It seems simple enough. Go out to the woods, pick a wild mushroom or a dozen, bring them home and fry those puppies up.
That is pretty simple if you know what you're looking for. Lots of mushrooms are user friendly, but others will kill you.
Enter Garry Vaught, owner of Beks restaurant and an organizer of Fulton's Morels and Microbrews festival. In its fifth year, this year's event is planned April 29.
"We already have 300 pounds of mushrooms secured," he said Friday while on a boar-hunting trip near Laredo, Texas. "We have over double what we had last year."
If anyone is a morel hunter and would like to sell their mushrooms to event organizers, they can call Vaught to get them inspected.
"I am a certified inspector," he said. "To sell them legally, you have to have someone that's certified inspect them."
Even among morels, there are several varieties.
"Stay away from those that have gills; they have gills up underneath," Vaught said. "If you don't know, do not pick."
To help clarify, the Missouri Department of Conservation has information on various websites, including nature.mdc.mo.gov. You can even watch a toe-tapping video of a past event at morelsandmicrobrews.com.
The morel mushroom season is short - just a scant couple weeks every spring. Communities across the country have festivals every year; for example, Boyne City, Michigan has had their National Morel Mushroom Festival for 55 years. Mesick, Michigan's 58th annual morel mushroom festival beats even that. Other celebrations can be found in Wisconsin, Kentucky and Illinois - just about anywhere woodsy enough for a foxy morel to grow.
Why are morels so venerated? Because of the way they taste, Vaught said.
"They have more of a nuttier flavor with delicate tones," he added. "They're a delicacy and very nice. I like to sautee them and put them on a pizza."
The Fulton festival will open with ticket sales and mushroom cooking at 11 a.m., and microbrews will begin to flow at 1 p.m. Beer drinkers must be 21 yrs old, and the $20 price tag includes a commemorative glass.
Food will be provided by the Fulton VFW, MoJo's BBQ, Grill-a-Brothers and Gator Wagon.
At last year's festival, several thousand people came, far more than expected. Lines were long and mushrooms ran out quickly. This year, organizers are planning for the extra people.
"We'll have more lines, Vaught said. "More friers. We didn't expect the 2,000 people that came last year."
Live music will be provided by the Ravine Street Ramblers and the Kay Brothers. A 3 p.m. mushroom hunt for kids aged 8 and under will be on the Callaway County Courthouse lawn. This event is sponsored by Central Bank.
Morels will be sold raw and fried. The event concludes with a morel auction, the proceeds of which benefit the Brick District Association.