I'm Back!!!

Sorry that I have been silent for awhile but we took a little trip and then when we returned, I promptly came down with a bad cold which I am still fighting.  But I wanted to share with you all the beautiful place we visited here in North Idaho just 30 miles south of the U.S./Canadian border.  It's a jewel of a lake called Priest Lake.

 

We stayed at a state park campground called Indian Creek Campground.

We had a campfire which we cooked our dinner over.

Of course we had homemade cheddar brats.

 

The fish weren't biting at all.

 

But the morels were!

The Selkirks east of the lake still have some snow.

 

Can you tell which peak is called Chimney Rock?

Emma never got tired of playing in the sand.

Creamy Morel Mushroom Soup

Spring time is morel mushroom hunting time, more specifically the month of May in North Idaho.  But when we are having a cool Spring and the wily morel is taking its own sweet time to come out in droves, I get out some of my dried morels from last season and make this soup.  I LOVE this soup and I think you will, too.  And dried morel mushrooms are available at many grocery stores so even if you aren't an avid mushroom hunter you can make it, too.

Here is what you will need:

Oops, I forgot to get the cream and flour in the picture!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 oz of dried morel mushrooms
• 3 1/2 cups of low sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup minced onion (I used a sweet onion)
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• Pinch of dried thyme
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 2 1/2 Tbsp of white flour mixed with a pinch of salt and pepper
• 4 Tbsp white wine
• 1/4 cup cream 
• parsley or chives for garnish

Soak the dried morel mushrooms in / cup of the chicken broth for 20 minutes.

 

Remove the morels from the chicken broth and squeeze the excess moisture back into the remaining stock.

  

Run the morel-infused chicken broth through a coffee filter to remove any dirt or insects that may have been in the dried morels.  I know it may sound gross but sometimes tiny little gnat-like insects remain inside of the morels as they dry and you do not want them floating in your soup.

 

Chop up your rehydrated morel mushrooms.

 

Melt the 3 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.

Add the dried thyme, diced celery and the minced onions to the heated butter and saute for 3 to 4 minutes.

Add the morel mushrooms and saute for 5 more minutes.

Now sprinkle the flour, salt and pepper mixture over the sauted vegetables.  Continue to cook over medium heat for 5 more minutes but do not brown.

Add the remaining the 4 tablespoons of white wine, 3 cups of chicken broth and the morel infused broth to the pot and bring to a boil.  Simmer this for 10 minutes, uncovered.

After simmering, stir in the 1/4 cup of cream to the soup. 

 

Remove from heat and serve.  Garnish with parsley or chives and enjoy.

The First Morel and Other Fun Today

 

Today was a special day because my daughter Emma found the first morel mushroom of the year.  Just one, but one more than none!

Also, Emma had her first "customers" at her homemade thistle feeder today.  She made it using a 2 liter soda bottle and wooden skewers.

And just for fun, we made Bentley into a prehistoric creature.  Those are rooster spurs by the way.

A Different Kind of Hunt

During the last week of April to about mid-May, depending on the altitude, is prime morel mushroom hunting time in North Idaho. We get so excited about morel season. If you're a mushroomer too, you are probably out there right now walking around in the woods scanning the ground for these little treasures.

We do most of our morel hunting on our 20 acres and our neighbor's adjacent 60 acres. We do have some favorite local public hunting grounds, too. But of course they are a secret! Here's my hubby and daughter after being caught "poaching" morels from our neighbors acreage last night. Actually we all jumped into the Kubota and he drove us to another great picking site on his land. What a great neighbor!
We get to see a lot of nature when we are out scouring the land for morels. Some of the flowers that are out at the same time are triliums, dog-tooth lilies, shooting stars and lady slipper orchids.
Another type of mushroom that we like to pick in the spring are coral mushrooms. They look a lot like a cauliflower and it's easy to harvest literally pounds of coral mushrooms if you find a good area for them. They are big and much easier to see that morels. Can you spot the morels in this picture? Sneaky little buggers!
Here's what we ended up harvesting last evening and we will be going out again tonight to see if we can find more. In a later post I will share my Cream of Morel Soup recipe but for now I will recommend slicing some morels rolling the slices in a little flour, salt and pepper then frying them in melted butter...YUM!
But remember, never ever eat any wild mushroom that you have deemed edible just from identifying from a picture in a book or on the internet! You need a knowledgeable living, breathing human being that has harvested mushrooms for a while to take you out mushroom hunting and show you what is safe to harvest and eat. I took classes at the local community college that included field trips where the instructor showed us what was safe in our local forest.

Signs of Spring in North Idaho

After the last two longer-than-normal winters we have experienced here, it does not take one long to really appreciate the first signs of spring. The woods come alive with the thumping of ruffed grouse, the crowing of pheasants and the gobbling of turkeys. The chipmunks reappear from their long hibernation searching and scurrying about on the ground looking for food.

For us humans it's time to start planning our veggie garden, mend fences for the arrival of our beef steers and one of my favorite spring diversions, morel hunting. We found some of our first morels of the season just last weekend. Coral mushrooms come out during the second half of morel season and will post some picture of those then we find one.
I have to admit that I am running a little behind on the veggie garden but the weather is so cool this spring I think it will be okay. We will be planting this weekend sugar snap peas and lettuce. I have started my tomato plants on the first day of spring and they seem so tiny compared to the ones I see at the stores which are available right now. I seem to always cave in and buy a couple tomato plants because mine seem so small by the time I plant them the first week of June. But the funny thing is that small they may be the always end up as big as the store bought plants and produce more. I'm going to stay strong this year and resist the urge to buy any tomato plants. I have 20 started plants right now all along our south-facing window sills. Hopefully seeing the big trees out there will inspire them to grow big!

A One Pound Plus Moskvich

My two favorite types to grow here are Moskvich which is a Siberian beefsteak type hybrid and Red Agate which is a determinate saucing variety. I plant a lot of the other favorites, too, like Sungolds and Brandywines which also produce well during our short season.

Emma with a Red Agate

All the tomatos pictures on this post are from our 2007 season. We had tomatos last year but only few fully ripened to color in the garden and a majority of them had to be bagged until ripe. I attended the North Idaho Fair that year and did not see one red tomato! It made me feel so much better to see the blue ribbon winners were big green tomatos. Not that misery enjoys company but I figured if these folks that really know what they are doing still have green tomatos in August then I must not be too much of a failure after all!