Springtime is when Mother Natures Garden starts to grow and mature.

Unlike other gardeners, Mother Nature doesn’t see the need to plant her garden in nice neat rows like we do.

When gardeners see weeds and grasses growing in their garden, out comes the how, not Mother Nature as she has the right plan, as she allows all anything and everything to grow in her garden.

This is the time of the year when hunters can hit the field, sandbars and wooded areas without a gun and still bring home something for dinner.

It’s morel and asparagus picking time in the upper Midwest, when both of these delectable edibles will poke their heads above the ground, just waiting for someone like you or I to come along and pluck them from he earth.

Before getting into the who, what, when and where of mushroom and asparagus hunting, there’s one thing that we need to remind ourselves of.

With any type of hunting or picking we need to get permission of the landowner before entering their land.

Morel Mushrooms

Morels, general appear prior to wild asparagus and can be found throughout our area, they are easy to recognize, delicious to eat, making them the most popular wild mushroom in the upper Midwest

Elongated with an off white stem and a crown, covered with white ridges and dark brown pits, the morel mushroom are easily recognized.

Varying in color from light gray to dark gray, light tan to golden brown, pale yellow to yellow to dark brown, a morel looks like is to look for something growing on the ground resembling a cone shaped brain.

Morels start to pop out in mid to late April, when temperatures reach around 50 degrees, with the best hunting or picking happening when temperatures hit the mid 50’s.

In the upper Midwest there are several things that indicate to mushroom hunters that morels will be up.

If you have a lilac bush, crab apples or violets growing in the area, keep an eye on them, as when they’re blooming, it’s a good sign that you’ll find morels.

I’ve always found morels seem to be up in good quantities around the week of Mother’s Day.

Some pickers will use the almanac to get an idea as to when morels will appear.

Look in the almanac, Find the average date for the last frost, and add two weeks to that date and that should be close to the peak morel season.

Moisture, sunshine along with warmer temperatures has a lot to do with when morels appear.

A week of 55-60 degree daytime temperatures after the frost is gone with no freezing temperatures at night will generally be a good time start looking for morels.

Along with warm temperatures, moisture is also important. Many mushroom hunters say that the best time to hunt for morels is after a rain, when temperatures are around 60 degrees with high humidity.

Morels appear earliest in sandy areas, on south facing slopes or in fields that have been burnt as these areas warm up quickly and retain heat longer.

The earliest morels will appear on islands in the river, sandy areas and areas where there are dead or dying trees.

The first morel is always the toughest to locate because they blend very well with the forest or vegetated ground.  Once you’ve found one, kneel down, looking closely because morels are like Perch, if you find one you generally find a bunch.

One thing is for certain when it comes to finding morels, there’s no set rules as to where the morel might be located.   Conditions change from day to day during the spring and a hillside that was barren on Monday may get a rain shower or warmer temperatures, causing the hillside to be loaded with morels by Wednesday.

My preferred method for locating mushrooms isn’t real scientific; it’s the old meandering method, picking my way through the vegetation until I spot one.

It’s a good idea to stop from time to time and kneel down, getting a better view of the area as many times as morels will be pushing up through the leaves and can be verily visible.

Since mushrooms reproduce through spores that need to be returned to the ground in order to grow. In order to allow the morels to throw their spores, it’s not a bad idea to use collection bags that are porous such as onion bags or some type of a bag that allows the spores to be release back into the air.

Mushroom hunters or shroomers as they’re called down south have their own language and in mushroom hunters’ jargon, a bunch of morels is known as a “mess”.

Once you’ve found a mess of mushrooms, they need to be cleaned up and prepared.

The first thing that you’ll want to do is to split the mushroom in half from the top to the bottom.  The rinse them off over running water as the crooks and crannies of the mushroom may contain sand or insects. After you’ve rinsed them thoroughly, you’ll want let them set in water for a short period of time in order to flush sand, debris or stubborn insects out of them.

Don’t let them soak in water for an extended period of time as they will soak up the water and become spongy.

Then the best part of morel hunting begins, preparing and eating them.

There are numerous ways to prepare morels including, fried and in mushroom soup. One of my favorite ways to prepare the morels is to fry them up in some type of batter.

An excellent batter can be made by combining equal parts beaten eggs with milk and crushed up saltine crackers.

After rinsing them, let the mushroom drip off on a dry towel and then dip in the mixture made from the beaten eggs and milk, coating them thoroughly.

Place the coated morel into a pan and cook in butter until crisp. Don’t over cook them, as they will dry out.

Morels are best when prepared fresh, but if you have a good mushroom hunting season and would like to preserve or save some of them for future use, mushrooms can be dried, frozen or blanched.

Wild Asparagus

Wild asparagus appears about the same time as mushrooms, but I’ve had my bet luck finding the more mature spears after mushroom picking is done when temperatures warm up.

It will appear later than that found in your neighbors garden as gardens are clean and generally in darker soil, the ground in a garden will warm up more quickly.

The ground that wild asparagus grows in is covered with last years grasses and plants, so the soil that it grows in won’t warm up as quickly and appears later than that found in a clean garden.

Look for last years plants that have gone to seed, they are more of a golden color clump or bush, and resembling dried up tumbleweed, the new growth will be growing in amongst last years plant.

Once you’ve found your first asparagus, scout the area carefully for new growth as the seeds of the older plants may have been dropped or blown a short distance from the original plant.

The best places to look for wild asparagus is along fence lines, power lines, old railroad right of ways and anyplace birds might land or congregate.

If the fall when asparagus goes to seed, the birds will pick the seeds off the plants, fly off and the pass the hard pit or seed which drops on the ground and if conditions are right, a new asparagus plant will pop up.

Asparagus, like morels need warm soil and moisture to grow, so sandy areas along fence lines seem to be one of those areas where asparagus comes up first.

If you find asparagus along a fence line, and there is a shelterbelt/tree planting near by, be sure to check them out closely as the birds will have also set in the trees and may have deposited seeds in these areas.

Since asparagus gets woody, it’s best to harvest the tender shoots; this doesn’t mean that the larger taller stems won’t be edible, but they are the ones that should be left to go to seed for future crops.

Cleaning asparagus is easy, simply cut off the dried up end, rinse and prepare.

I’m one of the few who enjoy asparagus in my family, so I won’t have much competition when it comes to preparing and eating fresh asparagus.

To prepare it, I simply boil it until tender; top it with some butter substitute, a little Mrs. Dash or other seasoning and then pig out.

Morel and asparagus hunting is excellent ways to get outside and to not only enjoy the outdoors but to also enjoy the bounties that Mother Nature provides.

Well, I do believe its spring, temperatures are warming up, the snow geese have moved through and the turkeys are strutting.

It’s also that time of the year when an infectious disease attacks avid outdoorsmen and women that live throughout the upper Midwest.

It can infect men, women, children and it doesn’t make any difference if you’re young or old!

What causes this infectious disease is a fungi that’s will soon be among us, it’s the morel mushroom and once they start poking their heads out of the ground, men and women will leave their home, family and job heading for the river bottoms, island and hills on mushroom hunting excursions.

Morels are found throughout the upper Midwest, are easy to recognize and delicious, making them the most sought after wild mushroom.

Identifying them from other mushrooms is easy. Morels are elongated with an off white stem and a crown that is made up of white with dark brown pits or indentations.

They vary from off-white to gray in color. The simplest way to explain what a morel looks like is to look for a mushroom growing on the ground that resembles a cone shaped brain.

They start to appear in the spring when temperatures reach around 50-60 degrees.

When’s the best time to start looking for morels? Well, according to some of those experienced old timers, you’re just wasting your time hunting mushroom until the oak leaves are the size of a mouse or squirrel’s ear.

Honestly, I’ve never known anyone who’s measured a squirrel or mouse ear, but I’ve been told that they are about half the size of your smallest fingernail.

There are several indicators that tell you it’s time to head out and start looking for morels.

If you have a lilac bush in the neighborhood, keep an eye on it and when it starts to bloom, it’s a good sign that the morels will be out.

You’ll also want to watch the crab apple trees as about the time, they start to bloom which is generally the week of Mother’s Day as this is when the morels should be the thickest.

Others use the almanac to figure out the time that morels will start to appear. If you look in the almanac, take the average date for the last frost in your area and then add two weeks to that date, you should put be pretty close to the peak morel season.

Of course, moisture, humidity, sunshine along with warmer temperatures has a lot to do with when morels appear.

If you have a week of 55-60 degree during the daytime with no freezing temperatures at night it’s generally be a good time start looking for morels.

Along with warm temperatures, moisture is also important. Many mushroom hunters say that the best time to hunt for morels is after a rain, when temperatures are around 60 degrees with high humidity.

Morels appear earliest in the sandy areas, on south facing slopes or in fields that have been burnt as these areas warm up quickly and retain heat longer.

One of the most asked questions pertaining to mushrooms is where do you find them?

You’ll find the first morels appearing on islands in the river, sandy areas and in fields with dead or dying trees.

My most successful hunt was along the river, early in the season in a cornfield that hadn’t been planted yet. The field was loaded with them.

It was a new field cornfield and until a year or so before had been a wooded area. The decaying roots from the old elm and cottonwood trees that were grubbed out made for ideal places for the morels to take root.

I’ve also found mushrooms around trees that had been declining for several years, eventually dying, had fell over and were lying on the ground.

Mushrooms seem to appear around these dead cottonwood and elm trees about the time that their bark starts to fall away.

The first morel is always the toughest to locate because they blend very well with the forest or vegetated ground. Once you’ve found one, kneel down, looking closely because morels are like Perch, if you find one you generally find a bunch.

One thing is for certain when it comes to finding morels, there’s no set rules as to where the morel might be located. Conditions change from day to day during the spring and a hillside that was barren on Monday may get a rain shower or warmer temperatures, causing the hillside to be loaded with morels by Wednesday.

My preferred method for locating mushrooms isn’t real scientific; it’s the old wonder around aimlessly method, picking my way through the vegetation until I spot one.

It’s a good idea to stop from time to time and kneel down, getting a birds eye view of the area as many times as morels will be pushing up through the leaves and can be verily visible.

For years, morel hunters have hit the woods with bread sacks, ice cream buckets and other non-porous containers. Some seem to believe that these things have lead to less morel mushrooms.

Since a mushroom reproduces through spores that need to be returned to the ground in order to grow.

Once picked and places in a solid container like those mentioned above, we’re denying the morels the opportunity to disperse their spores and to re-seed the area.

In order to allow the morels to throw their spores, it’s not a bad idea to use collection bags that are porous such as onion bags or some type of a bag that allows the spores to be release back into the air.

Mushroom hunters or shroomers as they’re called down south have their own language and in mushroom hunters’ jargon, a bunch of morels is known as a “mess”.

Once you’ve found a mess of mushrooms, you’ll need to clean them up.

The first thing that you’ll want to do is to split the mushroom in half from the top to the bottom. The rinse them off under running water as the crooks and crannies of the mushroom may contain sand or insects. After you’ve rinsed them thoroughly, you’ll want let them set in water for a short period of time in order to flush sand, debris or stubborn insects out of them.

You don’t want to soak in water for too long as they’ll soak up the water and become spongy.

Then the best part of morel hunting begins, preparing and eating them.

There are numerous ways to prepare morels including, fried and in mushroom soup. One of my favorite ways to prepare the morels is to fry them up in some type of batter.

An excellent batter can be made by combining equal parts beaten eggs with milk and crushed up saltine crackers.

After rinsing them, let the mushroom drip off on a dry towel and then dip in the mixture made from the beaten eggs and milk, coating them thoroughly.

Place the coated morel into a pan and cook in butter until crisp. Don’t over cook them, as they will dry out.

Morels are best when prepared fresh, but if you have a good mushroom hunting season and would like to preserve or save some of them for future use, mushrooms can be dried, frozen or blanched.

I’ve found that by dehydrating them, I can keep them for an extended period of time and when I’m ready to fry them up, all I need to do is to soak them in water for a short period of time and they’re ready for the pan.

Morel hunting is excellent ways to get outside and to not only enjoy the outdoors but to also enjoy the bounties that Mother Nature provides.

This spring while you’re out walking along the creek, river or hillsides look around as morels can be found throughout our area and you never know where they might appear.

They’re excellent eating and a great way to start out the season!

I’ll never forget stumbling into mushroom heaven.

It was nearly 40 years ago. I was hiking into a farm pond on a friend’s land in the Loess Hills southeast of town.

Suddenly on the forest floor I saw morel mushrooms, hundreds of them.

My eyes swept the area and I changed the hundreds estimate to thousands.

Fishing was forgotten. I went home and grabbed some paper grocery sacks and returned.

I filled them and that afternoon all of my friends had more morels than they could eat at one sitting.

I hunt morels every year, but I have never seen anything like that since.

Last year was very good for morels. Hopefully the same can be said for the spring of 2009.

It won’t be long, maybe a couple of weeks and morel lovers all across Siouxland will be stalking the woods looking for this tasty fungus.

The morels come out on the Missouri River bottom flats first in our area. A couple weeks later they begin emerging in the hills.

How to find them?

Good question. Some folks say look around dead elms or ash trees. But they will be where you find them, usually around dead or dying trees, but not always.

Most mushroom hunters carry mesh bags in which to place their morels. This allows spores to escape to the ground ensuring next year’s crop.

You’ll find two different colors, greys and yellows. Some folks say one tastes better than the other.

When you get your mushrooms home, wash them well and then cut them in half.

You may soon discover there are some pesky forest dwelling insect critters hiding in the mushroom holes.

Soak the halves in salt water for a couple of hours to take care of that problem. Refrigerate when you do.

If you are not going to eat them right away, drain excess water off of them, place them on a plate and cover with a wet paper towel and refrigerate.

One of the simplest ways to fix morel mushrooms is to cut them in half lengthwise, coat them in flour and saute them in butter or margarine in a frying pan. Salt and pepper to taste and I’ll bet you can’t eat just one.

If you like batter, another real simple recipe is to prepare the batter by cracking an egg or eggs (depending on how many mushrooms you are going to fry) and beat until blended. Place saltine crackers in a plastic bag and roll with a rolling pin to finely crush the crumbs (or put in a blender). Next, dip your mushroom halves in the eggs and then coat them real well in cracker crumbs and throw into the frying pan which has been pre-heated with butter. Saute them for about 5 minutes, turning as needed.

For everything you ever wanted to know about morels, visit: www.thegreatmorel.com