Despite living in the Ozarks going on two decades, Dan Liles still considers himself new to the area, mainly because he hasn’t found a good morel patch.
“People take their morel locations to the grave with them,” Liles said, joking. “They’ll turn their mother in before they give up their morel sites.”
Liles was just a “city guy” from Kentucky when he moved to Missouri, with no knowledge of the fungi that causes such a stir in the region. Liles now works as an administrative assistant at Springfield Conservation Nature Center, and he said he jumped on the mushroom train for the added health benefits of eating them.