Morels in Scotland

Dreams...

Morels are rather notorious for causing severe cases of black envy among mushroom pickers. If you haven't found one in the wild, you can't help but consider yourself a second-class fungal citizen.

I am one of these unfortunate souls. Every spring I go through a period of typing "morels scotland" into Google, to find stories of people spotting the elusive delicacies next to parking lots, on landfill sites, in neighbours' gardens... the list of unlikely and excruciatingly mundane locations goes on.

I'll find them in the wild... someday.

... and reality

This year though I found them on a supermarket shelf, which is the next best thing. Fried with shallots in olive oil, they were delicious.

While searching for cooking instructions, I was reminded of the fact that morels are mildly toxic if eaten raw. What? Potentially poisonous fungi in a shop? There, now you know how dangerous it is to follow even the most self-evident rules of thumb when collecting mushrooms.

Stay safe, until next time!

Image credit: Black morels, used under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license