In season: morels

Monday, May 4, Kennesaw Farmers Market, Kennesaw. 3 – 7 p.m. New day, new times and new location. Depot Park, 2829 Cherokee Street. http://www.kennesaw.com/kennesaw-farmers-market/

Cooking demos:

10 a.m. Saturday, May 2. Chef Joey Ward of Gunshow. Peachtree Road Farmers Market, Atlanta. www.peachtreeroadfarmersmarket.com

FOR SALE

Just coming into season: peas

Vegetables: artichokes, arugula, Asian greens, asparagus, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celery, chard, collards, endive, escarole, fennel, frisee, green garlic, herbs, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, morels, mushrooms, mustard greens, pecans, potatoes, radicchio, radishes, ramps, rutabaga, sorrel, spinach, spring onions, strawberries, sweet potatoes, turnips, winter squash, zucchini

From local reports

One Thursday evening in early April, Julie Kruzic of Roswell was at the Sweet Apple Farmers Market buying fresh morels from Shadawn Zareh of Alpharetta’s Farmed & Foraged. The appearance of morels at the market reminded Kruzic of her Cincinnati childhood when she picked these special mushrooms every May 15. “They came up near our compost pile, which was a massive mound of leaves. We’d get a few morels and when we rinsed them, we’d make sure to pour the rinse water back on the same ground to keep the morels coming back each year,” said Kruzic.

Morels would no doubt delight a child finding them in the landscape. They’re curious looking mushrooms, resembling small Christmas trees with narrow stalks and pointed, sponge-like caps. They can grow up to 6 inches tall.

A true spring treat, morels are considered the most delicious of all mushroom varieties. The stems and caps of edible morels are hollow, which makes them relatively easy to distinguish from the false morel with its stem filled with something resembling cotton candy. If you have designs on harvesting your own morels, Zareh recommends joining the Mushroom Club of Georgia where experienced foragers can guide your hunt and help assure you of a safe harvest.

Morels arrive sooner here in Georgia than in Ohio, appearing in mid-March. Foragers say that when trillium and violets begin to appear in spring gardens, morels will not be far behind. They’ll continue to pop up as long as temperatures stay cool.

Zareh forages within an 80-mile radius of Atlanta, following the morel trail but also foraging for other blossoms, shoots and leaves. She moved to metro Atlanta from Portland, Oregon, a place where foraging has been raised to an art form. For years she only harvested for herself.

A kitchen and bath designer, Zareh began building a business of foraging about six years ago. “I loved getting to know the farmers who were growing my food. I’d go to the Morningside Farmers Market meeting the organic farmers, and volunteered on the farms on the weekends. I enjoyed it so much I decided to get into it full time. Part of my business is helping people design edible landscape and sustainable structures for their gardens. I like being part of the solution,” she said.

She finds morels near creeks, frequently under the shade of ash, elm and tulip poplar trees. They even hide in the shade of that invasive nonnative plant, the privet shrub. While she’s out, she might also be gathering red bud or sumac blossoms and other wild edibles that frequently surprise her customers.

She’s very careful when she harvests morels, leaving the roots in the ground so they’ll continue to reproduce.

Zareh brings her foraged items to the Thursday evening Sweet Apple Farmers Market in Roswell, and occasionally to the Saturday Decatur and Sunday Grant Park farmers markets depending on what she’s been able to find. She posts her harvest and where she’ll be selling on the Farmed & Foraged Facebook page each week.

She also sells her foraged items to local restaurants like Oak Steakhouse and Colletta in Alpharetta, Decatur’s Iberian Pig, and to Hudson Rouse of Homegrown restaurant in Atlanta’s Reynoldstown neighborhood. When he can get his hands on them, Rouse puts morels on the menu as a special.

What Zareh doesn’t sell to restaurateurs or at farmers markets, she enjoys at home. “I like to saute them in butter; that’s the classic. But lately I’ve been dipping them into an egg batter and then breading them with crushed saltines. Fried to a crisp, they’re delicious.”

If you buy morels from a local forager, they will probably package them in a paper bag. Keep the morels in that bag and refrigerate them until you’re ready to clean and cook them. Freshly foraged morels will keep up to 4 days in your refrigerator.

The morel harvest is completely unpredictable. One Sunday it took Zareh four and a half hours to harvest two pounds of morels, while another day she was able to harvest 15 pounds in about two hours. The random nature of the harvest, and the distance traveled to get to the places most morels like to grow, makes morels a costly treat. But in their brief moment, they are the stars of the spring harvest.

As someone who has worked with morels over the years, Homegrown’s Rouse has developed a method for cleaning morels that works even if the morels are sandy. He suggests cleaning them by making up a mixture of very cold water and a little cornstarch. “Prepare your morels by slicing them in half lengthwise. Then stir them vigorously in the cornstarch-water solution. Do this twice using clean water each time. The idea is to wash them as quickly as possible without saturating them with water. Morels are best used when they are fresh. In order to maintain this freshness do not wash them until immediately before you are about to cook them. Lay the rinsed mushrooms on a dry towel and gently pat them dry before cooking.”

Hudson Rouse’s Morels and Kale in Gravy

Georgia morels may be fading away, but morels can occasionally be found at specialty grocers and will become more plentiful as morel season opens up in other parts of the country.

Rouse recommends serving this morel and kale gravy over your favorite buttermilk biscuits. At Homegrown, he uses a White Lily Southern biscuit recipe just like the ones his grandmother made. The gravy is delicious with morels and kale, but would be just as delicious with other seasonal mushrooms and greens. Georgia morels may be on the way out, but Zareh says keep an eye out for chanterelles, the “flowers of the forest,” which will appear at farmers markets in mid- to late May.

1/2 cup unsalted butter, divided

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups stock (vegetable or chicken)

1 cup buttermilk

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 ounces morels, sliced in half lengthwise and cleaned

4 cups roughly chopped kale, stems removed

4 hot buttermilk biscuits

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour and continue stirring until the mixture begins to bubble. Add 1/2 cup stock and whisk to combine. Continue adding stock until all is used, then reduce heat and add buttermilk. Stir to make a smooth gravy then season to taste. Lower heat and keep warm.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add morels and saute for 2 minutes. Add kale and saute another 2 minutes.

Split biscuit in half and divide morel-kale mixture between biscuits. Top with gravy. Serve immediately. Serves: 4

Per serving: 652 calories (percent of calories from fat, 54), 18 grams protein, 61 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 41 grams fat (18 grams saturated), 64 milligrams cholesterol, 723 milligrams sodium.