The morel of the story

A large truck rumbled down a county road, heading toward an undisclosed location. From the front seat, Charla Munn turned around, her expression almost serious.

“Now, we’ll have to blindfold you, no phone and no camera.” With orders like that, one might think they were headed to a top-secret lab. However, Munn was talking about where she and her family hunt morels.

Yes, mushrooms. Munn went on to laugh and explain that folks in the area who are serious about hunting morels are even more serious about hiding their honey holes. The spot she and Chris Cole were headed to that Sunday afternoon was on private land that Cole owns, though both have hunted morels since they were kids.

Once at the destination, it didn’t take long to start spotting the conelike mushrooms. Some blended in with the leaves, while others were more out in the open. When Munn or Cole found one, there were usually several others nearby.

“Sometimes you’ll almost step on one before you see it,” Munn said, pointing out a line of morels across the ground with a walking stick she uses specifically for morel hunting.

That day, the couple foraged 95 morels in almost an hour and a half, though Munn said they’ve gotten as many as 200 before. They usually give away a lot of what they find to older folks who aren’t able to hunt for morels themselves anymore.

She then bent down and explained the best way to harvest morels - by grabbing the stock and twisting so that the root is left in the ground and the fungi will continue to grow in the area.

“What we’ve always been told since I was a kid is you want to leave the network of spores underground,” she said. “The reason for the mesh bags or bags with holes in them is because while you’re walking through the woods… you want whatever spores are dropping to spread through the woods so more mushrooms grow.”

Munn and Cole found a verifiable treasure trove of morels on their land; however, the mushrooms can be found all over Lincoln County. Stephen Merak, associate professor of entomology and plant pathology at the Oklahoma State University Ferguson College of Agriculture, said most people find them in a mixed forest habitat, such as along creeks or rivers, because of the higher humidity. He added that they also grow in areas of mixed forests of oak, hickory and eastern red cedar, where there are a lot of fallen leaves and debris.

According to a press release from the Ferguson College of Agriculture, the best time to hunt morels is two weeks before and after April 1. Munn said they typically start looking for morels once the redbuds start blooming. The season is fairly short, and the couple said when it gets too hot, they stop seeing the mushrooms sprout.

“It’s about the time where it’s hard to find them anyways because stuff’s starting to grow up,” Cole added. “Maybe a month from now.”

Of course, the most important aspect of morels is how to cook them. Munn said she prefers how Cole fries them up in a cast iron skillet - everyone seems to have their own recipe for a batter. However, she said they’ve used them as pizza toppings and sprinkled them over stuffed portobello mushrooms.

Dr. Marek advised that any mushroom intended for consumption be thoroughly cooked. It’s also important to be on the lookout for false morels, which are potentially toxic. They are usually darker brown or reddish in color without easily distinguished ridges and pits in the caps.

“Some adventurous morel hunters in the U.S. consume false morels. This is not recommended, and at the very least, false morels need to be thoroughly cooked in a very well-ventilated area,” the professor said. False morel poisoning symptoms are similar to those of a bad stomach virus and can include vomiting, diarrhea and headaches.