Bumper crop: Morel mushroom picking season ending

Alongside Quartz Creek Road at the Tarkio exit, a small table covered by a white canopy was set up next to a refrigerated truck. A sign with purple and pink letters reads, “Mushroom Buyer Jessica.” Jessica Cruz, along with her sons Timo, 16, and Lucas, 11, and her Asian partner simply referred to as “Q,” sit in lawn chairs - waiting for pickers to show up with baskets full of morel mushrooms.