Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Perfect Sunday

It is so nice to stay home for one day on the weekend to catch up on all of those things that need doing in the garden. After spending Saturday at a family party, we came home to a pile of work on Sunday, which we started promptly after brunch. I didn't get everything on my list done, but my little fruit trees are planted, and I got a bunch of seeds in the ground, and did some weeding in our big perennial bed.

I am very lucky to have a recently deceased elm tree in my yard. I know it sounds odd, why would anyone want a dead tree? Well, I'm lucky that it has been infected with the fungus that produces morel mushrooms! I know, I sound crazy for eating mushrooms I found growing in my backyard, but I did my research, and apparently I've lived to tell the tale. (NOTE: I am not encouraging the reader to go out and willy-nilly eat wild mushrooms you might find. Please do some research!) I sauteed several morels in butter and we had those with our comforting Sunday supper of cube steak, twice-baked potatoes, and salad. They were absolutely heavenly! There are a few morels in my crock pot right now, simmering with a nice pot roast, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, and fresh herbs from the garden. There isn't much better than coming home to dinner all ready to eat.

This week I need to divide my tomato, eggplant, and pepper seedlings, and pot them up for planting and sharing. I have some more seeds to plant, and some strawberry plants, as well as potatoes. I'm afraid the taters won't be planted in their special wire container until next week. Aaah, Memorial Weekend, time for some fishing! Hope you all enjoy it!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure how many morels you found (How exciting they're growing in your yard!!!)... but if you'd like some recipe ideas, we just had a mushroom recipe contest and had over 100 submissions (many of them morel recipes). You can see the results and all the recipes at MarxFoods.com.

the webmaster at Johnny's Selected Seeds said...

Thanks for sharing - what great recipes!!

I counted about 20 yellow (common) morels in my yard, and picked 9 for Sunday dinner, ranging in size from 2-4 inches. I wanted to leave some for spores for next year - although I did some research and learned that it's OK to carefully pick them, as long as you the underground fungus undisturbed. So I will pick a few more but I'll still leave some. I picked two more for the crock pot yesterday, one 3" and one giant about 6" in size. That was a great meal to come home to!