As our journey into spring accelerates we should, hopefully, be seeing morels in about a week or so. What's the best way to get them home basket or a mesh bag? My preference goes to the mesh bag. My logic is that when I go into the woods I carry a walking stick, wear a fanny pack which holds, among other things, a GPS to mark the good spots, a sharp knife to cut mushrooms and cell phone so my wife won't worry about me when I'm gone for hours at a time. Loaded down this all of this stuff and perhaps a water bottle I don't want to carry a basket. If the morels are nonexistent then you may not even need the basket so a mesh bag can stay rolled up in the fanny pack. Now you can buy mesh bags at some sporting goods stores but I suggest that you stop by your friendly and helpful local hardware store and purchase an onion bag. They are usually orange, red or purple so it's easy to keep track of. in the woods.
I have, at home, an unfailing indicator of when the April cold snap will occur. My magnolia tree is a reliable predictor of the destroying frost, freeze, ice storm and onion snow. As soon as the buds swell and the blossoms open they get zapped.
When my apple trees blossom then it time to get serious about searching for morels.
When will I see my first morels? I like to see asparagus spears poking out of the ground in my garden and blossoms on the apple trees. I think we have adequate soil moisture this year. Now I'm waiting for the ground to warm up a bit. Check out these two maps. http://morelmushroomhunting.com/morel_progression_sightings_map.htm and http://www.witmersfeed3.com/index.cfm?show=1&map=soiltemperatures
It's hard to come up with material for this blog during the months that mushrooms are not readily available. But there are tales of mushroom adventures past.
Sunday, while the bitter wind was rattling the doors and windows, I was preparing dinner for the family. Breaded pork chops, mixed vegetables and my latest chicken mushroom creation.
As with a lot of my recipes this one is pretty much off the cuff with what materials are at hand. Here's what I did: I took a package of chicken mushrooms from the freezer and added to that an almost equal amount of cubed potatoes. Then I added a half of a can of chicken broth, seasoned salt, and pepper and home made paprika. I let that simmer for awhile until the broth cooked down then I added the other half of the can of chicken broth and let it simmer for a bit. Finally I added a bit of dehydrated sheepshead mushroom flour to thicken the mixture. The mushrooms were tender, the flavors well blended and taste was pretty good.
Now there is a good story on how we obtained this particular batch of chicken mushrooms. We had gone up to Butler to take my son to an event. To pass the time we took a ride out towards the monastery near Butler to visit a former pastor for our church. While we were driving I spotted a huge cluster of chicken mushrooms on a tree. I yelled to my wife to "stop the car!" The car screeches to a halt, she slams it into reverse and I hop out the car to get to the mushrooms. Just as I'm about to scale the guardrail I stop cold the mushroom is surrounded by poison ivy. My wife yells to me "What's the matter?" "Poison ivy. It's everywhere. Just forget it." "No, no it's way too nice to just leave there. Pick it! "But there's poison ivy everywhere." "Just pick it." Sigh… Over the rail I go carefully treading my way to the tree and gingerly removing the bulk of the mushroom and placing it in a box in the back of the station wagon.
Even though I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt I didn't get any poison ivy and I am allergic to it. Go figure.
No it's not the first robin or the fuzzy cats that are appearing on the tips of the branches of my aspen tree. It's not even the activities of the club's officers as they prepare for meetings and walks. Onion sets as well as seed have arrived in the store and they are beginning to elbow the tools of winter out of the way. Some folks start their onions in egg cartons and then transplant them into hot beds in order to have onions for Easter.
Easter this year is about as early as it can be and will even precede the morel season. The thing that I love about hunting morels is that is always has the excitement of an Easter egg hunt. "Look there's one. Oooo, oooo there's anothr one. Look, look over there. Wow....."
My big fear is that this winter will follow the trend of the past several winters. It will arrive late and overstay it's welcome. This squeezes spring and we segway from winter right into summer.
Is it too early to think about spring? There is no wrong answer here. The past few warm days have encouraged people to come into the store inquiring about seeds and whether we will be carrying plants. Yes on both counts but we only put the seed order in last week and we're still thinking about what items to order for spring.
On one of the warm days I even sold some spinach seeds to a fellow who claimed that if he planted them now and they sprouted he'd have early spinach because they would handle the cold. Hmmm.....
The mushroom club is reorganizing, reorienting and making plans for the coming season. There's talk about morels, chanterelles and Mushroom Mania. Events are being planned, newsletters and being readied for publication and topics are being assigned for our monthly meetings.
As everything comes together we'll get the news out to you on groups, thru the newsletter and the e-update will be back. Provide us with an e-mail address on your membership application and we'll keep you updated on walks and events. No spam just news we don't sell our list.
While you're waiting for spring perhaps you could pull out some of those mushrooms you preserved and make a hearty dish to ward of the predicted winter's chill. And if you would be so kind please share your special recipe with us to include in our next cookbook.
I've been just too busy the last couple of months to get the e-update out to our members and friends. I'm hoping to be able to get back on track in the near future. Remember the latest news can be found on Yahoo Groups.
