It's a bumper crop year for morels - and that could mean the best Morels and Microwbrews yet.
The seventh annual Fulton festival dedicated to celebrating Missouri's finest fungi is scheduled 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.
"Preparation is going very well, better than any years past," said Garry Vaught, owner of Beks and the festival's head organizer. "We have more breweries than we've ever had, two wineries, one distillery. We have a few more food trucks available."
And the morels are flooding into Fulton by the day, he said.
"I'm going to pick up 200 pounds of fresh Missouri morels in the morning," Vaught said.
Nearly 1,000 pounds of morels will be available for purchase at the event. Fresh morels are going for $60 per pound (or $100 for 2 pounds). Fried morels cost $15 a basket; cream of morel soup is $5. A commemorative glass to sample the wares of the about 40 breweries will be $20.
After last year's supply chain problems led to morel shortages at the 2018 festival, Vaught has switched to a different morel provider, he said.
"We're using a gentleman out of Kansas," he said. "I bought from him two years ago, when we had the rain, and he sold me probably 150 pounds that year."
Craft vendors and food trucks have been rearranged this year to allow for better crowd flow, he added. There's live music, too - local favorites The Kay Brothers are opening at 11 a.m., followed by The Fried Crawdaddies at 1:30 p.m. Children can hunt mushrooms on the courthouse lawn at 1 p.m.
Festival regulars may remember last year's drama when Vaught's large wooden morel statue was stolen during the event, later turning up in a ditch. Precautions will be taken this year, he said.
"Because of lack of volunteers to have someone stand there all day. We do have a cardboard cutout of a (Buckingham Palace) guard, and we'll have it propped up right next to the statue, with a rope around it," he explained.
As of Monday, the National Weather Service was predicting a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms for Saturday.