What the puff is that? Huge ball-like mushrooms sprouting up everywhere
Believe it or not, these giant white balls are mushrooms and they are highly sought after by foragers.
The scientific term for these huge puffballs is Calvatia Gigantea, which translates from Latin as "giant bald head"—exactly what they resemble.
They appear in late summer and fall and like many mushrooms, they grow after a good rain. The huge mushrooms may grow anywhere there is organic matter, including forests, lawns and golf courses.
They are common across Canada, particularly in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.
“They do tend to show up in the fall like a lot of mushrooms actually. That's because they kind of show up when conditions of the humidity accumulates and then the nights start being a little cooler.Then this kind of combination of humidity, cool nights and then some warm days then you get these you know these mushrooms are popping out,” said Richard Hamelin, a professor at the University of British Columbia in the faculty of forestry and environmental stewardship.
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These mushrooms are ones you can eat, but Hamelin cautions amateur foragers.
“So I would say to people, don't, you know, stay away from eating wild mushrooms unless you're a mycologist or you're an expert and you know exactly what you're doing,” said Hamelin.
“The puff balls actually are an interesting case because that little round white egg-like structure that you see on the ground, it actually resembles the early amanita. The amanita is one of the deadliest mushrooms. And the amanita when they're very very young, they're just coming out and they actually look like a little white egg. So there's actually cases of people thinking they're picking puff balls, but they're actually picking amanita. Of course that's not what you want to eat.”
Fresh edible puffballs maintain solid white cheese-like interiors. An edible puffball has a solid white interior with no gills, stems, or other structures.
Jenn McDonald, an Ontario forager and hunter, finds many this time of year.
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“You can do so much with them. Very mild flavour, so everybody loves them. I just fry them up as a steak kind of, you know, peel them, cut them, fry them with some butter and salt. Some people will do pizzas, so they'll slice them and make them as a pizza crust,” she said. “I do cream of puffball mushroom soup.”
She did note that these mushrooms spoil very quickly and can move past edibility within 48 hours of emerging.
“You're looking for just that like giant solid white. If you break it open, it is completely white and uniform inside, no gills, no stem, no other mushroom structure growing. Once it starts to turn a little bit brown, that's when you don't want to eat it because it can cause GI upset and that's when the spores are really starting to develop.
It is important to note that wild mushroom collection should be restricted to trained mycologists and experts.