In mid May, last Spring a year ago, my lady and I made our every year trek to the shores of Lake Erie, to the petite town of her upbringing, Silver Creek. It lies in the middle of what is locally called “the grape belt”, because the southern shores of that lake contribute the ideal weather conditions for growing the Concord Grape, among other types of similar grapes. Just down the road is Westfield, Ny where Mr. Welch founded his grape juice empire.
We go there every Spring because we needed to open up the petite cottage, left to her by her late mother, located on the beach in Hanford Bay, a part of the borough of Silver Creek, in order to make it ready for the renters. The weather was not authentically warm, and we had made arrangements for the gas man to come that very day to install the meter and turn on the gas so we would have a petite heat. We also were hoping the water would be turned on at about the same time. Of course, one is at the mercy of the service persons, but we have found that in such a small community, they are fairly reliable.
Kickball
As we pulled in to the parking area in front of the garage, I noticed what I took to be a ball of the sort that very young kids use as a studying soccerball. I got out of the car and reached for the “ball” because I would have to move it anyway, in order to open the stable door….I was just going to throw it back across the street, where I was sure the young man lived, to whom it belonged. As I reached for it, I suddenly noticed that it wasn’t perfectly round in shape, and that it had a merge of very small holes in it! fantasize my surprise when, as I went to pick it up, I felt some resistance to my gentle tugging! It had a slightly spongy feel and I immediately knew what it was! A Giant Puffball!! I say immediately, because I had seen but one other Giant Puffball….directly across the street in a neighbor’s yard here in Connecticut any years ago
This puffball was growing right against the stable door so I had to dislodge it in order to open the door. I examined it more intimately and measured it…slightly more than eight inches in diameter…and thought about set it aside for supplementary examination later. It was a bit early in the growing season for this mushroom…the National Audubon Society’s Field Guide To Mushrooms says it shouldn’t appear till late May. That could list for its relatively small size…the guide says they can grow to twenty inches!
Later, when I had unloaded the car and had heat and water and things seemed fairly under control, I returned to the puffball and decided to open it and see if it was still white inside. Some of it was starting to discolor and I discarded that part, along with the part that had the small insect holes in it.
For lunch, the next day, I heated a petite olive oil and garlic salt in a frypan and sauteed the half-inch thick slabs of puffball for about two minutes on each side and thoroughly enjoyed them. The texture is slightly spongy and the taste is a bit neutral..not thoroughly unlike tofu that is cooked in a similar manner. I even succeeded in getting my wife to try a small bite and she declared it “quite good”…I believe were her exact words!
To sum up, there are just a few points to be emphasized…first: never eat a fungus unless you have authentically identified it as an “edible”; secondly: it is quite satisfying, and sort of exciting, to be able to pick a wild mushroom and eat it with belief knowing you have Id’ed exactly as it is described in the field guide; and lastly: it is authentically fun…I don’t know how else to recap the hobby or performance or pastime or however you think of “mushrooming”. They can be beautiful, they can be delicious, they can be deadly….have some fun! Go mushrooming!
Is That a Child’s Kickball I See?
Thanks To : Earning host Galaxy HDTV Automotive Monster