April showers bring May flowers, and while these visual treasures might grace the landscape with beauty, some of spring’s bounty makes up for a lack of visual beauty with a pleasant taste.
Fox Island in Fort Wayne recently featured local morel mushroom expert Alex Babich. As he gave his presentation, Babich leaned on his wooden pole with a morel on top and the quantity of mushrooms collected each year burned into it. He talked about how to not just collect mushrooms, but also how to prepare them. Indiana mushrooms can net up to $110 a pound.
Babich recommended hunters use a mesh bag, leaving it unwashed so that new areas visited by the mushroom hunter can be enriched for future honing by the falling spores.
Growing up in the Ukraine and coming to this country in 1991, Babich hunted mushrooms with his grandfather, who gave him the advice now printed on a T-shirt: “Every mushroom is edible, sometimes only once.”
When he arrived in America, Babich met people at a local factory where he worked who told him about morels. From there, Alex’s avocation became his vocation. In fact, he is now partnering with the Travel Channel.
Related links:
http://mushroomexpert.com — This glossary allows the user to select the kind of mushroom he or she wishes to study and then details about the specifications of individual fungi.
http://www.gmushrooms.com/morel/ — Want to try growing morels yourself? Click here to learn more.
www.mushroomgear.com — This is Alex Babich’s Web site. It offers recipes and connects you to shirts, sweatshirts and contact information. One can buy morels directly from him for $35 a pound when the mushrooms are in season.
http://allencountyparks.org/parks/fox-island/ — Check out what is happening at Fox Island.
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