MidwestWeekends.com — Your Travel Guide to the Upper Midwest

The mushrooms are coming

The search is on for the wily morel.

Morel mushroom in the woods.

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This year, nothing is normal about the advance of morel mushrooms.

Usually, they appear in Iowa in late April and peak on Mother's Day in southeast Minnesota, southwest Wisconsin and southern Michigan.

But this spring, nearly all of the Upper Midwest was cool, then freakishly warm. Parts have been soaked, and other parts are dry. So morels have popped up in patches, grays and blacks first, depending on which areas have had rain.

It's tough to know where to hunt, but you'll find clues at the Morels.com message boards and on Facebook pages for  Michigan, Iowa and Minnesota.

The season lasts three to four weeks. 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.

Last updated on May 12, 2011
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