A Chef's Guide to Michigan's Spring Foraging Season

Spring is the season every Michigan wild-foods forager and chef waits for. It's also the shortest and least predictable, which makes planning around it more important than any other point in the year.

What comes up in spring

Morels are the headline item, typically fruiting from late April into early June depending on that year's weather, with warmer soil temperatures and recent rain triggering the flush. Ramps, fiddlehead ferns, and early spring greens round out the season, though morels remain the item most restaurants build a spring menu feature around.

Why spring requires the earliest planning

Because the spring wild-mushroom window is measured in weeks, not months, restaurants that want fresh morels for a specific menu window need to have that request in with a supplier well before spring arrives — realistically, during the previous fall or winter. Waiting until morels are already fruiting means competing with every other buyer and forager for whatever's left.

A shoulder-season option

For restaurants that miss the fresh window, or want morel flavor available for longer than a few spring weeks, dried morels from the previous season extend that flavor into early summer menus without requiring fresh product to still be available.