Wild Edible Mushrooms

[sheepdog 10]

Wasn?t sure where to put this post, in lawn and gardening or cooking, but since I?ll include some preparation tips, I guess I?ll go for cooking. While most people get shrooming fever in the spring, I?ve never been able to find enough morals in the spring to even start to appease my mushroom taste buds, they are without a doubt about the hardest thing in the world to find. (not including finding an honest politician) I?m just one of those fall mushroom freaks, I can spot a puffball 100 yards away! My favorite, the little meadow mushrooms just jump out at me, I usually find a good batch of them over at the other farm every fall. Of the various fall mushrooms the puffball is one of the safest and easiest to recognize. They vary considerable in size, I found one today bigger than a soft ball, and one about the size of a tennis ball. They can be much smaller too. If your not sure if it is a puff ball all you have to do is split it in half, from top to bottom and make sure that there is no stem or gills forming inside of it. The mushroom should be exactly like a marshmallow on the inside. They are a light tan color, it can be somewhat mottled outside, and generally roundish, but can grow in a sort of ?mushroom cloud? shape, with the base narrower than the top. They should have no sign of any type of stem at all. Puffballs are best eaten fresh. Cut off the base, and trim away any flesh at the base that is yellowing and appears to have tiny tracks of holes in them. The peal is like rubber so you have to peal them too, but they can almost be pealed by just your fingers, a sharp thin bladed knife works well, you can feel where the peal separates from the flesh. Just slice them up in bite size pieces, and fry in butter on low to medium heat (don?t let the butter get too hot and smoky) until golden brown. Yum! If you have more than you can eat in a few meals, about the only way to preserve them is, oddly enough, to dry them. This really sounds crazy if you?ve ever come across an overripe or dried out puffball, since when you step on them or crush them they basically explode in a cloud of yellowish dust. I?ve tried freezing them and it just doesn?t work. They turn into a mushy wad of rubbery goo when you thaw them out. I have my food dehydrator running right now with a tray full of small pieces. They dry quite quickly, then you just need to store them in a very clean, air tight jar until you need them. They are a bit chewy when rehydrated, but work great in anything that you?d like to get a nice mushroom flavor added to. It?s easy to just put a handful or however much you need for a recipe in a glass cup, cover with water and pop them in the microwave and run it long enough to get it either close to or at a boil, do this before you start the rest of you meal to cooking and by the time your ready to add them they have soaked up enough water to be softened, and the rest of the time they need you will get while they are cooking in the dish you are making. Disclaimer. Just because a mushroom is not poisonous to some people, it doesn?t mean everyone can eat them. Some people can have an allergic reaction to any type of mushroom, so exercise caution when trying a new type of mushroom. Don?t do what I did tonight and fry up an entire skillet full and eat the whole batch if you don?t know how they will effect you.