Last month, I was writing my article, and it was 70 degrees in March. Now I sit here, and it is 83 degrees in April. Not sure what mother nature is trying to pull on my mushroom season, but she has me concerned.
I usually don’t jump the gun going to look for the little greys, but I thought with the temperatures in the 70’s in March and another warmup the first week of April I better hit the woods before the season passed me by. I headed out on Tuesday April 9th. It seemed to be early, but all indications were telling me they should be popping. The last three days have been warm, and we had some nice rain to go along with. I had high hopes for my early April morel mushroom hunt extravaganza.
As soon as I arrived at the property, I loaded myself down with a lot of “deep woods off” hoping that would prevent my normal tick infestation. For some reason this place is the mecca of all places for ticks. I am not sure if I just happened to hunt the most tick laden properties in both Missouri and Illinois, but I feel that way. I headed to my first spot, and immediately noticed even with all of the rain and warm weather we have had, the soil was very dry on top and the may apples were only a couple of inches tall and not umbrellaed out yet. So that was my first sign that the woods just might not be quite ready to produce morels. It wasn’t going to deter me, though, there was still a good chance to find some small greys.
After a two-hour walk there was nothing to be found. I tried a few areas that used to produce when I was a kid, but still no luck. I am starting to think maybe my eyes are getting too old to see the small ones but at least I spent some time in the woods.
Well after a little rain, my mushroom hunt, and a couple of 50 degree nights, I thought for sure the first round of morels must of popped. It was Saturday April 13th, and once again I headed for the Fulton County woods. As soon as I entered the woods, I saw how much the under brush had started to grow and the may apples were now completely up and opened.
As I entered the woods and went to my honey hole, I was disappointed when I arrived. Last year in this location, I found a few pounds and it was definitely my best spot of 2023. Not even one morel. I hunted the bottoms on the south facing slopes, figuring that would be the first location to pop. After an hour or so of looking, I finally found my first morel of 2024. As I looked the area over good, I only found one more. I was encouraged that at least I wasn’t going to get skunked and still had a few hours in my legs. I walked for a couple of more miles and unfortunately those were the only two that were found.
Leaving with my tail between my legs, I was trying to figure out my next plan of attack. There is only a few weeks of mushrooms, so I don’t want to miss out so I will go every chance I get until I head for Shelbyville in May.
As I was driving home, I received a call from my step-sons-brothers-girlfriend, Maddy, whose family has 20 or so acres in Peoria County and access to another 200 just down the road. Maddy loves the outdoors and loves to mushroom hunt, so I called my stepson Gabe and his girl Samantha and we planned a Sunday morning meet up to see if we could find a few mushroom.
We arrived around 9am on Sunday morning and immediately headed to their woods. I immediately noticed it was hedge heavy woods. The woods consisted of a ton of hedge trees, locust and wild cherry trees. Not the most ideal woods to be finding morels. They loaded us up into the side by side and we headed to the back of the property where we did see a few more elms along the fields. We worked and in one area they had found 15 or so around a dead elm, and there I found one grey mushroom they left to see if it would grow. I don’t ever attempt that. If it’s a mushroom I cut it and eat it. I am not going to wait for it to dry out or get an inch bigger if we get rain.
After working their property for an hour or so, I asked if they were ready to head to the other property. I knew with that many acres that we would definitely find some old growth timer and some elm trees. As we arrived on the next property, I started to get excited. I could already see a couple of bottoms with some elms, so I knew our chances were better here than the other area. We started scavenging the woods looking for the elusive morel. This was some of the best old growth woods I have been to in a long time. There was some giant walnuts, oaks and elms. I probably saw more big elms here than any place that I mushroom hunt in central Illinois. The only thing was they weren’t dead.
We entered a bottom that had some nice moisture, and I hear Gabe say, “Hey there are some mushrooms!” I look over and there is an old, dead log just loaded with pheasant backs. I have tried pheasant backs but not for several years, so I decided if I wanted to eat wild mushrooms I better take what I can find. We took six nice young pheasant backs and continued our search for morels. There were many areas that looked like great habitat for morels, but they just weren’t there. After working the west side of the field, we decided to go try the east side that would be catching more sun than the area we were currently in.
As we drove across the field, I saw a couple of dead elms and there was a dear stand right where two elms had toppled over. We decided to stop there and enter the woods. I few steps in I hear Tyler say “There is one, there is another,” and we all stopped and started looking. Between Gabe, Tyler, and myself we found 7 small grey morel mushrooms. Nothing to write home about but again we didn’t get skunked. We worked the east side for another hour or two and decided it was 85 degrees outside and we were tired of sweating for no results.
We were lucky enough that they already had a taste of mushrooms, so they let us take the mushrooms home. I invited Gabe and Sam over on Monday to enjoy some crappie and mushrooms. I must say pheasant backs are not bad at all. I suggest getting them small and taking the ring off and cutting it into strips. I called them mushroom fries and they were quite tasty. I will say the closer you got the stem area it got a little chewier, but I was pleasantly surprised by the earthy flavor. So next time you go our morel hunting, don’t forget to grab a pheasant back or two and give them a try, you won’t be disappointed. It also seems I find a lot more pheasant backs the morels these days.
After our Sunday adventure, it was time to get back to putting this month’s magazine together. So hopefully some rain this week and maybe I will find the mother load this weekend.
As you all know, turkey season is upon us, so if you are going to woods to do a little mushroom hunting make sure there is no one hunting turkeys in the same woods. If there is, just wait to go mushrooming until after 1pm. It is just the courteous thing to do. Especially all you trespassers out there. There is no doubt more trespassing takes place during mushrooms season than any other time. I can’t even count how many people I kicked off our old property. It seemed every time I went during the week there was other people running our land.
This is also a good time of year to get all of your stands cleared and ready for 2024. Instead of waiting until August and the 90 degree weather, get out there now before all of leaves are out on the trees and get them prepared for the fall. We have been trying to do this the last few years instead of being in there in August and September before bow season. This allows us to stay out of our property pretty much after June.
In June we will put IMOX on our clover to kill any weeds that may be in the plot. This really gives the clover a boost and it will be nice and lush by bow season. We have been working on this property for years and finally have a good amount of clover in our plot, but it has definitely been trial and error. Our high-water table makes it a little harder to get things going in the plots. Hopefully we don’t get any torrential rains in May, and we should be all set for this year.
One thing I have been studying a lot lately is the use of screens on your property. There are several land guys out there that have podcasts or youtube channels and I watch videos on what they do and apply it to our place. I really would like to plant Miscanthus, but I don’t think with our high-water table it will grow. I am going to buy a bag or two to plant and see how it works. If this doesn’t work, we will be putting in a couple of switchgrass barriers to see if that will create some bedding area and a way for us to get by our plots without being noticed. I swear half the time I go to my stand I am kicking something out. If we can prevent that it would help us harvest bigger deer. These big bucks don’t get big for no reason. Its easy to harvest a deer that is 2,3, even 4-years old but you get a buck that is 5,6,7 and has seen the ropes for a few years and they see you and they are off the property in no time.
Our plan is to continue to create good food sources and we really need to work on some bedding areas where the deer can feel safe. So, everything is a work in progress, but you have to start somewhere. Hopefully in the future we can do some control burns to get rid of all of the dead and falling willows that encompass our landscape. It will take years, but I hope to create a deer mecca that my kids and grandkids can enjoy for years to come. It is not about me it really is about providing my kids with the opportunity to harvest a deer on their own land and never have to worry about a place to hunt. We have so many people out there who would love to hunt but it is becoming so hard to find a place to hunt and even harder to afford to buy or lease the land.
Tomorrow I will be attending my first IGOLD in Springfield IL. Once a year many legal gun owners get together in Springfield for the annual Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day. I look forward to meeting new people and new friends in our effort to let our legislators know where we stand on their policies. It is up to us to stand up for our gun rights and without the Illinois State Rifle Association I am not sure where we would be in this state. So please support the Illinois Rifle Association as they fight for our rights as citizens.
Until next month. May your sunrises and sunsets be magical!