Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 293, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1913 — PUFFBALLS AS FOOD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PUFFBALLS AS FOOD

By C. A. Ludwig, Botanical

V. ment, Purdue University Experiment Station, Purdue University Agricultural Extension.

The epicure has long been wont to tickle his palate with mushrooms, for which he must pay a good stiff price or pick up a mess occasionally as they may be found in the fifelds or woodlands. At the same time he has been passing by some of the best dainties to be found, under the mistaken idea that they are unfit to eat. These are the common puffballs, which occur in this section of the country in great profusion, both of species and of .individuals. They range in size from the little fellows about the size of a pea to the monsters as big as a peck measure or even larger; arid all of them are not only edible, but, with the exception of some of the small forms which grow on decaying wood and absorb its flavor, they are also delicately flavored and eminently satisfying from the epicure’s standpoint.

For the farmer or other rural dweller who has an opportunity to gather them, puffballs offer a great many advantages over the much more highly esteemed mushroom. In the first place, they are in many cases much larger and much more abundant, so that it is much easier to collect a good mess. In fact, with some kinds, a single

specimen will furnish enough to last several persons for some days, The one figured In the cut in Its present dried condition in the herbarium of the Botanical department of the Purdue experiment station meaatfFes eight Inches across. A second advantage of puffballs over mushrooms Is found In the fact that they do not spoil so readily. Whereas mushrooms can, with difficulty, be kept several hours or a day In the ice brix, puffballs under the same conditions will keep two or three days or even more. The most Important advantage, however, from the housewife’s point of view Is probably in the greater variety of ways in which puffballs can be served. The flesh has more body than that of niushrooms and It does not shrink or darken so much in cooking. These rung! make a nufet appetizing dish

prepared in any of the ways in which mushrooms are. prepared, * and they can be cooked in a number of other ways, or served as a salad with of the ordinary dressings. Puffballs are ready to use as soon as they are large enough to gather, and remain good until the Interior begins to turn yellow. A slight change in color is not accompanied by an appreciable deterioration in flavor, but the flesh is apt to be somewhat.tough. They may be gathered aytd kept for some days in an ice box until they can be used. In collecting, but one caution is necessary, and that is in connection, with mushrooms. In the early stage they resemble somewhat the early stage of some of the mushrooms, and some of the latter could easily be collected as puffballs. Once In a long while, a poisonous mushroom might thus be picked up. A safe way is not to take the smallest ones. If they be taken, however, they can easily be told from mushrooms by cutting them in two lengthwise through the center. Mushrooms are more or less hollow around the stem and show their structure clearly when split in this manner, while puffballs are uniformly white and solid. When we consider the fact that In-

diana is in the heart of the puffball region and that there is scarcely a farm In the state that does not at some time during the growing season produce an abundance of these excellent fungi, it seems that they should no longer be among the despised and neglected plants on our farms but should be appreciated at their true worth and utilized accordingly.

Depart-

Giant Puffball. (Edible)