Mushrooms are my past time... Not the magic kind, or the extremely deadly kind, but the delicacy kind that costs lots of money if you were to buy them. Luckily, I've been raised in a family that knows how to hunt for the most expensive and most delicious mushrooms, so I'll share SOME tips ;)
Wait, did I just hear you say you don't like mushrooms? Well, that's because you're buying those bland old white button 'shrooms which are wrapped in blue Styrofoam and plastic. Different mushrooms have different flavors, and like most wild plants, they taste better than anything mass produced in the store. So I recommend with my whole heart that the next time you go on a hike, glance down at the forest floor for fungi.
Spring- Morels
Early spring is the time for the most expensive mushrooms, morels. Morels can at it's most expensive price, go for around $50 a pound, but if you're lucky enough to find that many morels, you're not going to want to sell them; you're going to eat them up. Morels have a delicate flavor, and that's probably because of thier delicate growth habits. No one has ever been able to cultivate morels, and locating them can be a real challenge as they grow randomly in locations, and the weather can kill them easily. For example, last march in southern Ontario we had a bizzare week of hot summer weather, every one was in short's and tee's. The morels (and lots of other plant things) sprouted thinking it was spring. The next week the snow and typical March weather returned and killed everything. So unfortunately, we didn't get out in time to have any morels last year because of that one week. I was ticked.
What do they look like? Morels look like brains on a stick. The cap (top) of the mushroom is wrinkled into many folds which resembles the brain. They can vary from light creams to rich browns, all are delicious!
Where to find them? The forest floor, especially a few days after a rain. Look under and around leaves. A rule with mushrooms- if you don't find them, they'll find you.
When? Early spring (april - may)
It may sound ridiculous but whenever I thought of mushrooms I only thought of deadly ones, the drug, and the store bought ones wrapped in the blue package. Haha so this is actually quite interesting.
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