Secret Morel Enclave Found

Living undisturbed for lo' these many years, a mushroom colony has been discovered at an undisclosed location near the Grand River. No GPS coordinates were given.

It would be nice if I could say that my superior fungi-spotting skills came into play. Everything I thought I knew about finding morels was apparently wrong. We had rare snows on May 2 and 3, which left slushy snow on the ground. The river came up, so I hiked back to where the land was gradually sinking to see how far down it had gone. Right on the path was the first morel.

Always before, I thought it was steamy hot days in spring that brought out the morels. Right after a late snow was not when I started looking. My son Chris had been telling me of finds down by Kansas City.

Having  found one, I was on a hunt. Since I didn't have a mesh bag along to capture any, I wound up using my windbreaker for an apron and carrying the five back for dinner.

The next day, I found all of these in the same area.

 The days got warmer and the undergrowth got drier until that seemed the end of them.

Chris told me they were still being found. After a morning rain, I went back down to the spot. I  got another mess of them for dinner, six biggies.

What I've learned about morels is they are not everywhere. Looking harder in the wrong spots doesn't help and makes my eyes bug out. Now that the  morel hideout has been found, that's where I'll  look in the future. People refer to it as their Hot Spot, or their Sweet Spot. I'm calling mine the Remote  Morel Settlement. I know where they live.

There was even another one in the yard where I found one last year. I added it to the bag of  more biggies I found yesterday morning.

I don't know how fast mushrooms mushroom up out of the ground. Is it like a rocket leaving the launch pad or somewhat slower? It was raining slightly on my morning hunt. Then the sun came out. There weren't any more, but I did find some in another spot, where I cut wood last winter.

The morel season doesn't last long, so I feel obliged to stuff myself  with those tasty morsels. This is the first time ever that I've found more than I can eat, making up for the years without a one. This 7 inch one was practically a meal in itself.

Looking for morels is the same kind of searching that I do when looking for a puzzle piece. It's just a glazed-over staring, thinking about something else, until the right brain finds the missing pattern and elbows the left brain, "Here is is!"