MycoRant

University of Illinois Offers Morel Hunting Workshop

The University of Illinois extension service will offer a morel mushroom hunting workshop on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 from 1-2:30 PM. According to Morel mushroom hunting workshop at the U of I Extension:

University of Illinois Extension Henderson-Mercer-Warren unit will offer a workshop on morel mushroom hunting at the Warren County Extension office, 1000 N. Main St., Monmouth. The presentation will be via the University of Illinois telenet system and local computer PowerPoint presentations, allowing live discussion between the instructor and gardeners throughout Illinois.

It would be interesting to find out how this sort of hybrid “webinar” format works out. Any attendees are invited to let us know.

Beer Company Introduces Curry Sauce with Morels

And now for some news from the pub. The Publican that is. According to Cobra Beer unveils the ultimate curry sauce, the brewery is celebrating “National Chip Week” (a fine British tradition no doubt), with the introduction of a curry sauce that includes in its ingredients real gold and morel mushrooms.

The sauce will be on sale all this week in London’s Cafe Spice Namaste restaurant where head chef Cyrus Todiwala helped Cobra develop the unique recipe, which includes gold leaf and other premium ingredients including Morel mushrooms worth £150 a kilo.

Scatter My Ashes Over My Favorite Morel Grounds

The recent obituary of Carl Edward Stewart notes his passion for the outdoors and mushroom hunting in particular. So great was his love of mushroom hunting that his ashes will be scattered over his favorite morel hunting grounds later in the spring. The spot has been identified only as being “somewhere north of the equator.”

Earl had a passion for the outdoors, centered around activities with family and friends at his beloved lake cabin in Minnesota. He had a special gift for building webs of connections with friends through ice fishing, acting as a judge at local bicycle races, and mushroom hunting. An accomplished mycologist, he was familiar with dozens of edible species. Earl pursued mushrooms with such zeal that it was not unusual to find him scratched and bleeding from crashing through the woods, yet smiling joyfully – morel mushroom in hand. His enthusiasm for introducing friends to mushroom hunting was matched only by his reticence in divulging the locations of his precious mushroom spots.

A true morel man, through and through.

Tags: beer, curry, morel hunting, morel hunting grounds, morel mushrooms, morels