Sunday, May 10, 2009

Morels, Tics, and Poison Ivy, And Mother's Day.

Where some people go to brunch, or golf or some otherwise normal activity, my mom and I decided to celebrate by stomping through tic infested woods looking for Morel Mushrooms. For those of you who don't live where they grow they look like this:
If you've never tasted them you are missing out, they are wonderful. If you've never paid for them they are ridiculously expensive.... because they grow under dead trees in deep forests where people shouldn't ever be.
The excursion begins with my mom and I putting on Deep Woods Off and at least 3 layers of clothing because apparently "tics can get in anywhere". This whole scene really freaks me out because I am terrified of blood suckers of any kind (the Stand By Me scene with the leeches scarred me for life) so I spend a lot of time in the woods imagining that I feel a tic on my neck despite the fact that I have a hat and a hood on.
Next we stumble on a whole city of coyote dens and I wonder aloud if there's baby coyotes in there. My Mom relates to me that someone told her that if you put your ear right next to a coyote den opening that you can hear the babies inside.
I decide to pass on this being fond of my face where it is.
I then spend a few minutes thinking of the horror show that could happen when I get my face right down next to a coyote den and a protective mother.....
Then I find these:My mom's knowledge of animal skulls from living on this farm just a few years is really pretty amazing since we discover 10 minutes into our hunt that neither of us really knows what Poison Ivy looks like. I resolve to try not to touch anything green that's growing out of the ground.
All in all, we found over a pound of Morels which I plan to cook up for a certain New Jersey-ite that never has heard of nor tried Morels. When we got back to the house my ever caring mom gives me one last piece of advice. "Don't forget to check your belly button tonight for tics."

2 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I completely forgot that it is morel season.
As a side note to what I was planning on this past weekend, I wonder what they'd taste like pickeled?

May 11, 2009 at 6:36 AM  
Blogger Caitlin said...

haha, that's one way to keep them. I hate that they only stay good for such a short time. You can't really freeze them or anything.

May 11, 2009 at 6:47 AM  

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