Morel Mania

Morel Mania, Inc is owned and operated by Tom and Vicky Nauman of Magnolia, Illinois

Our interest in mushrooms goes back many years to a time that neither of us can remember. I'm sure it was some member(s) of our families who let us accompany them on a morel hunt and we must have found some or it wouldn't have held our interest as long as it has. The taste of the morels also helped hold our interest! Thereafter, morel hunting became a perennial adventure to be enjoyed with anyone who had the "mania."

The years went by and our knowledge of how and where to find morels increased. But the more we discovered, the more we wanted to know--not just about morels but all mushrooms. Until one day in late 1992 (a true morel maniac thinks about them year-round) it struck us that there must be thousands of 'shroomers out there that were starving for more (and accurate) information.

Our quest had begun. We started our company appropriately named Morel Mania. We began by creating mushroom products and finding mushroom books to sell. And we read every word on every page of every book. Being in the business gave us an excuse to travel and meet mushroom experts and capture some of their knowledge. We don't consider ourselves mushroom experts. Knowledgeable, yes. Experts, no. If we are experts at anything it is finding morel mushrooms. But, we're still learning and there's so much to know.

In 1996 we started the Illinois State Morel Mushroom Hunting Championship with a lot of help from friends and family. It is now a major mushroom event held annually on the first Saturday of May. The Village of Magnolia, Illinois is the host for the Spongy Fungi Festival held at the same time.

We also helped start the Mid-America Morel Mushroom Festival in the spring of 1997. We still sponsor the event and help in anyway we can, but have turned the logistics of running the festival over to our friends, Ron & Deb Charles & Family.

We continue to add new products to our catalog as we discover them and as our budget allows it.

We display our products at mushroom festivals, outdoor shows, and craft shows.

Our emphasis continues to focus on learning as much as possible and teaching as many as want to learn.

Here's the text from a story about us from the Peoria Journal Star:

JOURNAL STAR Sunday, March 12, 2001 MOREL BUILDER --

A MAGNOLIA MAN'S HAND-CARVED MUSHROOM ACCESSORIES ARE SURE TO INSPIRE HUNTERS MAGNOLIA - Tom Nauman is an outfitter for mushroom hunters. That's the way he describes his small company, Morel Mania, which he runs out of his home in rural Magnolia with his wife, Vicky.

Everything a mushroom hunter could ever desire can be found in the company's 16 colorful pages of catalog merchandise. Naturally, there are the essentials: morel decoys for attracting mushrooms to your yard, specially made knives for cutting them and mesh bags for carrying them out of the woods. But for he hard-core mushroom hunter there is much more - mushroom Tshirts, hats, cutting boards, note cards, posters, pull chains, jewelry, afghans, books, key rings and plaques.

Lifelong morel mushroom enthusiasts, the Naumans got the idea for the company after seeing a hiking stick topped with a decoratively carved morel. Thinking he could do a better job, Nauman began carving sticks for fun about nine years ago. It gradually became a part-time business. Then in October of 1999, Nauman quit a high-paying job as a salesman in a printing business to turn his full attention to Morel Mania. His wife continues her job at Wayne Printing Company in Peoria.

''We all laughed at him when he started doing it full time,'' said Nauman's 81-year-old father, Leroy. ''I never thought it would amount to anything. But I have since apologized to him.'' Morel Mania is now the world's largest supplier of morel mushroom products, according to the company's Web site (morelmania.com). His hiking sticks, called Shroom Sticks, and morel decoys are at the heart of the company's business. Nauman makes those items in his heated workshop behind his home. His brother, Dave, makes the mushroom cutting boards.

''Last year I sold 800 hiking sticks (at $40 apiece),'' the 50-year-old artisan said. ''This year I expect to sell 1,000. Running this business takes a lot of time, but I don't consider it work. I'm my own boss.'' And there is no long commute. He only has to walk 200 feet to his shop. The company's busiest times are the months before Christmas and in the spring when the prized fungi pop through the ground. ''When it really gets busy, I have spent 16-hour days in my shop,'' Nauman said.

On most days, he works in a cloud of sawdust and smoke with only his dog, Max, by his side. Using a high-speed engraving tool, Nauman can turn a piece of pine into a mouth-watering morel in a matter of minutes. There was a time when Nauman would cut trees (hickory, sassafras or dogwood) from timber around his home and air dry the lumber for a couple of years so he could use it to make his hiking sticks. The hiking stick and morel top were then carved as one piece.

As Shroom Stick orders began stacking up, he had to find a faster way. He now buys his walking sticks from a company in Missouri and makes only the morel top, which he fastens to the stick with dowel pin and glue. After cleaning off the sawdust, Nauman adds two coats of varnish to weatherize his man-made morels. And to keep mushroom hunters going in the right direction, Nauman inserts a compass in some hiking sticks.

''Tom's the master at this,'' said fellow morel carver Bob Platt of Varna. ''His detail is 100 percent perfect. They look so real that if you set Tom's morels by a stump in the yard, someone's going to come along, bend down and pick them.''

Nauman's morels come in yellow, black and white. Those that don't grace walking sticks are sold as morel decoys for $10 apiece. The carver doesn't have any solid data on their effectiveness at attracting live morels. But sales are up. Also available are mounted carvings of one, two and three mushrooms nestled in artificial grass on a base of walnut or cherry ($15 for single, $25 for double and $35 for triple).

Even better than carving mushrooms is hunting them. With the first sighting of morels, Nauman is heading south. From April to late May, he moves with the mushrooms, starting in southern Illinois and eventually ending in northern Michigan. On the Morel Mania Web site, mushroom hunters can report when and where mushrooms are first seen. As Nauman makes his mushroom pilgrimage, he attends morel festivals, outdoor fairs and craft shows selling his wares.

In 1996, the Naumans, with help from family, friends and the village of Magnolia, started the Illinois State Morel Mushroom Hunting Championships and Spongy Fungi Festival. The events are scheduled this year for 7 to 10 p.m. May 4 and 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. May 5 in the village. The festival includes cooking demonstrations, auctions, a petting zoo and food.

As for the hunt, contestants have two hours to gather as many morels as they can, and the person who gathers the most is crowned the grand champion. Last year, 15 school buses carried some 688 mushroom hunters to secret hunting sites in the Magnolia area.

The Naumans credit the mushroom hunting championship and their Web page for their growing business.''We have a mailing list of 7,000, and I get 10 requests for catalogs a day,'' Nauman said. ''Our sales were up 20 percent last year.''

As Nauman is fond of saying, the business is mushrooming.

CAPTION: A hand-carved morel mushroom arrangement by Tom Nuaman. His business. Morel Mania, also sells morel pins, magnets and key chains.

CAPTION: Tom Nauman carves wooden morel mushrooms in his backyard workshop in rural Magnolia. Nauman took his hobby of hunting mushrooms and turned it into a successful business, Morel Mania.

CAPTION: The letters T and J--visible at lower center--are found in all of Nauman's mushrooms. The letters are the initials of his first and middle names. He doesn't use N for his last name because it it difficult to make and can't be concealed as well inside the morels' patterns.

CAPTION: Shroom Sticks are the most popular items sold by Morel Mania. A hand-carved morelmushroom arrangement by Tom Nuaman. His business. Morel Mania, also sells morel pins, magnets and key chains.

CAPTION: Tom Nauman carves wooden morel mushrooms in his backyard workshop in rural Magnolia. Nauman took his hobby of hunting mushrooms and turned it into a successful business, Morel Mania.

CAPTION: The letters T and J--visible at lower center--are found in all of Nauman's mushrooms. The letters are the initials of his first and middle names. He doesn't use N for his last name because it it difficult to make and can't be concealed as well inside the morels' patterns.

CAPTION: Shroom Sticks are the most popular items sold by Morel Mania.

Updated 03/03