Morel Memories

Picking morels has been a spring tradition for as long as I can remember. Even though decades have passed since my parents took me and my sister out picking in the poplar stands behind our childhood home, the season starts the same way as it did all those years ago. When the forest bursts into a cloud of fresh green leaves, I start to keep my eyes peeled around the yard, searching for the first couple of morels that always seem to pop up in the same spot year after year. With the perfect combination of precipitation and warming days, the arrival of those first morels means it’s time to lace up the hiking boots and go for a wander through the bush.

I’ve spent a lot of time picking mushrooms over the years – with friends, my parents and sister, cousins, grandparents and nieces and nephews. Despite the time spent out foraging, it wasn’t until my 20s when I finally went picking in a previous year’s burn. The two experiences, while similar, are split into two different activities in my brain. Picking “naturals,” or morels that grow in forests that have not been disturbed by wildfire, is more of an Easter egg hunt, as you peer through the leafy understory to find the scattered mushrooms. When out at a burn, it seems to be a little more production focused as the morels are far easier to spot.

 

One thing that I have yet to take part in is picking morels to sell them. Admittedly, in my youth I wouldn’t eat morels (nor any other mushroom, for that matter), but now that I’m older and wiser I cannot get enough of them and they are far more valuable to me in my own kitchen than being sold off to someone else. The first morels of the season always get pan fried in some butter and served alongside spot prawns from the ocean and a nice juicy steak from the previous year’s hunting adventures. The rest are dried and dehydrated to be stored away for the year to come – one of my favourite ways to enjoy them is a handful thrown into a big pot of homemade wonton soup!

Due to a relatively mild wildfire season last summer, the focus this spring will be in the aspen stands in my backyard, where we’ve seen the first flush of morels just starting to pop up. We’ve already picked enough that I can fill a couple mason jars, a welcome addition as my stash from 2024 has dwindled down. As they are just popping up now, I can’t wait to see what else can be found in the woods.