MMS Newsletter - June 2002

Volume 29 - Number 3
June 2002 - Online Newsletter

MMS Website

President's Message

Something New...

Foray Schedule for Summer & Fall 2002

Fungi From Spring Meetings

Recipe - Ragout of Peas and Morels

MMS Officers

Newsletter Archive

Morels in the News

Morels were getting publicity this year. Members of MMS called my attention to 2 articles about morels. One appeared in The Rake (May 2002), the other in the St. Paul Pioneer Press (May 31, 2002). In the Rake Stephanie March’s article, "shrooming Through the Ages" gives a brief account of the early beginnings of mushrooming, and the current interest in morel hunting. The article mentions MMS as a good source for learning about mushrooms, and mentions two restaurants, both with familiar sounding name. One is Chats Taverna, where Chef Mike Phillips has been known to create sumptuous mushroom dishes using a variety of wild mushrooms. This is the same restaurant where MMS held its annual banquet in 2002. The other featured restaurant is the Bayport Cookery, where the months of May and June are dedicated to the annual Morel Festival. Many of our members have visited the Bayport Cookery in recent years, and enjoyed the food and festivity.

In the second article, the one in the Pioneer Press, Gita Sitaramiah follows a local chef, Mitch Omer on a morel hunt. Omer looks for morels under dead trees, collects them in a mesh bag, and, as reported, leaves some behind. Omer is a long time morel hunter and a chef, and he recently opened a restaurant in Minneapolis, called Hell’s Kitchen. The articles does not mention whether Omer serves mushrooms in his establishment, but the article is accompanied by several morel recipes, one of which is included in this newsletter.