'Mushroom Lady' racing to fill morel orders.

Publication: Omaha World-Herald (Omaha, NE)

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COPYRIGHT 2007 Omaha World-Herald

Byline: Paul Hammel

May 7--ST. LIBORY, Neb. -- The "Mushroom Lady" is singing the blues.

This spring's cold snap has, so far, depressed the morel mushroom crop in Nebraska, and Nancy Hill has been wheeling her Ford van across the state in a scramble to locate private pickers who've found the delicacy.

But the haul at her network of buying stations, from Elm Creek to Columbus to Crofton, so far has been light.

"It's the craziest year I've ever had in Nebraska," said Hill, 61, of La Crescent, Minn., during a stop at Helgoth's Roadside Market north of Grand Island, one of her buying stations.

In the monthlong season when morels pop up on moist forest ground, Hill gathers upward of 20,000 pounds of mushrooms, mostly in Nebraska and Minnesota, shipping them to grocery stores and farmers markets around the country.

"Last year, I made $2.42 a pound (profit) and collected 20,000...

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