What to know about Michigan's morel mushroom season
(CBS DETROIT) - If you love mushrooms but hate the high price some of those gourmet mushrooms can go for, you're in luck. Morel mushrooms are a highly coveted mushroom in Michigan that you can find right in your backyard.
It's springtime, and it's hunting season, but maybe not the hunting season you might expect. It's morel mushroom season.
"All you really need is something to carry them in, said Tim James, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and curator of fungi at the University of Michigan. "I've got a basket. I also have paper bags, wax bags, and you need a knife. And you need to know where to go."
May is Morel Mushroom Month in Michigan. While you can find these mushrooms as early as late April or as late as early June, you have to know where to go and what to look for.
"The best trees you want to look under is elm trees, ash trees, apple trees, and also the tulip poplar," James said. "You need to look around carefully; often get low to the ground, and then maybe one will pop up, and then as soon as you see one, you have the search image, you look around in the area, and then you might find a bunch more. They're generally kind of clustered."
The DNR publishes a map of burns from around the state to help search for those elusive mushrooms.
"We know morels like disturbance, and we know that that type of disturbance from a forest fire or other trail cutting may actually trigger them to fruit. We also know morels appear on dead trees. So, a dead elm is probably the best place to look for morels," James said.
Weather also plays a part in when to hunt.
"Rain is important, and having enough rain in springtime will be critical for successful hunting. And temperatures, of course, are important as well, and this particular spring has been warm. So, if it's a warm spring, you want to collect early. If it's a cold spring, you want to collect late," James said.
Of course, you must be careful not to pick false morels.
"Often they come up earlier than the true morels. It goes like false morels, then the half-free morel, then the black morel, then the yellow morel in terms of their phenology," James says.
There are two things to look for between a true morel and a false morel.
So why are mushroom hunters so secretive about where they find their precious mushrooms?
"That's because they generally come back year after year. And so you find a productive place, and that's the place you want to come back to next year," James said.