The Magic of Morel Hunting

Every spring we look forward to morel hunting. Some folks really love the flavor of morels. i admit, they just taste like a mushroom to me, nothing all that special.  The thing that makes them exciting to find is in the hunt itself.

 Morels are funny things. i often tell people the best way to find morels is to stop looking. In all our years of morel hunting we almost always find the first one as soon as we 'give up'.   Once you you spot that first one, the others just seem to appear all around as if they were little wood sprites hiding the whole time. 

Morel season typically begins around the middle of April and can last until June, depending on weather conditions. i've learned from experience that they first start appearing the same time the trillium and mayapples begin to appear.  Last week i was thinking about morels, so we too a drive to a spot where we'd found some a few years back. Once we got there and took a look at the wildflowers that were blooming i realized we were still a bit early.  i knew that the dwarf iris were in full bloom when the morels appeared.

Last week while cleaning out my native wildflower bed, i spotted this tiny little morel! It's was less than an inch tall and had just started coming up. We had rain predicted for later that week and i knew that after the rain, once the sun came out the morels would start appearing.  In the passed when we found morels i would shake them over this garden hoping that they would eventually spore.  For the last few years i have found one or two morels in the bed each spring. i never pick them, always hoping they will spore and become well established here. Morels are tricky though, and conditions have to be perfect for them to grow.

After the rain, i waited a few days and then took off hiking in the woods behind our house. i crossed over the little creek, and headed up an embankment where i saw a large tree down. There are a lot of trees down in our woods, but i just had a feeling about this one.

The first thing that caught my eye was the bright orange red spotted newt efts that seemed to be every where.  i squatted down to get a picture of one, and to my surprise saw a morel right next to it!

So then i began to look around. i saw more efts, and mor morels!  They were not easy to find.  i found most right around that large downed tree, but found many others in the same area but several yards away. Some were in a ravine, and some were in an open area that was full of green woodland plants. i don't know what type of tree was down, but i believe it was hardwood, most likely an oak tree or a poplar.  From what i have read, morels are most often found around dead elm trees, under old apple trees and occasionally around oak and poplar. 

After hunting the area and finding as many i could, i headed back home. i always collect morels in an old onion bag hoping that they drop spores along the way.  i wandered down to our creek where there in an old apple tree. For years i've carried the morels down there hoping to get them to spore under the tree.  To my surprise when i  began shaking my morel bag under the tree, i found a couple already coming up there!

The next day i took the family out morel hunting.  My girl gave up before she even started looking and was the first to find one! 

My boy was feeling a bit discouraged when every one had found one except him. As soon as he gave up, he found one!

My husband found the largest one, and was incredibly proud of it. lol.

My picture is a bit blurry, but this was the first batch that found. i found a few others after this, and my total for this spring is at 43.  That's the most i have ever found! We are getting rain again today, so i'm already excited about going out hunting again this weekend. 

We prepared the morels by dipping them in seasoned flour and frying them in butter. They are quite tasty, but for me the best part is really just in the magic of finding them.

Garden update- May

Every spring i get eager to start planting early, but the weather never quite cooperates. With our low flow well, i can not irrigate and so i am very dependent on the rain. Without a working tiller i've been turning the soil by hand. It is heavy with clay and very dry, so i've had to wait for the rain to soften the soil enough to turn it and pull the weeds.  Too much rain and it's a muddy mess that washes all the seeds away. So i often find myself obsessing about the weather and waiting for those perfect days to plant and work outside.

We were still getting freezing temperatures the second week of April, so some of my cool crops were planted later than i like.  Last year i was enjoying my first salad near the end of April, but this year i'm just beginning to pick fresh greens the second week of May.

Another week and i can start putting my summer veggies out. i have 30+ potted tomatoes i've grown from seed. Most every thing else i seed directly in the ground.

My spinach is finally big enough to pick. i like to pinch off some of the baby leaves for salad, and allow the rest of the plant to continue growing. i sow spinach seeds in a few different gardens and stagger the plantings so that i am harvesting it for a extended time. It's a cool weather crop, and does well in partial shade. It tends to bolt a little slower when it stays cooler during the day. Spinach freezes well, and we eat a ton of it, so you just can't really plant too much.

My loose leaf salad greens are ready to be picked. This is the red and green oak leaf lettuce. i also planted a red romaine, a speckled head lettuce, majesty lettuce, red salad bowl, Black seeded simpson  and a mesclun  mix.  Lettuce also does well in partial shade for extended season growing.

We've been working on asparugus bed for several years. i add a few new crowns each year, and we are constantly building up the soil. It still seems like we never have enough. :) Although the plants are doing well, and producing lots of spears,  it still takes about 1 week of collecting spears before i have enough for one meal. 

First harvest of 2014, a bit later than usual.  We've been eating a bit crappy all winter, so it's really nice to have a homegrown salad and fresh asparagus for dinner. i've been working on my strawberry patch this spring and am hoping it does well. Most of the plants are just flowering, but i did find a couple red berries.  

The little morels i found behind the house a few days ago. i've found 43 this year, which is a record for me. i've never done an serious morel hunting, and tend to only find them when i'm not looking. :) Always a treat and exciting to find.  We are getting a lot of eggs right now and are able to share them with a neighbor which is always nice.

We are supposed to get some rain this weekend, so hopefully i'll be spending the next few days getting the rest of the garden turned and planted. i have broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, purple potatoes, swiss chard, peas, garlic onions, beets and kale planted and starting to come in.  i planted some summer squash yesterday, and am still trying to figure out where i am going to plant everything. Last year we were hit with late blight that affected the tomatoes and potatoes in all of my gardens, so i need to figure out a different place to put them this year.  i also have voles in my sweet potatoes bed, and the one of the other gardens so i have to find a new place to put sweet potatoes and other root vegetables as well. 

i've been reading that castor oil is a good deterrent for voles, so i'm going to try that. They really did a ton of damage last year, i found tunnels in my raised beds and in almost all of my gardens. i think part of this is because i didn't have a cat outside patrolling the area.  Tom typically hung out by those gardens and was quite good at catching the voles. Last year we were in the camper, and although Tallulah was outside a lot during the summer she stayed close to the camper and so she wasn't spending any time in the gardens that the voles were in. Now that we are back in a house, she hangs out closer to the garden and i'm really hoping she helps control the vole population this year.

Every year we are faced with new garden challenges. i'm really hoping we can get through a year without the late blight, which is just devastating. i bought floating row covers, so i'm going to try using them on broccoli and squash. Cabbage worms and vine borers are always a problem, and the row cover should help with that. 

We have a lot of projects we are working on this spring, and i hope to try and document some of them (i'm never very good at that. ).  Right now, just getting the garden in is the main goal.  

Around the Homestead- Chickens

April has been a very busy month for us around the homestead. We are finally getting back into our groove and starting to see a bit of progress. My garden tiller is dead, so i've been working on turning up the garden by hand using a shovel and pitch fork. It's a lot of work and so i have not cleaned out all of the gardens yet. 

i've been pulling and re-potting a bunch of catnip which seems to come up everywhere, and i've been pulling a lot of chickweed as well. Chickweed is edible, but i have an abundance and so i tend to feed most of it to my chickens.  They absolutely love it. 

i started the year with a rather small flock, only 11 birds. i have one mixed breed rooster, 3 game hens, 1 delaware, 1 black star, 1 Black Australorp, 1 speckled Sussex, 1 Molted  Java, 1 Campine and only one hen that came from my original birds.  The small black hen is the daughter of Sunny, who was the daughter of Little Brother, who was the son of our very first chicken, Mama hen. :)  We lost both Sunny and Little Brother last year. i've been hoping the black hen would get broody and hatch out some peeps, but so far she hasn't.  The Blackstar, and Black Australorp are both 4 or 5 years old are rarely lay. The other birds lay white or cream colored eggs. i've been a bit disappointed by the variety of colors. So i've been on the hunt for some new hens.

One of my wild hens disappeared while we were in Florida. i found her setting on a clutch of eggs when we returned. She was setting on 8 eggs, but only two ended up hatching.  This was really disappointing, we love peeps and were hoping for more.  So when i stopped by the farm store i ended up coming home with 8 new chicks. :)

 i picked up 6 Buff Silkie Bantams, and two Tetra Tint.  The Silkies are really just novelty.  i've always wanted some. i also picked up the Tetra tint, only because they were guaranteed pullets.  i have no idea what i am getting with the Silkies. 

i didn't really know anything about Tetra Tints. They are a cross between White Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds. They are a lightweight bird, like the Leghorns and should produce light brown 'tinted' eggs.  

Since i already have the brooder set up,i figured what's a couple more? :)  i found someone selling Black Copper Marans and decided to get a couple.  They lay the dark brown eggs and are often referred to as chocolate egg layers.  i also picked up three Cream Legbar Cross.  i'm not sure what they are crossed with, but was told they should produce blue, green or olive colored eggs. So hopefully i'll have a few hens in the mix and not just a bunch of roosters. :p

They are all still inside in the brooder, but i'm hoping to move at least some of them outside soon. i'll keep you updated on their progress.  

Spring Break Hiking- Hanging Rock, NC

On the last day of our spring break we decided to head to North Carolina to check out Hanging Rock State park. It's not too far from us and is actually pretty close to Pilot mountain where we have hiked many times before.   i did a little research on it, and found that there are may waterfalls in the park and was excited to check it out. i printed up this waterfall tour to take with us. 

Hanging Rock has a really nice Visitor's center. There was some interactive educational displays, and a small gift shop.  Almost all of the hiking trails start here in the parking lot near the visitor's center. There are indoor bathrooms and a water fountains to fill up water bottles.  So it ended up being very convenient that we would end up back here after hiking each trail. 

The first waterfall we checked out is the Upper Cascade Falls. This one is across the road from the visitor's center and only about .2 miles. It was a easy trail, and falls are beautiful. There is a small wading pool in front of the falls where the kids can get their feet wet.  There was a family at the falls when we arrived, they were sitting along the edge with their feet in the water and the space was a bit too crowded for us to stay very long. We snapped a quick picture and then headed on to the next trail. 

The next trail we took was the Hanging Rock Trail. It is listed as only being 1.3 miles, but i swear it was the longest mile of my life.  ha ha. i'm wondering if it was 1.3 miles as the crow flies, because it felt much longer than 1.3 miles, and we hike all the time.  So this picture was taken at the base of Hanging rock. We still have to climb all the way up to the top.  The trail isn't really difficult, but it is a little strenuous. If you have any issues with heights i would not recommend climbing to the top. 

This photo was taken at the top of Hanging Rock, although we have not yet walked out onto the actual Hanging Rock ledge. i was already pretty terrified at this point. That cliff behind us, just goes straight down. It doesn't look like much in the photo, but it was really scary. The man that took the photo for us, made a gasping noise when he went to hand me back the camera and stepped closer to the edge. He wife was sitting on the rocks across from us and afraid to move. i honestly had no desire to climb out onto the ledge, this was plenty high enough.

So this is a nice shot of Hanging Rock.  In just a moment, we are going to walk around to it and then walk out and sit on the edge of this ledge. There were a lot of folks at the top of Hanging Rock, i'm not quite sure how i managed to get a picture without anyone on it. Most folks were hanging back on the less scary areas. 

This photo was borrowed off a page about Hanging Rock. Just to show you some perspective. People are seriously freaking crazy. lol. 

Here is my family sitting the same place the folks above are sitting.  i was just about having a panic attack, and kept telling Kenan not to go all the way to edge. My knees literally turned to jelly and i had to sit down about half way out on the ledge. i was almost in tears, begging Kenan to come back up to where i was.  So, sorry to say i did not enjoy Hanging Rock. There were a lot of young adults/college students sitting right out on the edges. i even watched one girl's foot slip and she was walking out on a ledge and had to look away so afraid she was about to fall. 

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The view from Hanging rock was spectacular. We could even see Buffalo Mountain on the horizon, although it's tricky to see in the photo. i'm always amazed to see trees growing out of the cracks in the rock. There were quite a few at the top of Hanging Rock.

We even spotted this Fence Post lizard at the top. This was the time i'd ever seen a fence post lizard, so i thought that was pretty cool. i have the goal every year to see/identify something i've never seen before. It's amazing to me that after living here for 14 years, i still find new things each each. 

After coming down from Hanging Rock, we walked back to the Visitor's center to refill water bottles and then continued on to the Indian Creek trail.  The frst falls we came upon are Hidden falls, but there were some folks ahead of us that turned down the path to those falls so we continued on to Window Falls. It is  .6 miles to the Window Falls. These are absolutely beautiful falls. There were some young folks who had put up a hammock here and were chilling out by the falls and smoking some funny stuff. ;)  So we didn't hang around long, just snapped a couple pictures and then went back to Hidden Falls. 

We were all getting pretty tired at this point, and it was starting to get late so we know this was going to be the last hike even though we didn't get a chance to see all of the falls.

Hidden Falls, are just off the Indian Creek Trail only about .4 miles from the parking lot. There was no one else at these falls when we got here, which was really nice. These are smaller falls, but the water is shallow and the kids were able to kick off their shoes and play in the water. 

After leaving Hidden Falls, we headed back home. Here is a nice view of Hanging Rock.  This is a wonderful park to explore. i look forward to coming back to see the rest of the waterfalls. We did not get to see the Lower Cascade falls or Tori's Den and waterfall.  There are several other trails that i would love to come back and hike, but i do not ever need to go to the top of Hanging rock again, ever. :) 

Spring Break hiking- Beaver Dam Creek

 After visiting Panther Creek, we continued down the road and stopped at Beaver Dam Creek.This is a short established walking trail in Hillsville, VA.  It's really close and makes a nice afternoon family walk.  We typically spot a few wildflowers and the kids enjoy throwing rocks in the creek.  We usually pass a jogger or two, but it's never very busy here.

The trail follows the creek, and new raised bridges were put in where they had been partially washed away last year or the year before.  We spotted a little warbler here, although i was unable to identify it.

The trail is flat, so the kids love to run ahead and climb on the big rocks. It's really a pretty safe/ family friendly trail.

i was a bit disappointed by the lack of flowers. i thin we are just a couple weeks early, for the trillium and may-apples to arrive.  Skunk cabbage was popping up everywhere, although most of the flowers had dried up and the green shoots were beginning to open. 

i found some Shrub Yellowroot on the edge of the creek. Although the flowers are tiny and easily overlooked, if you take a second to really look at them they are quite lovely ad delicate. 

Every year we come to Beaver Dam looking for tadpoles.  The first year we visited we found both tadpoles and newtpoles.  i didn't have any luck raising the newtpoles, but we were able to raise and release the tadpoles.  We found egg mass in one of the swampy areas. i'm not sure what it is from. 

We found tadpoles in one of the puddles in the parking area.  There were tons of tadpoles in all sizes. i often wonder what happens if the puddle dries up, as it hasn't rained in days and there really wasn't much water in the puddle. :(

i just happened to have a bucket with me. ;) So we scooped up a few to bring home and raise. We'll release them once they grow into frogs.  We raise tadpoles almost every year, but didn't get to last year. So i was pretty excited to find them this year. :) 

i really like that Hillsville has this established walking trail that is well maintained by the town. i would love to see something like in Floyd.