Giant puff ball mushrooms

[BryanEx]

Is an abundance of giant puff balls in the sugar bush something to be concerned about at all? Every year I have a few around but this year they seem to be everywhere. I know they are edible in their immature state but it's an "acquired taste" I don't wish to acquire at this point. Any other uses... soccer perhaps?

http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=1808&stc=1&d=1282608642

[red maples]

wow thats a biggun' Seen some like that when I was a kid. back in jersey

[KenWP]

Is an abundance of giant puff balls in the sugar bush something to be concerned about at all? Every year I have a few around but this year they seem to be everywhere. I know they are edible in their immature state but it's an "acquired taste" I don't wish to acquire at this point. Any other uses... soccer perhaps?

http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=1808&stc=1&d=1282608642

I grew up eating the things as a kid.Teacher in school tried to tell us they were poisen and I told her they were edible and got told I never knew what i was talking about. The next day I had a picture of one and a letter for the teacher from my mom with the recipe for cooking them and the instruction that maybe she didn't know everything. Was the beginning of my hatred of teachers and how poorly educated they actually are.

[lmathews]

slice them like bread,and put them in an egg bath like french toast,cook and they are pretty good.GOTTA USE MAPLE SYRUP TO!

[maple flats]

As far a worrying about them in the sugar bush, I don't think they are anything to worry about. You just have the spores in the surface trash. Eat and enjoy. If you like mushrooms you will like puff balls. Eat them now, in short order they will dry and just be a puff of dust inside, thus the name.

[TF Maple]

Nothing to worry about as far as I know, and really nothing you could do about it anyway. The mushroom is growing underground and the part we see on the surface is the flower. With the wet weather we have had, I'm expecting a lot of them by our place this year too. It is just another plant using a part of the ecosystem in the sugar bush.

[farmall h]

Bryanx, that shrooooom is huge. Never seen one that big before. Do they grow that large regularly. You may want to take it to someone who knows if it IS edible. You know , there are Natural food stores out there that would probably pay big$ for those! Keep me posted.

[TF Maple]

Bryanx, that shrooooom is huge. Never seen one that big before. Do they grow that large regularly. You may want to take it to someone who knows if it IS edible. You know , there are Natural food stores out there that would probably pay big$ for those! Keep me posted.

Most of the time our puffballs are smaller but we have found some about twice that size.
As far as eating them, they should be perfectly white inside. You don't have to have them identified by someone as nothing else looks like a puffball, unlike some other shrooms that have poisonous imitators.