Day 205: Driving by at 55 MPH, I said, "That looked like Morels!" I pulled into my driveway less than five minutes later, hung the camera around my neck, grabbed a bag and a pocket knife, and headed back down the road on foot. Halfway to the site, I remarked aloud, "I'm going to get there and it's going to have been a whole bunch of little brown birds."
But they weren't birds. They weren't leaves. They were Morchella angusticeps, one of Spring's greatest treasures. Okay, maybe they aren't quite as prized as M. esculenta, but they run a very close second. Morels are an excellent species for neophytes to mushroom collecting because they are all edible. They fruit only in the spring, and are easy to identify by the deep, angular "pits" in the cap. I picked a dinner-sized selection of young caps, leaving older and immature specimens to propagate or grow into a second meal.
How do you prepare Morels? Soak them in water (salted or not) for ten to twenty minutes to remove any bugs that may be hiding in the folds, then cut them in half, removing the stems, and give them another short soak. Squeeze them firmly to remove excess water, then fry in butter with a little garlic powder. Add a splash of your favourite white wine when they are tender. Serve with salt and pepper to taste.
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