Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Asparagus & Morel Dinner


We hear it should be a bad year for morels because we have had a dry spring despite initial flooding from snow melt. Nevertheless we intend to have an Asparagus and Morel tasting dinner at the end of May. We hope to find some wild asparagus, but if we don’t discover it first hand, there are plenty of Vermont foragers who can sell us some.

Chef Ted often uses some of the concentrated liquid from soaking dried morels (supposedly a cousin of the truffle family) in his mushroom risotto. We began foraging for mushrooms about 15 years ago and try to learn a few new species each year. We are not mushroom experts, we just pick what we know. Sometimes it takes a few years before we are comfortable with certain 'shrooms. What's fun is just being in the woods out on the prowl.

Here is a link to a mushroom forum in upstate New York that talks about Vermont morels and has some great photos: This is another link to an article about morels from a back issue of Yankee Magazine.

We hope to piques your interest so you’ll come visit our Green Mountains now for some fresh air foraging.