Morel mushroom season begins -- here's what to know

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[00:00:00]Hey everybody, welcome back to Local 4 Live. I'm Nick Monacelli. Now that April is behind us, May brings more than just flowers. Something else is popping up in forests all across Michigan. The hunt is on for the morel mushroom. Here's the deal with these pesky mushrooms. Morels are picky. They only show up for a short window in spring when conditions are just right. Warm days in the 60s, cool nights in the 40s, add some rain near a spot that had a recent fire, and you might strike gold. That's a lot of criteria there. Joining me now is Heather Johnson, the program administrator with the Midwest American Mycological Information, which is essentially an organization that works with the state of Michigan to give people reliable, trustworthy information about mushrooms and their role in the environment. So, in other words, she knows her fungi. Good morning. Thank you for joining us.

[00:00:55]Uh did I give a decent explanation of why these are so difficult or is there more to it?

[00:00:59]Good morning and thank you for having me on. Yes, you absolutely did. You covered the season, you covered the temperatures, and of course we need rain, which we've had plenty of. So, yeah, the morels are absolutely popping up in in all sorts of areas. Um some better than others. We've been out and we've had great success so far. All right. So, is there any way to predict how many there might be in a season or is it just luck of the draw?

[00:01:26]It it really is luck of the draw.

[00:01:27]Although, there are people that have their certain protected spots. They're going to take those spots, the GPS coordinates, with them to the grave and we'll never know where they where they, you know, found them. So, what why is this such a big deal? Or or is it really just a a great hobby?

[00:01:44]It's a great hobby, but you know, fungi in general are are they're they're so telling, you know, they they tell us a lot about the environment. They have ecological connections. Of course, with the prized morel, you know, there's that excitement of oh my gosh, there they are. And a lot of times when you're in the woods, you you see one, you look around, and all all of a sudden there might be two, three, 10 more. That's what we've experienced over the last few days.

[00:02:10]All right. So, please forgive my ignorance here, but once you find a morel, then do you take it? Do you pick it? Do you cook it? Do you sell it?

[00:02:18]What's the plan here?

[00:02:20]All of the above.

[00:02:21]>> [laughter] >> First of all, we want to make sure that you are harvesting morels, those those species that are found in the Morchella genus. So, what you're seeing on the screen there are more than likely um yellows. We call them yellows because of the color of their ridges.

[00:02:36]Um those are the prized ones, but there's also other ones like what we have been finding, like these right here. This is a little black morel. This is called a half-free or Morchella uh punctipes. And we always want to make sure that we're identifying the morel correctly. And the reason is because it does have toxic look-alike uh look look-alikes.

[00:02:58]So, what you're looking for is the the morel. You're going to pick it. A lot of times it's best to cut them off at the ground level so that you're not getting a lot of soil in your basket and soiling soiling the other mushrooms you're finding.

[00:03:11]You always, no matter what mushroom it is, you always want to make sure that you're cooking them thoroughly.

[00:03:17]Thoroughly is a little subjective, so at least 10 minutes. I like to go 14 to 17 minutes. And then of course, there's the selling side. If you hit the mother lode, then you can sell them, but you must be certified through the state of Michigan to do so.

[00:03:31]>> Oh, interesting. Okay. Now, in terms of of taste, do they taste better, different?

[00:03:37]Another subjective >> [laughter] >> subject. Um morels do have a great flavor. You know, in in their in their just sautéed state, they they're very healthy for you. Once you put flour on them and fry them in butter, that that health goes down a little bit.

[00:03:54]Um but yeah, they do have a very unique flavor about them. But there are a lot of other mushrooms out there, especially in the fall, that tend to rival the morels. Oh. You had mentioned that there are look-alikes that can be toxic. How do you tell them apart?

[00:04:09]Well, I actually brought a couple of samples here. So, this one here is the the half-free that I mentioned. This one here is called a verpa. Now, a lot of people will eat these. Um but they do tend to cause a lot of gastric distress, especially if they're not cooked all the way. And you can tell this one's a little bit smoother, doesn't have the ridges. There's a wavy one that does, but ultimately when you cut the morel in half, they need to be all hollow on the inside here. All hollow where those verpas are going to have like a cottony um tissue inside that fills up its stipe or stem. Got you. Okay. Um please forgive my question, but there are so many who have no idea that your organization exists. Can you kind of explain what you do and why?

[00:04:59]Sure, absolutely. MAMI, that that's short for that mouthful of a of a title there or um What we do is we provide workshops. We provide workshops, hands-on training.

[00:05:11]It's an all-day workshop. Um we provide the curriculum, we provide the exams.

[00:05:17]And we do this all in one day. We do this all across the state of Michigan um in various places. We have two more workshops uh coming up May 16th and then in a later one at September 27th. May 16th is at uh near Grayling at the Ram Center. And then September 27th is actually kind of in our area in southeast Michigan at uh in Commerce Township.

[00:05:39]>> Oh, okay. So, once someone passes the exam, you have to pass with 80% or higher, then those grades are sent to MDARD, and they are actually verified, and they send out the certification card to to a person. You must be certified to sell any type of of mushroom in Michigan. And there's only 20 genera. Um a little over 40 species that we're allowed to sell. Unbelievable. Heather, thank you so much for your time. I could talk to you for so so much longer. This is so interesting, but we'll we'll book it for another day. Thank you so much.

[00:06:09]>> Sure. Thank you.

[00:06:11]Enjoy.

[00:06:12]Oh, we will.