Morel

The first year we were here a huge amount of morels sprung up in spring (like 100’s of them) – we didn’t know it at the time they were a delicacy as it was only once they had all died off we had identified them. So even year since we’ve kept an eye out for them but we only had the odd one if that in the subsequent years.

The previous owner of our property used to burn the paddocks regularly as part of his maintenance. This made the Morels fruit… (as an aside, regular fire helps maintain box grasslands in Australia as it knocks down the juvenile trees and shrubs and promotes grasses and annuals instead. So the regular burning created the grassy woodlands we now enjoy)

Anyway so now we understand why we had some many the first year but virtually none since.

We don’t use fire to cut the grass – a lawnmower gets pushed around instead – but we have started scattering the ash from our fire. This seems to have triggered the morels to fruit again! We’ve found 30 or so Morels this spring. Perhaps this year we will summon to courage to eat them.