MORELS

Morel mushrooms have an earthy taste, a fragrant smell, and a meaty texture. As with most edible fungi, they are best when bought fresh or foraged.

Nevertheless, the dried morels are just as tasty, with their concentrated flavors, as the fresh ones and can be interchangeable used almost in all the morel recipes.

I cannot say at all that I grew up with mushrooms. As I left my teenage years behind and started to spend more time in the kitchen, mushrooms were still not in my shopping list. It was only when I got married and started experimenting more in the kitchen that the mushrooms have started to occupy a small spot in the fridge.

Something, however, has started to change the year before our move to British Columbia: It was the beginning of May and we were about to spend a week at my mother-in-law’s cottage in Central Asia Minor. The village was nestled on the skirts of a mountain range and the lake stretching by the village was just another ordinary element in the village life.

On the third day of our arrival, we found ourselves foraging amidst the forest of firs, cedars, and oaks trying the find morels that have been foraged for almost a month by then. My mother-in-law was upset about not being able to hunt any that year, not for herself to eat but to cook them for her son and her daughter-in-law, who could only come to visit just for a couple of days each year. I should admit that we were quite successful then! Although we were one of the last troops invading the mountain range for morels, we managed to find 4-5 pieces, just enough for everyone to get a bite.

Several years after; after settling to a new home in a new country and expanding significantly the space allocated for mushrooms in the fridge, I joined the South Vancouver Island Mycological Society (shortly my precious mushroom club) at the beginning of 2012. I was not aware then that I would unearth the taste of the morels from the depths of my brain.

The stage was for morels in our second meeting. It was the beginning of March and the morel season was just a month away. As I was a new-bee and my only experience on wild mushrooms and foraging was a one-day mountain hike following closely my mother-in-law, the information flitting about in the room was quite confusing but yet fascinating for me. With the taste of that bite buried subconsciously in the lobes of my brain, that day I re-enter the world of morels, this time permanently. ◊

Morel season generally arrives in April and May, varying across the North America depending on the region in which you are living. Many variables such as air and ground temperature as well as rain levels affect the growing cycle.

It is most probable to find them in moist areas, around dying or dead Elm trees, Sycamore and Ash trees, old apple orchards.

Who knows, you may even find them in your own garden!

BE CAREFUL!

If you are a foraging for wild mushrooms for the first time hunter, you should make sure that you go with someone who knows what a good morel looks like.

There are several types of morels, some edible and others poisonous.