Spring Rains and Mushrooms...

 Suffering through a "tester" of white wine braised morels over toasted brioche(The things I do because I care! ), the first of what will hit the table for this Sunday's rabbit repas, took me right back to France.  Spring showers came and went almost daily in Charmé, demanding an extra log or two for the fire,  a splash more wine in the glass, and the chance to finish a book or two(or three). Each day though, rain would ease, clouds lift, and the sun would make it essential to get going. Into the garden that is, rubber boots in tow.
 The damp seemed to make everything more green, the flowers and blossoming fruit trees exploded, and there was no shortage of snails. Sorry to those without the taste for them, but we seldom miss the opportunity to add to Suzanne's collection cage, an old garde manger where the mass of shells go from shelf to shelf in ghost-like fashion, dusted in the flower that will help to purge. For those that know, and I don't claim to be one of them, there are also mushrooms. Never fails to amaze how they can be found in both quality and quantity within reach. Back here in the Bay Area, when the time is right, there are porcini in the Oakland hills, chanterelles up the coast, and even the afore mentioned morels in the southern Sierra.
 In our region of southwest France, there are chantrelles to be found, but cèpes(porcini) are the real find. Thick and meaty, beautiful cooked or shaved raw, cèpes are generously shared even if their locations tend to be kept... quiet. In the recent Brin d'Aillet, our village repas of a hundred or so friends and neighbors where spring garlic reigned supreme, stalks literally tossed  about the tables, one course acted as perfect statement for the season: omelets of contributed wild mushrooms, spring garlic, and herbs. With remarkable mushroom grower Bertarand Fradin in the village, the barn-based entity a short walk away, his shiitake and oyster varieties were used as well. An afternoon well spent, as we're looking forward to also this Sunday. Morels...