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| Beautiful, mysterious, Morel. |
Well, I finally hit the jackpot! I walked a little over 2 miles in 6 hours and found 682 Morels on Friday making for one of the best days I’ve ever had mushroom hunting. Here’s my nuts and bolts approach to filling a sack with fresh and tasty Morels.
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| Much to my girlfriend's dismay, I processed 6.5 gallons of Morels Friday night. |
Find land. I asked permission and in exchange I gave half of my findings to the landowners that enjoy eating Morels as much as I do. Let me take a sentence or two right now to say thank you to them. Without that permission, I’d be hunting more popular areas like public land. But that’s not a bad thing. Morel’s grow on public land too! In addition to road ditches, there are thousands of acres to look in state, county and city parks open to you and me.
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| From Left to Right: Black Morel, Bigfoot Morel, Common Yellow Morel and White Morel. 4 different species, all very tasty! |
It’s early, but not too early. Morels can’t read a calendar and the soil temps have been favorable for at least 2 weeks. The mushrooms we’re finding support that. I actually left around 50 Morels that were covered in white mold as they succumb to old age. Around 80% of my Morels have been on southwest facing slopes/valleys. There I found a mix of “Little Greys” and “Yellows.” Gentle hillsides with little understory seemed to catch the right amount of sunlight. I found the bigger species of Bigfoot and Common Morels "Yellows" under pockets of Multi-flora Rose and Gooseberry immediately adjacent to dead Elms.
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| Chris found twins! |
It’s dry, but not too dry. The lack of snowmelt and/or spring rains has left us in or near drought. But hillsides still seep and creeks/ponds still raise the water table and moisture levels in a very localized area. This will make it difficult for you to find them very wide-spread, but it can really help to narrow your search. Break out the topo-maps and find spots with SW facing slopes next to water. In a lot of places, side-hill seepage creates a wet pocket around the middle of a hillside. With dead trees nearby, you’ve got good potential to find these little guys.
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| SW facing slopes have been favorable. Limited canopy and understory maximize the heat from sunlight. |
Look up before looking down. I look for standing dead trees first so I don’t waste time looking in random areas. One of my best finds was a giant dying Cottonwood and several dead Elms in a southwest facing valley. I spotted the tree from 200 yards away and decided to give it a try. This 1,000 square foot spot had 150 to 200 that had fired off 7 to 10 days ago. That roughed to around 3-4lbs in an area the size of my house. Looking up and sticking to my game-plan of favorable SW facing topography scored big here.
Most of the southwest exposures have Morels I’d guestimate around 10-14 days old. Only a handful were freshly grown and most were in very dry soil. I suspect those grew after the week in the 80s, during that weeklong rain. But newer, bigger morels are beginning to fire on north slopes, so I'm shifting my search a bit. If you can locate some recently dead trees like elm, oak or cottonwood on North facing slopes in steep valleys immediately next to warm pockets and moisture gives the Morels all they’ll need. I know that’s a very specific set of conditions, but it works!
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| About 1/4 of our day's catch! |
Soil temps have cooled into the upper 40s and 50s in central Iowa. Johnston’s reporting a 4” soil temperature of 50 on Saturday, April 7th. I don’t expect too many new Morels to be firing with this cool weather we’ve seen lately, but this morning’s rain sure helped. Solid chances for frost are approaching in the 7-Day forecast, I’m going to try and get out again ASAP.
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| Blooming Lilacs, Violets and Dandelions are all positive signs the environment is favorable for mushrooms! |
Patience, persistence, and good friends made my trip successful. Without someone to chat with and bounce ideas off of, I might not have lasted as long out there, so thanks Seth, Heather and C.G.
Hopefully this info makes your next trip successful! Good luck and Happy Easter! -Chris
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