Another Missed Moral Season.

Cheryl and I traveled to Muscatine today,  for our $1 a slice pizza and a little bit of outdoor activity.  ( mostly for the pizza, though.... I so love cheap food!)  We did our usual run around the river and after eating our Pizza,  we headed to the Wildcat Cave State Park for some Forest therapy and a mushroom hunt. 

There are plenty of Elm trees at the park, but no mushrooms.   Well... No Morel Mushrooms.   I'm convinced last year was a fluke.   I'm sure we missed it, as Mother's day was traditionally the time we would go out hunting for them back in Michigan ( over 100 miles NORTH of the Iowa Latitude....) And once again,  The Morel Mushroom season has managed to frustrate, irritate and evade me.  

What is one to do?   We have no private land here. All we have is the public parks and state land.   We do not have any friends showing us their "secret hunting spots."  Nor has this year been particularly consistent with their ideal mushroom weather. Three weeks ago it was in the 80's!   Last night there was a freeze warning!  The ground has to be 50 degrees for several days to trigger the mushrooms to grow... or so all the books and video's tell me.   So what gives?

Looks like Squirrels got here first.

The good news is that we did find some mushrooms.   Golden Oysters!  ( A SUMMER mushroom, for those not in the know.)   These small pinning mushrooms looked like they got a little frost bit last night, but I'm sure they might have been able to mature had we not picked them.  Cheryl suggested that by the Oysters making an appearance,  it only shows that Morel season is most likely over by now.   AND.. We should begin looking for the Golden Oysters around our area, where we know they pop up over several months.  

Drool!

There was more than just scouting for possible stray Morels.   At the Farmer's Market last weekend,  one of Cheryl's Customers showed us a tree FILLED with  Chicken of the Woods!(Laetiporus sulphureus)  The Chicken of the Woods only comes out in the fall, but I believe I saw a tree last year that had some old blackened mushrooms on the trunk.   I wanted to see if we could find it again. We did not.  So,  looks like we will have to revisit the Wildcat Caves later in the Fall to see if we can catch them popping out. 

Other than that,   not much has been going on here.   We have an event this weekend, so we will have to skip the Farmer's market.   Cheryl has been baking a bunch of Dutch Recipes and testing out how they fair over several days.   And I have been fooling around with Origami, as usual.   Rain is predicted this weekend and possibly Monday,  so any plans for Chalk Murals are on hold.  Besides,   it is a little too cold out there, as 50 degrees with wind tends to freeze my fingers and blow the chalk off the sidewalk.  It almost seemed better back before Easter!

Blue Heron fishing in the Mississippi.

Thanks for clearing that up, Google!

Hope everyone is enjoying the middle of the week.  I'm encouraged that the Goldens are popping out now.   They are more consistent than those miserable Morels!   Rotten Morels.   Irritating Morels!  What kind of Mushroom guy can't find a Moral?  One that does not care!  That's who!  Give me the Summer Mushroom any time!  (If this sounds like "sour grapes"  you are not entirely wrong.)  Thanks for stopping in. And if you managed to find any Morel Mushrooms this year.... I'm "very happy" for you. 

Self Aware Note:  I just discovered I was spelling Morel Mushroom with an "A". (Thanks SpellCheck!  For not catching that one...)  Meaning: I was having a Moral crisis over Morel Mushrooms!