President's Message

Dennis Mckenna Symposium of May 12, 2003
The Great Window Well Morel, or My Morel is Bigger Than Your Morel
The Louisville Jackpot, May 23, 2003
Lake Maria Foray of May 24, 2003
Monday Evening Meetings - July through September
MMS Foray Schedule for August and September 2003

Dennis Mckenna Symposium of May 12, 2003

Dennis McKenna made his long anticipated and awaited presentation to an enthusiastic gathering of MMS members and friends on May 12, 2003. It was the biggest group we have ever had at one of Monday evening meetings. His talk was entitled "Mushrooms and the Mind" the subject matter of which he is a world recognized authority. Dennis is particularly interested in learning the medical benefits that can be derived from plants and fungi and devotes his time to this field of study. See Ron Spinosa's fine description of Dennis' presentation herein.

Review of Dr. Dennis Mckenna's Presentation

The Great Window Well Morel, or My Morel is Bigger Than Your Morel

On Thursday, May 22, I received a telephone call from a Star Tribune reporter, Bill McAuliffe, telling me about a fellow in Northeast Minneapolis, Pat Kinney, who had found a very large morel in his window well. He described it as 10 inches in height, 7 inches wide and weighing 1.25 pounds. He then asked me if that was a record to which I replied that I had never found one that size but that members from time to time have brought in some very large morels. You may recall that Lee Moellerman brought in a few last spring, 2002, that I am sure were at least nine to ten inches tall. In any event, Bill sent me the photos over the Internet and I must admit I had never seen a morel with such a large cap. It looked as if the cap was 8 inches tall and the stem about 2 inches. After talking with Bill and looking at the photos he had sent me I began to wonder if there was a record size for a morel and remembered seeing some photographs of some very large morels in a cookbook I have titled "Malfred Ferndock's Morel Cookbook" Edited by Peter Leach and Anne Mikkelsen, (1986). This book, by fellow Minnesotans, is not only a good cookbook; it is a very entertaining read. I highly recommend your getting a copy if it is still in print.

On page 78 of the book is a photograph of a man named Robert Morrissey of Elk Rapids, Michigan, holding a morel that he found on June 14, 1985, in a bale of hay at the Morrison Storage Co. The morel was 17 ½ half inches tall and weighed 20 ounces, according to the scales at Tom's Food Market. The event was noted in the Traverse City Record Eagle, which tried to find out if the morel was of record size. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Michigan Department of Agriculture, the Michigan State University botany department, the University of Michigan Herbarium and the Michigan State Library were all contacted by the paper regarding this question to no avail as none of these fine institutions kept records on such matters.

The next photo, on page 87, is even more remarkable. Mrs. Ruth Carter of the village of McFall, in Gentry County, Missouri, made her discovery in May of 1983. This is her story as reported by outdoor writer Rod Green in the May 1985 issue of the Missouri Conservationist. "Sometime just after noon on Sunday, I opened the door to the crawl space under my house. I keep canna bulbs there, since it doesn't freeze. Just a few feet inside, I caught a glimpse of a strange object. When I saw it, I was startled just for a second, and started to back out. Then I saw it was a mushroom. It astonished me." The morel Mrs. Carter found measured 22 inches around the outer curve. The cap was 9 inches in length. This morel was also weighed at the local grocery store, where the scale read one pound 14 ounces.

I realize that this is not a very scientific study, but we can say with certainty that morels, at least in the Midwest, do attain great stature. As Kelly Larson told Bill McAuliffe after seeing the window well mushroom photos, according to his article in the Sunday Star Tribune of May 25, "Holy [balloons]!" I second that. It is my guess that in all these cases the morels were protected from the elements as well as wondering wild life which permitted such phenomenal growth. If records are to be kept on the size of morels discovered in the state of Minnesota we can start with the one found by Mr. Kinney and go from there.

THE LOUISVILLE JACKPOT, MAY 23, 2003

Since early May I have been visiting Louisville Swamp, a part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, about once a week looking for morels at my favorite sites discovered over the past few seasons. This effort had been unsuccessful and I was wondering how that could be as the weather was perfect and the dead elms I visited were not that far gone. Fortunately I decided to visit a new area of the refuge and as a result eventually came upon 40 or so fairly large morels, 5-6 inches in height, and in very good condition. The habitat was once again around a dead elm tree. The area seemed promising so I decided to spend a little time there and continue with my search. I came upon more dead elms, but I had arrived a little too late as the large, 7 inch tall range, morels I found were in really poor condition. I continued my walk in the woods until I came to a fast flowing creek which would lead me back to my starting point. I did not see any elms, but the walk along the creek was very relaxing and enjoyable as I was pleased as punch that after my successful search I was returning home with a third of a grocery bag of good sized and good quality morels. I continued along the creek path on for about thirty minutes when I unexpectedly saw about fifty feet down the trail in front of me what all mushroomers dream of during the long, cold winter months -- a field of large golden morels -- several of them in the 8 inch tall range and none smaller than 5 inches. There would be no need here for looking under brush or leaves for the prizes here. As I examined the surrounding area I saw no elms, dead or otherwise. As far as I could tell the habitat was composed of a variety of small to medium sized hardwood trees, none dead. I began gathering the surprise bounty with enthusiasm and quickly filled the rest of my grocery bag with morels. It was a very interesting sight as some of the morels actually went right down the side of the nearly vertical creek bank. There the morels were growing almost horizontally off the 6 foot high bank. I gathered a few by hanging on to small tree with one hand picking morels with the other, but because of the steepness and slickness of the bank, coupled with lack of any available hand holds, I decided that it was not worth the chance of taking a dunking in the creek trying to get a few more morels and besides my bag was already full. What a pleasant experience to leave without regret a couple of dozen large, golden morels. As I slowly made my out of the woods and finally reached the trail leading to the refuge entrance, I realized how fortunate we are to be engaged in a hobby that although extremely frustrating at times is nevertheless most rewarding provided you are willing to put forth a little effort in your search for interesting mushrooms in difficult to reach and unusual habitat.

On the way home I stopped by a SUPERAMERICA to buy a soft drink and when I was paying at the counter the check out girl asked me to try several sweets she was considering carrying at her station and give my opinion of them by assigning each a rating of 0 to 10. It turned out the sweets were pretty good and I gave them a 6, 7 and 8. Those sweets were a wonderful way to bring to a conclusion my most successful foray ever to the Louisville Swamp.

When I finally unloaded my bag I counted 101 large morels and in the bottom of the bag there were probably another 5 or 6 that had been crushed by the weight of the morels above them.

LAKE MARIA FORAY OF MAY 24, 2003

A group of Memorial Day holiday fun seekers made the MMS annual pilgrimage to Lake Maria State Park to search for morels. We started with seven old hands and a couple of new comers, Julie Beck and J.P. Clark. It was a pleasant day, not too hot and no mosquitoes to speak of. Lee Moellerman again led the way. We followed our usual course, first working our way to the other side of the lake from the parking area by taking the trail around to the top of the lake and doing our searching in an area full of dead elms of all sizes and that has in the past been a very productive area for morels. Some morels were found, but not the number we have come to expect. After about an hour we made out way back to the parking area where Steve Netzman decided to lighten his load by emptying his basket at his car of the several morels he had found. He got a lot of ribbing for this, but it made sense to me though, as Steve did have a small capacity basket. From the parking area we next headed around to the other side of the lake again, but took a different route through the bog area and over a creek. This two-pronged approach to the morel areas near the lake is necessary as it is not possible work your way all the way around the lake. At this second location, where we spent about 3 hours, we had better luck, although at a price as the going though the buck horn and prickly ash was difficult and painful at times. Doug Stucki at this point left the group and took off and his own. The rest of us eventually ventured into areas new to us and there was some concern that we might get lost; however, Adele Mehta reminded everyone not to be concerned as "Lee is a modern day Daniel Boone" which is of course true. Lee also had a GPS with him which we fortunately did not have to rely upon. In this new area we found several good morel sites and after another hour of so we worked our way out of the woods. We arrived back at the parking area weary, from several hours of hiking, and happy to have with us at least a dozen or more morels each. Once again Lake Maria proved to be a reliable source of morels.

Lake Maria, 2003 - IT HAS BEEN A GOOD SEASON FOR MORELS

(Left to right, back row: Bob Fulgency, Lee Moellerman, Steve Netzman, Adelle Mehta, Patty Bellino;
front row: Maxine Bethke, Julie Beck)

Monday Evening Meetings - July through September

The Monday evening meeting on July 14, August 11 and September 8 will be devoted primarily to mushroom identification, so be sure and bring your finds in for examination and identification. Field guides for everyone will be available at the meetings.

MMS Foray Schedule for August and September 2003

August 9. Nerstrand State Park. Meet at 10:00 AM in parking lot. Take Interstate Highway 35 south and then exit to Highway 19 to Northfield. From Northfield take Highway 246 south to Highway 40, then west to park entrance. Bring your compass for a primer on how to use it in the forest.

August 23. Spring Lake Park. Meet at 10:00 AM in parking lot. From Minneapolis, take Highway 55 south towards Hastings. From St. Paul, take Highway 52 to 55 towards Hastings. A brown park sign on south side of highway about 4 miles west of Hastings indicates the location of Spring Lake Park. Follow the directions north towards the park where another sign will direct you to make a left turn and then continue to the right side parking area.

September 6. American Chestnut Forest. Meet at 11:00 at University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. Take Hwy 52 South through Rochester, then take I-90 west- or for a beautiful drive take Hwy 61 down the Mississippi River to I-90 From I-90: (Note: these might not be the shortest directions to get here from where you are, but they’re certainly the easiest). Take the Hwy 16 exit (exit 5), then Take HWY 16 into La Crosse. Once you get into La Crosse, HWY 16 turns right (stop light). Turn right here onto La Crosse St. The university entrance is about a half mile on the left. Turn Left into the university at a stoplight and University sign. Cowley Hall is parking lot C3, on your right, across from the back of the stadium. [See below and next page for article and local map].

September 20. Carlos Avery Wild Life Area. Meet at 10:00. Take Interstate Highway 35 north to the Forest Lake exit. Go west on Highway 2 which turns into Highway 18 and then continue west for about 7 miles. We will meet at the intersection of Highway 18 and Zodiac Drive. Lee Moellerman will be waiting on Highway 18.

Alert! If you happen arrive at foray sites after 10:15 AM you will unfortunately be on your own personal foray looking for the MMS group.

I hope you too have had as good of luck as I have this morel season and have taken advantage of the fine spring weather we have had so far this year to get out and enjoy nature and work out the winter blahs.

Bob Fulgency