Morel

picking

mushrooms

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- When Gregory Bushard left home Tuesday to pick mushrooms in Flandrau State Park, his wife expected him home at noon for dinner.

So when he was over two hours late, she called police asking them to look for him.

The park's assistant manager, Tom Schmitz, quickly organized a search team including park personnel, law enforcement officers and a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer.

"We were just starting to search the bike trails between the park office and the Schell Brewery when we received word that he had returned home," Schmitz said.

Bushard, a veteran mushroom picker, had stumbled onto the largest crop of Morel mushrooms he had seen. "I got home at 3:15, and I had 727 mushrooms."

That harvest plus the more than 100 morels he picked Wednesday morning gives him a total of 1,021 for the season. Bushard doesn't have any idea of how many pounds that is "because I don't weigh them."

Bushard and his wife have had several meals so far from his mushroom picking. "As a matter of fact, we had a meal last (Tuesday) night."

Bushard, who works at Kraft Foods, began picking mushrooms as a child and has picked at Flandrau State Park since moving to New Ulm 30 years ago.

This year's crop is making up for last year when Bushard said he found only four or five all season "and they weren't very good."

While the removal of flora from a state park is prohibited by law, Schmitz said mushrooms and berries are exempt "as long as it is only for personal use. Commercial harvesting is prohibited. We encourage people to come out and look for the morels; it's a lot of fun."