Warmer Weather and Morel Fever

The spring-like weather has brought me out of my winter slumber so it is time to turn my attention back to mushrooms and the hopes for another spring like last year. I was perusing the message boards noticing the anticipation of morels on the minds of my fellow hunters when I saw this post. For those who have already seen it, please forgive the repeat. This comes from the Missouri reports board over at morels.com and was posted by a hunter I have met a few times in the woods.

Feral Boy| Saint Louis, Missouri |
January 16, 2009
Here is a good reworking of a Pink Floyd tune forwarded by David Wasilewski to the Mushroomhunting.org bulletin board:

Wish Shrooms Were Here

So, so you think you can tell,
dead leaves from morels
variations in strain.
Can you tell a great yield, from an empty pail?
A stipe from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

Is the attachment of gills, adnexed or adnate?
On the ground or on trees?
Don’t die after they freeze?
How’s the odor and taste?
Or, have you replaced
the glory that grows out of doors
for shrooms that grew in a cage.

How I wish, I wish mushrooms were here.
We wore out our soles out on mushroom patrols, year after year.
Looking over the same old ground.
What have you found?
A wasted Bovista sphere?
Wish shrooms were here.

I love Pink Floyd so that tune is sure to be haunting me through spring and into summer.

For those of you like me, who are getting cabin fever and looking at one beauty of a weekend. It's time to take a stroll. Hunting in February? That's right. This weekend and next week look very promising. The dead logs and trees out there are just thawing providing plenty of moisture for oysters. Stick to the same places you would look for morels, but search new areas not your regular patches. As you get those legs ready for morel season, you can also look for those motherlode trees. Trust me, if you find the right dead elm or ash grove and check it early and often, come April your stomach will be full and your hunts a little easier.


And if the weather turns bad again, a little research never hurts. You can search the internet all you want, but you never know what you can find if you go to your local library and enlist a librarian in your search. Some of the best stories and recipes I have seen were from 30 to 40 years ago. Call me old fashion but these kids can watch all the YouTube hunting videos they want. A little research at a local library for old newspaper articles can provide vital information and pay off in woods later.