by Sarah Glade
mushroom hunting: it’s fun, guys!
Whether in a gourmet dish, a topping on a greasy pizza, or for sale at the farmers’ market, mushrooms are an intriguing addition to any dish. Elusive and delicious species of fungi can be a chef ’s most valued ingredient and serve as an inspiration for this niche hobby. Mushroom Education Foraging can be as easy as looking through the backyard, but finding specific mushrooms involves research. A successful search requires knowledge of the land and weather conditions in which certain species grow. According to the Iowa Association of Naturalists, mushrooms are decomposers and play an important role in nature. They consume nutrients from dead animals and plants and recycle them into the soil. Plants absorb these nutrients from the soil, animals eat those plants and the cycle continues. One of the most sought-after edible mushrooms in Iowa is the Morchella mushroom or morels. According to the Iowa State (ISU) Natural Resource Stewardship, Iowa has five types of morels, and they appear for a short time in the spring. Blake Sanderson, an avid hunter, has fond memories of searching for morels. “It was Easter morning, and I took my wife and siblings out to look for morels in the rain,” Sanderson said. “After a few hours, we stumbled upon a patch near our family estate that has been a reliable producer for years. Every year come Easter, I can go harvest from that patch.” Though morels receive the most attention from Iowans, there are many other mushrooms to find, which are listed on ISU’s Natural Resource Stewardship website. The website also provides calendars that list the best times to find specific species.
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