BUTLER — If you know your mushrooms, you’ll know that it’s morel hunting season. And this year you’ll have a chance to enter your prize ‘shrooms in a local competition.
On Saturday, May 13, the Clear Fork Adventure Resort in Butler will host its first Morel Festival. Mushrooms will be judged, recipes will be tasted, and the inaugural Mushroom King or Queen will be crowned.
I met with General Manager Tanya Flynn in the resort’s Woods & Water Lounge. In front of a crackling wood fire she talked me through the plan for this coming Saturday.
“Breakfast will begin at 7 a.m.,” she told me, “then at 8 a.m. we’ll open up the grounds for hunting. You’ll be able to go anywhere on our property, and we have 200 acres. Lots of trails and paths.
“We’ve not let anyone hunt here before. This is the first time. And it’s all free, no fee to hunt or to enter the competition.”
Tanya explained that even her own husband hasn’t yet hunted this patch, and he’s a mushroom fanatic.
“He’s come to a screeching halt in the car just seeing some morels in a ditch,” she explained.
So you can find them anywhere?
“You can never tell, but they seem to grow more around certain trees, like ash trees,” Tanya said. “Dead oaks are good, too.
“What the hunters really want is a private spot … a secret spot. Exclusive, you know. If you can get access to private property that’s the best.”
So it’s pretty competitive?
“Oh it’s like a cult. They’ll pile their mushrooms up and show ‘em off next to their beer after a hunt.
“And they’ll take a day off work so as not to miss an opportunity.”
How long is morel season?
“Not long. A few weeks, maybe a month. It depends on the weather. Southern Ohio gets their start early because it’s warmer.”
Can you cultivate them?
”Well, you can try,” Tanya said. “I’ve tried for years to grow my own from the spores but nope, nary a mushroom. It can’t be easy to do, because if it was one of these (people) would’ve figured it out by now.”
On the day of the competition participants can enter mushrooms found on the grounds or from an earlier haul, but Tanya says they’ll be asking for pictures of the find with proof of date.
“You’ll need pictures to show when you picked them, but we won’t be asking anyone to reveal their spots,” she said. “You can’t ask for that.”
At 10 a.m. tables will be set up for display and cooking of mushroom recipes, and contestants are encouraged to cook up enough to let other guests get a taste.
“We’ll provide the tables,” Tanya said. “They can cook here or bring something prepared. We have grills available.”
Judging will be at noon. A grand prize will be awarded for largest mushroom, and other prizes for best recipe, most unique recipe and most number of mushrooms found.
Following this, the Mushroom King or Queen will be crowned. Possibly with an actual mushroom crown, although that may just be a rumor.
To get the hunter’s perspective, I met with Andy Fulton, Bellville resident and lifelong mushroom hunter.
“Let me tell you,” he said, “morels are the prime rib of the mushroom kingdom. Around here, it’s like finding gold.
“And me and my family do pretty well. We hunt on my grandad’s property, and last week we gathered 108.”
Andy told me he doesn’t just hunt for morels.
“Since last August I’ve tried five other varieties: chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, dryad’s saddle, the puffball and honey mushrooms.
“They’re delicious,” he explained, “but there’s no comparison to the morel. That’s what everybody’s after, and they’re a lot harder to find.
“People will travel to Michigan to find them,” he told me. “We went on a family vacation to Michigan just for that reason.
“And they can sell for $30 or $40 a pound.”
Do you sell them?
“No, I’ve never sold ‘em,” Andy said. “I just eat ‘em.
“You slice them and soak them in salt water,” he explained, “that’s the easiest way to get the bugs out. Some folks will soak them overnight, but that makes them too soft, in my opinion.
“It’s about the mouth-feel, the texture. That’s very important, and as for the flavor, the morel is what I would call musky, but a good musky. Definitely a wild flavor. Musky and wild.”
How long have you been hunting?
“Oh, I’ve been going hunting for mushrooms since I was a wee lad,” Andy said. “I learned all about it from my grandad, Jim Gatton. He’s 87 and sometimes he still goes hunting with us. It’s like a celebration.
“When you’re a little kid you’re shown what to look for, and then you’re hooked. That’s how it was for me. I think it’s a great way to get outside and get exercise, and spend time with the family. Makin’ memories, as my grandad says.”
Who likes to hunt in the family?
“My mom and dad still, my wife, my grandad, my sister and her two children. The more of you there are the better chance you have to find something, but then you have to split what you find.
“We’ve got a secret family spot, “ Andy told me. “Everyone wants to know where these spots are, but we just say ‘in the woods’ and no more than that.
“I was raised here in Bellville, and the people around here in these local towns, they won’t tell you where they go. I mean it’s so crazy, because they’re just mushrooms. And the truth is it’s an absolute mystery why one spot is better than another.
“You can have a ‘hot spot’ where sometimes you strike it rich and get more than a hundred, and that’s awesome. Then another year in the same spot you’ll get just a handful, and that’s a real bummer. You can never tell.
“We had a spot where we once found more than 300. Then the next year at the same spot there was 8.”
Whether there are hundreds or just handfuls of morels to be found on the grounds of the Clear Fork Adventure Resort remains to be seen, but it promises to be a fun day either way.
After the competition, southern-style rockers Callunaw Rednecks will be playing live, and there will be early bird dinner specials and drink specials.
Beer from Mansfield’s Phoenix Brewery will be on tap.
“There so much for the family to do here,” Tanya told me. “We’ve got tubing on a 600-foot slope. Bungee trampolining, a rock wall, and knocker balls. And there’s a ‘learning barn’ so kids can meet the animals and experience farm life. We’ll be having a sheep-shearing.
“And we’re open every day here from 7 a.m. to midnight, 2:30 a.m. at weekends,” she added. “For breakfast, lunch and dinner. So come on up anytime, have a drink and look around.”
The Clear Fork Adventure Resort is at 341 Resort Drive, Butler, Ohio, 44822.
For more information check out their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Clear-Fork-Adventure-Resort-1740443039512880/.
