Sarley: Morel season came early — and is going soon — in Northern Illinois

Timing is everything. That quotation is attributed to William Shakespeare. It’s not often you’ll see quotes from the Bard in the sports pages, but it is certainly true.

Last year, on May 22, I wrote a column about morel mushroom hunting. I wrote that morel season was coming to a close. This year, those delicious fungi are running a month early. If you want to get your hands on some of those magical morsels, you will need to get out in the woods as quickly as you can.

I always used to start thinking about picking morels when Mother’s Day came rolling around. I guess I am learning my lesson again.

One of the best places to go to track the morel season is at The Great Morel website (www.thegreatmorel.com). They have up-to-date maps tracking the morel season as it moves from north to south. This is really a handy site for those of us who enjoy hunting and tasting the hard-to-find fungi. Besides the maps, they feature great recipes and tips for stalking the evasive mushrooms.

My daughter, Michelle, lives in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and called this weekend to ask me if I had been out for morels yet. I replied that it was still too early. She corrected me and told me that the latest maps had ample morels popping up all over Northern Illinois.

Incredibly, she was finding plenty of morels all over the U.P. This means the season had started almost a month early. From reports it seems like this weekend might be the final strong weekend for morel hunting in our area.

The weather has been exceptionally fine for morels, which is probably why they are so early. You can find them anywhere. My cousin Stu finds four, exactly four, of these beautiful mushrooms growing at the base of his neighbor’s garage downspout. Yep. Only one location and nowhere else. Go figure.

If you go out to pick some, carry your prizes in a mesh bag, like the ones you get at the grocery store filled with onions or oranges. You want the ones you’ve captured to spread their spores into the air and hopefully create babies for the future.

Don’t pull the morels out of the ground that you find. Use a small, sharp knife to cut them off an inch above the ground.

Nobody knows exactly how morel reproduction works, only that morel mushrooms cannot be grown and harvested. Everybody has tried and it just does not work. You can find morel growing kits all over the web, but I’ve never heard of one that worked. Save your money.

You may find fresh morels at a local farmers market, but they are going to be at least $50 per pound, and if they aren’t fresh, they aren’t worth it. You can buy them frozen or freeze dried. Those are good options, but nothing tastes like fresh morels.

A great dinner for me would include morels along with some hand-picked wild asparagus. I’ve found wild asparagus but never have gotten much of it. I am told that it grows best along railroad tracks in the sandy, gravelly soil you’ll find there.

Although asparagus has a longer growing season, it has to be picked when it is a certain height. Once it grows high, it gets tough and woody. You have to pick it when it is young and tender. I can only ever find a few stalks. It’s not enough for my efforts.

If any of you have any productive spots for me, I would be more than happy to check them out. Happy hunting.