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Ranger discovers giant 10kg puffball mushroom


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A giant puffball mushroom with a 1.5-metre circumference and weight of more than 10kg has been found - and quickly eaten - by a countryside ranger and her colleagues.

Fiona Wishart, a ranger with Falkirk Council, said the 10.6kg (1st 9lbs) fungus was so heavy she had to get help from a colleague to carry it back to their office.

After taking photos, they shared it out between 15 people, who took it home to cook.

She said: "It was really exciting as it's probably the biggest puffball I've ever found in my life.

http://news.sky.com/story/ranger-dines-out-after-finding-giant-10kg-mushroom-in-falkirk-10623727

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I think the biggest I ever found was about 12" across. They're yummy sliced and fried, but only when they're fairly fresh.

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1 minute ago, ouija ouija said:

I think the biggest I ever found was about 12" across. They're yummy sliced and fried, but only when they're fairly fresh.

I've never eaten a puffball. I like mushrooms but I'm always wary of which ones are edible and which aren't, my gran and dad were both good at knowing which when we used to go picking them. I always thought puffballs were poisonous, you live and learn :)

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I think they are poisonous once they have started to deteriorate and are full of spore dust. When they are fresh and firm they are delicious! Possibly there are smaller species which are poisonous?

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when I was a boy...growing up in rural England....mushrooms was something I picked when in season... and I knew what was what as my stepdad had taught me...one day me and my best childhood friend,,, were walking in a field...when I spied a huge puffball growing in a dry ditch

well I cut its base with my penknife.... KNOWING it was something special... and tried to carry it home. We had wandered about a mile and half from home...I was about 12...and my young muscles got tired quick. To this day I will never forget that long seeming walk, my arms wrapped round this huge puffball...so much effort I could barely talk, and my young friend no use in helping me carry it...

well I got almost home, Id rested often...but about half a mile to go, and my arms were shaking....I dropped it. It split. I took it up again and grit my teeth to get it home... 20 yards from home, I dropped it again...now it was in quarters........... I nearly cried...but I picked it up again and got it home. My mum tied it up so it kept its shape and measured it.....my stepdad surprisingly, called the local paper and gave me the phone to speak....

Id felt so proud of myself..... so sure Id found something unusual.....and the person I talked to at the newspaper was initially keen on getting a photo and my story.....but it also turned out....another kid in the same village had found one even bigger.....and mine after all was split open

I was so pi--sed off... we didnt eat it....it was left in the garden till it turned into black rotten jelly..

So they DO get big....and I once got a big one too. And all I have is my story!

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Back in the mid 80's friends and I would go pick mushrooms out in the cow pastures in Brooksville, Florida USA.  I can't brag about the size, but they were out of this world. Literally .

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Half the fun was knowing which fields were the best to look in, and then scanning them with bag in hand hoping to find enough mushrooms to take home for tea, which we usually managed to do. I haven't been mushroom picking in years and now I just buy them. It's not the same though except I know the ones in the supermarket are safe to eat, I hope! 

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My husband is a bit of a mushroom geek, he can identify most mushrooms, which is handy if I was a wife who wanted to feed him amanita phalloides.  raised-eyebrow.gif

 

 

A little bit of info:

The terms “mushroom” and “toadstool” are purely unscientific labels applied to different varieties of fungus. While there’s no real scientific difference or definition, the two terms have come to mean different things in the common parlance. The name “toadstool” is often given to those fungi that are inedible or poisonous, while “mushroom” is generally reserved for those that are safe to eat.

http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/01/05/difference-between-toadstools-and-mushrooms/

 

But for me, this is something which has popped into my mind many times when I see mushrooms ( or toadstools)

Those species of mushrooms that are edible are known to be edible because someone at one time had tried it and discovered it to be safe to eat.  

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5 minutes ago, freetoroam said:

My husband is a bit of a mushroom geek, he can identify most mushrooms, which is handy if I was a wife who wanted to feed him amanita phalloides.  raised-eyebrow.gif

 

 

A little bit of info:

The terms “mushroom” and “toadstool” are purely unscientific labels applied to different varieties of fungus. While there’s no real scientific difference or definition, the two terms have come to mean different things in the common parlance. The name “toadstool” is often given to those fungi that are inedible or poisonous, while “mushroom” is generally reserved for those that are safe to eat.

http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/01/05/difference-between-toadstools-and-mushrooms/

 

But for me, this is something which has popped into my mind many times when I see mushrooms ( or toadstools)

Those species of mushrooms that are edible are known to be edible because someone at one time had tried it and discovered it to be safe to eat.  

 

 

We owe a lot to our ancestors! Can you imagine, once upon a time an ancient wife picked a bunch of shrooms, put them in a pot and served them to her hubby? Who then got ill and dropped dead a few days later....and the wife then realises...."Them red ones with white spots and slimey skins probably shouldnt be eaten"   :lol:

 

 

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