All this time off our normal routines gave some of us more time to do important things, like go morel hunting.

Rainy days and warmer weather prompted this year’s crop to emerge in early April, according to local hunters’ date reports.

Holli Bruce found her first on April 2, then more on the 6th and 14th in the Lake Lemon area. “I haven’t had a day off work since, but I’m hoping to find more soon,” she wrote in an email to The Democrat on April 22. “In all, I have found about 30 at this point. Very challenging (and lucky) to have even caught a glimpse of these little guys, as they were tiny and very well hidden in the leaves.”

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