oregon | mushroom consumption

the morels were obviously edible, but during our hunt, we also found a variety of mushroom that we weren't certain of. we did what was most logical....fill up an entire bag to take back home and then google it!

we thought maybe they were cauliflower mushroom at first, but the image search didn't leave us feeling very confident. i mean, there are many deadly mushrooms out there and i certainly wasn't interested in dying two days later. but, hope struck when isaac's mom suggested we google "coral mushroom." grins formed and immediately isaac typed away. AH-HA!

with that, the mushrooms was prepared and happily consumed!


on a related note, i was wandering around a store that sells every odd end, and came across these giant morels the same day i edited the morel photo above. needless to say, i was surprised and delighted by such serendipity! 

oregon | mushroom hunting

it had been far too long since visiting beloved oregon, so i took a quick trip up during memorial day weekend. it was perfect for many reasons, but one significant one was that i got to go mushroom hunting with my friend isaac and his brother carlos. 

we drove out to mt. hood national forest from the east side, and carlos tells me to pull over on a relatively abandoned road. i'm thinking, "interesting....right here??" but what do i know, he's the mushroom hunter, not me. so we pull over and start walking into the forest. within three minutes, my excitement changes to, "it's impossible to find mushrooms!" (oh, fickle liz.) i then proceed to hear a small chuckle from one of the guys.

about 15 minutes later, i hear carlos yell, "i found one!" isaac and i rush over to see the morel. i arrive last and ask, "where is it?!" carlos tells me to look for it and i quickly take out my laser focused mushroom vision glasses and begin searching. i look all around that area while isaac and carlos stand there watching me.  umm... turns out it was right next to my foot where i first stood. next time, i'm not relying on those freaking glasses. 

anyway, we roam around for another 30 minutes or so and without any luck, we decide to go to another location. when we get to the new spot, we begin the same process of walking slowly through the forest, scanning for the disguised lil guys. funny thing is that although they're hard to identify, once you see a morel, it is impossible to not see. in fact, we got a chance to record the 2nd morel find of our hunt and my very first mushroom!

take a look!