Pick your fungus

What room has no door, floor or ceiling?

A mushroom.

It’s the start of morel season in North Idaho.

In the spring, there is a small two- or three-week window, usually at the start of May, when morel mushrooms grow and are available for picking. Morels grow very well in burn areas, and with more than 50,000 acres of burn area from last summer’s fires, morels are expected to be in great abundance.

Tina Gospodnetich has been learning about wild mushrooms since 1975 when she was enrolled in a few classes at Portland Community College.

“I have many favorites and enjoy morels in the spring, leccinum in the early summer and splendid chanterelles in the fall,” she said. “It gets me out into the woods and exploring new areas, and that’s best of all.”

Gospodnetich has been part of the North Idaho Mycological Association — also known as the North Idaho Mushroom Club — since she moved to the area in 1978.

The club has been around since the ’60s and is looking for new members. The group meets six times a year during mushroom seasons in the spring and fall. They also try to go on outings to pick mushrooms twice a month.

Tim Gerlitz has been with the club for 25 years. In the past he has been the club’s president and is now the club educator. He gives lessons on different fungi and how to identify them.

Gerlitz encourages people to have a good background knowledge of mushrooms before they go out and pick them. People need to know which ones are poisonous, he said, and those harvesting a particular species like morels need to know if they have look-a-likes that are poisonous.

“We recommend people join their local club so they can be with knowledgeable, mature mycologists and learn from these folks,” he said. “And they should have several field guides. We recommend ‘Mushrooms Demystified’ by David Arora.”

Morels do have a look-a-like variety in North Idaho. Up until about 20 years ago, field guides said false morels were edible. But since then, a chemical compound called hydrazine has been found in false morels, and it can be toxic if there are sufficient amounts in the body.

True morels are completely hollow inside and false morels have a cotton-like material in the stem.

Gerlitz said people have died in the U.S. from consuming false morels. The most fatalities from mushrooms, however, happen in California due a mushroom known as the ‘death cap’ according do Gerlitz. It comes from the genus Amanita.

“We don’t have that specific species in the Northwest,” Gerlitz said. “But we do have some Amanita that have caused problems.”

The one deadly mushroom in North Idaho is the Galerina autumnalis. They are small, brown mushrooms that grow in clusters on wood in the fall.

“I recommend to people, if they only have some general knowledge about mushrooms, to steer clear of little, brown mushrooms,” Gerlitz said.

Gerlitz is also the mushroom poison contact for North and central Idaho. If people are poisoned by mushrooms and end up in the emergency room, Gerlitz is contacted to help identify what mushroom poisoned them.

He said he has seen “uninformed collectors” who pick mushrooms for their table. This really concerns Gerlitz as he stresses the importance of knowing what you are picking before you pick it.

Some people are allergic to mushrooms, even if they aren’t poisonous. If you are trying a new mushroom, Gerlitz suggests eating only a small amount and saving some. If anything happens, any reaction, it is good for others to know what kind of mushroom was consumed.

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Morel mushrooms must be cooked.

They have their own unique taste, like most wild mushrooms, and people enjoy cooking them in ways that let their flavor shine.

“A bit of olive oil and butter with salt and pepper in a sauté pan are about all that’s needed to keep me happy,” Gospodnetich said.

Gerlitz agrees. He cooks his morels until the edges start to brown. That’s when he knows they are cooked enough.

He said if they are big enough, people will stuff morels. People from the North Idaho Mushroom Club have made casseroles and cream of morel mushroom soup. In June, the club has a cook-off and he has seen people barbecue morels.

If people don’t want to eat their mushrooms immediately, morels can be dried and stored for years. Simply set them on a screen in a cool, dry area. They take about a week to dry.

Morels are dry when they snap clean in half. If they are leathery, there is still moisture in them. Mason jars make for good storage. To rehydrate morels, put them in warm water for about half an hour.

•••

There are a few more things people should know before they go on the hunt for morels.

The Idaho Panhandle National Forest Service is enforcing a permitting process for collecting mushrooms.

Permits are required for people collecting more than one gallon a day and more than 20 gallons for the season. Incidental use does not require a permit ­— a gallon a day and no more than five gallons in a season.

Permits are free and available at any of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest’s offices except for the Coeur d’Alene Forest Nursery office.

These regulations have been in place since 2009, but the forests haven’t had enough mushroom growth to make the permitting process worth its while.

“It allows us to track how many permits we issue, so how much activity took place that we’re aware of, so we can monitor the use of the forests and protect resources,” said Shoshana Cooper, public affairs officer for the IPNF. “It allows us to know how much of an impact mushroom season has on the forest.”

IPNF decided to not issue commercial use permits for mushrooms this year.

“We have to go through an environmental analysis process to analyze the commercial removal of mushrooms and its effects on forest resources,” Cooper said. “Being that this is the first year that we’ve had a significant wildfire season, we don’t have the time or resources to go through that process before the mushrooms are available, which would be about this time.”

Whether you collect mushrooms via incidental use or with a permit, the IPNF requires everyone to slice their mushrooms in half, length-wise, before leaving the harvesting area.

Forest service officers will be enforcing the new regulations, but Cooper said they will be there more for educational purposes than to “bust” people.

People may not know they are required to have a permit or slice their mushrooms, so the enforcement officers will be there to inform them about the proper procedures. However, if people are obviously harvesting mushrooms commercially and damaging the forest, fines will be issued. Cooper said they start at $250.

The required permits only apply to national forest lands.

“I don’t believe the state lands have a permitting process and I don’t think the BLM does either,” Cooper said. “Obviously you need special permission to harvest on private land.”

Cooper encourages people to stop by their local forest service office before they go out hunting for mushrooms. They can get their permits, access maps of the burn areas and find out if there are any closed areas.

“Going into an area that has been burned, you need to be aware of hazards,” she said. “There are falling snags and deep stump holes that have been burnt out and you don’t know how deep they are.”

For more information, visit the North Idaho Mushroom Club’s Facebook page at facebook.com/IdahoWildMushrooms or the IPNF 2016 Mushrrom Guide at http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd497184.pdf.