LLLLUCKY MEEEE!

I am so excitedly tore up!  After several attempts and help from others, I have finally found my own Morel Mushrooms!!!!!!!  I have combed these woods on our farm for weeks, not constantly.. geez I have to work, looking for mushrooms and finally today it paid off in a big way!

Last Sunday, we went down to our friend's farm to mushroom hunt.  They already knew of a couple of patches of mushrooms and so nicely showed them to me so that I would know what exactly I was looking for and what type of environment you can find them in.  I think it's sort of luck of the draw on the area to find them because one of the patches that they had was by a creek and the other on a hill.  I had heard and read already that they can most likely be found in the woods (of course), close to water, around rotten stumps, poking up through the leaves. 

Today, I got off work early and totally meant to spend at least an hour on the Christmas Corner of our attic, but when I got home and heard the attic fans on which come on automatically when the temp in the attic reaches 100 degrees, I decided to find something else to do.  I woke Miss Pepper up from her nap, got my rain boots on (cause I can tromp anywhere in them), put my bug spray on and headed into the woods.  For a long time we didn't find much except for a box turtle that Pepper tried to become friends with.  Then after a while Pepper headed back up to the house and I kept traipsing down a different path. 

I was mid talking-to-the-woods, pleading for it to show me where they were hiding.  "Just one!"  I said out loud.  Then to the right of my path I spotted a mushroom.  I thought I was imagining.  I blinked my eyes real fast like it was going to run or disappear. I seriously could not believe my eyes.  I reached down, after snapping a few camera shots, gently broke the stem and put the mushroom in my bag.  This was a hot spot because right after I found that one I looked around the same area and wound up finding eight Morel mushrooms.  One of them was right on the trail by a big tree.  Nothing hiding it at all.

After Shaun came down to check out the mushroom hot spot, we hunted mushrooms for about another hour in different areas but wound up coming out of the woods with the eight mushrooms that I had found there. 

Another lucky thing for me was that Sally's Mom had shown me how to fry the mushrooms on Sunday so after soaking and rinsing them for a while I fried them up like a pro.  They were wonderful and I got to share them with Shaun, Jody and Stevie.  It's always nice to get to share something special.  It makes for an extra lucky day!