What draws you to spend time outdoors each spring? This question once asked in a 2021 blog post of mine, explored the many unique and fleeting springtime opportunities that seem to flash before our eyes. While that post focused on trout fishing, another passion of mine, it touched on a topic currently filling my social media feeds with reports, accomplishments, and heartache from participants around the watershed; morel mushrooms.

When it comes to foraging, it’s difficult to imagine a more coveted and highly sought-after prize than morel mushrooms. If you’re new to the world of morels, you might also find it difficult to imagine that you’ll actually find one. Morels require a specific set of conditions before they emerge from the ground each year. The window is short and the timing is complicated. To make matters worse, once they do arrive, they aren’t very easy to spot. But there’s a reason that people across North America partake in the madness; morels are delicious!

There’s a wealth of detailed information on the internet allowing you to choose your own adventure down the rabbit hole of tips and tricks for locating morels. For today’s post, I aim to keep things simple and share some approachable guidelines to keep in mind as you wander the woods in search of a delicious treasure.

Tips for finding morels

  1. Begin looking for morels in early to mid-spring when daytime highs reach the low 70s and the nights drop into the 50s.
  2. Morels typically appear first on south-facing slopes which warm faster than other areas of the forest.
  3. Moist soils are best and many morel hunters focus on areas near running water.
  4. Learn to identify elm, sycamore, ash, and tulip poplar trees as morels are often found growing near these species, especially when the tree is recently dead or dying. Our Forests team has some great Tree Talks below on how to identify American Sycamore and Tulip Poplar.
  5. Research and familiarize yourself with the various types of morels found in your area. For most of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, black, white, and half-free morels are all three common. 
  6. Once confident that you’ve located a reasonable combination of these conditions, visit your hunting grounds often.
  7. Move slowly, scanning the ground for a few seconds between each step. I also like to bend down and look at the ground in front of me from a different perspective from time to time.
  8. More eyes, more morels! Take a buddy with you. Kids are notorious for being great mushroom hunters and it’s a great way to foster their knowledge and connection to the natural world.
  9. Have fun! Any activity that encourages us to spend time in the woods and waters of our watershed is worthwhile and mushroom hunting is no exception regardless of how many we take home at the end of the day.
  10. Last but not least, it’s important to understand the difference between edible species of morels and the false morel which can be toxic. The easiest way to differentiate is to examine the inside of the mushroom. Edible morels are hollow all the way from the bottom of the stem into the cap itself while false morels have a stem that is not hollow. If you aren’t sure, play it safe. There are many foraging and mushroom hunting groups as well as educational opportunities across the watershed to help you gain hands-on experience with what is safe to eat.

Bonus tip! If you find one morel, survey the surrounding area for others; morels often grow in groups. How many morels can you find in this picture?

Fast forward to a well-earned bag of morels. You’ve been waiting for this moment and now it’s time to choose a recipe and give them a try. While there are many options, fried morels are by far the most common, and for good reason; it’s a simple and delicious method for enjoying these rare delicacies. This fried morel recipe will produce enough flour mix and egg wash for 3-6 ounces of morels. Here’s what you need. 

Ingredients and supplies

  • 3 – 6 oz of morels 
  • Flour mix
    • 1 cup of flour 
    • 1/2 tsp garlic powder 
    • 1/2 tsp onion powder
    • 1/2 tsp salt 
    • 1/2 tsp black peppercorn 
    • 1/2 tsp old bay
  • Egg wash
    • 1 egg
    • 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1-2 sticks of butter depending on the size of your pan. You want enough to make 1/4-1/2 inch of melted butter in your pan. Vegetable oil can also be used as a substitute.
  • 1 frying pan
  • 2 bowls for flour mix and egg wash
  • 1 thermometer for reading the temperature of your butter
  • 1 strainer 

Let’s get to work!

1. It’s important to thoroughly wash your morels before cooking them. I like to use a strainer with fine mesh to avoid losing any chunks of mushroom that may fall off in the process of rinsing. Place the morels in the strainer in small batches and run cool water over them paying attention to any dirt or insects that could be hiding in the nooks and crannies. For dirt that’s stuck on, a little trick here is to put the stainer inside of an appropriately sized saucepan or pot. Fill the pan with cool water before placing the strainer and morels into the pan to soak. You can now let them soak for a while or you can run additional water over the mushrooms letting it overflow from the pan. Once satisfied with your work, place the morels on a towel and gently pat them to remove as much water as possible.

2. After the morels are dry, slice them in half long ways. Smaller morels can remain whole for frying but I prefer them halved so they have a flat side to say put in the frying pan.

3. Place the butter in your frying pan on medium heat. As the butter melts, use your thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature of the butter. We’re aiming for 340°F. Butter has a 350°F smoke point, so we don’t want to overheat it. Vegetable oil isn’t as tasty as butter but it has a higher smoke point giving you a little more breathing room.

4. While keeping an eye on our melting butter it’s time to prepare our flour mix and egg wash. In one bowl combine the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, peppercorn, and old bay. In the second bowl combine the egg and heavy whipping cream.

5. When the butter reaches 340°F place morels into the flour mixture one at a time evenly coating them with the flour. Once coated with four, dip the mushrooms into the egg wash and then back into the flour for a second coat. Only batter the morels that you intend to immediately fry.

6. When it comes to frying morels, I like to work in small batches of 1-2 mushrooms at a time. This allows the butter to stay at a steady temperature and it makes monitoring the progress a little more manageable. Place your first batch of morels into the 340°F butter for 3-4 minutes before flipping to fry the other side. During this process, I keep my thermometer handy and make subtle adjustments to the burner to keep the butter as close to 340°F as possible. You’re looking for a crispy golden brown crust.

7. Remove the morels from the pan and place them on a paper towel for excess butter to drain while you fry the next batch. If necessary, you could place the finished morels in a warm oven while the others are being fried but my family tends to gather around the kitchen patiently waiting for each batch to come out of the butter. 

Here in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, we’re blessed with what I consider to be a perfect amount of each season. Just as I begin to lose interest in one season, a transformation is underway introducing a new and exciting set of opportunities just outside our door. The other night as our 17-year-old stood in the kitchen reflecting on a bite of morel, he said “We need to find more of these!”. I couldn’t agree more, but perhaps the periodic and finite nature of morels is what makes them so special. As I write this, my neck of the watershed is vibrant green and noisy with sounds of life after what felt like a long winter. I hope you carve out a little time to go for a walk to take in the beauty of our outstanding woods and waters. Maybe you’ll get lucky and find yourself stopping at the grocery store to grab some ingredients on the way home! 

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