The Fungus Among Us

This is the time of year when we can't wait to get into the woods and begin hunting for the morel mushroom. Though we've had a favorite spot for the two decades we've lived here, it seems to be about "hunted out". Every year we find fewer even though we're careful to leave a few stand (that's one of the the hardest things in the world to do). A few weeks ago we found four "snakeheads", a dark miniature version of the true sponge. These were fried with eggs and served on a sandwich. The mushroom shown below is a true morel and it's the only one I found this year. That's right: one! Here I am holding it (and it's not even very large) before it went into a pot with green peas. I'm afraid I couldn't even taste it that way.


Another flower we eagerly await every year is the wisteria. The plants shown is in my aunt and uncle's front yard in Miamisburg and it's a cascade of delicate purple clusters right now. From a distance they look like grapes. We have a wisteria here, too, but we've transplanted it often enough that it's never bloomed. One of these days I'll leave it alone long enough for it to get established and I hope we're surprised by the likes of what's shown below.