Continuing Education and
Communication Services
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
10/1/01
Contacts:
Mark Gleason, Extension Plant Pathology, (515) 294-0579, mgleason@iastate.edu
Del Marks, Continuing Education and Communication Services, (515) 294-9807,
delmarks@iastate.edu
Yard and Garden Column for the Week Beginning Oct. 5
A 'Puffect' Year for Puffballs
By Mark Gleason
Extension Plant Pathologist
Iowa State University Extension
What's round, white, bigger than a volleyball and lives in your yard? If your answer was your neighbor's overfed Persian cat, think again. The correct answer is a giant puffball.
Puffballs are not leftover pods from an alien breeding project. Instead they are mushrooms produced by a home-grown fungus known as Calvatia gigantea. For reasons known only to the puffballs themselves, they've chosen this fall to make their most spectacular display in anyone's memory.
Puffballs ranging from softball-size to basketball-size have popped up throughout Iowa and the Midwest this September. Their favorite spots are the edges of forested areas, pastures and the mulched areas of your yard. Not only are there more giant puffballs this year, they're more giant too. Giant puffballs 5 feet wide and weighing 50 pounds have been known to happen.
Sometimes they pop up alone, but more often in groups. According to the book "Mushrooms Demystified," by David Arora, clumps of giant puffballs have occasionally been mistaken for herds of grazing sheep and even bleached human skulls.
Now to the important stuff: can you eat them? The answer is yes. A few mushroom fanatics even rate giant puffballs as "choice," but a more mainstream view is that their flavor falls somewhere between "delicate" and "bland." Decide for yourself. But a few suggestions are in order before you grab your fork.
Giant puffballs should be eaten only when the interior is firm and pure white, which means before they start to mature. Discard the tough outer covering. Puffballs need to be cooked soon after picking, within a day or two.
If you haven't sampled giant puffballs before, consider that they can produce what is obliquely referred to as "indigestion" and more pointedly as "a laxative effect" in some people. So the prudent course is to eat a little bit, then wait to see how your system responds.
It's a good idea to inspect puffballs as you slice them, since centipedes may be living there, and maggots (fly larvae) are reported to be "fanatically fond" of them. Intrepid mushroom lovers just slice away the maggoty portions of the puffball and commence cooking.
Puffball cooking, according to the book "Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America" by David Fishcher and Alan Bessette, should be done in either of two ways: slice-and-sauté, or batter-dip them first.
Go easy on the spices, since puffball flavor is easily overpowered. Keep the heat low, or the slices will dry out, produce lots of smoke and turn bitter. David Arora's book mentions that puffball flesh can also be cubed like tofu and either dropped into clear soups or eaten raw in salads.
For more information about giant puffballs and other edible mushrooms, consult the books already mentioned as well as "Mushrooms and Other Related Fungi," Iowa State University Extension publication NCR 129, available from your ISU Extension county office or by calling the ISU Extension Distribution Center at (515) 294-5247.
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