Muscoda’s 40th Annual Morel Fest
Spring in the Driftless is a magical time. Birds return, green tree canopies begin to shroud the hills and valleys, and nature bursts with life. Spring also means the growth of the elusive but tasty Morel mushroom.
Although not the only community to hold an annual Morel festival honoring this hard-to-find delicacy, Muscoda has built up quite a festival over the past 40 years. This past Saturday proved it.
The Morel Festival was started back in 1980 by Muscoda American Legion Post 85 member Jojo Rut and his wife Ruthie. Jojo has since passed on some time ago but the festival carries on strong.
The American Legion is known for their service to the communities they are in and Post 85 is no exception. The Morel Fest is an event the Post uses as an opportunity to raise funds to give back to the community. “For Post 85, raising money through the Morel Fest is very important. We use the money to support many aspects of the community. We fly 35 flags on Main Street every year, which if you look up and down Main Street, you'll see that we sponsor all those flags and sponsor Badger Boys State, roughly one to two boys every year. We sponsor American Legion baseball in the summer for the baseball kids and pay all their insurance and umpire fees, so there is no cost to the Riverdale area kids to play baseball. We also just bought three new picnic tables for the Railroad park. So, we give back to the community,” said Post Commander Tom Nondorf who has been Commander since 2008 and had retired from the United States Army after 25 years of service. All this is in addition to their vital role in making sure Memorial Day is recognized, continues with what the American Legion is well known for.
Nondorf recognized the festival this year is a little different. The Post buys Morels for the festival each year, but this year there has been a lack of the mushrooms revered by many. “Roughly in a good year for mushrooms we'll spend $30,000 buying mushrooms. This year, we didn't even take in 140 pounds, so our numbers are going to be way down right there when we are only buying 140 pounds of mushrooms at $25 or $30 a pound. That's where you normally get $30,000 a year to sponsor this. Not only do we make back (what we spend) usually, but we are able to sponsor the festival,” Nondorf said.
The Post has a food stand each year at the festival that showcases hamburgers topped with Morels. Even the burgers have a history within the festival. Remember Jojo and Ruthie Rut that started this whole festival? Well, Ruthie still makes the hamburgers with help nowadays, in a special way that some say makes all the difference in taste.
“Jojo and Ruthie played a big role in starting the festival,” Post 85 member Ron Machotka said. “They played a big role, because if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't we wouldn't have a trailer, the grills, or anything.”
Over the years, Machotka stated that the festival has really grown, adding that the festival draws people from Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and of course from the Driftless and all over Wisconsin.
As to the shortfall of mushrooms this year, Machotka said that a lot of the people that usually hunt for them are getting older and not as agile to search the sometimes hours and large areas to find them. “I mean, there are mushrooms out there. I suppose if you look and can find them, but you got to have the time to do it. I went out the other day for three hours and I found nine,” he said with a chuckle.
He added, “So, what else can you say? A lot of people are really loyal to us and they're really happy about bringing in mushrooms to us. They come in and say ‘we know you donate things for the school, for kids playing ball and stuff for the umpires. They come in and they don't mind taking a cut because they could stand out on the corner and sell them for twice what they get from us. I just have a lot of fun. I enjoy talking to all the people and picking on them and making them believe half the stuff I say. It's just fun. I just enjoy doing it.”
Post 85 also hosts “Burgers in the Park”, a fundraiser held the last Wednesday of each month from May through October. The monthly event has seen a total annual sale of over 4000 burgers in recent years. Held at Muscoda’s Railroad Park, the burger sales also play an important role in the Post’s annual fundraising efforts.
The festival is well organized thanks to the efforts of the Morel Festival committee headed up the past several years by chairperson Linda Post. Linda said that normally the festival is a two-day event, but it was decided to shorten it to one day. “So, we brought it back this year as an outdoor festival. It's a good place for the community to come together and for people that used to live in the area to come back. We draw a large amount of people from all over from Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, really from all over. People come here looking for that elusive morel mushroom. We used to try to fill a lot more into it with tours to our Effigy Mounds which are in the area, and our wineries, but we kept it as an outdoor event and so we haven't been able to fill quite as many activities.” Post said.
Growing conditions for Morels is quite specific Post shared. “It takes warm weather, which we had two weeks ago. We had warm weather, but we've had a lack of moisture. And those are the two things that bring up the morels. So, this year we had warm weather two weeks ago, followed by nights of freezing temperatures which kind of put the kibosh on the morels, but we did have some that were cooked and sold by the American Legion. We also take this as a chance to feature some of our local food vendors. We have The Kitchen Cupboard; we have Spurgeon wines which we have two wineries in the area, and we have Meister Cheese, and then we have a local Uncle Buck's Maple Syrup. It's just a great day to come out and gather with the community.”
In addition to other vendors and a few activities for children, the festival also hosts a parade and fireworks. “We have a parade yet this afternoon at three o'clock. And then that's followed by our Volunteer Fireman steak feed, and then we have fireworks at the end of the evening.”
Vendors at the festival seemed to be faring well. But one vendor, Clever Endeavors, stood out due to their unique artwork centered on the elusive mushroom.
Hailing from Godfrey, Illinois, Steve and Sherry Kirbach travel all over the mid-west attending Morel mushroom events. Using rocks, Steve creates art that looks like morels. Steve uses Botryoidal Quartz crystal druse on Lace agate on a Alge fossil coral bed to make his creations. So how did he get this idea? Well…, “About 30 years ago, my husband was sitting with a buddy on a beach on a creek, and he picked up two rocks and put them together. His buddy said 'looks like you got something there', and then we got together and I wanted to go do an Earth Day festival with my necklaces and bracelets. I said 'just put some of those rocks together', and they sold. I didn't sell necklaces or bracelets so I said, ‘just keep going with it’. Then we found out that there was a mushroom Festival at Pere Marquette State Park in Grafton, Illinois and we decided that we would try it. So, he made up a few more up. We kind of did a little research about different morel mushroom festivals because he had this thing, people loved them. We ran into a gentleman at the Stark County Mushroom Festival and he said you guys need to come here (Muscoda).”
The Kirbachs have 15 acres in Washington County, Missouri where they source their rocks. “You can't stick a shovel in the ground anywhere without hitting rocks. So, when it rains, we get rocks. When we bought it (the land), it was covered, we had cleared the leaves and raked, and we found these rocks on our property. It was just unbelievable.” You can only trip over so many times before you pick them up and do something with them right? This is our third time, and we'll be back,” Sherry said.
On a side note, I would be remiss if not mention the way us Wisconsinites roll. So, I was visiting a magnet artist vendor named Candis Murphy after conducting my interviews for this story. Candis’ work highlighted the Morel mushroom. After selecting a few magnets at my wife’s request, I gave my debit card to her. For some reason she could not get her phone to process my payment. After several attempts, she said, “you know, this is my fault, so just take the magnets free of charge.” I said I could not accept them but she insisted. So, I obliged. In return I told her I would make her famous by including her in my story.
This was my first time to a Morel mushroom festival. The sense of continued service by the members of American Legion Post 85 and the community of Muscoda, are just a sliver of what makes the Driftless region of Wisconsin so special.
