In Search of Asparagus

Morels in the Wild

Ok so here is the story. I set off today with two of my three dogs down the Green Bay trail in search of this asparagus I had heard about from my gardener friends Nick and Amy. They own one of the secret gardens which line the walking trail. You will be hearing a lot about the secret gardens in posts to come. Anyway they gave me specific instructions on how to find this asparagus. It was to the north of their garden and fenced in but the fence was all rickity and sometimes you will find a pot hanging from a post. They said it was being tended by a 90 year old Russian woman. Sounded easy enough right. We'll I kept going past past their garden and no luck. I walked with the dogs until I realized I had gone to far that I had to have missed it.

So back I went and kept a better look out for anything resembling a garden. Finally across from Nick and Amy's garden I ran into an old couple who have owned a secret garden for 35-40 years. I forget their names but they gave me a bunch or rhubarb last year. So I stopped to chat and asked them if they had seen this asparagus I had heard of. They said they had not heard of the asparagus but the garden of the Russian woman was there and they pointed to an area that was fenced and rusted hidden behind trees. It had christmas lights intertwined with wire and for the life of me I could not figure out how to enter this rectangular wire mess.

I was intrigued by the stuff inside the garden area. It looked like a garden junk yard. I could'nt figure out how anything could grow in there. That is where Nick and Amy got the beautiful stalks of asparagus they showed me? I had never seen asparagus this long. It had to be 12-14 inches. They said it was not woody and would be up again in a few days. Ok so my journey did not lead me to my asparagus photo. However, my trip in search of asparagus was not for naught. My old couple who grow amazing rhubarb gave me a big bunch to carry back down the trail. I had my hands full. Two dogs pulling to sniff every which way, me with camera in tow and a huge bouquet of fresh picked rhubarb. So I am walking back down the trail to my car and my puggle starts sniffing towards the woods. I look down and spot the morel you see in the picture above. I could not contain myself. I dropped the rhubarb and tried to hold the camera still while putting my foot on two leashes and prayed a jogger did not pass by or they would knock me down. The light was perfect the mushroom was perfect and so the moral not morel of this story is that we need to be searching for things but be open to other things that come your way. If I never looked down I would not have seen this beautiful mushroom.