Mushroom season

      Or "time to go shrooming" as many would say around here lol The picture below is some of the prized beauties we were so lovingly given by a fellow coworker :) 

 We absolutely love mushrooms (it's morels around here that is eaten) but we cannot find them to save our souls lol
Oh we can tell you the signs for them such as look for a ton of mayapples, look under rotting wood, look here look there. We know when the season comes in. Locally after winter you'll have your first warm up, then it will get cool and rain..then heat again. That is prime mushroom time!! The delicious little things pop out almost over night and they are selling for some rather good prices locally (anywhere from 35 to 50 dollars per pound).
 As for us, we are blessed with a coworker that can find them like crazy but could care less if she eats them and lovingly gives them away.
We soak them in salt water overnight. That loosens up any bugs hiding in them, any dirt and anything else!! We also cut them down the middle (I hadn't done that yet in this pic). After a good salt soak then we rinse them. Then you get grease (I use a deep fryer) hot. While it's heating up you take flour and add salt and pepper to it. Roll the mushroom in the mix then drop it into the oil when it's hot. As soon as they start turning that done shade of brown pop them out on a papertowel lined plate and enjoy. They are a house favorite. Kaya isn't quite into them yet and mainly loves to watch the bugs float out of them lol But we LOVE them. I wouldn't want them every single day or they'd lose that seasonal appeal.
  I can easily see how they go for up to 300 dollars a lb in California and places out west where they don't have them. They have this unique crunchy, greasy ...oh my flavor lol I'm trying to freeze a small mess this year just to see how it goes.
 Mushroom hunting is serious business and the old laugh is you know who your real friends are when they give you mushrooms lol People do NOT disclose their secret areas, how they find them or when.