Mark just sent me this photo. He spotted this morel mushroom on a walk today. Morels are a gourmet mushroom that appear elusively for a very short time in spring. Those who hunt morels keep the location of their hunting grounds top secret, so...mum's the word here. The mushrooms are delicious cooked fresh but can also be dried to use later. Guess what we'll be doing this weekend?!!
Katie went on her first morel hunt when she was five - John was napping. When you pick a mushroom, you drop it into a mesh bag (like the ones potatoes come in) so that they shake gently as you walk, releasing the spores back onto the forest floor to grow more next year. Sometimes they're easy to find, standing right out in the middle of a clearing (bottom-ish center of photo):
But more often, they are hiding behind downed/rotten pieces of tree (right in the middle of photo):
One year, my mother-in-law gave me a bag of dried morels for my birthday and I've been very stingy with them as I was unsure when we would find more. I guess it's time to bring out the birthday bag and re-constitute the 'shrooms!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment - thank you!