-=> Quoting Shawn Highfield to Dave Drum <=-

 SH> The only ones I 100% can identify are the morels, so those are the
 SH> ones we hunt for each spring.

They are almost foolproof.

They are most abundant the first year after a forest fire; they love
feeding off of dead and dieing jack pine tree roots. We had a major
(over 300,000 acres) forest fire here near the city (50 miles away)
22 years ago that came right up to the edge of the highway, so the
burned area was easy to access the next year. There were millions of
morels all in plain sight as nothing else was growing back yet.
Hundreds of professional pickers and dozens of buyers flooded the
place but they couldn't collect even 1% of what was available.
Roslind and I picked buckets of them in a single Sunday afternoon.
Neekha was 7 months old and came along in a backpack. I remember she
got bit by a horse fly right on the top of her head which made her
cry. When another one approached her she balled up her little fists
and tried to punch it right out of the air.

Finally, getting to the point, we returned the next year, so she was
19 months old and walking. She had a little basket and was
collecting morels herself. Just the day before I had shown her pictures
of false morels, I spotted a false morel and asked her if we should
pick it. She was emphatic, "No! Toadstool! Poison!" and she stomped
it flat with her little boots. So yeah, pretty much foolproof.


MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
 
      Title: Landon Cook's Puffball Miso Soup
 Categories: Wild, Mushrooms, Soups
      Yield: 4 Servings
 
      1 c  Cubed puffball mushroom
      3 c  Water
      3 sm Carrots, peeled and sliced
    1/2 lg Onion, thinly sliced
      2 tb Heaping miso
      1 tb Peanut oil
      1 tb Sesame oil
      1 pn Wakame flakes
           Soy sauce to taste
 
  Bring water to boil in pot and add carrots plus inner rings of
  sliced onion. Continue to simmer, covered.
  
  Heat oil in pan. Add mushrooms. Chop remaining onions and add to
  pan. Carefully saute on medium-high so that cubed mushrooms are
  lightly and evenly browned. Lower heat.
  
  When carrots are tender, stir in miso, then add wakame flakes and
  contents of saute pan to pot. Cook 2 more minutes and serve,
  seasoning with soy sauce.
  
  From: Landon Cook, Fat Of The Land Blog
 
MMMMM

Cheers

Jim
       

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