Patience

I have been waiting about ten months for morel mushrooms to appear on the forest floor and then somewhere that I can buy them. Their appearance coincides with the appearance of the lovely locally grown green spears known as asparagus. Well, the planets are aligned; I'm going to make a recipe from Barbara Kingsolver's book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle."

It's an asparagus and morel mushroom bread pudding with Swiss cheese. I'm salivating just thinking about it. I've never been known for my patience, but I've had to learn a lot about it now that I'm a locavore.

When I read the book last summer I could have made the recipe with dried morel mushrooms and asparagus that was grown in some foreign country and shipped to my local grocery store. I decided to wait.

Whole Foods is supplying the mushrooms. At first the produce guy said he didn't think he would get any; yesterday he called to say he had some put aside for me.

I could buy them on line, but two pounds of them, with shipping, would have been $117. The next day shipping accounts for about $40 of that. Just couldn't see spending that kind of money, so my treasure hunt began. None of the vendors at either of my farmer's markets said they had any or knew anyone who had any. Maybe...maybe not. I'm not sure I would tell anyone if I had them.

Usually the closest I get to Whole Foods is the Farmer's Market held in the shopping center parking lot where it's located. But last week I ventured in; I was feeling desperate. I found a very nice produce manager who promised to call if he got some.

First of all, I highly recommend the book. I actually listened to it on CD which was even better. Kingsolver has this wonderful soft southern accent. Her husband and daughter each recorded their own sections. The recipes can be found on the book's web site.

I'll let you know how it turns out, including photo. Oh, and we are have a baked ham from Coffee Pot Ranch to round out Saturday night dinner.