Our morel spring never sprung

Those of you who read this blog regularly may remember when, with lots of fanfare, we planted morel mushroom spawn a year ago January. The hope was that come spring when conditions were just right (a phenomenom known as “morel spring”), we’d get a bumper crop of our own earthy-flavored beauties. To encourage the mycelium (the net of thread-like fibers that’s the body of the mushroom) to spread underground, we carefully amended the plot with compostables and even ash from our pizza oven, and we kept the plot nice and damp. The instructions that came with the kit said it could take a year or two before we got results, but we had our forks poised nonetheless.

Well, that first spring came and went with no morels. And now we fast-forward a year, and I’m sad to report the same story. No ‘shrooms!

Here’s what little activity the plot has seen.

Whatever was digging here couldn’t find any mushrooms either

This birds’ nest is cute, but definitely not tasty

I’m imagining that decades from now, the morels will burst from the ground in a spontaneous display and future Sunset staffers will be dazzled and well-fed, if a bit puzzled, by their good luck.