Here's why it's a plentiful year for finding mushrooms and leeks in Pennsylvania
Now is the time to be walking in the woods, especially if you enjoy mushrooms and strong onions.
“Pennsylvania has a very exciting time, come spring. Some foragers live for this time of year," said Luke Austin of Worthington, Armstrong County. "It’s a very magical time of year."
He leads the Pennsylvania Mushroom Hunters Facebook page, which has 32,000 members, and the PA Ginseng Hunters Facebook page, which has 9,000.
This is the prime time to look for tasty fungi. While the season can continue into June, it starts to slow down after Mother’s Day, typically, he said.
Morel mushrooms
“The morel mushroom season is topping off in Pennsylvania,” he said. “It’s shaping up to be one of the best seasons we’ve had in six years. Some people are finding them left and right.”
The mild winter Pennsylvania had with little snowfall is to credit for the abundance of mushrooms. He said the mild temperatures allowed the fungi and plants to grow earlier than most years. The rain and colder spring weather has benefitted the morels as well, he said.
“If you find a dying elm tree, that’s the money spot, but also old apple orchards are so good,” he said. The ground around poplar trees, crab apples, and black cherry trees are known as harbingers of morel mushrooms.
He reminds people to pinch off the mushrooms at the ground level while leaving the roots and base.
“They’ll be there next year for sure if you do it that way," he said. “If you pull it out (with the roots), you ruin the brain stem of the fungi.”
When looking for the small fungi, realize they may be found in bunches. “There’s never just one morel; there’s always at least five, if you keep your eyes open and look around,” he said, adding that there could be 100 or more depending on where they are.
There are some similar looking mushrooms to morels that should be avoided.
“You want to cut the stem open. A true morel mushroom will be hollow,” he said. If they are not hollow, they are false morels and should be boiled before eating to reduce digestive problems.
For eating, he fries morels in butter in a cast iron pan and enjoys them on pizza and a variety of dishes.
“They are great with meat. They go great with any type of steak,” he said.
Dry morels sell for about $65 a pound, and he recommends drying them to help them last longer. To dry them, he cuts them in half and places them on a rack with a fan. Dehydrators work well, too. When he’s ready to use them, he soaks them in water before cooking them to allow the morels to regain their shape.
Finding and eating ramps
Another great find this time of year: ramps, sometimes called leeks. The wild onions have a stronger garlic smell than onions.
Find them on the slopes of hillsides, where there is shade and moisture, the ideal environment for growth. They don't grow well in fields. Ramps on a hillside may be plentiful, but don't over-harvest them. They're pulled out by the roots, so if there aren’t many, leave some to grow for next year.
Ramps are identified by two long narrow leaves, making them look like long onions.
“Right now is the pristine time,” he said.
While ramps can be eaten raw, he also likes to fry them.
“If I’m cooking some deer steak, with some ramps on top and then I take my morels and fry them and put them all together, it’s amazing. The taste that you get out of a ramp once it’s cooked is like, you get the pungency of an onion, you get the garlic taste and then you get the sweet onion taste off the leaves, it’s a heck of a concoction," he said.
Restaurants use both the leaves and the bulbs of ramps.
Flea markets are a good place to buy and sell ramps. He said they are selling for about $16 a pound this year.
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Ginseng root
After the spring seasons, he looks for ginseng root in late summer and fall on northwestern slopes, where it thrives. The plant has about five green leaves and red berries. It grows in shady areas where taller ferns, black cohosh and Solomon’s seal are also found.
“Look for the companion plants,” he said.
He harvests ginseng with a long screwdriver as he’s looking to extract as many roots of the plant as possible. The price for ginseng root varies each year. Last year, some buyers were paying upwards of $800 a pound for dry ginseng roots. He said it depends on the Chinese market for the herb.
“It’s a great thing to introduce your kids, family to. The way the world is going right now with food prices, with inflation, there’s never a better time than right know to learn your edible plants in the woods," he said.
“People should start looking at God’s garden that’s right there at our doorstep. It’s all out there.”
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors ,Twitter @whipkeyoutdoors and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Where do you find ramps and morels in Pennsylvania, edible plants
