A small, but committed, number of area residents have recently spent hours scouring the woods. Some have been successful in their hunt.

Many of the hunters, however, end up with only torn clothing, scratched limbs, cockleburs and ticks, instead of the treasure they are seeking.

The prize: morel mushrooms.

“This is one of the most prized ingredients in the world,” said Matt Zigich, a Mankato resident and chef at the Mankato Golf Club.

“I’ve always been intrigued with morels because I’m a chef and they are luxurious,” Zigich said, describing the 1- to 6-inch fungus, which resembles a sponge and appears in shades of yellow to gray.

Scott Starrett of Delavan agrees. “They are the best things on the planet,” he said. “There’s nothing I’d rather eat than morels.”

“This is a weird year — they are hard to find,” Starrett said. “It reminds me of an Easter egg hunt.”

In an unusual attempt to find morel mushrooms, Starrett has published an ad in Home Magazine offering to pay land owners to hunt on their property. But this approach, which he has used for the last three years, isn’t always successful. Last year, Starrett said, he paid one woman $25 to search on her property only to find three small mushrooms.

“I grew up in Mankato and got into it in my teenage years. The first time, in the early 1980s, was fantastic. We found sacks full of them. It was so great there were more than we could eat, so we dried a bunch of them,” he said.

Like every morel hunter, Starrett has tales of his early forays. “I don’t know what I was thinking, but I was walking through the thickets with shorts. I was just shredded. I looked like a zombie.”

For some ‘shroomers, the goal is a delicious meal, for others it is the adventure.

For Minnesota State University student Alaine Olthafer, it is the camaraderie. “It’s a fun thing. I enjoy hunting morels with my family and friends more than anything.”

A Wisconsin native, Olthafer said hunting morels is more popular in her home state where there are numerous festivals dedicated to the mushroom. “A lot of people around here wonder what the heck you are talking about,” she said.

Eric Griswold of Mankato enjoys the adventure. “It gives me something to do on my day off.” He admits though, that the hunt typically leaves him “with a couple of ticks and scratches here and there.”

Although he doesn’t like other mushrooms, Griswold said he does like morels. He uses them on hamburgers with Swiss cheese and on grilled steaks. Most people simply sautee the mushrooms in butter with salt and pepper. Others use an egg and milk dip and then roll them in flour before sautéing.