Morels

Morel season is here! Went out foraging this morning and brought home just under three pounds of the beauties. Found both big fat yellow and smaller grayish morels today.

Morel, Morchella esculenta, is a sac fungi, distinguished by the honeycomb-like ridges and furrows of its cap and hollow body. They commonly grow along riverbanks and forests at the base of hardwood trees and shrubs such as privet.

When harvesting morels, I like to use a curved-blade knife to cut them close to the ground rather than pull them up because pulling them can damage the mycelium and hurt the next cycle of fruiting. Further, when harvesting morels, it's good practice to try to leave some behind, both for the deer and also for the propagation of future morels. If we pick every one that we see, we leave none to release spores and reproduce and eventually a patch of morels might disappear. Often, though, there will be enough older morels around that have begun to decay that you can collect the younger fresh ones and the patch will go on to produce next year's bounty.

This is me holding some of the morels I found today! Side note, the shirt I'm wearing is one I got from participating last year in a march to raise awareness of the approximately 22 veterans who take their lives each day. It's tragic and needs more focus and attention. For more on this, please visit https://www.22toomany.com/.

The way I like to prepare morels is to clean them, of course, wash thoroughly and get all the slugs and ants and spiders out of the crevices, cut them in half and rinse off any sand that might be up inside or along the grooves. Sauté them in an ample amount of butter, add a little salt and pepper and cook to a thorough crisp. You want them browned completely, cooked through, they should have a bit of a crunch to them. We really prefer them this way as opposed to any other way, they're not nearly as good if they are at all mushy.  

On my foraging excursion today, there were heaps of mushrooms out. I spotted wood ear mushrooms, some jelly fungi, dozens of little brown mushrooms,  and some healthy turkey tails, Trametes versicolor. These rains have served the springtime mushrooms well. I also picked up these two small puffball mushrooms, Bovista, and spotted this friendly little turtle who hunkered down as I passed. I intend to fry up these little puffballs along with my morels. Should be a good dinner tonight!

My daughter holding one of the larger morels I found today. We'll be lucky if she leaves any for us tonight when we cook them, she loves her some gourmet mushrooms.

For more information about morels and mushroom identification, please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morchella and I recommend picking up a mushroom identification book or two. Morels are very easy to ID, but there are certain features to be mindful of in terms of the potential for lookalikes. The hollow body is the prime feature to spot, if you cut one in half and it's not hollow, it's clearly not a morel and I wouldn't recommend eating it.

Always be sure you are 100% positive of the identification of mushrooms before consuming them. Regarding the puffballs pictured above, if you're not sure about a puffball, cut it in half, if you see gills, it's not a puffball, it's a young fungi that hasn't yet opened up. Do not eat it. Also, if the puffball mushroom has any discoloration inside, this is a sign that the fungi has begun to produce spores, which are toxic, do not eat it. If you're not sure, ask an expert or do more research.

Thanks for reading and happy foraging!

Peace!

Arcadia Power

Discovered an amazing way to further reduce my carbon footprint and reduce my home's impact on the environment and wanted to share this information with my readers. Arcadia Power gives you a simple way to use clean, renewable energy at no additional cost to you, no effort and you get an added benefit of a very convenient dashboard to track your home's energy consumption.

For no fee, you're able to basically send your existing power bill to Arcadia Power where they basically trade Energy Certificates from wind farms to offset your exact monthly usage. They offer a free plan that can provide partial renewable or a premium plan to further maximize your use of wind and solar. Sign up here and check it out, there are no commitments, easily cancel if it's not for you, but it is definitely well-worth looking into.

For me, I'm proud to see that this first month of being part of Arcadia Power's program, we used so little power, that our entire usage was accounted for by renewables! That is an awesome feeling.

Baby Carrier and Morels

Check out this cool baby carrier. I've been using this Infantino Breathe Vented Carrier since my daughter was barely able to see over the top edge and it's been the perfect option to allow us to go on walks and hikes together. She loves it, still squeals with delightful anticipation when I get it out and put it on. She is comfortable in it, legs and arms can swing free, no poorly-placed buckles or straps that might pinch or bruise her, it's safe, convenient, light-weight and you can often find them on sale. This one right now is only $16.11, that's 27% off list price! My daughter and I even went out this spring and hunted for morels, this carrier was perfect, it allowed her to swing along with me as I traipsed through the brambles and the bushes and sought out those wonderful little mushrooms in the great Georgia outdoors.

Product Review: Hennessy Hammock

Product Review:  Hennessy Hammock
http://hennessyhammock.com/

If you've ever gone on a camping trip and ended up unwittingly setting your tent up atop cold, uneven land or a rock that's jabbing you in the rib when you lay down, you'll likely be a fan of this product. Gently swaying, suspended a few feet off the ground, the Hennessy Hammock is a brilliant, lightweight, comfortable sleep solution. The mesh gives you a beautiful view up at the night sky, or if it's rainy or drafty, the rainfly cover will provide plenty of protection from the wind or the rain.

I purchased the Expedition Asym Classic, retails for $169.95, and it has been a joy to go camping with this tent/hammock. Fits easily in my backpack, small and compact, lightweight, 2 lbs, 12 oz. Very convenient. They've added several new products to their line in the last year, and knowing the quality of this product, one can only imagine that they are worth every penny. As they note on their website, "The Hennessy Hammock is the most innovative solution to lightweight, comfortable camping on the planet." I agree.



The hammock is easy to set up and take down. Stretch it between two trees or equally solid objects and tie it down. The guide lines on each side of the tent can be staked or even wrapped around a large stone to prevent the hammock from swaying, but they're made of an elastic material so you can still have some give to the movement.

I must say that I recommend getting some sort of foam mat, maybe a yoga mat, some kind of roll-up sleeping mat to place underneath your sleeping bag inside this hammock because the draft can really chill your backside in the colder months. In the summer, this will feel wonderful and surely keep you cool. I also recommend being careful not to let your face or arm press against the mesh as you sleep because the mosquitoes will stick right through the mesh and nibble on you while you sleep. All in all, I highly recommend getting one of these if you plan to do a lot of backpacking and camping.




Last fall, I made a journey from Georgia to Wisconsin for a wedding, drove up North, stopped at about the 7 hour mark at Wayne Fitzgerald Park, camped out in my Hennessy Hammock for an excellent evening, awoke with a beautiful view of several deer and a whole brood of turkeys scattered about, then drove the remaining 7 hours onward to Wisconsin.Was a long but excellent trip.

Two Hennessy Hammocks

Another thing I think is cool is that Hennessy Hammock is a corporate sponsor of Leave No Trace.  The Hennessy Hammock is certainly nearly zero impact and an excellent example of a "Leave No Trace" shelter.  The environmentally-friendly design requires no ground leveling, trenching or staking.  When you walk away from your campsite, there will be no tent footprint and basically no evidence that you were ever there. The line of products has received multiple awards, endorsements, and mentions in everything from the NY Times to Backpacker Magazine, and I'd say it's all well deserved praise.

Everything in the bag

Tie straps, bag, hammock, small rainfly, large rainfly

Introduction

Hey everyone! Starting a new blog for the purpose of sharing some of my experiences and posting reviews for products that I personally use. Focus will revolve around the camping world. I'll talk about hiking, backpacking, hunting, fishing, campfires, and may get into some stories of finding wild edible mushrooms, edible plants, gardening, tree identification and so on.

I am 30 years old, originally from a tiny rural Wisconsin town, now living in Midtown, Atlanta. I'm finding that there is an abundance of parks and random green spaces sprinkled in and around metro Atlanta; nestled between the highrise hustle, concrete bustle, there is so much natural beauty to explore!

As a youth, my dad would take us hunting, fishing, foraging in the woods of Wisconsin, my mom would put us to work gardening, growing vegetables. My childhood held a lot of outdoor fun and excitement and I hope to share some of my tales with you! Although my day job is in the telecommunications field, I truly enjoy spending time outdoors and I find nature very beautiful; there is peace in plant life, and learning about nature puts you closer to it and can sharpen the appreciation of all that the natural world has to offer.

I hope you find this information entertaining and/or useful! Thanks for reading!