Morels Galore Displayed on 'WV Wild Pickers' Facebook Page

It’s peak season for morel mushrooms throughout Appalachia. One online site, “WV Wild Pickers” Facebook page is getting a lot of traffic of people sharing stories and photos from their adventures foraging.

Beverly says he started the WV Wild Pickers Facebook two or three years ago because of his own curiosity about wild-crafting. Last spring it gained quite a bit of popularity around this time, morel season. People love to share what they find, Beverly says. Especially in the Spring, after winter melts and folks finally get to go out and enjoy the outdoors.

Beverly says it’s currently the peak of the morel season. Black morels have come and gone, and the blonde morels should be in full swing. 

“Most morels, I either dehydrate them and put them away for later in the season, or I clean them,” Beverly said, “I rinse them, I usually cut them in half, I put them in salt water for a couple of hours to get the bugs out of them, then I re-rinse them and slice them up smaller and put them on my pizza or I sauté them in butter with a little bit of salt and garlic and use them as a side dish.”

Beverly has learned quite a bit from people who contribute to the WV Wild Pickers Facebook page. Everything from how mushrooms grow, best harvesting practices, and discovering new things to harvest like wild olives. But one of the bigger discoveries is how much interest there is in wildcrafting throughout Appalachia and even throughout the world. Beverly says he’s seen interest from people in about 18 countries.

“It’s really surprising the interest was as big as it was. I never thought that the culture exists as well as it does today. People still enjoy these things,” Beverly said.