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Main Forums => The Mess Hall => Topic started by: Kingcreek on September 24, 2020, 09:14:42 PM

Title: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Kingcreek on September 24, 2020, 09:14:42 PM
I’ll never pass up another one. I see them along the road or along tractor paths and I’ve messed with them in years past. I usually find them after the brief time when they are not buggy or turning brown.
Tuesday eve went for a walk with the wife on our one lane remote road and saw nothing. Wednesday morning there was a beautiful pure white unblemished mushroom about the size of a volleyball across from the drive.
I peeled it and sliced it about 3/4” thick slices and then into triangular wedges. Dipped in egg and rolled in Italian bread crumbs and fried in hot oil in a vintage cast iron skillet. Moved to a platter with paper towel and topped with grated Parmesan cheese immediately while hot.
It was damn good. If I die with horrible abdominal pain tonight because of fungus misidentification or gall bladder revolt, it will have been worth it. It was that good.
Carry on.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: charby on September 24, 2020, 10:32:05 PM
yum yum
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: K Frame on September 25, 2020, 06:47:56 AM
Ya dead yet?

Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Kingcreek on September 25, 2020, 06:57:25 AM
Ya dead yet?


Made it through the night! Feelin alright!
I live 1/2 mile from a state park. I think I’ll hunt early tomorrow morning for another one. They can get as big as a bushel basket. They’re only good when very fresh and they’re not fresh long.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: K Frame on September 25, 2020, 07:26:42 AM
Mushrooming in a state park?

Here in Virginia I think that's a crime....
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Fly320s on September 25, 2020, 08:23:20 AM
Good thing I don't have to forage for my food.  I can't tell a mushroom from a toadstool.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: charby on September 25, 2020, 08:24:54 AM
Mushrooming in a state park?

Here in Virginia I think that's a crime....

We can in Iowa for mushrooms and berries, nothing else.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Kingcreek on September 25, 2020, 09:10:35 AM
It's allowed here in Illinois but now that I think about it, I'll have to check. Parts of the park are also open to dove and squirrel hunting.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: K Frame on September 25, 2020, 09:44:51 AM
I'm looking more into this, and it may be legal in Virginia. I thought it was illegal.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Kingcreek on September 25, 2020, 10:15:37 AM
I mowed over a hen of the woods mushroom last weekend before I saw it. I was on the tractor with a 72” rough cut deck on the back. They usually grown on a rotten stump but this one was 10’ from the tree line. They are a better fall mushroom than puffball.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Silver Bullet on September 25, 2020, 12:13:04 PM
Quote
I can't tell a mushroom from a toadstool.

The mushrooms are the ones with the hollow points.   :old:
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: cordex on December 27, 2020, 10:45:02 PM
While hiking my new property with my girls today I came across some of what I'm pretty sure are oyster mushrooms.  They checked all the boxes - correct color and size, oyster shape, smooth cap, decurrent gills, shelf-like clusters, little/no stem, white flesh, growing on dead hardwood, smells a bit like fish when cooking.  I sautéed them and ate a small piece tonight.  If I'm not dead tomorrow I'll eat a full mushroom and see what happens.

I don't believe there are any poisonous mushrooms that match the description but I guess we'll find out.  Tasted pretty good, although I over-salted a bit.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Fly320s on January 03, 2021, 06:35:51 AM
You're not dead yet, since you posted yesterday.  Unless you are a zombie poster.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: cordex on January 03, 2021, 08:02:33 AM
You're not dead yet, since you posted yesterday.  Unless you are a zombie poster.
Could you tell the difference?

After a few days of eating it I had no problems so I let my youngest daughter try some too. She liked it quite a bit and asked that we look for it again next time we hike the property.

Should be decent morel hunting next year too.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Nick1911 on January 06, 2021, 11:42:05 AM
I had no idea those things are edible.  They were common where I grew up.  Once they dried out a little, they were great fun to shoot at.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: cordex on April 30, 2021, 03:07:40 PM
A cop friend stopped by my property to hunt morels.  He found almost 50 and told me where to look.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Fly320s on April 30, 2021, 04:43:51 PM
A cop friend stopped by my property to hunt morels.  He found almost 50 and told me where to look.

Did he use his service pistol or bring a rifle?
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: cordex on April 30, 2021, 04:56:42 PM
Did he use his service pistol or bring a rifle?
Rifle, of course.  Mushrooms can be deadly.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Ron on May 02, 2021, 09:07:28 AM
While out on local hikes/rides last week I saw the morels have been popping.

I used to really look forward to the spring ritual of hunting/picking them. I still enjoy the hunt but rarely pick them any longer.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: cordex on September 01, 2023, 02:55:23 PM
We harvested and ate puffballs this year.  They were okay, but nothing special.  Very mild flavor and the texture was kind of bland too.  A quick chop and fry and they were great for adding to an omlette, though.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Kingcreek on September 01, 2023, 05:19:58 PM
They are mild. Liberal seasoning works great so does toppings. They can be used like eggplant parmesan.
I'm also told they can be sliced, oiled, and used as a pizza crust with the usual pizza stuff on top.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Pb on September 02, 2023, 10:53:46 AM

Someone gave us a wild chicken of the woods mushroom a few years ago.  They are a supposedly "edible" mushroom that really does taste like chicken breast.  We all ate it, and were fine... except my youngest who vomited for two days.  Apparently a "rare" reaction.   :-[

I'm not touching wild mushrooms anymore.

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.Lcq7cYjnrgeURxwB5FgjgwHaHa%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=97fe686603851b411c820584dac9a3efb2fe6a2c9691c2bdb531f702a3585fb7&ipo=images)
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: BobR on September 02, 2023, 12:37:02 PM
I know a lot of people enjoy hunting and eating wild mushrooms but I am not one of them, other than morels. Morel hunting in Montana and other parts of the northwest is a commercial operation. Entire cities of pickers (mostly Hmong) set up and strip a forest clean. In some states they are limited to certain areas so amateur pickers have a chance. I used o go morel hunting in Montana, it was a great way to get out into the woods, the same as huckleberry picking in Idaho and Montana. Depending on what I could pick I would either keep them and eat them or trade some of the bounty for dried mushrooms so I could have them for soups and such.

https://www.hcn.org/articles/mushroom-hunters-photos

bob
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: charby on September 03, 2023, 12:32:34 AM
I can only digest so many fungi wild or cultivated, so I get the digestive disturbances. I love foraging for them, but I give much of them away to friends.

I have at least 4 types of edible fungus in my back yard that I harvest but my neighbors benefit from the bulk of them.

Puff ball, fall oyster, chanterelle and hen of the woods season is just getting started in in my QTH.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: BobR on September 03, 2023, 03:34:12 AM
This was a new one this year, deaths being associated with raw or undercooked morels. It sounds like it really put a damper on the prices the foragers were getti g among other things.

https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/business/a-lot-we-dont-know-montana-mycologists-foragers-talk-morel-mushrooms-following-deaths-this-spring/article_372dbccc-41db-11ee-a63e-dfb2453e05e8.html

bob
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: JTHunter on September 05, 2023, 03:52:23 PM
Decades ago, I read about people that harvest large puffballs and slice them like bread, then fry them up like french toast.
I'm not a mushroom eater of any kind, partly because I know how the store-bought ones are grown.  A former co-worker owned so woods and regularly found puffballs, morels, etc. that he ans his wife would use in a variety of dishes.
Title: Re: Wild (giant) puffball mushroom
Post by: Kingcreek on September 26, 2023, 09:29:19 PM
Saw the first puffball of the season tonight across from my mailbox. It was only about the size of a softball. Might be soccer ball size by morning. Haven't harvested any yet.