Sweet Vitriol

Last night we were treated to a lovely thunder storm, complete with huge flashes of lightning and wall-shaking thunderclaps. We sorely needed the rain as it’s been a bit of a dry April around here. After Saturday’s attempt for morels I figured I’d go out on a foray today in hopes that the rain encouraged the mushrooms to pop their little heads up. Boy was I right, these yellow morels are almost the size of Luminiferous’ hand! Not only did I not have to drive 30 miles out of town this time, but I found a few nice little caches of morels essentially in my backyard. Now I’ve got a little secret too.

We spent the evening cleaning and stringing today’s finds to dry. There were a ton of the big yellows, a decent helping of the blacks (some call them grays at this stage due to the white edging on the caps), and five half-frees. Half-frees are a new variety to me, so named because unlike the other morels their caps aren’t connected to the stems the entire way down but just halfway, the rest creating a hanging skirt. I’m hoping to go back out in a couple days, as I left behind plenty of very young mushrooms to mature in the woods before picking them. I’ll probably sauté those and freeze them, so I can compare how the flavor holds up with the different methods of storage.

This weekend was the Western PA Mushroom Club’s annual Morel Madness Weekend. The weekend consists of two days of forays, slide-shows, and camping. Morels can be quite expensive at the market, largely due to the fact that they do not cultivate well. They have a unique texture, much more al-dente than most mushrooms, and have a very distinct flavor. Many who do not like most fleshy-capped mushrooms such as portabello or traditional button mushrooms enjoy morels, so give ‘em a try.

This year we might have been a bit early for the morels, it was hard to say. Most of us didn’t find a whole lot, and though one guy seemed to know the secret spot in the park where the morels were flourishing he wasn’t sharing his secret with anyone. Oh well. We might go back in a week and see what we can find.The outing wasn’t a complete bust though as we did find some rather tasty Dryad’s Saddle mushrooms, and were privy to the glories of spring in South-Western PA.

Throughout the wood were signs of spring oft missed by us city dwellers. Lovely white and red Trilliums made carpets through the forest, accented by the occasional patch of Jack-in-the-Pulpits. A few of our varieties of Trillium, including most of the reds, are classified as either at-risk or endangered, so it was quite a treat to get to see those. I was glad to see the deer hadn’t eaten them all up yet, as they are prone to doing. We also saw all manner of Violets ranging from white to yellow to purple, wild onions, garlic-mustard, and a few ramps.

Urban gardeners often think of the signs of spring as the crocuses, tulips, and daffodils we have planted into our yards. While I didn’t come home with even a single morel this time around, I did come home with a reminder of what spring looks like in our native forests. Maybe we can put in some trilliums for next year, to bring this reminder a bit closer to home.

After reading the All New Square Foot Gardening book, we built our own garden boxes.

We got some three inch deck screws, a bunch of two by tens cut to appropriate lengths for our four foot by six foot boxes, our drill and screwdriver and hauled it all into the basement for some drilling and screwing. We pre-drilled two holes in the ends of each six foot piece of lumber, laid out the lumber on the floor as it would look in its finished form, and then screwed our deck screws. We used deck screws instead of just regular screws because they’ll be more weather resistant.

After completing our boxes, we took them into the yard and dropped them in a good spot. However, our yard isn’t exactly flat, and the boxes wouldn’t lie horizontally no matter where we put them. I decided that an unlevel garden box would be a problem when it rained, since all the good soil we put into the boxes would just run out of the tilting wooden frames. So, I fixed the problem by leveling them out. I dug a good trench in a few of the corners such that the box could sit level horizontally.

Look at that photo. Check out those rocks we had to dig out. Along with the big rocks, there were bits of glass and chuncks of plastic buried about a foot deep. It looks like our yard is built on clean fill, which isn’t surprising given that in our hilly neighborhood practically everybody’s yard has been leveled out industrially.

After digging the trenches, I used the removed sod to bolster the opposite corners of the boxes. And now we have three big empty garden boxes waiting for our topsoil and compost.

Apologies for missing the formal Bloom Day, the ether-garden was hit with a power-outage and forced into unintentional radio-silence. I promise I’ll make it up to you with some cherry blossoms very shortly, just need the sun to co-operate and align itself properly.

Speaking of co-operation I stopped by my local co-op, the East End Food Co-Op today and they were putting out the first flats of locally-grown organic and heirloom transplant seedlings for sale! I didn’t get to see all of what they had, as they seemed to be explaining the different plants and prices to the staff when I arrived. I did see garlic chives, a few other herbs, and rhubarb. Mmm… rhubarb. I think I’ll have to snag myself some of those seedlings. Remember back when I was talking about what all I’d be growing this year, and how it was subject to change based on the available seedlings? Yeah- this is what I was talking about. I’m a sucker for baby plants. They’re just so darn cute (and tasty).

Spring is finally here! The windows are open, the sun is shining, and the flowers are peeking their little faces skyward. I did my best but I just can’t hold it in any longer, I just have to share photos of these lovely blooms.

A nice drizzle of rain left some lovely jewel-like drops on my crocuses, it was just so lovely I had to share. I’m so excited by this garden, it’s full of surprises. Since we moved into the house in August we have no idea what is in the garden for spring. We’re enjoying each day and the new joys that come up every day. First to come up were actually the dwarf irises, with the crocuses only coming up about a week later.

Today brought the first tulip of the season, and a trek into the backyard introduced me to the blooms on the weeping pussy willow. I never knew that pussy willows smelled so sweet when they blooming, now I do. The hydrangeas are making new leaves and leaf-buds, alas some were accidentally cut back this winter and probably won’t bloom since the blooming wood has been removed- oops! Oh well, life continues…

The next big surprise will be finding out what this mystery plant is. While clearing up some of the leaf mulch and cutting out a few bold weeds, I discovered a number of these bright red plant spikes coming up. Anyone know what these might be? To see a larger version of the photo for better analysis, it’s available on flickr.