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Theresa Maybrier-Team Morel.com Mushroom Hunting
By Theresa Maybrier
As Team Morel, John Maybrier and I (Theresa Maybrier) have been educating and guiding morel mushroom hunters for several years now. Our methods are tried and true. Unlike most mushroom hunters, we are willing to share our skills with other mushroom hunters at seminars and guided hunts throughout the Midwest. We recently created quite a stir in the usually quiet town of Ashland, Ohio. We were invited to do three seminars, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. The goal of the host was originally to have fifty persons per seminar. They advertised it and promoted it. While at the Ohio Deer and Turkey Classic they had over five hundred people asking about the morel mushroom hunting seminars so they ordered three hundred more chairs. To their surprise we had standing room only with nearly five hundred attendees per seminar. Mushroom hunting has come out of the closet. There are over twelve million mushroom hunters in North America alone. Most of us learned from grandpa or other family member. Afew of us learned from our friends. Usually the “knowledge” came from hearsay or whatever success our teachers had. Some of this folklore can be helpful.
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It has only been in the last twenty years that significant scientific knowledge has come out about the morel mushroom. Unfortunately, most of this knowledge will not help you be a better mushroom hunter. We have put together information to help you not only be a better mushroom hunter but to help you pre-
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serve your mushrooms for eating fresh, traveling with, and long term storage. We have a book coming out before next spring but for this year here it is in a half-cap (nutshell). To begin with there are five basic varieties of morels that grow in the Midwest. Each variety has a temperature zone. The first variety to pop its’little shroom out is the angusticeps or black morel. The black morel likes the cooler temperatures of the sixties. It is followed by the semilibera or half-cap (often having a variety of names not spoken by ladies). This morel has a long stem, short top and is the most misunderstood of all the morel family. Because of its’unusual appearance people often mistake it for a verpa (false morel) or think that it is poisonous. It is truly a morel and absolutely delicious, but better sautÈed than battered and fried.
When the temperatures reach the seventies the gray and yellow morels come out. They are deliciosa and esculenta. In the lower Midwest these are the favored morels. Michigan has more blacks and favors them. I prefer all five varieties in the skillet. When it warms up to the high seventies and low eighties the big-foots or crassipes come out. They are easiest to see because like their name, they are large. Typically they are the size of pop cans. Unfortunately, they mark the end of the morel mushroom hunting season.
We keep our fresh from the woods morels in the refrigerator for up to two weeks by using a paper towel lined bowl, then layering morels, paper towels, morels, paper towels, and then an extra paper towel on top sprinkled with water. By separating the morels they will keep longer. If one develops mold it will only spoil the ones nearest it. If the morels were altogether in the bowl, they would all deteriorate. Don’t worry about the little bugs. They will go back to “sleep” in the refrigerator as if it were winter.
The best tried and true method we have for traveling with morels is to plan ahead. Either purchase ice sealed in a plastic wrapper or zip them into a sealed container. Place the ice at the bottom of the cooler. Place newspaper or cardboard fitted to the cooler above the ice. Leave the morels in their mesh collection bag and place them on the cardboard. Do not close the lid of the cooler. Like me, the morels like to be comfortable. We put them on the back seat of the car, on the shady side.
For long term storage (up to twenty years) we air-dry our morels. We determined air-drying was the easiest, laziest and least expensive way to preserve our morels. We spread the morels out on a non-metallic screen and let the sun do the work. Then we store them in a paper sack and keep them cool and dry. Four pounds of fresh morels dry to half a pound. Storage is no longer an issue. Morels should be kept cool and dry until they are ready to be cooked. When the morels sit in the refrigerator for a few days they will dry out some. Immerse them in a bowl with running water. This will remove some of the bugs and dirt. Generally they will plump right back to the way they were picked. When they have been fully dried it takes four hours for them to equilibrate, in other words, get back the moisture content they had when they were picked. At that time, we
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