Sunday, May 31, 2015

Why are Michigan restaurants flying morel mushrooms in from Oregon?

Why are Michigan restaurants flying morel mushrooms in from Oregon? - Crain's Detroit Business:
"Last year, at the annual morel mushroom festival in Mesick, a little south of Traverse City, they had to fly in morels from Oregon so the festival could live up to its name.
Trattoria Stella, arguably the best restaurant in Traverse City, had morel-themed specials on the menu this May, as did every fine-dining restaurant in northern Michigan.
Most customers at Stella probably didn’t know the morels they were eating had been flown in from Oregon, too, despite the fact that the woods for miles around were filling with mushroom hunters gathering up huge quantities of those wonderfully tasty ’shrooms.
And that every motel in the area was filled, many of them with signs out front saying: “Welcome, mushroom hunters.”
The mushrooms had been flown in despite the fact that Stella’s owners pride themselves on being able to tell patrons which local farms,
or corners of which local farms, produce the various elements on the menu.
...Foraging is a way of life up north.
The same folks selling morels sell wild ramps in May, raspberries in July and blackberries in August.
Great for them, great for area restaurants, great for diners.
But not so great for the bureaucrats.
For years, the state has had a law on the books requiring mushroom sellers to be certified, but it was never enforced. 
Until last year, that is, when the bureaucrats, for whom leaving well enough alone is anathema, interceded.
They began calling on restaurants and organizers of mushroom festivals and telling them they could buy only from certified mushroom sellers.
And the restaurants and festivals began telling their long-time providers that they needed to get certified, or they couldn’t do business.
Okay, said the foragers.
What do I do?
Where do I go?
How much does it cost?
Here’s where it gets Kafkaesque: 
The state required certification, but there was no process in place. 
There was literally no way to get certified. 
It was an impossibility.
So, other states that had processes for certification began shipping their morels to Michigan.

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