After cold spring, morels starting to pop
By BEN PIERCE Chronicle Outdoors
Cathy Cripps knows mushrooms.
Referred to in some circles as the “Mushroom Lady,” Cripps is an associate professor in the Department of Plant Science and Plant Pathology at Montana State University. She’s the only classically-trained mycologist in the state and a member of the Southwest Montana Mycological Association.
For those not in the know, mycology is the branch of biology dedicated to the study of fungi. And some of Montana’s most delectable fungi are beginning to emerge.
“The yellow morels are just starting to come up,” Cripps said on Tuesday afternoon. “We have heard reports of people picking morels for the last two weeks, but not huge amounts that we have heard … though not everyone calls into say they are harvesting large quantities.”
Yellow morels are held in high esteem by mushroom hunters and chefs alike as one of the most prized of all wild mushrooms. They make a nice addition to many meat and pasta dishes. As a stand-alone treat they are quite tasty pan fried with a little butter and herbs.
According to David Arora, author of “Mushrooms Demystified,” morels “are so esteemed in Europe that people used to set fire to their own forests in hopes of eliciting a bountiful morel crop the next spring.”
In short, they are damn fine food.
What morels are not is easy to find.
Like many other fungi, morels exhibit a sometimes elusive nature. Their appearance can be fleeting or pass by entirely if conditions are not favorable. Scientists like Cripps readily admit that there is much we don’t know about them.
What we do know is that morels – or the mushroom most people associate them with – are actually the fruiting body of a larger underground fungus. The body of the morel is made of many thin threads known in the mycological world as mycelium. Those thin strands often grow out of decomposed organic matter or are associated with tree roots. In our area those roots happen to come from cottonwood trees.
A morel mushroom forms as a small knot in the mycelium. All the cells are developed before the mushroom emerges (or “pops” in mushroom lingo). When wet weather and warm ground temperatures converge, those knots in the mycelium swell sending up the morel mushrooms people hunt. The mushrooms are essentially the plant’s reproductive organ – they produce spores that fly off in the wind to produce a new organism.
“The part we eat is the reproductive portion of the fungus,” Cripps said. “It is like eating an apple, only an apple has seeds and a mushroom has spores.”
Morels are known to emerge in a wide variety of locations, which makes them all the more difficult to hunt. They can pop up in gravel bars, alongside fallen cottonwood trees or through piles of leaves.
Cripps said the best place to look for yellow morels is along the larger rivers and smaller streams in areas of extensive cottonwood growth. She said a few junipers in the understory are a good sign as they indicate a high pH in the soil, which is something morels like.
“They grow wherever they want to,” said Don Mathre, a retire MSU plant pathologist. “Basically fungi do not respond to light. They don’t have chlorophyll, so they don’t gather energy from the sun the way green plants do.”
Mathre said that this season’s yellow morel crop is a bit behind schedule, due not to lack of rainfall, but to cold May temperatures.
“I think it has been set back by at least two weeks,” Mathre said on Wednesday. “If you look around at other plants – the lilacs aren’t in full bloom yet – so everything is saying it is a late spring.”
As for identification, morels are fairly easily to recognize.
Yellow morels have pitted caps that typically range from 3-11 centimeters tall and 2-6 centimeters wide. They have round, conical or irregularly shaped caps that are directly connected to the stem, which is typically white. The entire interior of the mushroom and stalk is hollow and roughly textured. The caps are usually tan to yellow-brown in color.
“When they are young, they are yellow and fresh looking,” Cripps said. “When they are older they will get soft and have an off order.
“I use the sniff test. Every morel I am going to put in the frying pan, I smell it. If they smell bad, I throw them out.”
When conditions are good, yellow morels will frequently grow en masse. Cripps said a flush of morels – several emerging at the same time in close proximity – is not uncommon.
If you are fortunate enough to find a flush of morels, Cripps said it is best to leave a few of mushrooms untouched.
“Leave one or two of the smaller ones to produce the spores,” she said. “Don’t get too greedy.”
While there has been some discussion about the best way to pick morels, Cripps says there is little science to support one method over another.
Some argue that morels should be trimmed above ground with a knife or scissors rather that uprooted to reduce damage to the mycelium. For Cripps parts, she prefers cutting the stalk for the practical purpose of keeping the mushrooms in her bag free of dirt.
Another trend in the world of morel hunting has been to carry the mushrooms in a mesh sack or wicker basket. The idea is to help spread the spores as you continue to hunt in the hopes of propagating the species. Cripps said there is no evidence such methodology helps, but she also said it can’t hurt.
Both Cripps and Mathre warned that pickers need to be sure about what they are eating before consuming any type of wild mushrooms.
“There are enough poisonous mushrooms around that you don’t want to eat anything if you don’t know what it is,” Mathre said.
Cripps said morels should always be well-cooked and never eaten raw. She said some people have experienced bad reactions when combining the mushrooms with alcoholic beverages and that those trying them for the first time should not over indulge.
She also said the height of morel season lies in the weeks ahead. With proper precaution, an eye to the ground and favorable conditions, it could be a good harvest for local mushroom hunters.
“Typically you would wait two or three days after the rain to hunt morels,” Cripps said. “This year you wait two or three days and it is still raining.
“It just depends on the weather.”
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