It's that time again

It's that time again in West Virginia.

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It took about 45 minutes from out the door to in the door to rustle these up.

I've got a couple of filet mignon steaks in the freezer, and some puff pastry. I think I'll try steak and mushrooms en croute.

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and this for dessert, along with a bottle of 2006 Cuvaison Napa Valley Carneros Pinot Noir.

These are the first mushrooms of the season, ya' see. A cause for celebration.

edit: want to add, not exactly food related, that the whippoorwills arrived this week, in addition to the mushrooms.

It's always heartening to know that, in this discussion group, we're dealing with men with proper morels.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, GROANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.



But back to the morels, I've never seen them with such long stems. Lotsa rain?

But back to the morels, I've never seen them with such long stems. Lotsa rain?

When I saw those stems, I began to think I was looking too low!

Spring weather has been cool/cold and wet, so yes.

I've never gone mushroom hunting, but have always wanted to try it. So, these pop up about the same time as bud break in the vineyard? That looks like about 2 more weeks here. There is a large wooded area behind my property. Yesterday a flock of huge turkeys from there were trespassing in my vineyard.

Wow - those are beauties, Alan. We get a lot of wonderful stuff growing in our general vicinity, but morels aren't part of that.

Howie - around here we look for a poplar (tulip poplar) grove on an east-facing slope. The first one is always the hardest to find. After that it gets easier. The season is short, maybe two weeks. There a half-dozen or so types (blacks, whites, snake heads) that emerge at slightly different times. Good luck.

Howie,

I have a close friend who is a master mushroom gatherer. I've had dozens of dinners over the years of mushrooms we've found together. I've also heard of people who have died eating mushrooms they found. Make sure you know what you're doing!!!!! This is not a hobby for the casual mushroom fan. Sorry if this post is unnecessary.

Thanks Tom. That's one of the reasons I've never gone mushrooming. I do have one friend who does it, so I may check with him first.

[Jenise]

Thanks Tom. That's one of the reasons I've never gone mushrooming. I do have one friend who does it, so I may check with him first.

A new friend who mushrooms said that one of the great things about morels is that they don't have any look-alikes that are poisonous (at least in our area). Confirm that for your area, and you should be fine.

Well, there are look-alikes, which may not be poisonous, yet foul nonetheless. I learned the hard way. My brother-in-law called one late afternoon, excited and jubilant about the crop of morels that had suddenly sprung up in his front yard. He encouraged my husband to come over and share in the wealth. When he arrived the b-i-l handed him a large bag of the coveted fungi already gathered. These ,in turn were entrusted to me to clean and prep. As soon as I dumped them in the sink, I noticed a putrid..dung-like odor wafting from the loot. Eww! I grew up eating morels and did not ever recall such a disgusting smell, but what came next was equally vile. As I sprayed the batch of mushrooms, a swarm of flies rose from the sink! Amityville Horror revisited. ..the stench, the slime..the cloud of flies. We could not bag these up quickly enough. Gross, gross, gross! STINKHORNS!!

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During my studies as a Biology major, one of the books I checked out of our college's science library was entitled Poisonous Plants of North America. This tome was about four inches thick, and about half of the pages were devoted to poisonous fungi.

After looking through this book, you'd think twice about eating anything you found in the wild, however harmless you thought it might be. Especially mushrooms.

-Paul W.

I have a friend of Italian heritage who has gone mushroom hunting each year with a group of older men who also are of Italian heritage. He says the emphasis is on the word OLDER.

My wife and I yesterday picked 45 nice morels (Morchella esculenta) and fried them up in EVOO and butter and then added them to Fetuccini with more olive oil and opened a 2009 Fess Parker Riesling to go with them. A great match but didn't post the wine note as it seemed such a common wine. We always look for morels around here when the " oak leaves are the size of squirels ears". Squirels have very small ears this year!