40 Morel Mushrooms

Last Wednesday, morels were just nubbins. 

Last Wednesday I found a few small morel mushrooms in the woods at the base of a few small dead elms. They were too small to pick, so I have been letting them grow a little.

Margo, feeling pretty good with only 2 weeks of radiation before she is all done with cancer treatment drove up to the cabin for the 3-day weekend.  After being  beaten down, tired and pretty quiet for most of the past year, she is getting back to being sassy and independent again.   

I figured maybe this afternoon some of the morels might be big enough to pick to have a few with scrambled eggs for breakfast and a few to share with Mom (who loves them too), but most should wait another few days or even a week.  

Well, we headed back to the spot where I had found them and warning Margo to step carefully as there were many small ones around, and insisting she only pick the "big" ones, she began to pick them while I wandered off to another dead elm patch to look.  

Margo picks small morels even though I told her to leave them for me to pick next week. 

When I got back, she had picked 40--including the itsy bitsy ones too!     But, I suppose as she is only here for the weekend, she wanted to get her share.  Maybe a bought with cancer makes a person have the short term outlook.

  We looked all around the rest of the 50 acres of woods, and the only ones we found were that one group.   Usually we find at least a few different spots.   Lots of prickly ash to wade through; lots of wood ticks, but a fun couple of hours searching the woods.  

 The wild apples are blooming prolifically this year.  I counted 10 different apple trees spread here and there through the 50 acres.  These are not thorn apples, but actual big apples (at least some of them) seeded by the birds or deer and growing here and there in the woods.  

Last year, being out of commission with Myasthenia Gravis, I didn't spray the tame apples in the orchard, and they were extremely wormy.  I managed to get all the apples I wanted in the fall from a few of these wild trees.   Scattered in the woods, away from the established orchards, some manage to be wormfree.   

They grow tall, above the reach of the deer.  If the blooms are an indicator, both our orchard and the wild trees will have apples this year. 

 Had brunch with Mom and Everett this morning.  Everett spilled his water which led us to a cleaning binge.   Mom, at 91.5 is having vision problems and achy joints and so on and is not as able to keep up with things, so Margo, Ev and I did a little helping out.  Then we tilled the garden --peas, lettuce, spinach and radishes are up and started.  Got the lawn mowed on Thursday and did some more work on the new flower beds in front of the house.  

We put two potted tomatoes on stands near the mail box where Mom can pick them as she gets her mail each day.  The mail carrier comes into the yard and makes the loop with the mailbox near the sidewalk end, so Mom doesn't need to walk down the driveway--quite dangerous in the winter.  A cherry tomato and a yellow one already blooming in big pots at chest level.  

Mom found out that her already poor vision in one eye was even worse with glaucoma taking its toll.  She has another appointment with the eye specialist this week.  One eye is still OK, and the doctor wants to make sure it doesn't get bad too.    Getting to be older has its problems.   However, Mom is still pretty sharp and was commenting that Tiger Woods has a new girl friend.  He is her favorite on Sunday afternoon TV golf.