Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, people have gotten creative with how they spend their extra free time.
Some have tried their hand at learning to play an instrument, others started DIY projects at home.
And some took up mushroom hunting.
There’s a surprising up-tick in the number of people hunting for mushrooms amid the pandemic -- and the long-time mushroom hunters are not surprised.
The members-only Michigan Mushroom Hunters club, based out of Commerce Township, puts on between 30-50 hunts every year. Club president Lenny Tomaszewski says the group saw a huge boost as people were looking for something new to get into during the pandemic.
Many people are specifically looking for morel mushrooms, which come up in the spring. They’re a delicatessen in the gourmet mushroom world, but they are hard to find.
“40-90 percent of our members are only interested in morels,” Tomaszewski said. “And even if you don’t find morels, which happens from time to time, it’s still a blast.”
There are thousands of mushrooms to be found in Michigan, but some of them are toxic -- so there is training that occurs before the hunt.
Though the Michigan Mushroom Hunters club is members-only, there are others that are open to anybody.
See the full report in the video above.
Related: Where Michigan ranks among states, according to Americans (better than Ohio)