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| Not edible. Not edible. Not edible. Anyway, I don't think it is. |
One of the many joys of my garden is foraging.
Dandelions grow rampant. Chickweed (my fave) glows green in my strawberry beds right now, allllmost big enough to cut. I can't wait. In a couple of months I'll find young wild violet leaves, and later their flowers. Ok, ok, I'll grab a bit of henbit, too. It's the most abundant of all. Summer brings in lambs quarters and sour grass.
Did I forget anything?
Most people think one must wait until April to forage for mushrooms, the rare and must sought after Morel. According to one of our neighbors, several other kinds of mushrooms can be found here at different times.
The one pictured above doesn't seem to be an edible species. The photo was taken just after mid-November, in a brome field we'd burned about three weeks before. A couple of weeks before this photo was taken I started seeing one species of edible mushroom, one of the several types of puffballs, underneath some Eastern red cedar trees.
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| White puffballs in the red cedars. |
I had seen puffball mushrooms growing there in years past, and knew they're edible. However, I was always uncertain about harvesting them. This year, I decided, was the year. I consulted with a mushroomer neighbor about how to tell when they're good to eat.
Puffballs must be firm and white. They also must be white inside. The first ones I foraged had a lovely white interior with a texture akin to Wonderbread.
I sliced them up, sauteed them and added them to some veggies. The puffball had little flavor of its own, but soaks up other flavors nicely. Then a couple of weeks later I discovered more, about eight fair-sized ones -- bigger than the first ones I found.
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| Puffball mushroom ready to sliced and cook. |
Some had a skin with a bit of tan color. Most of those were discolored when I cut into them. Disappointment. However, I did find several perfect ones. So... Yay!
It intrigues me that I find them in this dense grove of red cedars, where even poison ivy is almost non-existent. Hmmm.
I keep hoping to find more, but alas, they seem to be done for the year.
Maybe next November.
I don't know which species of puffball mushrooms these are. They certainly aren't the "Giant Puffball," because, well, they aren't giant.
It doesn't matter to me which species they are, though. They're definitely edible, and that's what counts.
