I Love Fungus!

Every late April or early May, I keep my eyes fixed on the market across the river from our house. Here come the spring offerings... asparagus, check... rhubarb, delightful... and then... what's that in the distance? The fanfare of trumpets? The singing of angels? Yes, all that, and Morel Mushrooms, too.

You think I am exaggerating, but around here the morels are awaited with eagerness and lust. If one finds a place where morels grow, then one tells NOT ONE SOUL, returns to see what that spot has produced year after year, and takes the secret location with them selfishly to the grave.

When I was a sophomore at my tiny rural high school, I sat with my friend Lisa on the bus to a track meet at another school. Behind us sat two farm boys, also on the track team, who talked lasciviously about "gettin' some mushrooms this weekend," with knowing sidelong looks at one another and lopsided smiles. Lisa accused them primly of using it as code for something dirty. They must have been, for all the anticipatory bliss the conversation was producing. Come to find out, really... they were talking about morels.

They are HERE! And they will probably be here only another week and a half, when the fifty week wait until next mushroom season will begin again. I've got mine, and I have big plans for them. I did a morel recipe search online and people definitely seem to have their favorite ways of serving up these wonderful treasures. My usual method is just coating the halves lightly with flour and frying them in butter. My search led me to dip them in egg, then dredge them in cracker crumbs before frying, and bleh... I didn't care for the results. Too much coating, too little mushroom.

I've got half my purchase left and I think the result of my next recipe will be absolute euphoria. I will let you know. Stay tuned.