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Magnolia's
Magic Morels

The lowly mushroom occupies a big place in the heart of one tiny town.

STORY BY JOHN ALLEN
PHOTOS BY ADELE HODDE

Like the fictional Brigadoon, the sleepy village of Magnolia comes alive one day each year to host hordes of visitors searching for a little magic. On the first Saturday of May, the town's population quadruples as competitors from across the country vie for honors in the Illinois State Morel Mushroom Hunting Championship and Spongy Fungi Festival.

It seems as though all 280 residents of Magnolia participate in the event, which will take place this year on May 4. The local American Legion post, the fire department, the Masons and even the ladies of the Methodist church play roles in serving and entertaining out-of-town visitors.

Festivities actually begin on Friday night, when Legion Post 254 hosts an open house at the fire station. Participants are treated to free bowls of morel and other mushroom soups, discussions about mushroom hunting and a "Liar's Contest" in which ludicrous tales of giant morels pushing mobile homes off their foundations are spun without a hint of guile.

About a third of the next day's competitors attend the open house every year, according to Vicky Nauman, who along with her husband Tom owns Morel Mania, a co-host of the event. Vicky and Tom, and Tom's brother Dave, started Magnolia's annual competition in 1996.

The success of their business (see related story) and trips to the 42-year-old National Morel Hunting Championship in Boyne City, Mich., convinced the Naumans that a mushroom hunting festival would be good for Magnolia. They approached the village board in December 1995, receiving unanimous approval from the mayor and six trustees.

Competitors head for the woods at Crooked Knee Golf Course where the 2001 hunt was held.



The dense vegetation and dry weather made finding morels quite a challenge.


Wade Rathbone discovered this large yellow morel.

The first competition drew the maximum 750 entrants, by far the largest crowd of the six championships. Entries have since leveled off at about 500 each year, Vicky Nauman said, with 520 competing in 2001. Competitors have ranged in age from two to 84, and besides Illinois, have represented Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

The entry fee is $16 for adults and $8 for children 12 and under. The fees cover the costs of leasing the land where the hunt is held, transportation for hunters to the site on school buses, insurance, postage, printing and prizes. The latter includes $200 and a trophy to the grand champion, $75 and a trophy to the first-place winners in men's and women's divisions, $50 and recognition certificates to the second-place finishers in men's and women's divisions, and plaques for the largest and smallest mushrooms.

Beginning at 7 a.m. on Saturday, pre-registered competitors sign in at Ruby Peterson Memorial Park, receiving last-minute instructions as well as mesh bags to hold their mushrooms. A hot breakfast of pancakes and sausage is prepared and sold as a fund-raiser by the local Masonic lodge.

At 9:15 a.m., competitors, many wearing camouflage clothing so they can "sneak up on" their quarry, are loaded onto school buses and transported to the hunting area. Vicky Nauman said there are three rotating sites within 30 miles of Magnolia that are used for the hunt. They include a farm, a ranch and a golf course with a 200-acre timbered area where the 2001 hunt was held.

Once at the site, hunters are given exactly two hours to find as many mushrooms as they can. Those failing to turn in their harvest within the two hours are penalized 10 mushrooms for each minute they're late, up to a maximum 10 minutes, when the hunter is disqualified.

Morels are the only mushroom species that may be turned in, and they must be torn or cut above ground level or face disqualification.

"Mushrooms grow underground, and it's a three- to five-year growth cycle before the plant produces fruit. What we pick is the fruit," Vicky said.

Except for Florida and the desert southwest, morels can be found in every state, she said. They start growing when nighttime temperatures reach 55 degrees, and quit when daytime temperatures reach 90, a time span of three to four weeks.

"The season starts in March in the southern states and progresses about 100 miles north each week," she said. "One guy we know closes his shop and follows the season from North Carolina to Canada."

Morels have a nutty, earthy taste that is different from any other type of mushroom.

"Most people bread and saute them," Vicky said, "or use them in stews or soup without breading. They aren't usually eaten raw."

Afficionados pay up to $7 for a half-ounce bag of dried morels in grocery stores off-season, she said, though they usually sell for $12 to $15 per pound in-season in an average year. If the spring is rainy, morels will be more plentiful and sell for about $7 per pound; in dry springs, they are less plentiful and sell for as much as $40 per pound.

True morels have a sponge cap, are entirely hollow and their cap and stem are joined at the base of the cap. The first to appear are black morels, which can be up to four inches tall. They are followed by little greys (up to 2 inches), whites (up to 7 inches) and yellows (up to one foot).

April 2002  11



Andrea Dalyrymple (I) and Berta Peugh count and measure morels while morel mushroom expert Larry Lonik autographs a copy of his book.

Morel competition award winners were (l-r) Larry Egbert, Gale Cole and Michael Osborn.

While the hunters are stumbling around in the woods, their relatives, friends and curio-seekers are back at Peterson Park enjoying the petting zoo, chainsaw carving by Bill Kraft, musical entertainment by one-man band Rich Sequist, a baked goods table set up by the Methodist church ladies and offerings at 30 arts and crafts booths.

"Priceless Creations" of nearby McNabb has sold wood sculptures at all six festivals, while "Candles & More" of Streator has been involved for three years. The Clear Creek Preservation Council has been raising funds to preserve the Magnolia Grange Building at every festival, and the Illinois Mycological Association has been selling cookbooks, T-shirts and tote bags promoting mushrooms since the beginning.

Though it costs them $25 to set up booths at the Spongy Fungi Festival, the vendors will make money too, said Laurie Smith, who runs the craft show and auction as a member of the 16-person Festival Committee.

The village also makes money from a 50-50 raffle that benefits the park fund, and a $1 fee charged for each bag of morels sold at the afternoon auction. Around noon, the fire department begins selling barbecued pork chop sandwiches, with proceeds going for equipment purchases. Long lines form quickly for this tasty lunch, and soon nearly everyone is smeared with barbecue sauce.

Information you can use

Magnolia is located at the intersections of Illinois Routes 18 and 89 midway between the Illinois River and Interstate 39. It has no hotels or motels, though lodging is available in nearby Henry (10 miles), Cedar Point (12 miles), Wenona (12 miles). Lacon (15 miles), Oglesby (16 miles) and Ladd, Streator and LaSalle/ Peru (20 miles each). Camping is availble in Putnam (18 miles) or the Marshall County State Fish and Wildlife Area near Lacon (22 miles).

Information about the 2002 Illinois State More! Mushroom Hunting Championship and Spongy Fungi Festival is available by calling (309) 364-3319 or over the Internet at www.morelmania.com.

While munching their sandwiches, more than 1,000 visitors are treated to mushroom cooking demonstrations and hunters' stories (lies?) about their escapades in the woods. Many individuals eye coolers full of bagged mushrooms, plotting their strategy for the fast-approaching auction.

Tom Nauman, who accompanies the hunters to the woods, said most of the competitors take their mushrooms home, though some sell them at the auction. Morels that weren't picked during the competition also are auctioned.

"A lot of these actually were picked in Michigan," he said.

At 2 p.m., auctioneer Carl Tomlinson from nearby Washburn started the action, commanding $40 for the first half-pound bag. Prices dropped after that, with the last bag selling for only $7. Lament Yarrol of Palatine bought a half-pound bag for $25 and considered it a bargain. A member of the Illinois Mycological (the study of mushrooms) Association, Yarrol said he normally hunts morels himself, but didn't have a chance to do so before the Magnolia event.

The end of the auction left only one major agenda item—announcing the winners of the competition.

Gale Cole of Palmyra, who found the biggest morel in the 2000 Magnolia championship and took second overall in the 2000 national championship in Michigan, finally reached the pinnacle when he was named grand champion of the 2001 competition with 110 mushrooms collected.

Cole, 67, said he's been hunting mushrooms for more than 60 years and had three grandsons accompany him.

12   Outdoor Illinois



A highlight of the festival is the annual auction where bidders vie for one-half pound bags of the spongy fungi.

Festival activities include chain-saw art by Bill Kraft and the preparation of some of Illinois' finest pork chops by Doug Smith.

Business is mushrooming

Morel Mania sells a variety of mushroom-related products such as walking sticks, paperweights, books, T-shirts, hats and jewelry. Most are handmade in a small shop behind Tom and Vicky Nauman's home in Magnolia.

The firm, which the Naumans describe as "outfitters for mushroom hunters," has been in business since 1991.

"It started as a hobby, 'our retirement job,'" Vicky said, "but it got so popular we started doing it full-time in 1999."

Tom Nauman worked as a regional business development manager for Standard Register, a Chicago business forms company, before his own business started to thrive.

"My commute is now 200 feet to the workshop rather than 120 miles to Chicago," he said.

In the printing business for 29 years, he still writes a monthly mushroom column for Adventure Sports Outdoors, a Peoria-based tabloid magazine.

He said he has been morel mushroom hunting for 47 of his 51 years, learning from his parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents.

Taking the advice of his father, who said, "mushroom hunters need a sturdy walking stick to turn over leaves, look under brush and sweep away the early spring spider webs," Tom created his own stick topped with a hand-carved morel. Other mushroom hunters liked it and a business was born.

"Shroom Sticks,"TM the company's most popular product, reflects the whimsical nature of morel hunting. Other available items in this genre include "morel decoys," "mushroom clones," a camouflage hat to facilitate sneaking up on the target and a variety of funny T-shirts, including a "Mushroom Patrol" design that features a sheriff's badge and the words "I think those mushrooms are poisonous. Better give them to me!"

The Naumans also offer morel cutting boards and hot plates, notecards, silver necklaces, earrings and charms, mushroom knives, mesh bags for mushroom hunting, a large afghan, a calendar featuring a different mushroom each month, posters, pins and magnets, paperweights and numerous books on mushroom hunting, cooking and lore.

Morel Mania has a booth at the annual Spongy Fungi Festival in Magnolia, as well as at festivals in other areas. Products also can be purchased from the firm's catalog, available by calling (309) 364-3319 or writing Morel Mania, RR 1, Box 42, Magnolia, IL 61336. Internet users can view and order Morel Mania merchandise at www.morelmania.com.

—John Allen

"I ran the first quarter mile into the woods, then laid down," Cole laughed. He said the secret to finding morels is to locate dead elm trees that are just starting to lose their bark.

Mike Osborn, 16, of Newark, Ohio, took first place in the men's division with 93 mushrooms, and also captured the smallest mushroom plaque with a morel that measured just 1/4-inch tall. Osborn, who doesn't eat mushrooms, hunted with his father Tim and brother, Charles, who was grand champion in 1998.

Other winners in the 2001 competition were Sara Haynes of Morris, first place in the women's division with 47 mushrooms; Shirley Bateson of Clinton, second place in the women's division with 31; Jim McCombs of McLean, second place in the men's division with 81; and Larry Egbert, biggest mushroom at 9.5 inches.

Tom Nauman said lack of rain during the two weeks preceding the championship reduced both the size and number of mushrooms collected. He noted that 1996 Grand Champion Phil Gariboldi had turned in 293 morels, and that Cole's winning mushroom last year was a foot tall.

As if on cue, dark clouds rolled in just as Nauman was bemoaning the lack of rain. The crowd began to disperse as thunder rumbled overhead and big drops of rain started to fall. Within an hour, Magnolia was virtually deserted, waiting for yet another year to pass so the magic could begin again.

John Allen is a former staff writer for OutdoorIllinois

April 2002   13


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