Morel Adventures

I love to stumble across a morel on a spring morning as my less than focused gaze glides along the base of ash trees--a sort of soft radar, a non-evasive foray into the mystery of brown and golden soldiers scattered across land, convincing me that any rational or scientific approach to determine their whereabouts will be dismissed by them as not an arcane enough approach and therefore one not to be rewarded. The harder you look the less you see. You look and rant and try to control the universe in which they belong, and then suddenly, they are there at your feet saying, “I’ve been here all along.”

Everyone has their favorite morel recipe, which more often is a morel story, as the adventure is half the prize. Recently someone dumped some dirt into a mound on a hill top road, where walking, not stalking to forage, is the rule. But there they were, popping out of the top of a small heap. The perfunctory ash tree stood watching me snap a blondie just inches away.

I prefer to cut out the bottoms, get a pastry bag, fill it with some rabbit mousse and shoot it into the hollow cavity of the morel. Bake in the oven not too hotly with some stock in the bottom of the pan until the mousse firms up, gets warm, and the morel starts giving off its woody tobacco sweetness without drying out.

Add some butter at the end into the pan with stock and there’s your sauce. Haunting textures, aromas, and flavors never forgotten.

Aside from sautéing them in butter with a drop of lemon, I also like to dry out the morels and grind them into a powder that can be used as a seasoning--or better yet as a coating, like breadcrumbs, on a piece of lamb or chicken. Great nose on that one coming off the stove.

Trout Lily

This must be the year of the trout lily, at least if you saw my lawn, you'd think so. Our field lawn is bordered by woods which is where trout lilies like to grow. Eastern trout lily, yellow trout lily, Erythronium americanum, is also known as dogtooth violet or adder's tongue, and their is a white Minnesota sister lily or two.

Our Vermont version has pretty brown speckled basal leaves with a single, slender center stalk sprouting a delicate yellow flower. At first only one small leaf appears from the ground and it takes awhile before another sprouts. It takes several years for a flower to appear, so unless they are as abundant on your property as on ours, take heed in harvesting.

Trout lily corms are worth digging out unless the plant is endangered as is the white Minnesota dwarf trout lily (Erythronium propullans). Digging out the sweet, small fragile corms is not easy, so consider these little white gems a rare delicacy. Larger corms seem to have more starch and are less sweet. We happen to have enough trout lilies to last a lifetime--small and large, but digging them out of stony Vermont soil is a challenge. You can transplant them in the fall to encourage growth in an area where you would like them to spread so you can harvest for all to enjoy.

Now barely mid-May the flowers have gone, but the leaves are still around for picking. Wash well and use them raw in a salad as you can do with the flower heads and corms. You can see how Chef Ted uses some mid-size leaves as a flower petal on his wild leaf salad of our May 3rd post. Here is a link with more information and recipes.

Spring Forage Menu

Had a fabulous romp through Vermont fields and woods for an annual spring forage--or as some prefer to call it--wild crafting. Following is the menu Chef Ted hand crafted from our finds:




Vermont pheasant with wild leaf salad, sherry & citrus vinaigrettes

fiddlehead soup with Maine lobster & crab, and scallop

wood-roasted salmon with sautéed ramps, Japanese knotweed, and potato-ramp pie, sauces of ramp, chive oil, and duck stock

wild ginger cobbler with Japanese knotweed ice cream and candied Japanese knotweed


Lee Jones said of his experience,"We thought it would be mildly amusing but it turned out to be a blast." T'was a beautiful and delicious feast!

This wild leaf salad (pictured) was comprised of leaves from Canadian white violets, trout lilies, dandelion, sedum, plantain, and Ox eye daisy. The violet leaves are sweet and comprised most of the salad. Trout lily, violet, and dandelion flowers are all edible. We shredded the dandelion flower as a sprinkling garnish. Pick only two inch dandelion leaves as larger ones are too bitter. Use sparingly in a salad unless you love bitter. Hearts of cattail (similar to hearts of palm) were poached with lemon and salt, and dressed in a citrus vinaigrette and arranged around the leafy greens.

I'll post more photos and blahg more in detail about specific ingredients in upcoming posts. Meanwhile don't assume you know what to pick by this list of ingredients, and if you do know, don't pick from polluted waters or unnaturally fertilized lawns.

Annual Labor Day Forage

We went on our annual Labor Day mushroom forage and returned with these specimens. I have already mentioned the difference between false and true chanterelles, but this photo better illustrates. Though it won't "kill you dead" a false chanterelle, Gomphus floccopus, (left) will make you ill. Note the gills travel nearly all the way down the stem of a false chanterelle, and with a true chanterelle, Cantharellus cibarius, they travel partially down. The false chanterelle is also indented like a funnel. We also found scaber stalk boletes, but not much else since the rain has stopped. All had fun nevertheless and lunch was delicious! Special thanks to Boston.com for the free blurb. Graylings (small and in the chanterelle family) should be up soon. We'll talk about these next. Meanwhile, here is a link to a mushroom recipe contest where you can win free 'shrooms and here is a link to poisonous mushroom site.

Gold in these here hills

Chanterelles galore right now. We had a tip from someone who went on one of our public forages. She and her husband came by to ask our opinion about her multitude of funghi finds. Most were not edible, but she told us where she found a nice patch of the golden darlings. There was also a patch of false chanterelles, many of which she picked. They differ in that the top appears as a funnel shape and one can put a stick or pencil down into the top of the mushroom. The color also differs. The photo shows Faith holding the false one in her right hand. The goodie golden ones in the next photo will be served tomorrow with baby chicken, and we will recommend a sturdy white wine--perhaps a viognier from Calera since the chanterelles have a little apricot nuance. Some oyster mushrooms are also around, but more should be found on decaying trees later in the season as the nights cool.

King Bolete aka Porcini

A thunderous spell of rain has Mother Earth proffering many wild porcini mushrooms, or king boletes. They are part of the Boletus edulis family, and they are popping up in the woods and in moss. Some have what is called scaber stalk,-- brown flecks along the stem. The photo on the right is of one that has a little age. Younger, firmer specimens will be better and less invaded by bugs or slugs. Ted yanks them from under pine needles as they birth out of the damp earth. In France the Italian porcini is known as cep or cèpe. Golden chanterelles are also springing from the ground. Both species should be around until fall, so stay keen to spot either; they will be more abundant after rain. Be sure to get professional advise before eating foraged mushrooms--and always cook them before eating. Mushrooms should not be rinsed in water unless they are particularly grimy; rather use a soft brush or damp cloth to clean. Store in a paper bag to avoid premature decay.