Morels

Hidden treasure awaits,

Come, take a peek,

Don't tempt the fates

By resisting temptation to seek.

Where find this treasure?

You certainly will ask,

And I with pleasure

Am equal to the task,

As into the forest we trek.

From damp floor to mossy tree,

Our eyes blur as we continually inspect

Amongst leaves, the certain lee,

For certain characteristic wrinkle,

Soft, moist, smelling earthen,
Nurtured by rain's sprinkle,

Sun's warmth the grounds unburthen.

Stooping, we carefully pluck,

Not disturbing a single asci cell,

Counting the bounty of our luck,

The delectable, edible, precious morel.

@ vegiemama of Home-N-Vegie-Blog

Slippery.....Sticky.......Who?

Our yard is yielding an abundant crop of Suillus luteus and Suillus granulatus this fall. The easier to pronounce moniker is slippery Jack mushrooms. They are one of the last edible fungi to be found in the fall, along with Calvatia gigantea, the giant puffball. (This one pales in comparison with the size of the one we're trying to nibble our way thru right now, LOL.)

Anyway, a couple of days ago, ds6 came running in the house hollering for me to come look. He'd found a smallish cluster of slippery Jacks but he couldn't remember the name, so he wanted me to come see the "Sticky Joes" he'd found! ROFL, well, he was close! Now every time he's out in the yard, he has to pick the ones he finds and bring them in. Really, I'm tired of eating them darling. You may leave them in the yard, LOL.

What we find around Our HOME

Every spring we are blessed by the bounty of the earth. We enjoy a harvest of morel mushrooms from our yard every spring. This was 2007's haul, including the largest mushroom which was found by DS (then 5). It was the first mushroom he found all by himself. This year his eyes proved to be even sharper than they were last year!

3 More!

Just when I thought morel season was over--I found 3 more. Two were very nice sized--a bit dry, but a debugging soak took care of that. I'll be out looking again tomorrow, since we've had such a strange season and we're finally getting some warmer weather. You never know what'll pop out of the ground unexpectedly ;-) Oh, and what did I do with the 3 treasures? They made a delicious mushroom topping for homemade vegie burgers :-)

Morel harvest

We harvested our morels on Sunday. It's been a slow year for them because of the chillier than usual temps this month of May! Still, we got 21 mushrooms, and most of them were a nice size. When it was warm, they grew! They made a delicious side dish to our dinner (asparagus quiche) and we're already looking forward with relish to next year's morel season!

My yard smells so good!

I wish trees bloomed all summer! Spring smells so good. The crabapples are in full bloom, the lilacs are just sprouting out, and I have no idea what the other trees are (they're in neighbor's yards) but they just smell GOOD! Makes being in the yard a total pleasure. And speaking of being in the yard, I picked the first 3 morel mushrooms today! I didn't want them to go bad on me. I'll probably pick more tomorrow. We're up to 19 so far. Yummy!!!

Morel Math

6+10=16. Yippee!!! Even tho it's cold, they're popping up and growing. DS6 is the eagle-eyed boy--he spotted two all by himself, and they were small and not very visible! The first ones we spotted are getting close to picking size--they'll be small picks but as cold as it is, they're not going to grow very much bigger and still be good to eat.

And in our yard...

We now have 6 morel mushrooms. 6 morels! Yippee. If we had some warm weather, we'd have more than that. Our neighbor has 28 marked in his yard, so I'm hoping ours will catch up, and soon!

No Fair!!!

Grrrrr. My neighbor has 18 little flags in his backyard. Those flags mark the position of 18 morel mushrooms that popped their wrinkled little heads thru the soil! Are there any morels visible in my yard???? Nope! Zip! Zero! Zilch! Nada! No fair! *sigh* Maybe someday today I'll find some. A girl can dream, can't she?

Where are my morel mushrooms????

I'm officially jealous. The neighbor's yard has 2 (teensy tiny) morel mushrooms in it. I have none. Waaaaah, this is no fair! (That picture is from a couple of years ago--just wanted you to see what they look like.) Maybe today?????

Bounty from our yard

A close look reveals 3 morel mushrooms growing close together. They were actually 3 of the 29 we harvested from our yard, with more to come!
The bounty spread out to be viewed by all.
My little man was absolutely CHUFFED because he found his very first morel mushroom by himself, before anyone else spotted it! And it was the biggest one we harvested. (They grow pretty fast!)

If you don't know what a morel mushroom is...well...you just haven't lived! They grow in just about every state, in the spring. They're elusive and hard to find, but oooooh so worth the time spent searching. (I saw that they're selling for $24.95 a pound this season--our dinner last night was gold-plated, LOL!)

You can see more info about morels here.