Finding morel mushrooms for the first time is a dream come true for most beginning foragers.  Even decades later, seasoned foragers still enjoy the thrill of identifying morels every spring.

Morel mushrooms are one of the best-tasting things you can find during the spring foraging season.  While most of the harvest this time of year is bitter greens, much needed by your system after a long winter, morels are one last bite of comfort food morel mushrooms for sale.

They taste best sauteed in butter and finished with a splash of cream, and are a great way to get in one last indulgence before the deluge of spring salads.

Though they have a number of toxic look-alikes, identifying morel mushrooms is simple enough with good attention to detail.  A quick tutorial and my 4-year-old foraging assistant is off scouring the ground for treasure…

WHEN IS MOREL MUSHROOM SEASON?

The first trick to finding morel mushrooms is to look at the right time.  That can be tricky, as the morel season varies by region, and can change a bit from year to year depending on the weather.

Why?

Morels fruit in response to soil temperature.

Most varieties begin fruiting when the soil temperature (4 inches below ground) reaches 55 degrees F (12-13 C) and stop fruiting when soil temps warm to around 62 degrees F (16-17 C).

I took the soil temperature next to this morel mushroom in early June and it read 59 F.  Toward the end of the season, but this specimen is already past prime and likely surfaced during cooler temps a few days ago.

These particular soil temperatures generally correspond to when daytime temperatures are in the 60’s and the nightly lows are in the 40’s.

In Vermont, a good time to find them is in late-May.  In more Southern latitudes, they can be found as early as March, and in the far north, they’ve been recorded as late as July.

Black morels come up first, around the time of the first trout lilies, ramps, and trillium.

Three weeks later, you’ll begin seeing yellow morels.  They arrive alongside ethe first dandelions and wild strawberry flowers.  In warmer areas, that can be late March into April, but here in Vermont, yellow morels don’t pop until late May and early June.

These Yellow Morels popped up in late May in Central Vermont, under an old apple tree.

WHERE TO FIND FOR MOREL MUSHROOMS

Once you know when to look, the next problem is where…

Where can you find Morel Mushrooms?  Everywhere and nowhere!  They’re liable to grow just about anywhere in the US, but finding where a spore has landed and found good conditions for growth is a bit of a scavenger hunt.  Luckily, morels are not as picky as you might think about habitat.

Black Morels tend to prefer hardwood forests, especially within 1-2 years of a burn.  They don’t need fire to pop up, but something about a burn makes them more likely to appear.

They also prefer (but don’t need) alkaline soils, which may have something to do with their preference for recent burn sites.  Hardwood ash increases the alkalinity of soils, thus their affinity for burn sites.

Though they don’t grow on trees, they are often found near ash, cottonwood, sycamore, as well as in disturbed areas near roadsides, campgrounds, logged areas or recently flooded low-lying areas.where to find morel mushrooms