Organic. Period.

Here in southern Indiana it is mushroom-hunting season.

Some people really go nuts in their quest for the elusive morel mushrooms. If you want to find your own mushrooms in your own woods, you often have to be quick. Trespassing becomes a problem in some areas, and I’ve been known to sic the dogs on offenders in my woods. (Sorry, but these are MY mushrooms!)

Morel mushrooms are absolutely delicious. Some people call them American Truffles, and in fact if you are able to find them for sale, you will often pay more for them than you would for truffles. Nobody I know parts with any of their morels except to share them with family and friends. They are just too good. About ten years ago, I read that restaurants in Chicago were paying $80 per pound for morels. So far they cannot be grown commercially, although many have tried.

You can use morels in any cooked dish that you would use other mushrooms, but they are most often eaten breaded and fried around here. A healthier way to cook them is to saute them in a little olive oil or butter. I’ve used them on pizza, but it seems a waste to cloud the perfect taste of a morel with any other flavor.

Morels don’t always look the same, but they all have the signature “sponge” shaped top. The mature one pictured is darker and more pointed than many.  Some are more gray and rounded, some have almost no stem, and some can weigh a few pounds and be as large as a small canteloupe.

This morel is about 6 inches tall, including the stem.

Shrubs are ready to burst out in bloom. One of my favorite flowering shrubs is the lilac. The sweet fragrance is just delicious. The earliest bees are attracted, and soon the hummingbirds will be here as they migrate, some of them staying here to nest and some of them flying farther north.

My lilac was about 15 feet tall, but it was damaged by one of the ice storms last winter and I had to trim it back. Unfortunately, that means that most of the flower buds for this spring were lost, because lilacs set the buds during the summer for the following spring’s blooms. This is the reason that you prune your lilacs just after they have finished blooming in the spring.

Pepper seeds were started in these little peat pellets the same day the tomato plants were started. If you’ve never raised your own peppers from seed, you need to be aware that they take 14 - 21 days to sprout. I always move my tomato starts into larger pots at least once before they go out into the garden. Peppers…they may just go directly out in the garden from the peat pot stage.

The pepper plants have good little root systems growing from the bottom and sides of the peat pots. I’ll keep them fertilized with some fish emulsion  or compost tea, and set them outside in a couple of weeks. I have started many varieties of peppers, from California Wonders and Orange Belles, to several kinds of hot peppers. (The hotter, the better!)

The spring planting season is marching on, and cool weather crops are planted either as seeded crops or as transplants. The plants we’ve started indoors, mostly tomatoes and peppers, are growing bigger and stronger each day.

Without south facing windows, it can be tricky getting enough light for tomatoes to thrive indoors. My plants are a little leggy, as usual, but they are basically healthy. As long as they are actively growing they will do well as soon as they can be set outside. May 10 is the last expected frost date here, but I usually set my plants out during the first nice spell of weather after mid-April when I can get the garden tilled up properly. If you plant earlier than your “official” frost date, just have plenty of cover available in case a cool snap happens. Windy conditions are another weather factor to consider.

I prefer the optimistic view where my early transplants are out, just waiting for some really warm weather to give them the first honest growth spurt of the year.

Oregano is sending out new leaves now. I gave some divisions away last year, and the picture is my main clump for 2009. It will spread and grow to be 18 inches or so tall, and if I let it bloom it will go to seed and self-sow a nice area. A bit of my oregano bed was lost due to the fence rehab work we did.

I dry oregano for storage, and I also use it fresh in tomato sauces when I can them in the summer. It’s great mixed with other favorite herbs in a dried blend, which I use in all kinds of dishes as well as in herb bread recipes and herbed pizza dough.