A Good Season
Western Colorado has been kind to local morel hunters thus far in 2019. It started this Winter with an above-average snow pack. In spring, lower elevations received regular rains while upper elevations collected more snow. Coolish weather has prevailed into June with 70s being more common than 80s and 90s not on the radar yet. This cool and wet pattern produced an epic blonde morel season in our local riparian areas. And the soil has finally warmed at higher elevations – Colorado burn morels are starting. Yay!
Colorado: On The Hunt
Using our burn maps, we began scouting in early June with the snowmelt and warming hillsides. Our first trip last week revealed snowdrifts at 9,000 feet with lots of water flowing downhill as the days warmed. A few days later, the warmth and sun brought out our first burn morels. With the wet weather and the cool spring, the ground struggled to meet the temperatures burn morels need. They seemed to pop first in an unusual location: sun-drenched, ashy and hot burn areas where apparently the ground warmed first. Usually these types of areas offer slim pickings due to their dryness. The downside to picking morels in these spots that they tend to be ash covered and super dirty. The “morel” of the story: visit the sun drenched area if there is plenty of moisture but not enough warmth. Pick quickly before the mushrooms spend days getting ash-blown from wind or soot-spattered from rain drops.
- Two clusters of moresl baking in the sun. Notice the two fresher ones popping up in the shady sot
- This is a crispy critter, probably been in the sun for a week.
- Example of a severe burn area. The ground is gray. Also, notice the Aspens. We were finding them mixed in there too which surprised us.
Soon after we found morels in the ashy open areas, they popped up in the more typical shady areas with brown needles on the ground and half dead trees. This was around the same elevation, or even lower. My theory is that the morels came first in the warmer/sunnier areas and then a day or two later started in the shady area. Morels in the shadier area seemed a bit fresher, smaller and less dry.
Because it hasn’t rained in over a week, the morels are “drying on the vine” and have stopped growing (hence the smaller mushrooms in the shadier areas). Surprisingly, they are staying in excellent bug-free condition as they pre-dehydrate themselves for us. I predict that new mushrooms won’t sprout in any abundance until after the next rain – it’s really dry. When it does rain, all those dried morels will rot! As we write this article, there is rain in the forecast again, so, fingers crossed for a new flush.
- The shade of these half-dead trees provide a friendly environment for morels. All the pine cones can make the morels hard to spot sometimes
- Morels and Pinecones. These morels that are growing in brown duff are typically cleaner
- This is a typical looking area we usually focus on. Not too heavy a burn but still enough destruction to signal the burn morels.
Soil Temperature
One piece of conventional wisdom I have been testing this spring is soil temperature. Often morel hunting gurus advise taking soil temperatures to predict the start of these elusive fungi. Over the years we have avoided doing it, not for any good reason really. We tend to study habitat and weather patterns to gauge whether a burn is ready for morels. Honestly, these are gut evaluations and sometimes we get it wrong. At the same time people frequently ask what the soil temperatures are. Experts agree that morels pop in a 50 to 55 degree range. Usually temperature comes up in discussions about natural morels. We took a bunch of readings at Colorado burn sites in the last week and saw temps ranging from 47 to 57 degrees. A huge differential!
- 47 degrees
- 50 degrees
- 53 degrees
- 56 degrees
- 57 degrees
Modern Forager Tips
If this conventional wisdom doesn’t produce results, here are some other edicts:
- Morels are slaves to Mother Nature. They only grow well when conditions are just right, no matter how badly you want to find them. Too dry, too cold, too hot, too high, wrong trees – you can’t fight Mother Nature. Precipitation factors seem to be the most important. When conditions are right, they are everywhere and abundant. No great skill or experience necessary.
- Sample the burn. We had to sample several different parts of the burns (and even get some tips from friends) before we were able to find the right elevation and aspect. Be prepared to scout a range of locations until you find where they are at. A good mapping app with GPS is critical to this scouting phase.
- Walk fast. When you are “scouting” (trying to figure out where they are at), cover a lot of ground. They should grow in large numbers and you can walk fast until you locate them.
- Pay attention to microclimates. You will find a vast range of microclimates representing different soil temperatures and humidities. Whether from standing timber, fallen trees, brush, holes in the grounds, or micro-aspects (a small ravine that faces a different direction on the compass for instance), we see soil temperatures fluctuate by 10 degrees within small areas.
- Understand there are multiple species and multiple flushes. That means that each species behaves differently and has its own rules on when and where to grow.
- Morels are hard to predict. They are elusive. They don’t always paint within the lines. They can (and will!) humble you if you think you know what they are going to do, before they do it.
Since soil temperature is not a precise indicator of elevation to scout for morels, here are some of the “natural” signals we pay attention to:
- Cup fungus. Usually cup fungus is present before the burn morels.
- Mountain Lupine. The mountain lupine started blooming about the same time the burn morels started.
- Aspen Leaves. The naturals blacks should pop when the aspen leaves are dime sized… that seems to happen two weeks before burn morels
- Snow banks. Roughly, these are typically 500 feet, if not more, above the area burn morels are coming out.
- Facebook. People often share their finds on Facebook and are generous with elevation details, if not with their actual location. Experienced foragers will share that they are looking but not finding (because it is too early or dry or whatever), but they may become silent when the mushrooms come out (notice we went dark the last week?). Or, they may share which is awesome too.
This year we are trying a few new preservation techniques to see how they work. We will cook them up later and see what is best:
- We always dehydrate our burn morel harvest. Ideally we put them in the sun for a bit to pre-dry, then finish them off in a food dehydrator to ensure no moisture is left.
- Washing before preserving. We usually don’t do this but we got some really dirty mushrooms this year and decided to give it a go. We let them dry up a bit for a day to release more soot (which sticks when they are moist), then agitated them in some water to rinse off more dirt.
- We are also freeze-drying several batches to see how they compare.
- Finally we froze some raw, and some that had already been sautéed as well to see how they turn out.
Here are a few more pics of our adventures. Happy hunting out there!
- Not a morel – Verpa
- This robins nest was in a burnt tree trunk.
The cup fungus in the photo following the robin’s nest looks to be an Anthracobia. When I enlarge the photo, one of the apothecia (cups) in the upper right side of the cluster shows some brown bundles of hairs running down the fruiting body. Anthracobia species are often found on burn sites and the interior of the cups (the hymenium) for most of the species have an orange (or some variant thereof) color. The last taxonomic treatment of the genus (1975) included eight species (or taxonomic groups). Probably the most common here in Colorado is Anthracobia muelleri which has a bright orange hymenium.
One should keep an eye out for other small (1/8 – 1/4″ diam) fire-loving cup fungi; some have a chocolate brown hymenial color and are very difficult to spot. One of those, Trichophaea contradicta (=Patella contradicta Seaver), is known only from a collection in St. Louis, MO and a collection from British Columbia here in North America. It has longer,sharp-pointed hairs on the cup margin and underside.
There also are some larger Peziza and Plicaria species with colors that range from black to dark wine-purple to brown to lilac purple. Some can reach hand size (4-5 inches in diam), but many are around 1/2 – 1″ in diam. None are collected for eating.
And I have also found Gyromitra species (“brain” mushrooms) in burn sites. Gyromitra species are notorious for having gyromitrin toxin (monomethyl hydrazine, or MMH). As such I do NOT recommend eating any of them. Even cooking them can cause problems as the MMH reportedly volatizes when heated and can cause one who inhales the vapors to become sick.
thanks for the info Harold
Thanks for the update. Love following your passion. Praying for rain today.
Hi All, just a quick update. We wrote this post on Thursday, since then we have gotten a bit of rain… just a bit, and it seemed to inspire a second flush…The first flush seems to be moving up hill a few hundred feet and is not robust, but the second flush has been surprisingly good and is in the same elevations that we started finding them 10 days ago in. We are finding the morels to be pretty widespread within about a 500 foot elevation range and in all kinds of different micro-environments. Stick to the conifers, don’t go too high in elevation (yet) and look for shady areas and you should be good!
Trent – checking out bull draw tomorrow – any tips to help me find my first burm morel. Thanks. Steve.
Steve… hmmm… walk fast when you are scouting. Cover lots of elevations and aspects until you find them. Stick to mixed conifers. Wear old clothes!