When we moved to Oregon 22 years ago, we didn't know that the Rogue Valley was surrounded by great morel mushrooms!!! Finding this out was a grand discovery. The first time we tried, we didn't find any. Eventually, we learned that our garbage man was an avid hunter and he was gracious enough to give me some of his favorite spots!! Who would ever do this????? along with maps. We headed out the next day and sure enough started finding morels! Since then we have tried new spots. . .some good and some not. Now when one fails to produce, we have enough back-up places that we can usually find some. Last year though, was one of the poorest years we remember. However, yesterday, Lori and I spent most of the day climbing the hills and managed to find 2 pounds of nice sized morels. We came home very tired from the long day and the 80 degree temperature which seemed like ninety in the hills. It took persistence and eventually we were pleased with our find.
Dan, Sheila and Jaime arrived from Portland to spend Memorial Day weekend with us. Of course, Dan wanted to hunt morels!!! Guess what, we went 4 days hunting till we could hardly walk! At first morels came slow but with persistence, we found 3 1/2 pounds Monday. Sheila displays on of the big ones along with 3 baskets of nice morels! Esther made a gallon of morel gravy, gluten free, and 10 quarts of mashed potatoes which was cleaned up in less than 1/2 hour. Today, the house is again quiet and I have the task of drying the remaining morels. I then shrink wrap in small paks which keep indefinitely. This year was encouraging and helped our supply from last years poor pickin!
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