Most mushroom hunting happens during the fall when the warm earth and late summer rains bring out tremendous varieties of mushrooms. However, there is one delicious type of mushroom that only fruits in the spring -- morels.
They are notoriously difficult to spot and are quite finicky. Some years Oregon boasts bumper crops of morels. But not this year. The winter and spring have been unusually dry, so spring mushrooms have been few and far between. Furthermore, morels grow slowly, so if they have all been collected from an area, they might not return during this growing season.
However, morels like forest fires. And that's where we found them this weekend - at the base of partially burned conifer trees from last year's fire season.
After some intense searching, and with the aid of local experts, we did come up with enough for a tasty dinner.
They are notoriously difficult to spot and are quite finicky. Some years Oregon boasts bumper crops of morels. But not this year. The winter and spring have been unusually dry, so spring mushrooms have been few and far between. Furthermore, morels grow slowly, so if they have all been collected from an area, they might not return during this growing season.
However, morels like forest fires. And that's where we found them this weekend - at the base of partially burned conifer trees from last year's fire season.
After some intense searching, and with the aid of local experts, we did come up with enough for a tasty dinner.
Well done. So good with eggs
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