Finding fickle fungus: Finding morels is hard work unless you know someone who knows where to find them

Matt Whetstone | Cadillac News Cadillac News staff writer Rick Charmoli goes in to grab some morels during a recent mushrooming trip. With rain recently and warm nights, local forests should yield plenty of morels during the Mesick Mushroom Festival this weekend.

There are two things I have learned when it comes to mushrooming.

The first tip is free and relatively simple — know someone who knows where to find them. The second tip and quite possibly the most important one — once you find a good spot that yields those lovely morels, tell no one.

In fact, get your bearing, check a compass or lock your position in on GPS because chances are next year there will be some there again.

It may sound selfish, but if you spend a couple hours in the woods with nothing more than dirt on the bottom of your shoes to show for it, you’ll understand.

This weekend, hundreds if not thousands of people, including residents and visitors, will flood the forests surrounding Mesick in search of those tasty mushrooms.

Some will emerge from the forest with a bag full of fungi while others will come out asking themselves why anyone would want to spend hours looking at the ground. It is obvious that they have never found a morel.

This mushrooming season has been a good one.

The past two weeks I have been able eat multiple meals with morels that I found. Although my white aerated onion bag has been full of morels this late April and early May, I can’t take all the credit. I also can’t take too much, if any, of the credit for finding a lot of the morels I have eaten.

It’s a minor detail as far as I’m concerned.

I have felt the agony of walking around in the woods for hours with my trusty white, aerated onion bag looking, straining and hoping to find just one of those elusive funguses. For the past two years, I walked and walked and walked only to come up empty handed.

Trust me, it was not from lack of looking.

The only time I have found morels, prior to this year, was when the “Mushroom King” Carl Robinson took me two-tracking to find those lovely mushrooms for another story. I’m starting to see a trend.

At any rate I have heard from many people it takes time to train your eye to see them in the wild. In the book “The Curious Morel,” author Larry Lonik tells his readers, “They blend into the grass and leaves and look like stumps, twigs and shadows.”

That’s no joke.

I may not be the published author on the subject that Lonik is but I will say I have the most luck finding morels by not looking at my feet. I also like to take a look behind me before moving on to a new section of woods. Even then they don’t jump out at me and I have been known to step on a few from time to time without even knowing.

In terms of where to find them, it can literally be anywhere. When I went with Carl I was looking near hardwoods but this year I found them underneath or near pine trees. I also know that they have been found at local golf courses but the places to find morels are not limited to those areas.

So if you ask me, finding mushrooms is as much about luck as it is skill. Having someone show you where to look is always a bonus but there are other ways to get help.

A good place to start would be the mushrooming class offered at the Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center. At the two-hour class beginning at noon Saturday, Heather Hallen-Adams will talk about finding and identifying edible mushrooms such as morels, as well as non-edible types. It is free of charge and considering it is the mushroom festival weekend there is no time like the present to get started.

As far as where my spot is that I’m finding all these lovely morels, my lips are sealed.

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Basic bacon and morels