Mushrooming Around

Ever since BAH got his book about mushrooms, we've been on the hunt. A few days ago, BAH spotted a Puff Ball mushroom in our unused pasture, and decided to leave it a few days and see if it grew. Tonight, we picked it!



He determined that it was, indeed, a Puff Ball mushroom, but...

I guess this mushroom hunting thing is complicated. There are two things that have to be right, in order to eat a Puff Ball:

1. You must make sure it is really a Puff Ball mushroom, and
2. It has to be ripe, but not sporing.

The second point can be determined by cutting the mushroom in half. When you cut it in half, it needs to be the same shade of white all the way through. We cut it in half, and:



It is definitely not pure white all the way through. Darn. It was getting ready to spore, when we picked it. This means we should have picked it on Monday. But alas, 'tis too late! No mushroom soup tonight. [And, yes, that knife is being held together by penguin duck tape.]

There are a few more Puff Balls out there. We'll try again. You have to wait for them to be big, but not mushy. This one was mushy. This mushroom picking thing, what an art it is.