Mushroom Madness

   Here they are! Morels.

We went shroom hunting on Sunday. It was really nice out, sunny and somewhat calm. And, wet. Great mushroom weather. After scavenging the woods for a few hours we ended up with lots of different mushrooms, including the morels.
   Now correct me if I'm wrong, but in the picture above, on the left is the black morel, middle is half-free morel, and right is blonde morel. We found about 1 1/3 pound of the half-free all in one area near a dead oak tree. We also found these little guys...






Marty researching different shrooms

   If we aren't sure what they are, we SURE don't eat them. We looked up and learned about three or four different kinds that we didn't put on the plate. Here's one that we do know and it is okay to eat, tasting a little like watermelon but kinda tough...


Dryad's Saddle (this one is too old already tho)

   We had a great time, just walking slowly around, heads down, waiting for the big find. It is so much fun! I get the giggles every time I find one. Like a treasure hunt. The black morels were on higher ground and not all in one spot, very difficult to see as they look somewhat like nuts that squirrels have chomped open. The blonde morels were in one area around a dead elm that Marty had put some micro-rhyz...whatever...bacteria around earlier in the season. We might check around that tree again later.
   Usually we don't find that many morels in our woods. And, we have NEVER found all three kinds at one time. That is unusual in that the blondes are usually a week later (being born blonde myself I won't mention the blonde joke that goes with that comment). The dryad's saddles come out all throughout the summer after rains but are only really good when they are a creamy white after they first come out. Otherwise they are a bit tought to naw on.
   We brought our treats back to the house and fixed this delicious spring meal.

   Clockwise around...one o'clock is the blonde morel, half-free morel, asparagus, black morel, and YES! fiddleheads at 10 o'clock. With a (in the middle) delicious corn bread stuffing cake and drizzled with some kind of fancy sauce that my great cook of a husband Marty dreamed up.
   Contrary to what SOME people believe - we DO NOT sell everything we grow and harvest. Some things are just tooooo valuable and tasty to give away at any price. The morels and fiddleheads are two of those items. Maybe, just maybe, someday in the future, on a day when you catch us in a good mood, we might, just might, sell some of the morels and fiddleheads. But, only after we get ours first!