A MOREL DILEMMA: SPRING BRINGS MUSHROOM HUNTERS TO TRAVERSE CITY IN SEARCH OF “TRUFFLES OF THE NORTH”

A Press-Ready Travel Feature 
From the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau

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Mike Norton
Media Relations

Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau
mnorton@mytraversecity.com
231-947-1120
101 W. Grandview Parkway
Traverse City, Michigan 49684

Photo #1 The white morel (morchella esculenta) is one of four varieties of this tasty spring mushroom that bring eager ‘shroomers to the northern Michigan woods during the month of May.

Photo #2: Wildflowers like these trilliums carpet Michigan’s North Woods in springtime. Filled with dappled sunlight and the energy of awakening life, the spring forest can be a feast for the soul as well as the appetite.

By MIKE NORTON

TRAVERSE CITY – Its flavor is indescribable, a delicate spring nuttiness with a firm texture that has been compared to rare prime rib. Sautéed in butter with a pinch of garlic and perhaps a hint of lemon, it’s one of the world’s great taste experiences.

It’s the wild morel, a spring mushroom that grows throughout North America but seems most at home in the hardwood forests of the Great Lakes states. Each year, hundreds of devoted mushroom hunters head to the wooded slopes around Traverse City to search for these “truffles of the North,” combing the hillsides for the well-camouflaged fungi.

For several weeks, country roads near this popular resort community are lined with cars, campers and pickups whose owners are deep in the woods, scanning the ground as they crunch determinedly through last year’s leaves. By day’s end some will emerge toting huge bags of mushrooms, while others are content to find a dozen.

A few, like veteran mushroom-hunter George Meredith, are glad just to be in the woods. Meredith has spent decades studying, photographing and even videotaping morels, but insists that they’re mainly his excuse for getting out in the spring forest.

“There’s no other time like it,” he says. “Spring is such a time of renewal in the woods. The sun is shining down through the trees, there are wildflowers everywhere. The woodpeckers are tapping away above you, and once in a while you’ll see a scarlet tanager – a bird that most people would never have a prayer of seeing at their birdfeeder, a bird so red that it makes a cardinal look dull. It’s my mental spring cleaning.”

Which is not to say that Meredith is too proud to gather a morel or two while he’s enjoying all that aesthetic stimulation. He’s familiar with them all – the early black and gray varieties, the plentiful whites and the late-season yellow or butterscotch morels (known locally as “Bigfoot morels” because of their prodigious size). And like all good hunters, he refuses to disclose his favorite ‘shrooming grounds.

Morels are plentiful in the first flush of spring, particularly after a good rain. And while they’ll grow in almost any wooded region of the country, they seem to have an affinity for the steep sandy hillsides of northern Michigan’s bay country, cradled by cool lakes, tilted toward the low spring sun and protected from drying.

In the Traverse City area, the arrival of morel season is greeted with festivities at many of the area’s local restaurants, which try to outdo each other creating new dishes featuring the tasty fungi.

“I try to do a couple of special feature dishes for as long as the season lasts, says chef Jim Morse at The Boathouse in Bowers Harbor. “Actually, I’ll put them in as many dishes as I can.”

Although purists insist that their delicate flavor is best enjoyed with a minimum of extra seasonings and sauces, morels lend themselves to a wide array of meat and pasta dishes. They also make an outstanding counterpoint to the clean, crisp wines grown in the vineyards of the Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas.

One popular standby that can be sampled year-round is the appetizer of sautéed morel mushroom duxelles ravioli in morel cream sauce served at Samuel’s in the village of Suttons Bay. Chef Sam Hybels got the recipe from the restaurant’s previous owner, Jim Milliman, whose new Traverse City restaurant, Hanna, features a crunchy morel ravioli appetizer, too.

Despite their association with the world of haute cuisine, morels also have a populist side. With a little luck and some basic knowledge, anyone can be a successful mushroom hunter – and the biggest morel fans in this region are in the distinctly downscale village of Mesick, about 20 miles south of Traverse City, home to the Mushroom Cap Motel and Jim’s Buck Snort Saloon.

Every May for nearly half a century, Mesick residents have held a three-day event to celebrate the annual morel bloom and the hundreds of ‘shroomers who flock to town in search of them. (“It’s always Mother’s Day weekend,” says festival organizer Louie Hughes. “That means May 12-14 this year.”) In some ways, it’s a typical small-town festival “– from the parade and flea market to the horse pull, fish dinner and horseshoe tournament.

But the big competition each year is really the Biggest Mushroom Contest where rival hunters, in deadly earnest, bring their finds in to be weighed and measured at the town’s two grocery stores, Ken’s IGA and Yeoman’s Market. First prize is a $100 savings bond, but most competitors do it purely for the bragging rights.

For information about the Mesick Mushroom Festival, call (231) 885-2679. For information on other outdoor adventures, culinary treats and experiences in the Traverse City area this year, contact the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau at 1-800-TRAVERSE or on line at www.visittraversecity.com