#What it’s really like hunting for morel mushrooms in the wild

Spring is here, which means just one thing to a small group of local food-obsessed New Yorkers: morels.

The oblong, heavily ridged mushrooms prefer to grow in warm and wet conditions, which is why April and May are prime morel season on the East Coast. They’re known for their rich, nutty flavor, meaty texture and exorbitant price tag — up to $35 a pound at the supermarket, and much more at an upscale restaurant.

That’s why I — an amateur forager — decided to tag along with some experienced mushroom men to see if I could find bounties of morels in the wild for myself.

Easier said than done, I discovered.

People go “morel mad,” in the spring, said Sigrid Jakob, 55, president of the New York Mycological Society. Not only are they delicious, but “they’re also the first edible spring mushroom and it’s just great to be out in the woods again after a long off-season,” Jakob said. “So when you find a big flush of them it truly feels like you’ve hit the jackpot.”

Foraging for wild food is actually prohibited in New York City parks. So while the club has identified more than 1,100 species of fungi in the five boroughs, those found in city parks are not for picking and eating. Outdoor adventurers with dinner in mind need to travel outside of the Big Apple, Jakob said.

But where? Good luck getting that information out of a seasoned mushroom hunter.

Morels are notoriously hard to find, camouflaging themselves in nature. They’re also tricky to hold onto — with rumors of pickers getting mugged for their morels.

And so I met up with Anthony Lo Pinto — a farm-to-table chef and sommelier who is active in the biodynamic agriculture movement in Rockland County — to scour for morels and other local goodies.

There are a lot of edible fungi in the wild, but there are also many that are poisonous or deadly. It’s best to learn your mushrooms, ideally from a local expert or mushroom club. Don’t rely on apps or opinions from social media for identification.

Lo Pinto, 52, said foraging for food makes him feel connected to the land and its history.

“Some of the wild foods that we eat have been around for centuries, and when we eat them, we’re eating their evolutionary history,” he said as we walked through a sprawling farm.

He showed me some of his favorite wild herbs to add to his dishes, including false nettles, clover and the common dandelion. He said he likes adding the petals of wild violets and dandelions to his dishes for color and vibrance.

“When you eat a flower petal, you’re eating part of the plant’s solar panel,” Lo Pinto said. “The petals help to change the sunlight into nutrition during the spring and summer seasons. You’re eating sunlight.”

Yeah, but what about the morels?

To find those, we searched down on the ground around the stumps of dead and decaying trees, which is where morels tend to thrive, he explained.

We also added another expert to our search party: Rockland County forager Paul Tappenden, author of “The Edible Plants of Nyack and Beyond.”

Originally from London, the 74-year-old Tappenden has been foraging for more than 50 years. He said it’s less about the grand prize, and more about finding “little treasures along the way.”

“When out foraging, it is almost like every day is your birthday,” he said.

Tappenden appreciated my morel mission, but said he prefers to eat other wild mushrooms, such as golden chanterelles and black trumpets.

As we scoured the grounds, Lo Pinto explained the draw of all free-growing fungi. “As a chef I love the flavor profiles that a wild mushroom brings. I also love how mystical they are. They only appear when nature calls on them to start to decompose a dead tree, a tree stump or leaves,” he said.

By the end of our day, we came across a few different types, including wine caps and turkey tails. Not wanting us to end our time without the full experience, Lo Pinto served up sauteed morels with pasta, cooked forest-side. The meaty texture had a nice chew and gave off a great earthy, nutty flavor. It was a great complement to the wild ramps and onion grass added to the dish.

And yes, we found a few morels in the wild — but I’m not telling where.