I have been busy and distracted. The lawn has grown long and I have all but given up on someone cutting it neat and short again. I thought perhaps I would cut the grass closest to the house. Sometimes things get lost in long grass. I rolled the garden hose and dropped it in the garden by the dog house.
Down the way a bit was a ball, practically buried in the grass. I thought to move it a bit and gave it a nudge with my foot. It felt strange and appeared to be "rooted" to the ground. I took a closer look at the white mass along the garden's edge.
A shovel was fetched from the barn, a grocery bag (or sack, if you prefer) from the house, and I proceeded to remove the massive ball from my yard. (Actually, there were two of them. Can you believe I naively thought there were two white balls left to lay in the grass... I am just way too distracted!)
I must admit I thought them poisonous and thus handled them with the utmost care, but curiosity got the better of me and I found a sharp knife in my kitchen drawer with which to cut one in half. It let out a puff of golden "steam." Inside was sponge-like and greenish gold. Scary! Mom insisted they were puffballs and after searching a little further online, I've decided she is right. They are
Giant Puffballs. My dad used to eat them, on the rare occasion of finding one at proper maturity. This on was well beyond the eating stage, but not quite to the "kick up a cloud of spores" stage.
I have been busy and distracted. The lawn has grown long and I have all but given up on someone cutting it neat and short again. I thought perhaps I would cut the grass closest to the house. Sometimes things get lost in long grass. I rolled the garden hose and dropped it in the garden by the dog house.
A shovel was fetched from the barn, a grocery bag (or sack, if you prefer) from the house, and I proceeded to remove the massive ball from my yard. (Actually, there were two of them. Can you believe I naively thought there were two white balls left to lay in the grass... I am just way too distracted!)
I must admit I thought them poisonous and thus handled them with the utmost care, but curiosity got the better of me and I found a sharp knife in my kitchen drawer with which to cut one in half. It let out a puff of golden "steam." Inside was sponge-like and greenish gold. Scary! Mom insisted they were puffballs and after searching a little further online, I've decided she is right. They are Giant Puffballs. My dad used to eat them, on the rare occasion of finding one at proper maturity. This on was well beyond the eating stage, but not quite to the "kick up a cloud of spores" stage.
Weird!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletewe had tons of them growing at our old place. our neighbor used to pick them before they became puffy & grill the slices for 'steak'.
ReplyDeleteus? we'd let em puff & kick them all over the meadow in a mushroom soccer game.
Wow, I have never seen one of those!! I can't imagine eating one!!
ReplyDeleteThe inside should be completely white in order for them to be edible. I think a puffball soccer game sounds fun.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of these! Oh my! How strange!
ReplyDeleteHey, Deborah! Wanna come over and play soccer?
ReplyDeleteBetsy, I've heard of them but this is my first encounter up close and personal.
We just ate a puffball a couple weeks ago when Mom was here for the weekend. Kathy and Herb brought it over. Kathy cooked it up with some sweet onion and we ate it over rice. It was quite yummy!
ReplyDeleteRachel, that is too funny! What are the chances? Maybe it is an especially good year for puffballs.
ReplyDeleteDid Mom know she was eating puffball? She must have forgotten because she never mentioned it
you are a wealth of information, Martha!
ReplyDeleteThat puffball is huge! I am way behind on blogs, or I probably would have caught this before our discussion on Saturday. My puffballs have been the size of quarters, but I did get them to puff.
ReplyDeleteWith my allergies I wouldn't dare to give it a kick... well, maybe I would... but then again, maybe not.
ReplyDelete