Richard and I were busy as beavers yesterday. While I mowed the front lawn, Richard was using the chainsaw in the back. We bought/planted tomatoes and peppers and even stopped at a bunch of yard sales in Hawkesbury. We also treked to the back woods to search for morel mushrooms. The season is short, only a few weeks, and they are pretty darn elusive. Richard spied 4 tall ones in the woods but after a half hour of searching, that was all we found. On the way home, we spotted a few more, and then "here's another," and "another one!" until we had close to 3 pounds of them.Last night's supper was rib steaks on the bbq, asparagus and morels fried in butter. The rest of them have been put in the dehydrator and will be made into cream of morel soup later on. What a great day!
Once you start to see them, they pop up all over. That dinner sure sounded good...can you post a taste?
ReplyDeleteFor a moment I thought you'd discovered a motherlode of tiny sea sponges to use in your painting. (Duh!) I've never had morel mushrooms before and now I have to try them.
ReplyDeleteRonna, we have those in our front yard. Not many, but I keep noticing them, here and there. Who knew?
ReplyDeleteHmm, just a word of warning from a person who used to teach mycology. There are muchrooms called "false morels" too. Make sure you identify them correctly justjen before popping one in your mouth. Although false morels are not deadly, they don't taste good and some can make you ill.
ReplyDeleteCheck
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~gbarron/MISCELLANEOUS/morels.htm
and
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/may2002.html
Mycology Professor in a Previous Life
The big thing for IDing morels is that they are hollow on the inside.
ReplyDeleteAnd Oxbow, I have never seen a false morel around here...not to say that they aren't around, but I've never seen one. And hey, I never knew you taught mycology. Hmmm, I have lotsa questions for you now!!
And Jen, don't pop it in your mouth! Never eat a mushroom raw...always cook it (frying is delicious!!)
Of course many people eat mushrooms raw like Agaricus in salads. Here's a good ID page
ReplyDeletewww.michiganmorels.com/morels2.shtml
There were false morels in the Ithaca area--probably trying to sneak into Cornell but not good enough.
I taught mycology a long long time ago in a differnt galaxy. I wouldn't trust me anymore.
OMG! I ate a raw button mushroom last night (part of some unsavory crudité platter being passed around but I couldn't resist) - should I see my mycologist??? Do I have a mycologist?
ReplyDeleteOxbow: The false morels ARE at Cornell, but only in certain departments. You gotta know where to look.
ReplyDeleteWell, they must have sneaked into Cornell AFTER I left.
ReplyDeleteAddison, I think the raw button mushroom you ate was perfectly OK. However, I doubt you have a mycologist. In the States they tell us that you Canadians don't have any medical care at all, let alone mycological care...be afraid, be very afraid. Some of us believe that there were never very many people in Canada. But most people in the US believe that there were hundreds of millions of Canadians and that you all died from the socialized medical system. Be afraid...be very afraid...