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To me, the taste of morel mushrooms is much the same as the highly touted truffles of Europe, just not as intense. While truffles cost several hundred dollars per ounce, morels are free. The only catch is in finding them. They grow in wooded areas or open grasslands. They like damp moist soil or the middle of a gravel driveway. They grow for two or three weeks in mid-April or not until late May. As much work as they can be to find, if I had to sell the ones I found, it would be several hundred dollars per ounce like their cousins the truffles.

In my line of work, I see a lot of people from all walks of life during a day. Most of them know me as the "Outdoors Guy" so I am kept current on what is going on in the outdoors. About a month ago, I was told people were finding mushrooms. I knew they were lying to me, just to see if I would fall for the bait and go hunting. It is the mushroom gatherer's form of snipe hunting. The next week, I heard several reports of the mushrooms being out so we started hunting, knowing several people would not lie to me at the same time. My wife and I would go out for an hour or two every day or so. We even convinced a couple grandsons to help. If we had to replace the calories burnt in search of the morels with the mushrooms we found, we would have starved to death. Eight or ten morels are just enough to be annoying. A person can enjoy the great flavor, but then they are gone before a person is satisfied.

The weather then turned cold. We had a hard freeze several nights in a row. I knew the mushroom season was over.

My wife and I were taking a leisurely ride through the timber on the Gator Saturday afternoon when she suddenly yelled, "Stop!" Being old and endowed with wisdom, I hit the brakes and slid to a stop. My wife jumped out and started picking the delectable fungus we call morels. I can be standing still and not see a mushroom two inches from my foot. She can spot one off in the distance while traveling at twenty miles per hour. We found enough to eat until we were ready to explode and went back out Sunday for some more. We fried mushrooms in butter. We dipped some in egg and rolled them in cracker crumbs. We made soup with some and still had enough to dehydrate so I can mail some to our older son. I am not sure about the import restrictions on bringing morel mushrooms into Singapore, but what they do not know surely cannot hurt them, especially if he eats them upon arrival.

The soup I made was especially good, if I do say so myself. It was simple, yet brought out the great savory, earthy flavor of the mushroom. Most people know how to fry morels in their favorite way so I will include my soup recipe. It serves two people on the verge of starvation, or two people with leftovers to do it again the next day.



Ingredients



1 large potato peeled

5 or 6 little carrots

1/2 onion

a stalk or two of celery

two or three ounces of tasso or a couple slices of bacon.

1 pint cream

1 pint milk

salt

pepper

cayenne pepper

quart or so of morel mushrooms quartered

Chop the first five ingredients into little pieces. Put in a two quart pan and add a couple cups of water. Boil until the carrots are tender. Add the mushrooms, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. If you use bacon rather than tasso, more cayenne and salt will be required. Boil for a few more minutes, add the cream and milk, bring almost to a boil and serve.

The flavor of the ingredients will be blended with the wonderful taste of the morel mushroom being in the forefront. When it comes to going out and getting your own food, this is as good as it gets.[[In-content Ad]]

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