Puffball Mushrooms
Puffball mushrooms
Are they edible? That was my first question to Alex McNaughton, forager, chef and host for the upcoming Sweet Edible Event. I was walking through the garden and noticed that these round, small, white mushrooms were fruiting over the entire lawn.
In Eastern Canada there are varieties of puffball mushrooms that are large and edible. They can be sliced like a loaf of bread and fried in butter. These are considerably smaller and based on my mushroom guide look like Vacellum Pratense which apparently is common in grassy areas.
Breaking one open, I noticed they were white and firmly fleshed all the way through. Some of the older mushrooms were beginning to turn a yellowish brown colour. When you press on them dark coloured spores come rushing out. When the mushroom dries out it becomes quite papery so that the spores float out on gusts of wind.
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