Oregon 'shroomin'

Because of the fact that we moved away from Nashville and left behind all of our plants, I haven't been able to blog much this summer. We are currently residing in Oregon, enjoying our period of rest and transition. A couple of days ago we partook in what felt to me like a very West coast, hippie activity: foraging for mushrooms. Adam has a friend who is quite into 'shroomin'. He had done some research into where to find morels and invited us to join him in picking. We had a nice long car ride where we were tutored on the fine points of where wild mushrooms grow and how to spot the real from the poisonous.

It felt great to get out into the woods. I was honestly a little skeptical about how much I would enjoy 'shroomin'. However, once we got out and saw our first wild morels, I was hooked! There is something exciting about spotting one, and it is satisfying to bend over and cut it loose. We found them in all sizes, although Adam definitely got the prize of the day.

Morel mushrooms can only be found wild. Even when you see them for sale in the store, someone has gone out just like we did and foraged for them in the woods. We saw dried morels for sale at $235/lb! We were able to make three delicious meals with our bounty: steak with sauteed morels, burgers topped with grilled morels, and pasta with morel marinara sauce. Now I see why morels are considered to be one of the world's most delicious mushrooms!