Gift of the fungi: Mushroom hunters embrace Minnesota's woodsy bounty

INTERVIEWER: I am betting that you have, of course, stepped into parks and woods and maybe your own backyard, and you've seen these funky-looking fungi sprouting from the ground. And you're thinking to yourself, what is that? It's this time of the year when certain Minnesotans love hunting, identifying, and even eating mushrooms.

Mushroom foraging certainly is not new, but it has seen a sharp increase in popularity over the past few years. Ariel Bonkoski is an avid mushroom hunter and enthusiast based in Duluth. She leads the Duluth Mycology Society, and she's with us to explain her passion. Ariel, how are you?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: I'm good. Thanks for asking.

INTERVIEWER: Good. I'm glad you took the time to talk with me. Thank you so much. Mushroom hunting, Ariel-- I, of course, know about morel season. Most Minnesotans do. How did you start hunting mushrooms?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: I really fell into this world completely on accident. I grew up really never liking eating mushrooms, and that surprises a lot of people. But one day I had a coworker that told me I just hadn't had the right mushrooms, and there's wild mushrooms with all sorts of flavors and textures and things like that-- a lot more beyond just your basic grocery store mushrooms.

And he had piqued my interest by telling me about a mushroom called chicken of the woods. And I definitely thought he was just playing around with me. And I went home and googled chicken of the woods. And, sure enough, it was a real mushroom that grew here in Minnesota. And I just casually joined some mushroom identification groups on Facebook, and it evolved from there.

INTERVIEWER: Does chicken of the-- does it taste like chicken?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: It does taste similarly to chicken. It's still very mushroom-y, but it tastes very similar to chicken.

INTERVIEWER: OK. I would think-- the reason that I get a little worried about mushrooms is I don't-- well, I don't know what I'm eating. I don't want to eat something poisonous. I think maybe-- is that a big concern that most people, before they get into this--

ARIEL BONKOSKI: I mean, yeah, a lot of people are really scared about mushrooms. I think there's a lot of myth that there's a lot of toxic mushrooms, when, in reality, there's actually very few toxic mushrooms. But you do need to familiarize with those, if you are going to get into mushroom foraging.

I heard an estimate-- and I don't know how accurate this was. This is just an estimate-- that approximately like two to four percent of all mushrooms in the world are toxic. So very few mushrooms in the wild are toxic. But you do need to get familiar with them, if you are getting into foraging.

INTERVIEWER: OK. So let's talk about some mushrooms. I mean, as I mentioned, most people are familiar, I would think, with the morel mushroom season here in Minnesota, which I will-- does that start this month, later this month? Is it going on right now?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: It's going on right now. We are still, I think, towards the beginning of season. But we are getting to prime season within this next week.

INTERVIEWER: And they look like little sponges on a stock. That's how I'd describe it.

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Kind of, yeah. Yeah they're like a honeycomb, pitted-type cap, but they're really unique. And, yes, a lot of people equate them to looking like sponges.

INTERVIEWER: Mm-hmm. And they do taste good. How do you make them?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Yes. I love adding them to my fried rice and things like that. I know another really common recipe that people have done-- which I have not tried yet-- but people will do a cream cheese, and bacon, and other cheese, sometimes jalapeno mix, and they will pipe that inside of the hollow morel because they are hollow. And they'll cook it that way, which I have not tried. But it's really a common thing that people do.

INTERVIEWER: OK. So we've got the morels out there now, and I would presume, from what I understand-- I mean, they have to have a certain kind of growing environment, right? I mean, they're not found everywhere.

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Yes. So throughout most of the state, you're going to find them mostly associated with elms. Here where I am in Duluth, we have very, very few elms. So we have better luck finding morels with sometimes pines, sometimes ash, sometimes aspen. But morels are more on the uncommon side, where I am, just because we don't have the elms like most of the state does.

INTERVIEWER: OK. All right. So tell me about the mushroom community on the North Shore. What kind of mushrooms are up there that you normally hunt?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: I mean, I'm hunting for all sorts of things. But now, we're going to be seeing things like pheasant backs, oyster mushrooms, morels, some turkey tails popped up, as well, right now. As far as edibles, were just getting started. But those are out currently. But there's so much more throughout the rest of the year.

INTERVIEWER: I love the names. I love the names. They are so interesting.

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: What is rewarding about getting out there, tromping around, and finding mushrooms, to you?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: For me, it's kind of like a scavenger hunt. It's, like, the adult Easter egg hunting for me. Finding that little gem in the woods is always really fun. And then I also really enjoy the identification side of things. When I find a mushroom that I'm not familiar with yet, trying to find the ID is like trying to solve a riddle, and I have a lot of fun doing that.

INTERVIEWER: Are some years better than others? I'm going to assume that's correct, given the weather conditions.

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Oh, absolutely.

INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Yeah. No, some years, especially during drought years-- we had one a couple of years back that was really bad, and mushrooms were really, really rare that year. But in drought years, we typically see that mushrooms that are growing from wood tend to be just as common because wood holds moisture better.

But it's the soil-- mushrooms that grow from soil that we won't really see much of when we're having drought years. Or sometimes when we have too much rain, it's also not too great for mushrooms, as well.

INTERVIEWER: Is Minnesota a pretty decent mushroom smorgasbord? I mean, do we have a number of species?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Yeah, we really do. And Minnesota, specifically-- we're lucky to be a state that has a lot of nature areas. We really value nature here in this state. So mushroom hunting is pretty accessible throughout the whole state, as well, which I love.

INTERVIEWER: And is this a source of income for some people or just fun?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Yeah, for some people, absolutely. You can be certified to sell wild mushrooms through the Minnesota Mycological Society. But that's only mushrooms that are foraged from private land. You can't profit off of anything off of public lands. But, yeah, there's lots of people that do sell wild mushrooms. There's lots of people that teach classes about wild mushrooms, like I do. So yeah.

INTERVIEWER: OK. So two final questions-- one, what's on your mushroom bucket list? I mean, you obviously have hunted a bunch. You've found a number of them, right? But is there something out there that you're just dying to find?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Yes, actually. I actually am planning a trip, actually, to the Pacific Northwest. They have a really common mushroom out there called the blushing rosette, also known as abortiporus biennis. It's a mouthful.

But that one is really, really unique because it looks different throughout its different stages of life. It can be found here in the Midwest, but it's really uncommon here in the Midwest. But pretty much, if you go anywhere along any of the coasts, it's a lot more common but really popular in the Pacific Northwest.

INTERVIEWER: I wonder what that taste like?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: It's not edible. It's just super pretty.

INTERVIEWER: Oh, it's not edible. OK. Oh, OK--

ARIEL BONKOSKI: No, no, no.

INTERVIEWER: --not only do you hunt for-- oh, OK. You hunt for beautiful mushrooms. Do you take pictures? Do you pick them? And then do you pick to eat or pick to-- how does that work?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Sometimes I-- I will pick mushrooms to preserve or to send off for DNA sequencing because we are still learning a lot a lot about the mushrooms we have here in North America. So it is really fun getting a part of citizen science and finding ways to sequence your mushrooms, just to make sure we are accurately calling the mushroom species correctly. So I do some of that. So I try to find unique mushrooms to do that with.

INTERVIEWER: OK, so final question now-- if someone is listening, and they're kind of piqued by this, their interest is piqued, how do beginners get started with mushroom hunting?

ARIEL BONKOSKI: I do think the best way, is to learn from someone who knows what they're doing. There is a lot of misinformation on the internet about mushrooms and foraging. So I do definitely suggest going with someone who knows what they're doing and can give you reliable resources going forward so you don't get lost in all of the misinformation that is on the internet.

But Minnesota is lucky to have lots of great instructors throughout the whole state. Even if I'm not close to you, I'm happy to connect you to someone who is close to you.

INTERVIEWER: All right, so get a mushroom hunting buddy. Go out there and enjoy.

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: All right.

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: Ariel, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much, and happy hunting.

ARIEL BONKOSKI: Thank you.

INTERVIEWER: Ariel Bonkoski has been with us. She is a Duluth-based mycologist, an educator, and a forager.