Early morel mushrooms popping, wild weather or not

Ryan Leonard’s early bounty of morel mushrooms, complete with using the Sun-Times as the day marker. (Provided)

Ryan Leonard sent the first photos of morel mushrooms on Wednesday.

“Found this little morel in Park Ridge today,” he emailed. “Picked two more and left a few more to grow. They are just coming up. Hopefully this rain will get more popping and growing.”

On Friday, he emailed the photo above and noted, “Look what popped up after the rain this morning in Park Ridge.”

Yes, bonus points are given for using the Sun-Times as the day marker.

The morel mushroom that got the season for morel picking going for Ryan Leonard. (Provided)

MOTW, the celebration of hunting for morel mushrooms around Chicago outdoors and their stories (the stories matter, as this one shows), runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times as warranted.

To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or Instagram (@BowmanOutside).