Morel Foray, I found my first morels…

It is difficult to eat more local than foraging.  Here is a bit of a travelogue of my first successful foray Saturday.

Saturday morning, 9:00 am, I am on the road to the tiny town of Elba Minnesota.  Because of flooding, much of the land around Elba is State Land.  There are trout streams as well.  The drive down was sunny, but very, very windy.   I stopped in a very pleasant small town, Plainview.  Plainview has a real downtown.  Store and shops, not boutiques of ticky tacky….

Met up with the Mycologists in Elba at 11:00.  After a bit of milling about, we headed out the the first search site.  I had the great luck of traveling with 5 others to the site.  I just wish I was better with names.  The driver works for an Ad agency, his partner, I did not find out much about her.  There was a potter, who just did a wood firing.  His spouse work for a copy organization.  The last person, lives in South Eastern MN, an avid hiker.  The total group for the foray totalled about 50 from the  Minnesota Mycological Society.

The group split in two when we arrived in the first spot.  One group headed on a death march, up and down great big hills.  The other group a more flat reasonable walk.  The first group was rewarded with the forest’s bounty.  Where we must have averaged about 8 morel’s per person, they must have averaged 30.  I told my team leader that I had never picked a mushroom before, and he made sure that I found at least one.  But when he pointed out the first, I then immediately saw 5 more in the area. 

Some of my finds:

I headed back after only one foray pass.  I was beat.  I did not realize how tired I was until I got home, and did not even have enough energy or desire, to cook a steak to go with the mushrooms.  So, we simply cleaned the 8 morels, fried them up with a bit of butter and garlic, and had them with toast.  I recovered mid afternoon Sunday.

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