found morels yet this spring? Let us know when you do! We checked our special spot on Wednesday and there was no sign of them yet, but they should be up soon.
In the wild: Look on the forest floor in stands of tuliptrees, especially under older trees. Keep looking. Go with someone who has found them before. Keep looking.
In your yard: There's a chance they might pop up if you have old elms or tulip poplars in your yard, but noone's figured out how to cultivate our east coast species. Until they do...keep looking.