Fried morels are our reward for long walks in the woods and days of staring intently at gray-brown leaves. That's if we are lucky.
Random Reinforcement
After moving here, I looked for three seasons without seeing a one. Last spring, I was blessed with two small morels, proof that they are here. Actually, they are everywhere, just not where I happen to be looking.
At the farm, I thought there weren't any until one day I found my first big tan ones. After that, I was called out regularly during the weeks of springtime when they might be found. Once, I returned empty-handed after traipsing all over the woods in a light drizzle. Glancing out the kitchen window, I spied a big mess of them in the grass at the edge of the wood.
Nature Has a Plan
I believe morels are Nature's way of getting people out into the woods, folks who otherwise might never set foot there. Although I'm in the woods all winter, morels give me a new purpose, plus an appetite that may or may not be satisfied.
Some years, I've been able to gorge for days on skillets of the delicacies, cooked in crushed cracker crumbs and served with a cold Miller Genuine Draft beer. It's Heaven.
Morels must be the most well-camouflaged mushrooms in the world. I've looked right at some and not even seen them at first. Sometimes, even a brown leaf that might be a morel is enough to quicken my ordinarily slow heartbeat.
In morel season, I keep an old onion mesh bag in my jeans back pocket at all times. Morels must be carried so as to allow their spores to fall out on the inevitably long walk back home.
Morel time is often heralded by the blossoming of the May Apple colony. When I hiked up the hill to see what state they were in, I found they had only come up a few days ago. Their little umbrellas were just being set up to shade the white flowers that would bloom beneath them.
For a Limited Time Only
This is it, early spring, the only season these tasty morel morsels are on the menu. Some years, it's too dry; then few are found.
Yesterday, there wasn't that smell of humus that makes me sure it's coming from the mushrooms themselves. Oh, well, there are many more days when I can abandon my gardening and head out for another quick look. The little look around usually winds up taking hours and covering quite a bit of territory.
I don't think it's raining too hard.
