The other day on Instagram my friend Tiffany posted a pic of some morel mushrooms her two year old was feasting on. I had never seen one, but had definitely heard Ed's dad talk about the elusive and gourmet morel mushroom hunting from years gone by. When I saw her picture I logged it in my brain, and went on with life.
Then Thursday night I took on the mowing task...because, when you are a stay at home mama...sometimes mowing is the better choice. A task you can begin, see progress with, and complete. You can plug in your ipod and get lost in the job. While daddy takes on the bedtime hour. It really is the better choice for all involved....sometimes.
So as I was mowing I saw that little guy (pictured above). It looked similar to Tiffany's picture. I paused, mowed around it, and figured I would nab Ed when he reappeared from the trenches of daddy duty. But I forgot. Friday passed, Saturday the paper arrived and I happened upon a local article with a picture of the morel mushroom. It spoke of the hunting that people spend hours doing.
I grabbed Ed and brought him out...along with much of my family, since they were visiting.
Low and behold. We had not one...but off to the side of our yard in a patch of woods (well, we call them woods even though both Ed and I grew up in "real" woods) a whole bunch. So we grabbed our little picker.
And we went from this....
To this...
We went online to make sure they were safe...since the fake morels are poisonous. We brought one over to a local greenhouse to get their opinion too. We were confident that we had the real deal.
I called a local gourmet restaurant and they put me through to the chef on a Saturday night at 6pm...busy time around these parts. And he said, "bring them over and he would buy them from us." I told him I was still deciding on whether I would sell but wanted to consider my options. But rumor has it you can sell them for 20-60 dollars a pound! We probably had a little over a pound.
We decided to saute them and let my family all have a morel mushroom experience. Everyone thought they were tasty. We didn't do anything fancy with them. We wanted to just really taste them. We aren't sure if we will get them again next year...but if you asked any of my family how these mushrooms settled in my mind...they would tell you I became obsessed and had to mention the mushrooms every 10 minutes...jokingly most of the time.
The whole thing was pretty crazy. It made for a great little Memorial Day adventure with my family in town.
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2 comments:
So awesome! I would have done the same...devoured them, not sell them! :)
Lucky Duck! I'm jealous. When I was growing up on the farm (southern Iowa) we had several meals of morels each spring. Dad or Grandpa would find them. Grandpa is gone now. Dad doesn't get around like he used to. My brother farms with Dad, but also works full time in town, so no time for mushroom hunting. I don't have the patience to walk and find them. Dad used to be able to smell them and go right to them. We always fried them, egg wash, flour, salt, pepper. My husband's family always replace the flour with cracker crumbs. I haven't had morels in several years. I'm pretty sure none of my kids have had them. Someday...
Enjoy them!! Don't sell them. Make the memories and enjoy them!
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