Morel Mushrooms Have Arrived!

The Morel mushroom hunt is on! Foragers in the area and all over the northern part of Minnesota are finding morels. With lots of rain and dry spells it was an untypical spring up at Lake of the Woods. But eventually the mushrooms poked through and are ready for the picking. Morel mushrooms are coned in shape and look like a Christmas tree and are considered a delicacy in the north country. Foragers must be careful of fake morels who are toxic and should not be eaten. Fake morels are not hollow and are typically larger than a true morel.

Finding the morels can be tricky and most avid mushroom hunters will not be giving up their spots. White morels, which appear later than the blacks, have a more diverse range of habitats. Forests, fields, orchards, fence rows, hedgerows, islands, railroad tracks, floodplain’s and grown-over strip mines are just some of the places the white and giant morels can be found. Unlike the black mushrooms, the whites sometimes tend to congregate around certain types of tree usually ones that are in some stage of dying. Elm, ash, sycamore, cottonwood. Bigger, older trees. As the trees die the root systems break down and are desirable and readily available food sources for morels. Good results occasionally can be found in consecutive years in the same location.

Lake Of The Woods County has many acres to forage for morels. To name a couple larger spots we have Zippel Bay State Park which is a part of the Beltrami Island State Forest, and Pine Island State Forest which is located just to the east of Baudette. Combined the two state forests have 1,581,406 acres open to foraging. On top of the state forests we have local landings that may have suitable habitat for morel mushrooms.

Check out our Morel Mushroom page at https://lakeofthewoodsmn.com/morel-mushrooms/ for more information!