Ongo Gigante

Since moving to Glass Hollow in the shadow of Afton mountain, central VA, I've seen a few of these mushrooms near the edges of cow pastures. The first several I saw in September, but I waited on them and they turned into ochre dustballs.

From everything I've read there is no other mushroom that vaguely resembles the Giant Puffball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvatia_gigantea) in its combination of size, shape and location.



Since I walk our road nearly everyday I knew this mushroom was less than three days old and in prime shape for eating. Following the advice of the Peterson's Field Guide to edible wild plants I essentially cooked the mushroom like you would most store bought white mushrooms.
















I sauteed the 1/8 inch slices in olive oil, added some green pepper, onion and garlic. I was planning on making eggs for breakfast anyway, so I threw simply added the mushrooms as a vegetable and topped the whole thing with some salsa and avocado. Yum!


The mushroom flavor was outstanding on its own however. It had a sweet, nutty flavor with all of the savoriness that usually come with white mushrooms. These are hard to miss, so next time you see a white puffball the size of your head growing next to a field, check the inside to see that it has the spongy texture of a white mushroom, slice it up and give it a go!