Morel Mushroom hunt in central Oklahoma, 2014

No! No, I haven't found any yet! I haven't even looked. But I just found out today that this is morel mushroom season here, so I've done some reading. Here's what I've learned:

• Look when the plums and redbuds are blooming, after rains. The plums and redbuds just started blooming here in the last few days. Rain is forecast for much of the next week.
• Look in cedar thickets, under elms, in forest margins, in Johnson grass, and ditches/other moist areas.
• The season can last 6 weeks or more.

So I'll be out this week to scout likely locations, and will report back.

UPDATE: Nothing to report. One of the warmest, driest springs in Oklahoma history. Try again next year.

How to Process Hickory Nuts

With the help of my little tree identification book, I misidentified our local hickories as Pignuts - until I ate one. I read that pignuts are usually pretty awful, so I tried one of ours to see if it was a less awful variety, but they were delicious. I did some more research and found that my ID book was not very thorough, and that what we have here are black hickories.

The sap from hickories can be processed the same as maple, but the sap is less sweet. I was considering doing this when I thought we had pignuts, but tasty varieties of hickory nuts sell for $5 a pound (unshelled!,) so there is no way I'm going to steal sap from these valuable nut trees.

Eating Milkweed and Nopales

Thistles, Green Milkweeds, Horse Nettles, and Johnson Grass have had us out mowing with the scythe this week. On the second day of selective mowing, I looked up these plants and found that thistles and green milkweeds are edible. Allegedly.