On the Hunt for Mushrooms
Alright, so it’s now the first week in May. It’s morel season. I’ve been waiting for the perfect conditions to come along for morels to pop up. The last several years have been duds. Albiet, I’ve never actually found morels where I live yet. However, I was told several years ago by a guy who saw me collecting wild onions that there were indeed morels right in the area I was collecting onions in!
The last three years have been too hot and dry. This year however has been wet and cool. Like a mini ice age. I’ve read a zillion mushroom guides and watched cool videos on finding morels. They say all it takes is finding your first one and then you are usually surrounded by them.
The weather conditions are just about right, nights in the 40’s day time in the 60’s. We are supposed to get rain for the next three days. This has got to be it right? I went out last Sunday and then again today. No luck yet, but I am incredibly optimistic. I could even smell a bit of fungal activity in places. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
In the mean time we’ve got a raging creek that normally is dry pretty much all year around. I could hear the sound of this stream from 100 yards away!
I found a beautiful wild cherry tree, though I’m not sure if it was a domesticated seed that got dropped there by bird. It looks too grand to be a chokecherry (Prunus virginiana ).
I found thousands of wild onions, as well as dock, burdock, yarrow, mules ear, oregon grape, mint, lomatium, cottonwood and wild rye, woods rose and so much more! the amount of edible/medicinal plants I found on my walks that were not morels was hilarious.
The last point I wanted to make on this ramble, is that when you learn the plants in your area, they start to call out to you. They start to tell the story of the seasons and what’s going on. One plant sprouting up or blooming will let your know that another that you are hoping for is one it’s way soon. Certain plants will tell you if there is a lot of moisture in the soil or not, or if the soil is alkaline or acidic. It’s quite fascinating! If you are interested in learning to read nature I highly recommend Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs. It is absolutely fascinating! You can find it in my bookshelf as well.
I’ll keep you posted on the morel hunt. I’ll be going out pretty much everyday until it’s too hot for them to come up. If you hunt for morels in your part of the woods, and have had success, please leave me some tips in the comments below!
