Hunting fer 'shrooms, Part Deux

"The bottomlands! All the morels are in the bottomlands right now." That's the word on the street in mushroom land. I would be skeptical that morels are up already, but someone was selling them at the Columbia Farmer's Market Saturday. I saw them with my own two covetous eyes. Zoinks.

So, where does a person get to these bottomlands? Most bottomland areas I think of are fields, not forested areas. And, the smaller patches of bottomland woods that do come to mind have silver maple, cottonwood and sycamore and not so much of the trees that are typical to find morels around: elms and ash.

But, with the spring so early, I'm determined not to get skunked on morels and to be out there early, too. So, Saturday eight of us went to a conservation area with some bottomland forest to look for mushrooms. We spent an afternoon doing the best we could at looking and came up empty-handed. What did we learn?

1. We don't have a knack for getting kids excited about finding a mushroom they've never seen before.
2. There's tons of poison ivy in bottomland areas. It would be better for your PI sensitive child to wear pants, not shorts, the next time he goes morel hunting. Duh.
3. Adjust your expectations to enjoying the process of mushroom hunting because actual finds can be few (if ever) and far between.
4. It's amazing how many skills need to be developed to hunt/fish and gather in Missouri. I really admire folks who are successful on a regular bases finding mushrooms, or for that matter land a fish or take a turkey. It's no coincidence. They know what they are doing.
5. Those mushrooms don't just jump into your basket or into your eyesight if you look for them for five minutes. You earn those puppies with lots of time looking.
6. It's a funny mental game to look hard for morels for a long time when you don't even know if there are any to be had or if you are close to the right place to find them.

Hmmm. I thought this, like many things, was going to be a bit easier. Someone remind me why I shouldn't just buy the morels at Farmer's Market, again? Oh, that's right. I'm enjoying the process of mushroom hunting. It's not about result but the process. Right.

I have to say that while I do enjoy mushroom hunting very much and am anxious to go again soon, it would so not hurt my feelings to find a mess of them just to know we have some idea about what we are doing!

Mushrooms? Where are you?