Monday, September 21, 2015

No Motorcycles - Amended

This Post, my 3rd in as many days (hopefully I'm not over quota) has nothing to do with 2 wheeled machines.  Enjoying a quiet and restful evening at home after a long Monday at work, trying to get caught up with some of my woefully behind correspondence, Peg had a question.

"What's that piece of packing foam out on the deck railing?"

My headphones were on and we were just coming to the cadenza.  I pulled both sides down for a repeat.

"What?"

"That foam, it looks like some packing for one of your motorcycle part shipments."  (Snuck an m/c reference in this non-motorcycle post anyway)

Dumbfounded, I needed more clarification so asked her to start back at the beginning of this very short story.

"Foam, on the deck railing...where did it come from?"

She's seen that very same blank stare many times....sometimes it's real, sometimes I can fake a pretty good one.  I hobbled barefoot out on the deck, kitties thought it was time for evening feeding #2 but they were sadly mistaken.

Stepping over to the 'thing' on the deck, I looked it over very well before touching it and was even more surprised by its presence, look and feel than Peg was.  Turning it over in my hands, its base gave it away, the location where it had been attached.

Just then Lauren came through the door with a plate and some associated flatware.

"Isn't this the coolest mushroom you've ever seen?  There's lots of them!"


So there you have it.  It isn't just the plate either.....I can easily imagine a very impressive dollop of meringue here, served and ready.

DISCOVERY

Jason nailed it, a giant puffball and very edible in the right conditions, conditions we decided that this one lacked.  There was a shade of green centered around the core that was much brighter to my eye than these photos express and the 'cover' near its base was actually quite thick and tough.

"Pungent" is what Lauren called it when we cut it open.....I was still smelling the smoke from the charcoal grilling I'd done an hour before.  The length of the metal cutting section of this knife is 8" (20cm) long.  Lauren's hand on the right to hold it steady.  Quadrillions of tiny open cells.



14 comments:

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    1. We have no idea, it's here and on display for onlookers.

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  2. Rule #1 don't eat the shroom! My granny used to pick wild shrooms, but she would never take me, because she said "people eat the wrong stuff & end up dead" kind of made me nervous after that to eat mushrooms at her house,

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    1. We were never even close to eating it. Lauren took the photo and I should have given her credit; the image sent to some of her friends that consider themselves Master Hunters. The plate and dining-ready image were her idea.

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  3. ..how DO you tell the different from a wake up roomie and a wake up dead roomie..? the only way I know is visiting the store... buy a can.... Huuummmmmmmm :)

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    1. Canned ones work when you're desperate but there are better sources.

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  4. Puffball? Cut it in half, if it has no gills then it's a puffball. You can eat em, but I don't. And don't eat anything that you're not 100% on (like morels and chicken of the woods mmm). https://blog.mycology.cornell.edu/2006/10/26/giant-puffballs-calvatia-gigantea/

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    1. Thanks for contributing to the little I knew Jason. I'll cut it apart to see but my guess is that you're right. Puff balls I've seen have been a different consistency but then my mushroom/fungus knowledge is poor. The only thing we eat are morels that we hunt and prepare. This one is for the display case only.

      Thanks for the link, I'll take a look.

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  5. Same question. What kind of mushroom was it?

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  6. Wow, that is a big mushroom. Little Chanterelle's are the ones people find most often in the forests around here.

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    1. Big it is! Puff balls I grew up were filled with brown 'smoke' that we could pounce on in the yard. The only ones I've come to know are the morels that we, well some of us here, enjoy.

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  7. Well, if it's poisonous, don't let on. There'd be enough to knock out a decent size village there, and some people, say in certain parts of the middle east for instance, might start growing them for nefarious ends !

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    1. A VERY decent size village....:) You are right, all that we need is another low tech weapon.

      It's doing what fungi do, out near the edge of the corn field.

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