field note
Wild morel
A morel found growing on the farm in mid-May 2023. Guchhi — prized across the Garhwal hills — fruit briefly at this altitude when the soil is still damp from snowmelt.
· Sameer Jain · 1 min read
Mid-May, and the grass was still wet from the night before. This one turned up near the lower terraces — a guchhi, the morel that Garhwali households dry and sell at prices that would surprise most city kitchens.
They fruit once a year, for a few weeks at most, when the temperature and moisture are exactly right. By the time you think to look for them, the best ones are already past. This cap had started to dry at the edges.
We have been planning to cultivate morels here deliberately. Finding one growing wild tells us the soil already carries what it needs.