Where Next?

Now that mid-May approaches, our hunt for morels has taken on a new urgency.

Apples have begun to bloom, and strawberries, while the fiddleheads are waist high.

We’ve covered a lot of ground, from streambanks to hillsides, with nothing to report, but others have found them in their gardens.

Part of the problem is not knowing where to look. This article in Mushroom, the journal of wild mushrooming, notes that “if you find false morels in a location, it’s probably a good place to look for true ones a little later in the season.”


We’ve found a lot of false ones, many of which have dried up since first sighting. So rain might be the missing ingredient.

In this 2006 newsletter from the New York Mycological Society, Dennis Aita argues that “If you’re hunting at the right time of year—the apple blossoms are out and the lilacs are half in bloom—and you’re not seeing morels under the decaying apple and elm trees, then you should get in your car and drive somewhere else.”

Lust, Caution

At long last, something to eat. We found the fiddleheads near the top of a hill, by an old stone wall. They were just starting to rise, but easily visible in a groundscape newly released from months of flattening snow.


We ate them steamed last night, unadulterated even by salt, and again tonight, with crumbles of gorgonzola and a dash of fig-infused vinegar.

As it turned out, I also acquired a tick, and a rash, and a prescription for a two-week dosage of antibiotics. Lyme disease is not widespread in Vermont, but common enough to err on the side of caution.