Thursday 21 August 2008

Giant Puffball

There were two of them. Giant Puffballs love the damp weather we've been having all summer. Someone had smashed one with a stick, but the other one was still in one piece.

It measured 18" across... no kidding! It was huge.
The only thing I had with me to give some idea of scale was Tessa's leash.

I left it where it was. Giant puffballs are edible, but this one was a bit too big for my frying pan!

20 comments:

  1. I remember the satisfaction of stamping on them and releasing the cloud of spores when I was a kid.

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  2. I guess these are in the mushroom family. Didn't know they are edible and they are really big and unusual.

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  3. Haven't seen any of those around our way in years. Fascinating things. I had no idea they were edible.

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  4. I have not seen one of these in years. I would be afraid to eat one myself.

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  5. Until today, I haven't even heard of these things. So they taste like tofu? Hmmm, well as tempting as that is, I'll probably pass.

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  6. Looks like slugs or snails have already started to nibble on it.

    I'm going to have to take a plastic bag and the camera with me when walking the dog as we're running into mushroom season.

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  7. Hum...edible? We have all kinds of fungi in our forest but no clue as to their edibleness.

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  8. 18"! That's a BIG one. I've never eaten puffball. ;-)

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  9. These are new to me. I'd never even heard of them. Cool find!

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  10. wow that's a big puffball. i'd approach it with some caution. i never seen one.

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  11. Hi,English Giant puffball are certainly very edible and are sliced and fried providing they are not to dry and ready to burst. The American Indian tribe Lakota's use the Gigante one to stuff wounds to slow bleeding by aiding clotting.The biggest one I know of was 2ft 4 inches long and contained an estimated 7 trillion spores.

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  12. Wow! I've never seen one this big!!!

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  13. I have never heard nor seen anything like this before.

    If I came upon it, I would have thought an alien had landed on earth and laid a giant egg in the lawn.

    According to the wiki link you provided, it is supposed to taste like tofu.

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  14. ooh, i've only eaten one of these once, it was so delicious.

    i'd have taken it and just cut it small enough

    (much better than tofu)

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  15. Wow! just amazing! I've never eaten puffbal!

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  16. Wow,I have never seen one that big before.

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  17. I found one of these in our garden last year. I checked to see if it was safe to eat. I can tell you it was the best I had ever taken, so flavoursome.

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  18. I've never ever seen anything like this in my life. How cool of you for sharing, thanks!

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  19. Wow! Giant Puffballs are great tasting! All I do is strip off the outside rind, cut out all of the bug holes, slice to desired thickness and saute in butter! It must be a personal taste, because I find them to taste very sweet and flavorful....kind of marshmallowy inside. Alot of people I know think it has no taste. Most people I know look for them every year!! October 1, 2008 I found 3 of them growing in the spot that I found only 1 last year! Next year I'll be trying the recipe from this blog on scooping out the spores and baking with other items!! YUM!!

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