Fungus Among Us

Spring marks the commencement of a favorite pastime for many Midwesterners—mushroom hunting. About this time of year, hordes of folks grab their plastic bags and pit their wits against that delicacy of delicacies–the illusive morel mushroom. What possesses people to walk around in the woods in search of a pockmarked fungus that lives an all-too-brief life on the forest floor? Well, if you’ve ever participated in a feast of battered and fried morel mushrooms, you already know the answer. Unless you’re like my dad, (who often wonders aloud why anyone would want to eat a parasitic organism that lives off of dead stuff), you probably think that morels are about the tastiest thing this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Besides the taste, what makes these ‘shrooms so alluring? Ardent fans would probably point to the thrill of the hunt. Mushroom hunting is a lot like any other kind of hunting, except this quarry doesn’t move. The maddening thing about mushroom hunting is that it’s not always predictable when and where they will pop up. The “when” part of the equation is dependent on the weather conditions and moisture content of the soil. And when it comes to “where,” well, that’s always a subject for debate among aficionados. Sure, there are the classic locations like around May Apple plants or dead elm trees, but from year to year, mushrooms seem to move around. Finding where they are is somewhat of an art and regular hunters have their favorite spots just like fishermen have their favorite fishing holes. And these locations are often closely guarded secrets.

On occasion, I have hunted morels on my father-in-law’s ground in Illinois. It never ceases to amaze me how adept my father-in-law is at spotting mushrooms. He has a very practiced eye for seeing partially hidden treasure under dead leaves, May Apples, and other debris in the woods where we hunt. He knows his land well and has years of experience to draw from when it comes to knowing the most likely mushroom hideouts. Being an engineer, I of course want to bring technology into the hunt. It seems to me that a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver could be used to mark locations where mushrooms are found every year. As data is gathered for several years into a database, a pattern will hopefully emerge that will reveal the most likely places for mushroom hangouts. Some year I plan on trying this. (I know, I know. I’m a geek.)

Perhaps the beauty of mushroom hunting, though, is that no special equipment is needed. Just grab a sack or two and find a likely patch of woods and start looking. Any age group can participate—from toddler to grandparents–and the payoff is fungal gold. (Just one caution: true morels are always hollow. If a mushroom looks like a morel, but is solid inside or partially filled in, don’t eat it. It’s an imposter and it’s poisonous.) Well, the rain has stopped and the ground is damp and there’s a spot of woods I need to check out. Now, let’s see. Where did I put that sack?

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