The Hunt is On: Locals Among West Virginians Who Delight in Hunting for "Molly Moochers"
By Julie Perine on April 25, 2015 via Connect-Bridgeport.com
It happens about this time every year. Locals get excited about morel mushrooms popping up all over North Central West Virginia.
“We get several calls and then we don’t hear about it again the rest of the year,” said H.R. Scott, WVU Extension Service agent for agriculture and natural resources. “They’re really starting to come up now – just like ramps. It’s a seasonal thing and people call it ‘shrooming’ – looking for mushrooms.”
Count Bridgeport residents in with enthusiasts of morel mushrooms – or as some call them, “molly moochers.”
Misty Caudill Miller said it was her papaw who taught her how to hunt for morels.
“Hunting morels was something that people spoke about in the spring in the county I grew up in, Lincoln,” she said. “My Grandfather Therman Caudill was an expert. He knew where they would typically grow and he would return to areas that he knew would be favorable growing spots.”
He loved taking his grandchildren along on his hunts.
“He would teach us how to look for them and where," Miller said. "For kids and adults I think it's similar to the excitement of hunting Easter eggs!"
Talk about morels brings back good memories, but as far as eating them, though, she said she's not a fan.
Patti Lilly Cook is.
She said she couldn’t have been happier when her husband Brian brought a bunch home the other evening. Breaded and deep fried, they are a real treat, she said.
"There isn't a mushroom or veggie I enjoy more than a molly moocher," she said.
Cook started hunting morels when she was a little girl spending time with her uncles at her grandparents’ house.
As an adult, Cook said she hasn’t been successful at finding the mushrooms on her own, but this weekend, she and her Brian are taking their girls on a family hunt, continuing the family tradition.
“I've heard they only grow on a certain side of mountains in shady, wet areas,” she said..JPG)
Just this week, Doug Bryant found a nice batch of morels, which he proceeded to prep and deep fry in his Bridgeport kitchen.
“I fix them sort of like a cube steak – dip them in egg, then in flour, salt and pepper them and put them in a skillet with about a half inch of hot oil in it,” he said.
But there is prep work that needs done before the cooking, Bryant said.
“After you pick them, you have to cut them in half and soak them in salt water to get the bugs out of them,” he said. “Once you soak them for about a day, you rinse them off good and get the excess off with a paper towel.”
Bryant said he likes the crispiness, texture and taste. But he also likes the hunt itself.
“If you have a group of friends who like to go out and look for morels, it’s kind of like bragging rights when you find a pack of them,” he said. “You lay them on the tailgate and take a picture.”
He said he was told about morel mushroom hunting a long time ago by an older friend, who shared the love of the hobby and the lowdown on where they could most easily be found.
“You can find them in apple orchards and along river banks where Sycamore trees are and out in the woods, you can find them around Elm trees, especially the older, dead ones,” he said.
The plump blonde morels – which grow to about the size of a beer can, Bryant said – are usually found when the ground temperature reaches about 68 degrees.
“They grow under the ground and when the soil gets warmer, the pop up,” Bryant said. “The best giveaway as to when they’re ready is to look at the mayapples – a plant that blooms like an umbrella in the woods. When they come up, that’s usually about the time you start finding the morels.”
The mushrooms can also be found in less-developed stages in colors of charcoal and black, he said.
Resembling sponges, morels are distinct in appearance and easy to distinguish from other mushrooms, said Bryant, who offers some words of advice when picking them.
“A lot of times, people pick the whole spore and if you do that, you’ll pull them out of the ground and they won’t come back up again,” he said. “You have to clip them off at the stem so they will come back.”
Bryant is also a fan of the shiitake mushroom; that variety which he has been successful growing.
“We grew them on my friend’s farm,” he said. “We grew them in logs by the creek. You drill holes in the logs, put the spores in the holes and they grow right on the log.”
That’s satisfying, but doesn’t offer the thrill of the hunt or the exercise gained through searching for the morels, he said.
