Michael Pearce's Kansas Outdoors

A handful of happiness – a ripe morel. PHOTO BY MICHAEL PEARCE

My buddy Lonny must have sent me a half-dozen texts Sunday afternoon. Some had pics attached, while others did not.

For Lonny and thousands like him it was one of the best days of the year…morel mushrooms had begun appearing on his favored ‘shrooming lands.

As usual, his first finds were generally small and isolated to only a few of the many spots he’ll be patrolling regularly for a few weeks.

Oh, the place of his finds was south of Wichita, in the Arkansas River bottomlands.

Of course I could be more specific. Yes, I can drive right to the exact place. But I won’t.

Being taken to a someone’s best morel spot is somewhat of an honor, and shows you have his or her trust. It doesn’t even need to be implied that you’re to never return unless officially invited. To divulge even a general set of directions to the hallowed place would be akin to telling a complete stranger the friend’s work hours, the code to the security system at their house, and where in the home to find the guns and the heirloom diamonds and gold. Actually, it may be even worse.

People will do some things to find great-tasting morels they won’t do in other aspects of their life. We’ve had illegal ‘shroomers trespassing on our farm that would never illegally cross the fence to hunt or fish.

They’ll also stay up much into the night trying to figure out where this year’s morel motherlode could be. They’ll exhaust every rural legend they’ve ever heard about what makes ideal morel conditions, and how they can improve the ‘shrooming on their favored lands.

Me? I’m not that addicted, but walking from through the woods after Lonny’s texts with a nice gobbler over my shoulder, my eyes were locked on the ground. You just never know…,

YOU CAN CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON MORELS.

OK, so we’ve eaten enough grilled squash planks to build a battleship.

After making 24 loaves, I’m about baked-out when it comes to zucchini bread.

So,  it was a really big deal when a relative told us about yet another way for our garden’s most prosperous veggies to be prepared. That it’s ultra-healthy doesn’t hurt, either.

All you basically do is get a sizable squash, with the skin still on, a cheap potato peeler, and go crazy.

Well, it helps if you can make the strips as long as possible. Keep rotating the zuke or summer squash until you’re about down to the seeds.

I steamed our long strips in a strainer over boiling water. I’ve heard stir-frying works, too. I added garlic, and thinly sliced red pepper and onion to the strips for added flavor. It only takes a few minutes, like three to five, before the strips are done.

Voila!…you have a very tasty, and healthy, substitute for pasta.

We served ours with a spaghetti sauce that I’d started with a quality version in a jar and dressed up with fresh garden tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers and browned venison burger. I basically just squeeze the ‘maters into the sauce to get as much juice as possible.

That’s it. We thought we’d try it once and it will probably be a staple for us every summer from here on.

But we’ll still be doing the grilled squash planks, zucchini bread, squash stir-fry, sauteed zucchini, ….

The place was about as close to being a jungle as you’ll find in this part of the world.

This spring's warm days, with last week's rains, has made for ideal conditions for morel mushrooms.

Saplings and poison ivy plants tall enough to be buggy whips grew thick on the forest floor. Skin and clothing-grabbing briars rolled through the area like World War I barbed-wire.

We sweated and I bled, and were often crawling on hands and knees to get from place to place or to pick some of the most coveted finds in the Kansas outdoors.

And pick them, we did.

Conservatively I’d say my host, Lonny, and I picked at least 200 morel mushrooms from a location I’m sworn to never divulge…like I’d do that to someone who takes me to their sweetest of spots, anyway.

Word around the state is that the morels are up early this year, and especially plentiful because of ideal amounts of warm temps and soaking rains. Lonny said it’s been one of the best years he’s had in several. In fact, he and his wife and already picked the jungle clean on Sunday morning.

I headed to The Eagle with an eight-inch tear in my shirt, scratches on several parts of my body and more than a gallon of morels. Every bite will be cherished.

After I left, Lonny headed to  a favored fishing hole with his father and caught about 60 nice crappie.

It’s a very good time to be out and enjoying the Kansas outdoors.

Some of the about 200 morels picked Tuesday morning, from a spot that produced more than 500 on Sunday morning.

Every year my gardening horizons widen a bit more.

Four or five years ago it started with a couple of tomato plants in five-gallon buckets. This year I’m expanding the garden about 50-percent and starting some seeds ahead of time indoors.

Lazy as I am I skipped the “work” or putting dirt and seeds in small plastic cups and bought a “professional greenhouse” for about $5.

It’s basically a sturdy plastic tray with a clear plastic lid. It also came with 72 peat disks about as big around as a checker and twice as thick.

The directions were so easy even I only had to read them twice – wet the disks, insert a couple of seeds in each and place them in the tray with the lid on.

I had no clue things would go so well.

I had sprouts of yellow squash, zucchini and green beans within three days so I removed the lid. Ten days after planting I had some bean sprouts 14-inches tall.

Seriously! We could almost sit and watch the little plants grow. The amazing part was how we got that much plant out such a tiny amount of peat that’s only walnut-sized when wet.

The speed of growth caught me way off guard and my garden’s not quite ready to accept the plants.

So in the meantime I’ll be transplanting about 20 seedlings into one of the whisky barrels  Kathy uses for flowers for a week or so.

It’ll be interesting to see if the amazing growth rate continues.

But if one ends up going into the clouds I’m not climbing it. I have this phobia about giants, you know.