September 21st, 2009

Wombat State Forest

by Alex Hallatt

Boyf, Billie and I had a day out in the Daylesford area yesterday. Dogs are allowed in most State Forests, so we made a point of taking Bill to the Wombat one. We hadn’t realised just how much it had been burnt in last year’s bushfires. It’s great to see so much of it regenerating – fire is needed for some species to germinate.

We were walking for over two hours and it was only when Duncan stopped for a *ahem* comfort break, that he saw these….

We got the chef at the Farmers Arms Hotel to confirm they are morels and when we got home, we looked them up in my mushrooming book….they looked just like real morels (not false ones) and what’s more, we found that morels commonly grow after forest fires…

So, hopefully, we’ll be fine when we eat them tonight. If not, it’s been fun!