The Morel Song

These treasured treats will be popping up soon making it the perfect time to catch up with Becca English of the Iowa Morel Report.

Although we’re a few days shy of the official first day of spring, you can be sure that many Iowans are licking their lips waiting for topsoil temperatures to reach the coveted range of 40-45 degrees—the magic number that signals the start of morel mushroom season.

Morel foraging is a generations-old pastime and a passion that continues to grow for many, especially Becca English of the Iowa Morel Report. Becca has been morel hunting with friends and family since she was a small child growing up outside of Cedar Rapids.

She has her “Wild-harvested Mushroom Certification” through Iowa State University and can easily identify the nine types of mushrooms that are safe to harvest in the state of Iowa. Did you know that to legally sell mushrooms in Iowa you need to have this certification? As Becca wryly cautioned me during our Zoom call, “you can eat any mushroom once…”

Becca’s love for morels has taken her across the state, successfully foraging and frying up at least a batch each season throughout her life in Iowa. A pretty impressive feat, given the finickiness of the find.

This expertise and joy brought her to the Iowa Morel Report, a popular Facebook forum providing an ongoing dialogue for mushroom hunters to report finds, share insights, and ask questions. (Just don’t expect anyone to tell you exactly where they found a batch. Secret spots matter out there in the wild!)

The Iowa Morel Report provides an incredible service with their progression map, tracking finds and soil temperature across the state. In 2021, Lee County in the furthest southeast corner of the state had finds as soon as April 4th in years past.

Like many things in nature, morels were once more abundant during their short season. Over time, the conversion of timber into farmland and housing developments has taken a toll on the fungi population, as have severe weather events. Becca said the 2020 derecho wiped out something like 65% of the canopy in many of these areas.

Morels have a symbiotic relationship with the trees and the soil from which they are born. They want shade but they need soil warmth. They like moisture, but not too much. They love to appear near dead elm trees. They are wild and often unpredictable, which makes the discovery all the more joyous.

Becca recalls a time she fell to her knees having spotted hundreds of gray morels in a large copse in the middle of a cornfield. Despite traditionally having better luck with southern-facing hills, she decided to scope out a northside hill and there they were in droves—the perfect picking for a feasting!

Speaking of which, it’s important to know that you MUST cook these delicacies before eating them. Raw morels contain toxins that cause severe gastrointestinal issues, so find a great recipe and cook them up right! Their fleshy texture and earthy, nutty flavors are truly gourmet, so you want to prepare them in a way that highlights those special features. Becca loves to pan fry them with butter and a batter made with ground up Ritz Crackers. Her mother would use Saltines, but somewhere along the way a friend recommended Ritz and she’s been hooked ever since. In my house, we serve up something pretty close to this recipe. My Dad pan fries them in a mixture of milk, flour, egg and a few dashes of pepper.

Speaking of my Dad, he went to great lengths to make sure we’d get out and hunt morels together as a family when I was a kid. I vividly remember the day we found a crop with some as big as my little brother’s face. We were walking the woods of reclaimed ground from a strip pit mining near our farm in Southeast Kansas and they were everywhere that day. My grandpa Frank took a picture of my brother and Mom submitted it to the local paper. It will forever be a special day.

I returned home in early March of last year to attend a funeral. My good friend Scott’s father, Robert Hirons, passed away, and his interment was at the historic Fort Scott National Cemetery. Bob sure was a terrific guy; it’s hard seeing my friends lose their folks as we age together.

After the service (even though it was too cool to find any mushrooms on March 1), I asked my dad if we could just go tool around in the area where we had that big find for the sake of nostalgia. We shot the breeze and walked the woods, Dad set a few things on fire, we cleared a couple paths from some winter fallings with a chain and a pick-up and listened to the red dirt country music station on the local radio. It was a terrific afternoon.

After our excursion, I decided to write a song about that legendary childhood mushroom hunt. My talented bandmates, Mike and Jen, hopped right on board, our good friend

Jason Walsmith

played and sang on the track with his business Guitar Satchel supporting the endeavor, Anthony Maldonado of AMMixes converted our living room into a studio and my longtime friend, Kendal Sinn, a film director, made the trek north to record and edit a video. My parents shot some video of frying mushrooms found by our good friend Jake Gross and his son, JC.

I now play The Morel Song almost every show and people seem to enjoy it, especially those familiar with the activity. I’ll ask the crowd who all has eaten a morel before playing it and about half raise their hands. I like to tell the other half that they’ve got something new and special in their future. The Morel Song is meant to be nostalgic and celebratory of the moment; I’m especially fond of singing it to folks in nursing homes that just can’t hike those hills anymore. They have a great appreciation for a little theater of the mind mixed in with personal memories. I ask folks to close their eyes and just go to those woods with me. To smell the trees. To hear the crunch of leaves beneath our feet as we hunt the elusive delectables.

Thinking about nature for just 5-10 minutes a day will improve one’s personal happiness quotient. Nature is a force for good and it’s there for us every day.

Many people get through tough times by soaking in some sunshine, taking time to hear the birds, closing our eyes to just feel the wind — intentionally interacting with nature puts us in a present state. If you’ve never hunted morels, I say give it a whirl this year. The combination of a new experience and nature’s warm hug is pretty powerful. Find a friend if you wish and just get off the beaten path for a while. It’s okay if you don’t find any mushrooms because there are countless other treasures along the way.

The Iowa Morel Report shared this lovely sentiment back in January: “That first crisp spring morning when we take our first walk into the woods! There’s nothing like it really. Lilacs and dandelions or trees budding coming back to life after a long hard winter. Kinda represents our lives as well in a way don’t it? Mushroom Hunting is more than just a hobby or a pastime it’s a form of therapy for our mind body and soul.”

For those of you new to the game, Becca has several tips and important words of caution: make sure you have permission to be on the land, avoid hunting on the side of the road (pollution and trash can intermingle with the morel), avoid flooded areas (chemicals are absorbed into morels that can be harmful from flood waters), don’t hunt under apple orchards (there’s a weird toxicity effect to the morsel), wash your crop well, cook everything you eat and know what you are eating. Don’t just take someone else’s word when consuming morels. It’s best to educate yourself on what you are hunting and understand the risks of consuming a false morel. NOTE: There are still classes available at ISU this Spring for certification.

Becca recommends bringing a bag for trash and a paper bag for the morels. Even if you don’t find any morels, there will be trash treasures along the way that you can remove from the land doing everyone a favor. I like to bring my guitar, too, these days. Hiking around with the Guitar Satchel and sitting on a log for a song at some point is a pretty okay way to pass some time. After all, life really is about the journey. Isn’t that right,

Jeff Tweedy

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Here’s the official video (lyrics below):

The Morel Song by Chip Albright

Walking the woods and hiking the hills,

Hoping to find some sweet morels and we hummed,

All day long, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Trekking that timber and looking through the leaves,

Hands in the pockets of those old elm trees and we hummed,

All day long, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh sweet smells of morels, you bring me peace,

With memories of times, so sweet and swell,

Oh sweet morels.

Then out through the thicket, we saw the light,

Flashing on a fungi for its first flight and we hummed,

All day long, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Rustled right down to look around,

Saw we were surrounded by a crowd of crowns,

And we hollered, we’re eating good tonight!

Oh sweet smells of morels, you bring me peace,

With memories of times, so sweet and swell,

Oh sweet morels.

Now the butter is bubbling and the batter is up,

Let’s sizzle some of our good luck and we hummed,

All day long, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Walking the woods and hiking the hills,

Hoping to find some sweet morels and we hummed,

All day long, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Thank you for reading Chip Happens. To find more stories and insights across the state of Iowa, please consider following and supporting the many talented journalists and storytellers of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative.

You can stream my original music on all platforms and at www.chipalbrightmusic.com. My next show in Des Moines is at xBk on Sunday, April 27 with fellow IWC collaborator and talented songwriter Maxwell Schaeffer opening the night. Tix just $10 for an evening of stories and original music. Hope to see you there.

Also, here is the Zoom link for this month’s Office Lounge for paid subscribers to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. It’s always held on the last Friday of the month at noon, except for November and December, and hosted by Robert Leonard. The next session for the group is this coming Friday, March 28.