It’s almost morel season, Michigan! Here’s how to find them — and how to cook them

• Morel mushroom season in Michigan typically starts in mid-April and runs until mid-June
• Morels can be found under poplar, apple and ash trees
• True morels have hollow stems

Soon, the ground will warm to around 55 degrees and wild, edible morel mushrooms will begin popping up in Michigan.

The season to find the coveted, nutty-flavored fungus usually starts in mid-April in the southern part of the state and lasts until mid-June in the Upper Peninsula.

Morels can be found across the world, in places like Europe, China, India and Australia. In the US, they are concentrated in the Northeast, Midwest and along the west coast.

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To help Michiganders find morels, the state provides a map of places they might be found.

If you already have your spot, great, you’re probably all set! But if you don’t know where to find those treasured mushrooms, don’t expect someone else to tell you exactly where to go. 

Morels grow out of an underground network of cells that are connected to roots, soil and rotting material. Mushrooms often pop up in areas that have experienced a fire. Also, once morels appear somewhere, it’s a good bet they’ll reappear there the following year, which means successful hunters are typically very secretive about where they find them. They don’t want someone else robbing their bounty in the future.

Tony Williams, a five-time winner of the National Morel Mushroom Festival’s hunt in Boyne City, learned his lesson the hard way. He once took a girlfriend to a trusty spot where they found a bunch of morels. Later, he and the girl broke up.
“She started dating a guy I knew,” Williams said. “She left him. He got married and had two kids. And I ran into him and his two kids and his wife 10 or 12 years later in that spot!”

While Williams, who grew up morel hunting with his family, now keeps his lucky spots to himself, he does have tips on how to find morels that he’s willing to share with the public.

1. Go out on an overcast or rainy day

On sunny days, your eyes are constantly adjusting to the brightness of open areas and the shade under trees, which is not ideal when you’re searching for something with your eyes. Plus, the sun can create shadows that make it harder to spot the morels’ distinctive brain-like cap sticking out of the ground. Williams suggests going out on an overcast or even rainy day. There are fewer people out and the rain can help hold down leaves, making it easier to spot caps.

2. Look for morels under poplar trees, in old apple orchards and under ash trees

For black morels, which are usually the first to show up in the spring, Williams says to look for a vista with a patch of poplar trees, tall and skinny deciduous trees that sometimes have white bark. From far away, it might look like a streak of white. Once you get up under those trees, look for the biggest one.
During “the crossover season,” when both black and white morels start coming up, Williams has had a lot of luck finding morels under really old apple orchards.
“There's hardly anything going on,”  he said. “A couple leaves every year. There's vines growing up the side. They're no longer producing. Those are the trees that I love.”

When it’s full-blown white morel season, toward the end of May and into the first week of June, Williams looks for ash trees. That is where he said he’s had luck finding the really big mushrooms.

3. Move fast and cover a lot of ground

While hunting in the woods, Williams walks at the pace of an early morning mall speedwalker, scanning up to 50 feet away.

“I’m cruising, because I’m looking for something,” he said. “I’m looking for one mushroom.”

When he finds one, he comes to a complete stop to search the area for other mushrooms nearby.

4. Look for the ridge

If Williams sees a steep ridge, he heads toward it. 

One reason? Most people like to stay on the flats, so, if you go up a hill, you’re likely covering new ground. 

The other reason is that, where there’s a ridge, there’s often water, which is good for morels.

“These things are like watermelons,” Williams said. “They’re full of water. That’s what a morel is, full of water.” 

Where the water from a ridge spills out onto the valley floor like a little river is the sweet spot. 

“That’s where I go,” he said. “That’s where it’s the wettest.”

5. Verify you found true morels by cutting them open

When you go morel hunting, you want to make sure you’ve found a legitimate morel, not a potentially poisonous lookalike like a beefsteak mushroom. Williams says that, to make sure you have a true morel, slice the mushroom in half from the tip of the cap down to the bottom of the stem. If the cap is hollow, that’s a good sign that you’ve found a real morel. If the stem is a solid mass, filled with a white substance, it’s not a morel.

If you end up going out, but don’t have any luck, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some tasty Michigan morels. Lots of mushrooms will be served up at the Mesick Mushroom Festival in Mesick, happening May 9 to 11, as well as the National Morel Mushroom Festival in Boyne City, May 15 to 18.