May-June 2004 Foray Reports

The Annual MMS Elba Morel Adventure and Get Together of May 15-16, 2004.

On May 15, a dozen enthusiastic club members met near the large old church on Main Street in the village of Elba, anxious to start looking for the first morels of the season. Good fortune smiled upon us as the weather was clear and dry, unlike last which was wet and overcast. Southeast Minnesota usually has a good crop of morels in early May and this year once again met our mushroomers’ high expectations. Lee Moellerman, as usual, arrived the day before and scouted out the entire area and identified those sites that he found most likely to have morels. This advance work by Lee cannot be overvalued as it nearly always provides assurance that the search for morels will be successful.

That’s Lance Peterson, behind the monster he discovered.

Once everyone had arrived at the church, our caravan of automobiles followed Lee to the first promising area near an old apple orchard. We did indeed find a considerable number of morels near some recently departed apple trees. After a few minutes in the orchard we headed into the nearby forest. Here we were in a familiar type of habitat that we knew form experience would contain morels as the elms were abundant. Everyone discovered dozens of dead elms and in many cases there were morels nearby. Steve Netzman, Glen Creuziger, Debbie Nichols and several others did very well at this location. Lance Peterson found the largest morel of the day around a dead elm next to a plowed corn field. Lee and I found a few good sized morels around the same tree and in the nearby field. I believe it was the first time I have found morels in a corn field.

Sometimes they reward you by showing up in a cluster.

Late that afternoon, after several hours of successful hunting, most of the group decided to quit for the day and resume their search Sunday morning; however, several others elected to labor on. While some members opted to have dinner and spend the night in the Elba area, a few chose to return with their full baskets to the Twin Cities. Those of us who met for dinner at the Elba Inn enjoyed the always pleasant country hospitality and fine dishes offered by the Inn. The dinner conservation was not devoted entirely to mushrooms as there was some mention of the weather and politics.

Cooking morels on a camp stove. Dining al Fresco. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Sunday morning Lee and I met for breakfast at the Inn and discovered that Patti Bellino and Leon Horien were already there. They had arrived late Saturday and had the good luck to come upon Debbie who volunteered to put them up for the night at her home in nearby Rochester. After breakfast we met with the other members who had spent Saturday evening in the Elba area and began our hunt in a nearby locale. This time with a smaller, but no less jovial, group we headed once more into to the wilds of southeastern Minnesota. We followed an old lumber road into the foray area. Along the way Patti stopped by a small spring to test the water and ran into a spider that did more than just sit down beside her. It was a good day for bird watching as we encountered a variety of species. When we finally reached our destination we began to find morels right away among the lifeless elms. This day the morels were nearly as plentiful as the day before. As we hiked up the hilly terrain on a deer trail we came upon several aspen trees mixed in with a few elms. There we found a few morels and moved on, but after about twenty minutes Glen realized that he had left his mushroom bag and knife at the last stop. While we waited for him to go back and search for, and hopefully retrieve, his articles we spent our time looking for mushrooms among the nearby dead sumac and did indeed find another batch of morels. Glen eventually returned with both his knife and mushroom bag, quite an accomplishment as finding two relatively small items in the woods is no mean feat. Further along the trail we came upon an abandoned piece of farm equipment. It was surrounded by sizeable trees so it had obviously been stationed there for many years. We had an interesting time discussing various scenarios that would explain how the equipment came to be left in its current location. One was that the farmer owner had been drafted into the Army during World War One and failed to return. A romantic resolution to the mystery and one as good as any. Around two in the afternoon Lee and I decided to call it a day; Patti and Leon and a couple of others decided to continue the search as it was a nice day and more morels were waiting in locations yet to be visited by MMS representatives. During the two days of the foray I found nearly one hundred morels as did most members who attended both days. The MMS Elba sojourn is always a fun event and I encourage any member who has not made the trip to Elba to look for morels to be sure and do so next year as it is a marvelous and rewarding adventure.

Bob Fulgency
robjoful@aol.com

Lake Maria Foray: May 22

On a rainy Saturday morning, many a brave soul showed up in the face of the weather. Even a few pint sized ones with parents in tow. As luck and the good lord would have it, the rain shut down, or was it just Maxine coming late?

We started with a trip back up the road a long way to a spot where we settled in a dead sumac area. To the surprise of some, we started picking morels. After a long walk, the little ones were ready to return to the cars. The group marched on, but the little ones on their return did a better job of finding morels.

At lunch break Maxine pointed out the location of some oysters, which added to our collections. After lunch all but a few called it a day. Those remaining—Joe, Peter, Glen and myself headed out to the swamp and over the creek to find more morels. We did so well that Joe had to extend his one hour promise of return to his waiting wife and little ones an extra ten minutes. After lunch my cousin Bob decided to spy on the birds. I think he was in search of that drunk bird they call a wobbler.

The rain made this one of the best morel seasons I’ve experienced.

Lee Moellerman
lmoellerman@atsr.com

Afton State Park Foray: June 26

It was a gorgeous day for a foray! Sunny and a little cool—perfect except for the bumper crop mosquitoes, so eight MMS members tucked in their pants legs, sprayed up real good, and headed for the bush. The Afton park has a wide variety of habitats from prairie to bogs. Bob Fulgency was familiar with the park, and he took us to an area where he had found morels on a previous trip. Well, the morels were long gone, but we found a couple of large logs covered with large, beautiful oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus). There were enough of them to fill everyone’s bags or baskets. And speaking of baskets, Lee Moellerman came with one of the nicest mushroom baskets I have ever seen, which he just got for Father’s Day.

We also collected a number of other interesting species, and we had good time trying to identify them after picnicking. I’m pretty sure everyone can now identify Pluteus cervinus with confidence. We also made sure that everyone could tell the difference between good edible, Flamulina velutipes, and Galerina autumnalis (the Deadly Galerina), both of which are about the same size and grow on wood.

Ron Spinosa
ronspin@juno.com