When 'Mushrooming' Was A Family Affair

 

 

I'm not sure how old I was the first time I went mushrooming but it was with my parents and siblings, grandpa and grandma Ridnour, my aunt Lois, uncle Alvin and their kids - my cousins. We went to a large timber east and south of Guss. I have always loved being in the woods, but tasked with hunting something was a new experience. Before I knew what I was looking for someone had to find some to show me.

What I remember about that first time hunting morels is that we all came home with sacks and sacks full. The first thing Mom did was put them in a dishpan of salt water to soak overnight - to get the bugs out. The next day they were cut in half lengthways, patted dry, dipped in seasoned flour and then in eggs whisked with milk and fried in butter or oil. They were so good. 

After that, there were a few years we went to a timber south of Brooks. Then it was just our family and Grandma Lynam. There was a little creek on the property which we mostly stayed on the south side of. There may or may not have been some wading across to the other side. Usually you found a single mushroom here and there but I do remember finding a fairy ring of morels once. Some years we would find enough for a 'nice mess' other times we might not find any.

Some thought the tan morels were best, others said the little gray ones were better. I didn't see a difference. They were all good. 

Remembering the last time I went mushrooming with my mother is what prompted this post. It would have been, I think, the early 80's when the kids and I lived in 'The Little House'. It was a lovely spring day. We, Mom and I, drove east of Bushville about a half mile, parked the car in a field driveway and climbed over the fence into some woods. We didn't find any morels, but we saw many spring flowers - Mayapples, Jack-in-the-Pulpits, Sweet William (Phlox), Trillium, Dutchman's Breeches (which we always called 'britches') and, of course, my favorites, Violets.

But the thing I remember most about those woods were after we had walked into them quite a distance, there was an almost perfectly round hollow 15 to 20 feet across. It wasn't like a pond, just a depression in the ground. We could not fathom what had caused it. I did not think it looked man made. It is something I never forgot; something I still wonder about. 

The last time I went mushrooming was 2005 or '06. Ron had begun dating Marge and wanted me to get acquainted with her. She wanted to hunt for morels. At the time I was working in the Industrial Park. One of the guys who worked in the same plant had been going across the RR tracks into a wooded area and finding mushrooms there. So I invited Marge to meet me after work and she and I went to the same area. We did not find any morels but I did discover a plant I'd never seen before. It had heart shaped leaves. Beneath the leaves were brownish-red flowers.  

After much searching I discovered it was wild ginger.

I have not seen it anywhere else. But I'm always happy to discover new plants.

Morel season is only a few weeks away. Good luck hunting them.

Alas, my mushrooming, new plant finding days are over. But the memories remain.