Here in Southwest Montana, we got a more moderate couple inches of moisture, and the country is responding just incredibly. People used to take this level of plant growth for granted, but after the previous few dry springs, it’s a treat indeed to see grass tall enough to hide deer lying down, and a riotous explosion of wildflowers.

One type of plant that’s responding exceptionally well to the moisture is mushrooms. On a recent hike we saw puffballs and white meadow mushrooms growing on a sandy, southwest facing slope that would ordinarily qualify as a near-desert environment. On another recent outing, we stumbled into a mother lode of highly prized morels! I’d heard reports that morel mushrooms were thriving this spring, especially in areas that burned last summer. In fact, there’s been reports of violence between commercial pickers in northwest Montana, and apparently a lot of them are now packing heat. That’s right; competition for these valuable fungi is so intense that pickers are now carrying sidearms. Good grief…. Not to pick on the Flathead, (see prior amateur sociological analysis, http://www.cowboyhvn.com/mtaug01.htm ), but I’ve encountered some of the types that frequent the huckleberry patches during late summer. From what I understand, the morels attract the same or perhaps even a bit rougher crowd. It’s said an armed society is a polite society, but I somehow doubt manners are the strong suite of the mushroom thugs!

Fortunately, here in the Gallatin Valley a .44 isn’t necessary equipment for ‘shroom hunting. Of course, you want to know where you might find some of these highly prized fungi yourself…. We found ours on private property, while attending a presentation on beaver habitat, so I’m not going to spill the beans on that spot and cause headaches for the landowner. There’s potential on any of the rivers and streams in the area right now, though. A lot of the adjacent land is privately owned, but there’s numerous public fishing accesses, and there’s even a substantial amount of state land adjacent to where we found ours (and if you’re a deductive reasoning type, that’s enough information for you to figure out where we were!).

After hearing reports for years about how morels are an incredible delicacy, I must say we were slightly underwhelmed by them. Their value must have something to do with their scarcity. At first, we just sliced and fried some in oil with plenty of garlic (as recommended by several morel websites), and were actually kind of disappointed. In fact, I’d have to describe them as somewhat rubbery and bland. Like most mushrooms, they don’t seem to have much flavor of their own. Dipped in egg and coated with cracker crumbs, and again fried in oil & garlic, they were much improved. Still, I can’t imagine getting into an armed confrontation over ‘em…..