From the Star Tribune, by Jean Thilmany
Can you name the Minnesota state mushroom?
Here are some hints: It grows wild, often near oak leaves or dead elm trees. Cooks consider it to be a delicacy. And it looks odd, like a deep-sea sponge balanced atop a mushroom shaft.
The morel mushroom, which won its official title in 1984, is a thing of beauty for mushroom hunters and cooks alike.
The hunter takes as much pleasure in finding the mushroom as in eating it. The dehydrated variety can be found year-round in up-scale markets, but (at least connoisseurs say) the taste doesn't match that of the morel found shortly before on the forest floor.
Depending on the weather, the season gets underway in southern Minnesota in early May and progresses with the rains and the spring to the northern parts a few weeks later. Hunters wait for a series of warm spring rains followed by warm nights.
Donald Stuart, of Bellevue, Iowa, is one such hunter. When he heads out to his secret hunting spots, as he has for almost 70 years, he begins walking southeast-facing hills.
The first morels are much darker (almost black) and smaller than the mature version found later in the season. "They don't get more than an inch tall, but they're very flavorful," Stuart said.
He looks for these at the bottom of hills or near the base of the Mississippi River bluffs that surround his town. The sun heats the rocks on the bluffs and creates a hot-house effect that gives morels in the area an early start. He also looks for dead elm trees because morels can be found at their base or nearby. They also sprout on or near oak-tree stumps.
About one week after the first hunt, Stuart finds yellow morel mushrooms about 3 to 4 inches tall. Morel varieties include the golden-colored state species Morchella esculenta (sponge), the thicker Morchella crassipes, the black Morchella angusticeps and the small, white Morchella deliciosa.
Sometimes he'll come back with grocery bags full of morels. "Not the big grocery bags," Stuart clarifies. "The ones a little smaller than full size. Once I came back with four full bags. There were still more out there, but I had to quit.
"But another year, I got only about four or five mushrooms altogether," he added.
Stuart could sell this bounty for about $1 per pound at local farm stands, but chooses to give away his finds to friends and neighbors. Many local farmers let him mushroom hunt on their lands, for which he pays them in kind, with morels.
Once he's brought the prize home, his wife, Madonna, takes over. She thoroughly rinses the mushrooms to remove ants or other insects that may be hiding in the sponge-like holes. Then she browns them in butter for 5 or 10 minutes. They taste meaty and rich, with a slightly woodsy taste.
Neighbor Jean Van Drimmelen has a different cooking method. She whisks two eggs and tosses in seven or eight crushed white crackers, rolls her morels in the batter, then browns them in butter.
"I've never heard of doing it any other way," she said.
Most cooks agree that simple preparation is best because the mushrooms can be easily overwhelmed.
Hunters beware
If you choose to morel hunt, take along someone with experience. Though the morel is distinctive, there are wild mushrooms that can sicken those who eat -- or touch -- them.
Morel hunters have to be patient. It may take an hour or more for a first sighting of the elusive mushroom. But once one is visible, others undoubtedly are there, too. Stuart recommends searching an area roughly 10 feet in diameter of the first morel found.
When it comes to morel hunts, there's no time for procrastination.
"They only last two weeks and when they're gone, they're gone," Stuart said.
