BS: Puffballs

Subject: BS: Puffballs
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 08:25 PM

A week or so ago I found a giant puffball. I've eaten most of it, a slice at a time, keeping the rest wrapped in the fridge. Now, what is left has developed a coating of fine white fluff. Is this the spores starting to grow? If I "plant" it in the garden will it carry on growing and produce a crop of puffballs next year? If so, where should I plant it - sun or shade, in the lawn or under the birch tree?
My garden already produces shaggy parasols, and a couple of years ago I had morels, but they didn't come back this year. Are there any mycologists out there who could help with advice?

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 10:11 PM

Interesting subject. I've seen photos of the giant puffball that are simply amazing.

I'm no mycocwhatchacallit but I'd expect that the conditions in which it was found would be what one would try to emulate, i.e. if it was found in deep damp woods I would try to match that.

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 10:55 PM

Puffball spores form on the inside. As it matures the the outer layer gets leathery or papery with an opeining at the top. If you squeeze it at this stage a cloud of spores will come out of the opening, hence the "puffing". Since you have sliced it, the inside is now an outside surface. I don't know the capability of sliced puffballs to keep developing spores. I'm not a mikeologist but i have a friend with a dog named Mike.

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: GUEST,Ingrid Frances Stark
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 02:10 AM

I have never heard of anyone being successful in trying to propagate puffballs, giant or otherwise. Most of the ones I've ever found were in or near pine trees, and always in areas where the ground had not been disturbed for many years. And usually in the autumn.
The spores don't mature unless the puffball dries out, at which point almost any touch will make it "puff", hence the name. Whatever is growing on your leftovers is probably not the same as the puffball, I'd throw it out.

By the way, when collecting smaller varieties, it is a good idea to slice them in half. if you see a homogeneous spongy white interior, its probably a puffball. If you see a cross section of a stem and cap DO NOT EAT IT! The deadly fly agaric and the death angel both have a shroud that is attached to the bottom of the stem when they first emerge. It tears away as the fruiting body matures, giving the mushroom the classic shape with the ring around the base of the stem.

There is a saying about mushroom hunters: There are old mycologists, and there are bold mycologists, but there are no old, bold mycologists.

The man who taught me about mushrooms never ate anything unless he could positively ID it as edible in three different published sources.

Happy hunting, but be careful.

Ingrid

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Gurney
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 02:23 AM

One of my grandfathers was a countryman, and he would never take a mushroom until it was mature. He thought it was short-sighted to take them before the propagated, and they tasted better when they were big. He used to hide them with whisps of hay so that other people missed them. It was an education to go for a walk with him, he saw so much.

No help to Topsie, sorry.

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: MBSLynne
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 02:43 AM

Sounds more like mould to me...the spores aren't white and fluffy.

Threr's no way you can get a giant puffball confused with any other fungi...it looks nothing like anything else, and certainly not like any of the poisonous ones.

A recipe hint...next time you find one, cut a slice off the end, scrape out the middle and chop it. Mix it with chopped bacon, oatmeal and herbs and anything else that takes your fancy. Put the end slice back on, wrap in foil and bake in the oven.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: GUEST,Ingrid Frances Stark
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 02:52 AM

Oh, my, that sounds delicious!

Indeed, the giant ones are unmistakeable, unless there are a lot of white boulders around. Its the smaller one that need more care.

Ingrid

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Lancashire Lad
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 04:35 AM

Giant puffballs are truly fine eating. I like them sliced and fried in butter with a little garlic and oregano. I have an Asian friend who makes a "curry" with them. Hefries them in a paste of garlic, ginger and garam masala and adds double cream and chopped fresh corriander to the pan in the last minute of cooking.

I rarely come accross them, but the first I ever found was in the middle of a meadow when I was out walking my dog. It looked just like a white balloon or football (UK not US!) from a distance. It grew to maturity rapidly and was a joy to eat!

Ah...I'm getting hungry now
LL

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: GUEST, jos
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 10:59 AM

The trouble with hiding them with wisps of hay is that it doesn't hide them from insects, which will still smell them, so I gather them straight away before they get full of maggots.

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 11:11 AM

I'm a coward when it comes to harvesting my own. I prowl the produce section of my grocery store for mushrooms when I'm thinking about eating some. My parents tried harvesting a particular variety (don't remember what they were) from a park in Arlington (WA) one time when I was a kid. They carefully identified them and picked them and when they dried they looked absolutely hideous and I don't know if they ever used them. I was young, maybe 10 or 12 at the most, so my views on what they were doing are based on a general youthful revulsion when faced with a mushroom.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 04:50 PM

Speaking as a biologist who wishes he still had time to go looking for mushrooms I would suggest the following.

Your white growth on the remains of the puffball is some form of mould. It will have grown because the surface is damp, conditions which encouage the growth of unwanted fungal spores. The spores will NOT be from a puffball, they grow on soil in open grassland. They are from spores of a fungus which will spoil food and turn it bad.
There are more cases of mild food poisoning from eating mouldy "edible" mushrooms than from eating mis-identified poisonous ones. Throw your remaining puffball in the bin.

As for trying to cultivate wild mushrooms, you may be lucky at transplanting spores, but things such as puff balls produce millions of spores, so if they all turned into a new individual fungus, we would not be able to move for mycelia. Only a tiny proportion of spores will ever mature, and then only if they happen to land in a location which is exactly what they need to grow. The main reason most of them are "Wild" is that cultivating them artificially is not a simple task most can only be found where they decide to grow.

Quack!
Geoff the Duck - BSc(TECH)Applied Biology -

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 08:07 PM

God be praised!! An education is a wonderful thing. It breaks out in the most unusual places and leaves trails of the most interesting info. I love Mudcat. Feather in your cap, GtD.          Tw

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Peace
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 08:11 PM

Had 'em once. Hurts like hell.

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: MBSLynne
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 02:56 AM

I can never quite trust myself to pick wild mushroom...and you definitely have to look harder for them than you used to anyway, but giant puffballs are really unmistakable and you can't buy them in shops, so the only way to get them is to find them. It IS worth it!

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Gervase
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 04:11 AM

Harvest them before they become 'giant', though, as they can get a bit tough and woolly as they approach the spore-making time. Smaller ones the size of a large spud are the best eating and - as Lynne says - when stuffed and soggy with bacon juices are a dish fit for a king (or queen).

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: hilda fish
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 06:31 AM

I've never heard of these sort of puffballs. The only ones I know about are the ones from my childhood where we roamed about and whenever we met one we kicked the crap out of it (like a football but at most, the size of a golf ball) and it sprayed yellow powder everywhere. It never occurred to eat the thing!

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: GUEST, Jos
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 07:39 AM

I have read/heard conflicting advice about gathering mushrooms:

1 Take the whole thing, including the base, so that you can take it home and identify it.
[If I was unsure enough to need to do that I wouldn't risk it anyway.]

2 Cut the stem, as taking the whole thing, including the base, weakens the plant below ground.

3 Take the whole thing, including the base, as a cut stem can be a source of infection and so weaken or destroy the plant below ground.

So (in addition to leaving some where they are so that they can reproduce), what is really best for the plant?

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Peace
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 11:10 AM

what is really best for the plant?

Leave it alone.

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 11:26 AM

It ain't a plant. Puffballs are members of the Fifth Kingdom (it's complicated but fascinating subject, see Bryce Kendrick's website http://www.mycolog.com/CHAP1.htm for a really good explanation.

Puffballs are one of those shrooms that will not sumbit easily (if at all) to domestication (morels, and chanterelles are two others) but remain a jewel of the wild for mycophagists.

The puffball is the fruiting body of the fungus so picking it probably won't harm the fungus (like picking an apple won't harm the tree) but our knowledge of fungi is still scant and the jury is still out on harvesting techniques. Wish I'd found it. ;o)

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Janie
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 12:10 PM

Puffballs tend to be pretty common in areas where they grow, so I wouldn't worry too much about a harvest for next year. Chances are there will be more in the same general area where you found it this year. Also look for the little gem-studded puffballs.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 12:51 PM

The puffballs I've always encountered here in North America are the little ones described above and were those which we gleefully stomped or prodded to get them to "puff."

How are your mushrooms this year, BPL? Have others beaten a path to your favorite site?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 02 Dec 05 - 08:39 AM

This is an excellent website - http://tomvolkfungi.net/
http://tomvolkfungi.net/


Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 02 Dec 05 - 08:56 AM

As we are now approaching Christmas, the above site has some very interesting reading in the Holiday Fungi section.
Unfortunately because of the page navigation system he is using
"frames" a blicky to only links to the Main Menu Page.

I may have got around that - http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/holiday.html gets you there directly - via an earlier address for the web site.

Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 02 Dec 05 - 09:14 AM

As an English addition to Geoff the Duck's suggested site:

St George's mushroom (Calocybe gambosa) - the first time I found one it was in fact April 23rd.

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 03 Dec 05 - 04:26 AM

. . . and thank you all for your advice on the puffball. I'm looking forward to finding another, but it probably won't be till next year now.

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 03 Dec 05 - 10:49 AM

A good time of year to start loking for Blewitts, though. You can't mistake them either, but never eat them raw.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Puffballs
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 03 Dec 05 - 11:47 AM

I'm checking on my local blewitts patch regularly, it's just the other side of the lane from the St George's patch. I need to get them before any silly children jump on them.