Oklahoma is lucky to have such a diversity of wild and naturalized plant species. Every year, my wildcrafting friends and I take to the woods to seek out the plants that make great food and natural remedies. After more than twenty years, I am still learning new things from our local heritage wildcrafters, and there will still be plenty to learn when I’m gone. Until then, I will share with you what I do know, and maybe you can pass it along to others.
As always, remember to NEVER eat anything you don’t have a 100% ID on. Mistakes in the field can be deadly. Every year there are people who are sickened and even die due to misidentification of species, especially mushrooms.
There are a lot of mushroom species that I don’t know, but one that I do know and love dearly is the morel. My husband introduced me to these succulent beauties, and it has been a love affair for the ages. Morel hunting is the one bit of wildcrafting we do together, otherwise he does most of the fishing and I do most of the other stuff. This week was particularly prosperous for us, as we had this scramble for breakfast one day and then just Thursday, we had some of his fresh catfish. (SIGH<<<)
Anyhoot, this scramble brings together elevates the ordinary ham and eggs breakfast from everyday to gourmet. Here’s what you’ll need:
4 Large Eggs
2-3 Tbsp Butter or olive oil (for sauteing)
7-10 young tender wild onions
5-7 shoots of wild asparagus
10-12 dried morel halves
milk to cover mushrooms
Salt and pepper to taste
About 20 minutes before you begin, place dried morels in a bowl and cover them with the milk (you can use unsweetened almond milk if you’re sensitive). The milk will re-hydrate the mushrooms beautifully.
Remove any woody parts of the wild asparagus by bending the stalks gently starting at the lowest part and working up toward the growing tip. They will snap easily where the stalk becomes tender. Wash and chop the stalks into 1/2 to 1″ pieces.
Wash and chop the wild onions fairly fine. Don’t be tempted to throw the bulbs away, they add a lot of flavor. I just pinch off the roots with my fingernails, and pull off any old layers.
After they’ve softened and regained some of their springy texture, squeeze excess milk out of the morel halves back into the soaking bowl and chop the morels just into bite size pieces, or about 1/2″ pieces.
Melt butter in a skillet and add asparagus first. Once they’ve brightened, add the onions and mushrooms. Saute until tender-crisp. While the veggies saute, beat eggs and add a few tablespoons of the mushroom milk to them as you whisk.
When Veggies are tender-crisp, pour egg-milk mixture over them and scramble as for scrambled eggs. We served ours with some leftover local ham, and it was delish! This is what it looks like finished.
