univark's Profile
A Stray Morel in My Fall Garden?
Update: sliced it lengthwise, and sure enough, exactly what all the 'shroom sites say is classic morel: hollow all the way up from stem to top of cap, and cap completely connected to the stem at base. Tossed in SFChron's soup recipe, and it was absolutely delightful. I'd share some with you, but, well, it's gone!
Once again, thank you all.
A Stray Morel in My Fall Garden?
You guys are all awesome. Thanks!
Interestingly enough, finding it yesterday and researching has me very intrigued. It was a very exciting day. I'm interested in checking out the whole wild mushroom foraging thing around here, so if you have any pointers to groups, guides or books, I'm all ears.
Again, thank you!
A Stray Morel in My Fall Garden?
Attention No. CA Mushroom Foragers!
This morning, tending my winter greens garden, something unusual, hiding in the weeds next to where we planted our hops last spring, caught my eye. A dried weed flower? A piece of crumpled paper? A freakishly ugly varmint?
On closer inspection, it turned out to be what looks like a young, healthy morel growing under some thick, rich weeds through my wood chips (see http://mushroomexpert.com/morchella_rufobrunnea.html and my photos below).
Here in the Bay Area, we had our first considerable rain of the season recently, so I'm assuming this is why this guy is growing this time of year. Or, is it typical for mushrooms to thrive in November here?
Although I "get" no one can absolutely, positively ID this for me, I am looking for someone local to back-up my own investigative findings that this is indeed a "landscape" morel. (What else could it be?!) The SFChron just published a really yummy-looking mushroom soup recipe in the paper this week, and I'd love to toss this guy in. ...
Creamy Mushroom Soup with Walnut Bread Croutons by Tara Duggan: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2008/11/13/soup.txt
