{"id":250950,"date":"2021-05-14T21:22:34","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T18:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/what-its-really-like-hunting-for-morel-mushrooms-in-the-wild\/"},"modified":"2021-05-14T21:22:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T18:22:34","slug":"what-its-really-like-hunting-for-morel-mushrooms-in-the-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-its-really-like-hunting-for-morel-mushrooms-in-the-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"#What it’s really like hunting for morel mushrooms in the wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#What it’s really like hunting for morel mushrooms in the wild<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Spring is here, which means just one thing to a small group of local food-obsessed New Yorkers: morels.<\/p>\n

The oblong, heavily ridged mushrooms prefer to grow in warm and wet conditions, which is why April and May are prime morel season on the East Coast. They\u2019re known for their rich, nutty flavor, meaty texture and exorbitant price tag \u2014 up to $35 a pound at the supermarket, and much more at an upscale restaurant.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I \u2014 an amateur forager \u2014 decided to tag along with some experienced mushroom men to see if I could find bounties of morels in the wild for myself.<\/p>\n

Easier said than done, I discovered.<\/p>\n

People go \u201cmorel mad,\u201d in the spring, said Sigrid Jakob, 55, president of the New York Mycological Society. Not only are they delicious, but \u201cthey\u2019re also the first edible spring mushroom and it\u2019s just great to be out in the woods again after a long off-season,\u201d Jakob said. \u201cSo when you find a big flush of them it truly feels like you\u2019ve hit the jackpot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foraging for wild food is actually prohibited in New York City parks<\/a>. So while the club has identified more than 1,100 species of fungi in the five boroughs, those found in city parks are not for picking and eating. Outdoor adventurers with dinner in mind need to travel<\/a> outside of the Big App<\/a>le, Jakob said. <\/p>\n

But where? Good luck getting that information out of a seasoned mushroom hunter. <\/p>\n

\"Farm-to-table
Farm-to-table chef Anthony Lo Pinto forages for wild food to add to his culinary dishes, including morel mushrooms.<\/figcaption>
Stefano Giovannini<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Morels are notoriously hard to find, camouflaging themselves in nature. They\u2019re also tricky to hold onto \u2014 with rumors of pickers getting mugged for their morels.<\/p>\n

And so I met up with Anthony Lo Pinto \u2014 a farm-to-table chef and sommelier who is active in the biodynamic agriculture movement in Rockland County \u2014 to scour for morels and other local goodies. <\/p>\n

There are a lot of edible fungi in the wild, but there are also many that are poisonous or deadly. It\u2019s best to learn your mushrooms, ideally from a local expert or mushroom club. Don\u2019t rely on apps or opinions from social media<\/a> for identification.<\/p>\n

Lo Pinto<\/a>, 52, said foraging for food makes him feel connected to the land and its history. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the wild foods that we eat have been around for centuries, and when we eat them, we\u2019re eating their evolutionary history,\u201d he said as we walked through a sprawling farm.<\/p>\n

\"Chef
Chef Anthony Lo Pinto (left) and forager Paul Tappenden (center) are passionate about harvesting wild food. NY Post\u2019s Mike Guillen (right) tagged along to learn about it.<\/figcaption>
Stefano Giovannini<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He showed me some of his favorite wild herbs to add to his dishes, including false nettles, clover and the common dandelion. He said he likes adding the petals of wild violets and dandelions to his dishes for color and vibrance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you eat a flower petal, you\u2019re eating part of the plant\u2019s solar panel,\u201d Lo Pinto said. \u201cThe petals help to change the sunlight into nutrition during the spring and summer seasons. You\u2019re eating sunlight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, but what about the morels? <\/p>\n

To find those, we searched down on the ground around the stumps of dead and decaying trees, which is where morels tend to thrive, he explained.<\/p>\n

We also added another expert to our search party: Rockland County forager Paul Tappenden, author of \u201cThe Edible Plants of Nyack and Beyond.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally from London, the 74-year-old Tappenden has been foraging for more than 50 years. He said it\u2019s less about the grand prize, and more about finding \u201clittle treasures along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chef
Chef Anthony Lo Pinto cooks up a pasta dish with morels. Their nutty, earthy flavor complements the dish with other foraged additions from the forest.<\/figcaption>
Stefano Giovannini<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen out foraging, it is almost like every day is your birthday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tappenden appreciated my morel mission, but said he prefers to eat other wild mushrooms, such as golden chanterelles and black trumpets. <\/p>\n

As we scoured the grounds, Lo Pinto explained the draw of all free-growing fungi. \u201cAs a chef I love the flavor profiles that a wild mushroom brings. I also love how mystical they are. They only appear when nature calls on them to start to decompose a dead tree, a tree stump or leaves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

By the end of our day, we came across a few different types, including wine caps and turkey tails. Not wanting us to end our time without the full experience, Lo Pinto served up sauteed morels with pasta, cooked forest-side. The meaty texture had a nice chew and gave off a great earthy, nutty flavor. It was a great complement to the wild ramps and onion grass added to the dish.<\/p>\n

And yes, we found a few morels in the wild \u2014 but I\u2019m not telling where.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#What it’s really like hunting for morel mushrooms in the wild” Spring is here, which means just one thing to a small group of local food-obsessed New Yorkers: morels. The oblong, heavily ridged mushrooms prefer to grow in warm and wet conditions, which is why April and May are prime morel season on the East…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":250951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/chef-anthony-lo-pinto-morel-mushrooms.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[61047,105757,70509,78765,70317,74834],"class_list":["post-250950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cooking","tag-5-14-21","tag-food","tag-mushrooms","tag-nature","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}