Franklin Plummer finds fungi fascinating, not fearful.
In the tradition of his ancestors who taught him how to pick them, Plummer is a connoisseur of what most people are afraid of—wildmushrooms.
And yet, the 76-year-old former coal miner claims to understand the delicate art of identifying the edible fleshy fungi growing in the woods around his home in Daniels.
“You can actually hear the leaves rattle as they come up,” Plummer teases. “They appear overnight in some places.”
Plummer refers to these strange woodland products as “mollie moochers.” He’s gathered up to 100 of the mushrooms in a single day, he says.
“There’s nothing better than mollie moochers in spring,” chimes the stocky, articulate woodsman, taking a platter of spongy fungi from his refrigerator. “Most people like them fried, and I generally fry them in butter.”
Plummer notes the short-lived growing season for the elusive mushrooms normally is from April until June.
The mushrooms, stalked with a pitted, spongy, rounded, or conical head, vary in color from tan to brown or gray, and seem to grow most abundantly in decaying vegetable matter and are sometimes hidden under leaves and moss.
Plummer says he dries some of the dainties just like “leather-britches” or half-runner beans, puts them in plastic bags, and stores them in his freezer.
“I take them out and soak them in water and they come back to almost their original size.”
Mollie moochers—belonging to a group of edible mushrooms sometimes called “dry land fish” or “haystacks” by those who eat them—grow abundantly in temperate mountainous regions, according to Plummer.
And they are found along stream banks and in open woods.
“Most mollie moocher hunters are quite secretive about their gathering sites for the mushrooms,” the inveterate outdoorsmanmaintains. “We’re usually reluctant to take a newcomer to our favorite patch.”
Years ago, area mushroom enthusiasts struggled in their efforts to cultivate mollie moochers successfully.
Now that has changed. “You can buy a kit from some country magazines that promise you great success at growing the mushrooms right at your home,” says the fungi enthusiast.
Still, the energetic woodsman prefers to collect his edible treasures the hard way, scavenging for the delicate morels (those with brownish, sponge-like caps on them) while spring gobbler hunting in the rough, mountainous terrain along strip jobs, or while hiking the hills along the New River Gorge.
His hard-won bounty ranges from about thumb-size to nearly four inches tall.
“The morel is the Cadillac of the wild mushrooms,” Plummer observes. “They are the best. Anyone who likes regular store-bought mushrooms would love morels because they have an oyster-like taste that’s simply out of this world.”
Plummer, an avid turkey hunter, says a good place to find the mushrooms is on the north side of the hill, or in other shady areas of the woods.
“On a rich flat of a slope is another dandy place for the mushrooms,” he adds. “Mollie moochers usually grow where there’s a lot of poplar timber, and especially in old, abandoned apple orchards.”
The mollie moocher season usually starts earlier in the lower valleys, along the river bottoms, about the first week in April. In the higher elevations, the season runs from the last week in April to about the middle of May.
Plummer is comfortable dining on the fungi, but he’s cautious when it comes to handing out advice on the wild foods of the forest.
“Unless I can positively identify the mushroom as edible, I don’t fool with it,” he says.
“I don’t even pick it unless I know it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Plummer pursues fungi with passion and he’s an old head when it comes to harvesting mushrooms in the wild. The man says “mollie moochers” are a popular mountain delicacy that dates back hundreds of years.
Careful not to confuse the edible morel mushrooms with poisonous varieties, Plummer prefers the conical-shaped dainties powdered with cornmeal, flour and pepper and fried in butter. “They are good with steak or just by themselves,” he observes. “They’re tasty even with a good fat hamburger…” Â
“Many mushrooms are poisonous. I never touch the large white ones growing on logs and other woodland debris. Some are as deadly as a rattlesnake.”
Plummer recalls hearing his elders call certain wild mushrooms “death cups” and “destroying angels” because of their fatal effects. “You have to be careful,” he warns. “You can’t fool around with mushrooms.”
Even so, the mollie moocher variety is considered a delicacy by many mushroom gourmets, according to Plummer, who points out that the fungi belongs to the species of “Morchella,” all of which are “edible and safe.”
Plummer even recommends several books on mushrooms, including Audubon’s Field Guide to Mushrooms and Peterson’s Field Guide to Mushrooms, both of which can be purchased at area bookstores.
He says the morels, coated with bacon grease or butter, taste best when they’re fried until golden brown.
“When we fix them, they take the place of fish or meat,” Plummer says with a grin. “I’ve fixed three pans full of them for one meal and have watched them disappear.
“If they were as easy to find as ramps, they’d even be more popular.
“And they don’t stink nearly as bad.”
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Top o’ the morning!