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He describes Chanterelle as bright yellow
in color, similar to a Marigold. “In the Upper
Midwest, they have an apricot smell,” he says.
“They play nice with everything. You can pair
them with any number of dishes. They’re not
sweet-tasting, but you can even make ice cream
out of them.”
Any wild mushroom needs to be cooked before
eating, Lamprecht says. But they can be used
in so many kinds of dishes, including biscuits,
turkey stuffing, beef stroganoff, stir fry, with wild
rice, or even as a separate side dish. “You’re only
limited by your imagination,” he says, adding
that there’s a great deal of nutrition and a lot of
fiber in mushrooms. “They’re also medicinal.”
Other popular mushroom types include porcini,
lobster, honey fungus and stump dumplings.
Prior to taking early retirement, Lamprecht
worked as a flight simulator technician for
Northwest Airlines and then coached high
school baseball at Holy Angels Academy. His
wife is a special education teacher.
“There’s so much to learn (about mushrooms),”
he says, adding that he has learned a lot by
being around “citizen scientists,” and by reading
books and attending seminars. “This is just
fascinating; I want to learn more. It’s just the
tip of the iceberg,” Lamprecht says. “There are
100,000 kinds of mushrooms, and only a small
percentage of them have been identified. We
have 5,000 different kinds in Minnesota.
“Mushrooms are so varied in flavor and taste
and habitats. Mushroom is a fruit body. Its
sole purpose is to propagate and disperse the
spores.”
Poisonous mushrooms, of course, lead to
sickness and even kidney and liver failure,
Lamprecht says.
The MMS exists to educate the public, according
to Lamprecht. “We don’t care if you ever eat
mushrooms,” he says. “If you like nature and see
some along the way, we can teach you how to
identify them.”
“The first question people ask is ‘Can I eat it?’,” he
says. “We deal with edible questions.”
The society has a collection of mushrooms
found in Minnesota that it displays in the
Horticulture Building during the Minnesota
State Fair, and society members also answer
questions from the public at the fair, Lamprecht
says.
John Lamprecht, president of the Minnesota
Mycological Society, is holding a Hen of the Woods
(Grifola Frondosa ) mushroom (Submitted photo)
State parks are open to foraging for mushrooms,
according to Lamprecht. “You see a lot of
mushrooms along the trails,” he says, adding
that regional parks in Dakota County are “pretty
restricted.”
“You can’t forage for anything there,” Lamprecht
points out.
Now that he’s become a mushroom devotee,
Lamprecht says he goes out to pick mushrooms
at least once a week, and often two or three
times a week.
In 2018, he says, mushrooms could be found
three to four weeks early in various state parks.
“I look for oak trees because many mushrooms
favor oaks,” he says.
The MHS, which has 400-500 members, meets
the second Monday of the month in Green
Hall on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul
campus. “We get 50 to 100 people at meetings,
even in the off season,” Lamprecht says. “We’re
a busy group. We’re all volunteers. We call
ourselves citizen scientists. When people join,
their goal is usually to find out whether they can
eat the mushrooms they find, or how to get rid
of them in their yard.”
The society also teaches people how to get
certification from the Department of Agriculture
so they can sell mushrooms from their own
property or at a farmer’s market. Restaurants
buy mushrooms only from people who are
certified, according to Lamprecht.
Tips for mushroom hunters
According to an online travel guide
to the Upper Midwest, sponsored by
MidwestWeekends.com, the mushroom season
“lasts three to four weeks, starting in April in
Missouri and southern Illinois, on Mother’s Day
near the Twin Cities and later in May in the
north woods.”
“Since most people go out on weekends,
Thursdays and Fridays are good days to look
because new mushrooms have had a chance to
pop out since the previous weekend,” the online
guide says.
It adds that “morels grow anywhere there are
trees. The ground around recently deceased
elms tends to be most fruitful. Look in a radius
around the tree, not just at the roots.”
It also suggests that the Mississippi River Valley
is a good place to look, and notes that west
of Winona Whitewater State Park is a popular
morel location. Other good locations are around
Wabasha, the Louisville Swamp just south
of Shakopee and Lake Maria State Park near
Monticello, the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi
and areas around LaCrosse, plus northern
Michigan.
Morel-hunters are advised to wear long sleeves,
tuck pants legs into socks and use bug spray
liberally to guard against ticks.
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