What to Forage for in April; Morel Mushrooms and Ramps

I admit that both my favorite and most hated month at the same time is the month of April.

April is the sign that the  snowy relaxing days of winter are over and the hecticness of spring has arrived. While I’m always ready for sunny, warm weather and spending time in the woods foraging for deliciousness, it’s a struggle to get motivated when it feels like I just got into the groove of spending our evenings reading and going to bed early.

What to Forage for in April; Morel Mushrooms and Ramps

Just as a disclaimer, this post isn’t intended to make you a foraging expert. This is just a general beginners guide to what the best foraging foods are in April (they’ll start in March and end in May with April being the peak month).

There are plenty of other amazing things, but these are the easiest and most popular in our area.

What are Morel Mushrooms?

Ah, the elusive Morel Mushroom. People spend countless hours in the woods, but never find any morel mushrooms.

“Mushroom Picking” was one of the first dates my husband too me on. It might sound strange, but even though I wasn’t an outdoorsy girl growing up and when I met my husband I wasn’t looking for this lifestyle, I was immediately drawn to it.

Both my maternal and paternal grandparents foraged, but my parents weren’t interested. I always think that foraging (like gardening) was in my blood, it just skipped a generation.

The morel, or morchella, is actually more closely related to truffles than it is to other mushrooms and, like truffles, is the fruit of a fungus that sprouts in the moist soil of woods and forests. There are debates about the number of different types of morel, but the most common ones are black morels and yellow morels.

All morels have a stem and a conical body that is covered with pits and ridges like a honeycomb, which makes them instantly recognizable to anyone who spends time hunting for them. Morels are a spring mushroom that can usually be found between the months of March and May. Because of this very short growing period, they can be quite expensive when they are in season, costing upward of $20 per pound. They are definitely best served fresh, but can also be dried very easily, allowing them to be stored for use in the summer, fall and winter months.’

 

Rarely do we go home with an empty-basket. Ray and his family have been picking morel mushrooms for generations. We have countless morel spots that we check frequently.

Oh and just because you found them growing in a location this year, there’s no guarantee they’ll return next year. But in most cases you’ll want to check spots that you’ve picked before!

 What Are Ramps? 

Ramps are a wild onion that grow during the spring in US and  Eastern Canada. They’re sometimes referred to as wild leeks, and taste like a pungent combination of garlic and onion.

They grow in moist wooded areas, in various sized clumps or groups of pants.

Depending on who you ask, how to harvest them can be controversial. Due to the popularity of Ramps recently, many greedy people are over harvesting and depleting them. In these areas people would prefer you leave the bulb in the ground (so that they can repopulate the area) only harvesting the green leaves.

Where we live and in our expansive ramp patch, there is no risk of over harvesting. We dig up the entire plant, just like you would an onion. We eat both the bulb and leaves.

Take them home and give them a rinse to see their bright white bulbs, pretty pink stems and brilliant green leaves.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a ramp patch to forage your own, they are found in at many spring farmer’s markets and specialty grocery stores.