Years ago, I didn’t know anything about morel mushrooms.  I didn’t know what they looked like.  I didn’t know how they tasted.  I didn’t even know they existed.

Then one day I attended a mushroom program with a local club.  Experts in the club introduced me to morels.  “Here’s what morels look like,” they said.  “You’ll find them all over this park.”  

“Great,” I thought to myself.  “I now know everything I need to know.”

Except I still hardly knew anything.

Sure, I quickly learned how to identify morels, and I heard a few things about looking in certain areas:  “Look for elms, apples, and poplars.  Morels really like sweet soil.”

But where would I find elms, apples, and poplars?  What the heck is sweet soil?

It soon dawned on me that knowledge of mushrooms wasn’t enough.  If I really wanted to improve my skills, I needed to learn tree identification.  I needed to learn ecology.  I needed to learn geology.

And so I learned as much as I could.  Slowly but consistently, I developed a wider set of skills.  Eventually, I became a better mushroom hunter.

Today, I interact with wild landscapes a bit differently than I did back then.  I now look for connections.  I look for relationships.  I look at the bigger picture.

All this to say, if you want to find morels this year, I strongly encourage you to learn the connections that bind morels to their ecosystems.  In a brand new video, I discuss how to approach morel mushroom hunting through a more holistic lens.

You can watch the video here.

Speaking of learning, consider enrolling in Foraging Wild Mushrooms to improve your foraging skills. 

I created this 4-season online course to help you become a successful mushroom hunter.  Included in this course are instructional videos on mushroom ecology, mushroom biology, common edible mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms, poisonous mushrooms, cooking techniques, and medicine-making.

Foraging Wild Mushrooms is currently open for enrollment.  You can sign up here.

Thanks for reading and watching, and thanks for your continued support!

— Adam Haritan

If you want to find morel mushrooms this year, here’s a tip:  don’t wait until spring to begin your hunt.

This might sound like unconventional advice.  After all, current temperatures are too cold for morels.  Wood frogs haven’t even bred yet.  Spring is still another 50 days away.  

All these things are true.  But this next statement is also true:  you can drastically improve your future chances of finding morels by doing a few things right now.  

In a brand-new video, I discuss several tactics we can implement immediately.  I also share my predictions for the upcoming season.  Will the mushrooms be plentiful this year?  Will they be scarce?

You can watch the new video here.

Thanks for reading and watching!

— Adam Haritan

Greetings,

In anticipation of the winter season, I am excited to announce that two Learn Your Land online courses are on sale this week.

To improve your foraging skills, consider enrolling in Foraging Wild Mushrooms.  This 4-season online course is designed to help you safely and successfully harvest wild mushrooms from the forest, from the field, and even from your backyard.

To improve your tree identification skills, consider enrolling in Trees In All Seasons.  This online course teaches you how to identify 100 trees in every season.  If you want to develop the confidence to look at a tree and say, “That’s black spruce, no doubt about it,” or “That’s most certainly sourwood,” or “That can’t be anything but mockernut hickory,” consider enrolling today.

These courses are self-paced and presented entirely online.  Once enrolled, you can start, stop, and resume at any time.

Please note that both courses — Foraging Wild Mushrooms and Trees In All Seasons — are on sale for one week only, from today until Monday, December 23. 

Thanks for supporting nature education!

—Adam Haritan