The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: The_Hawthorne_Pack on August 04, 2015, 10:05:38 pm
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Is anyone out there harvesting Giant Puffballs? We have a spot where we walk our dogs that is full of them. I have been chopping, drying and cooking them for a couple of weeks now, I have a complete drawer in my freezer dedicated to them. I am just about to put a page in my blog with info and recipes.
https://gnomecorner.wordpress.com/
It's only just started so is a bit sparse at present.
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If only. I am always on the look-out but have never actually seen one let lone harvested them! Lucky you!
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We used to have them up in Aberdeenshire. We just sliced them and fried with onions.
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I used them when I lived in Somerset and could get them easily but never seen them here in Shropshire. Very tasty. :yum:
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We have them, but these days I prefer to fry up old socks and bits of rubber instead ;).
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Not a fan, then, Womble?
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Well, our polytunnel is carpeted inside (yes, really!), and we keep finding football sized puffballs growing up under the carpet. It doesn't help that Mrs Womble has a phobia of them, so won't go in until they have all been removed! :D
We did eat some last year in a waste not want not frame of mind, but TBH I wasn't impressed!
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Am I right in assuming than you mean wild garlic or chives?
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Nope!
(http://www.silysavg.com/naturespickings/mushroomreport/images/giant_puffball_held.jpg)
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We have them, but these days I prefer to fry up old socks and bits of rubber instead ;).
Thank you Womble - you often make my day ;D
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(https://gnomecorner.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/pb2.jpg)
Great picture, Womble, here's a couple of ours, now neatly chopped up and dehydrated or cooked with butter and garlic. Have you thought of selling yours? These people http://www.finefoodspecialist.co.uk/giant-puff-balls-fresh-out-of-season/ (http://www.finefoodspecialist.co.uk/giant-puff-balls-fresh-out-of-season/) are selling them for £12 each. I don't know why they say they are out of season, we're smothered in them here!
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You could try stuffing them with a mixture of minced pork and sweated onion, minced apple, the inner flesh of the puffball and sage (all cooked together in butter). Stuff the puffball and put the top back on then butter and wrap in foil then put in a hot oven for half an hour or so. Delicious!
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LOL, if anybody wants mine, they start at a tenner for the biggest ones! ;D
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Thanks for the correction. If nobody minds could you tell me exactly what they're? They look like oversized mushrooms. ???
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Thanks for the correction. If nobody minds could you tell me exactly what they're? They look like oversized mushrooms. ???
Basically yup :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffball
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Another big 'un is the St. Georges mushroom, occurs around St. Georges day - hence the name. Havn't seen them for a few years though, but likewise, very tasty!
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A couple of years ago I managed to find one of ours before it had been stood on by a sheep. It was a bit like chewing a pencil eraser and tasted mostly of the butter I'd fried it in.
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MF, you mustn't cut them too young. Yes, the texture will be there (as you found), but the taste will not have developed yet. This isn't something you can rush either, as it takes a while for the quintessential mouldy sock aroma and flavour to develop fully. You may also wish to encourage your local woodlice to take up residence inside, which does add some badly needed crunch to the dish :yum:.
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'woodlice to take up residence inside, which does add some badly needed crunch to the dish '
Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside! :roflanim: .
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I was taught to slice them off leaving a good circle of flesh in the ground, so that enough remains for them still to distribute their spoors.
Personally, even sliced and fried with onions and garlic immediately after cutting, I found them to have almost no flavour, and what there was, slightly unpleasant.