A few days ago I was walking through my yard taking note of all the dog turds that my neighbors dog had left for me to clean up when I stumbled upon something…um…well…freaky, frankly. My shoe had kicked something that had a little bit of resistance. When I looked down I saw at my feet something that looked like the image below.
a morel mushroom (morchella esculenta)
It was a morel mushroom (pronounced moral (at least that is what I was told))! Upon closer inspection I could tell it was a mushroom, however, I didn’t know what type it was or if it would kill me if I ate it. My first reaction was strange to me, I thought, “Yuck! I wonder if I can eat it.”
To the source of all knowledge, the Internet! I discovered the type of mushroom it was and that it was good to eat. I also found that there were some suggested precautions that should be taken. There were a few similar variety of mushrooms listed that were not safe to eat that I looked up to make sure I had the right mushroom type. My last and final safety measure, right after cooking it and right before eating it I called my Mom up and double checked with her. She said that her siblings used to pick and eat morel mushrooms a bit when they were kids. I took a bite. Mmm, I liked. I finished off the rest of the mushroom very quickly. It was good, I wish I could have eaten it with something else (like pasta or on a hamburger) but it was pretty good all by it self.
Fast forward to today. Right before I mowed the lawn I checked around the base of my (dead) apple tree where I had stumbled upon the first one, and found …
many much morel mushrooms, mmmm
Jackpot! Bingo! And whatever else one might say after finding such a treasure. I prepared a few for dinner tomorrow (cleaned and sliced) and fried the biggest two in butter. Mmm mmm good.
I hope I get a few more next year, but even if I don’t, I was glad for this very morel experience.