The bloodroots were up, and mayapples were already shrouding the forest floor with a swath of green. But I wasn’t after them. 

I was maybe 11 or 12 years old, hiking the woods with my family and a friend from church. Everyone wanted to be the first to shout out, “Found a morel!” And we did. I remember telling my mom there were so many morels it was hard to walk without stepping on one. 

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Although that was beginners’ luck, the experience sparked something in me. Now, mushrooming is my weird hobby, and it all started with the morel. 

So, when I think about mushroom hunting, I think of morels. In my defense, it’s the only wild mushroom most Americans have tried. 

Morels are famous for a reason: they’re delicious and unmistakable. Not much looks like a morel, which makes them safe for beginners to forage. But if you’re going to forage, even for morels, here are some tips. 

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If you don’t know what kind of mushroom it is, don’t eat it! Do your research, and know what you’re looking for. You are not Super Mario; you will not gain magic powers. 

If you want to gain confidence, I recommend buying a mushroom foraging guide such as “Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois and Surrounding States: A Field-to-Kitchen Guide,” which is the bible of mushroom hunting in southern Illinois. 

Go with a pro. The best way to gain confidence is to learn from an expert. 

Never consume wild mushrooms raw. Wash and cook them thoroughly. This is because the ground is dirty, and nobody likes to eat dirt. 

Take note of where you harvest your mushrooms. If you are picking them from an area that’s been sprayed with pesticides, don’t eat them. 

Never forage somewhere unless you’re sure it’s allowed. Check whether mushrooming is permitted, and don’t trespass on private property. 

Know the other hunting seasons. Morel season overlaps with turkey hunting season, so make sure that you aren’t putting yourself in danger. 

Lastly, know the common poisonous mushrooms. Some mushrooms are deadly, and that’s why it’s essential to have a guidebook. But the majority of wild mushrooms are harmless. I see poisonous mushrooms occasionally, so it’s good to recognize them when you see them. 

The star of the year for mushroomers is the morel. They have a bulbous top with a pumice-like texture and a white to tan stem (called a stipe). Their darker honeycomb top comes in a variety of shades of forest floor, including yellow, brown, gray and black. 

Unlike portabellas, morels don’t have a cap or gills but are fully hollow like a sock, growing a few inches tall. They grow in a short window during the spring around early April, mainly in deciduous forests. Despite looking like a rotting alien toe, they’re notoriously difficult to find. You’ll be staring at a pile of leaves, and suddenly a morel will pop out. Don’t worry; it wasn’t there before. 

Morels don’t learn their lesson and grow in the same place every year. Because of this, once a morel hunter has found a patch, they must make an oath with the mushroom god to never tell anyone where they found them. 

If you meet a mushroom hunter in the woods, you never know whether they’re friend or foe. I was hiking at the trail by the old Crab Orchard visitor center and met a man morel hunting just off the trail. He shooed me and my brother away for hunting too close but afterwards found us and apologized to us, sweetly. 

When he found us, he was carrying a half-free morel and asked me if I knew what it was. I told him it was a half-free morel, and he seemed disappointed that I knew. 

“If you eat one of these, you’ll drop dead,” he said and walked away. Although that’s not true, it’s important to know the few look-alikes that morels have, called false morels. 

Half-free morels share the distinct cap texture and are hollow. They’re called the half-free morel because about half of the cap hangs free over the stipe like a typical mushroom. 

Some dispute the edibility of the half-free morel. Like most things on the forest floor, you probably wouldn’t die if you ate it, but I don’t think it would taste good. They’re not hearty or abundant mushrooms, which makes them, personally, not worth my effort or the risk. 

There are a few other morel look-alikes that you should know about, but I’m going to give you some homework to look it up yourself. There will be a test in two weeks. 

Morels aren’t the only spring edible mushrooms. Another common one is the Dryad’s saddle or the pheasant back. The pheasant back mushroom is a polypore, which is a type of woody bracket fungi that grows on dead or dying trees and remains for long periods to spread spores for longer. 

Pheasant backs can be somewhat woody if old but are spongy and soft when young. They have a scaly brown top and a off-white porous underside. The pores are used to spread spores and run down the stipe of the mushroom, leading to a dark brown base where it attaches to the host tree.  

They are fairly large, sometimes growing nearly a foot across. I usually find them in deciduous forests in the spring and fall but suspect they’d grow anywhere there’s dead wood. 

While pheasant backs are edible, I actively despise them. Some say they smell like watermelon rind, but I think they smell worse. I thought cooking would remove the stench, but I was dead wrong. The cooked mushroom tasted exactly like it smelled and had a bizarre slimy, spongy texture. 

But they are edible and abundant, and many eat them and enjoy them. I would recommend trying them once to see if you like them, but they aren’t for me. 

Thankfully, I don’t hate all polypores; my favorite wild mushroom is the chicken of the woods, which grows from spring to fall. 

Chicken mushrooms are a common bright orange and yellow striped shelf mushroom with a yellow porous underside. They grow in groups, either forming rosettes or shelves on rotting wood. Like most shelf mushrooms, they often don’t have much of a stem. 

They’re the caution cones of the forest. Among the largest mushrooms that I’ve found when foraging, a single cap can grow nearly a foot across, and they grow in large groups often lining fallen tree trunks or stumps. 

There are a few look-alikes, so check your guidebook that you totally bought. Neither look-alikes are poisonous, but they are woody and undesirable. 

Chicken mushrooms have a short window when they’re desirable. I recommend picking them when they are young or only cooking the fringes of the mushrooms, otherwise they can be somewhat woody. 

They are named chicken mushrooms for a reason. I was skeptical at first, but it’s completely true, they taste like chicken. 

I’ve read that some report allergic reactions to chicken mushrooms, but I do recommend giving these a try, though, because they’re easy to identify and spot. You’re probably not going to find them if you’re looking for them, but they’re common, abundant and always a pleasant surprise. 

When foraging for mushrooms, it’s also a good idea to think about how you’re going to cook them. But you must promise me you’ll treat them better than the portabellas you put in your omelet yesterday.  

Sautéing them in a pan with oil and butter is always safe. Some mushrooms are heartier than others, but it’s important to make sure that the mushrooms are cooked thoroughly. You can also boil them and incorporate them into soups and stocks to punch up the flavor with a hint of umami. 

There’s a lot to keep in mind when mushroom hunting. It can seem kind of daunting walking into the woods and seeing so many unfamiliar faces. 

But wild mushrooms are like snakes – feared and misunderstood. Think about it this way: if the apocalypse happens, don’t you want a supplementary food source that others won’t have? 

So, go get a mushrooming guide, hit the trails with a friend, and go mushrooming! 

Photo Editor Enan Chediak can be reached at echediak@dailyegyptian.com. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Instagram @dailyegyptian.

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