I never dreamed of kicking off my vacation with a mushroom picking adventure. I guess that’s proof that I never went to Bonnaroo. Seriously though, this afternoon I dashed out of the office with Nico and Renaud for a morel mushroom adventure. These aren’t the mushrooms that will make you think you’re seeing cartoons on a concrete floor. Instead, these are the mushrooms that mushroom lovers like me dream about enjoying.

I learned online that this is one of the two mushroom seasons in Geneva.

Here’s the deal-When temperatures in your area in the Spring begin to climb into the sixties during the day and are no colder than the forties at night START LOOKING! Right after a rain is when I have found it to be the best. You should look in stream and river beds, wooded areas, around fallen timber that has been decaying, and don’t forget to look within brambles and thick underbrush.

We drove into France, about 30 minutes away from Geneva, in search of mushrooms. The drive alone was the perfect way to start vacation as I enjoyed 70 degree temperatures, sunshine, laughter and the wind blowing through my hair as we drove through the countryside in Nico’s convertible.

After weaving through the country roads we parked along side the road in the midst of cheese farms and pastures.  The guys insisted that it was totally fine to walk through what seemed to be private property on our way to the woods where the morel mushrooms were hopefully hiding.

As we hiked through the fields I asked the guys to share their tips which weren’t nearly as thorough as I expected. They did however share with me that there is an unspoken rule among mushroom pickers to not reveal the location of their mushroom hunt. Blonde morel mushrooms are narrow and blonde in color, standing taller above the forest floor than other mushroom types. Their blonde color camouflages them among the leaves which makes them hard to spot.

We searched through the woods for 30 minutes before Nico screamed in delight. He found the first batch of 5 mushrooms.

A few feet away I found my first and only mushroom of the day, hiding among the leaves.In between mushroom searching we enjoyed some sunshine and relaxation in the hills, basking in the gorgeous views. Days and weather like today make imagining living anywhere else, even New York, pretty difficult. After an hour in the hills we headed back to Geneva with the fruits of our labor – six morel mushrooms. We split them between the three of us so that each us could enjoy the fresh mushrooms tonight.

Delicious morel mushrooms for the win!