Today my sister came over for a visit and after an unfruitful search for a watering can at the store, she suggested we take a walk in the oak and cottonwood forest. We wondered whether it was too early for morels (mushroom hunters' biggest lie). In the past, I've had better luck a little later. The weather has also been weird lately. In either case, the walk would at least be pleasant. I really didn't think we would see anything.
I was wrong. At first we spotted many small ones. It would almost be a crime to have picked them, like catching small fish. I thought they would all be like that but, clearly, they were in varying stages of development.
They blend in very well with the leaf litter. Every now and then, though, I would catch a glimpse of gold pushing through the leaves.
At first, my sister asked in astonishment, "How can you see them?" What I really like about my spot is that you can find them easily from the comfort of the path without much deviation. Soon, she also got the hang of it and contributed to finding many of them herself. The hunt went better with another set of eyes scanning. I told her she was developing her mushroom sense.
We found a twin pair, joined at the foot. While they don't really grow in clusters, where there's one, there's usually more nearby. This we found to be very true. We kept on finding four or five within a small area.
Here, a morel mushroom grows near a mysterious yellow flower. There were a few of these around. There were more of a different yellow flower, one I'm more familiar with.
It's the downy yellow violet. Does it look familiar? This is the forest variant of the viola that grows like a weed in lawns.
I saw that species, or a similar one, here too. They are usually a darker purple, but I've seen them mutate with completely white blossoms as well. Something about being in the forest, surrounded by nature, made me appreciate even the common purple version.
I even spotted a woodland strawberry in bloom! These wild species have much tastier fruit, albeit smaller.
This specimen was the biggest one we found. It had a short stipe and a broad base that tapered up, reminding me if a Christmas tree. It also had more pits and wrinkles than any of the others. If this were a brain, it'd be the smartest.
Every time I thought to myself that that would be it, we found a few more. Unfortunately, having come straight from the store, all we had was a plastic bag. It's better to have a mesh bag like the ones store-bought oranges and onions come in so that the spores get released as you walk and the mushrooms proliferate. We harvested sustainably and didn't pick every single one. The animals like to nibble on them, too. Especially isopods and slugs.
Speaking of animals, we also saw this garter snake! It was startled as I picked a nearby mushroom but it didn't slither that far away. Its body was about as thick as my thumb! It watched and smelled us with its black-tipped forked tongue.
Soon after, it began to rain so we hurried back to the car with our haul. My sister took the morels so that she could carefully dehydrate them at low temperature in the oven. We will be meeting next Fungi Friday to make a meal out of them. And pasta!