I observed many puffballs on my trip. There are several varieties of small puffballs in our area, and I’m not an expert on telling them apart but my best assessment is that I saw Lycoperdon pyriforme – the Pear-shaped Puffball; and Lycoperdon perlatum – the Gem-Studded Puffball; I may have also observed Scleroderma otrinum – Earthballs. There may have been others.

It seems that everywhere I went I saw puffballs. There were even plenty of them appearing on the grass around the cabin at which I stayed. I collected about a dozen young, pure white pear-shaped puffballs to try in an omelette.

Many of the small puffballs are edible. The single biggest mistake to avoid is mistaking Amanita buttons for puffballs. A young amanita button looks kind of like an inverted pear-shaped puffball. Even though I was certain of what I picked, still I sliced each one in half to ensure I was looking at a solid white mass of puffball and nothing that looked like it could be a developing mushroom under a veil.

The best way I can describe them as food is to say that they are like adding tofu to a stir-fry. Is it good? Well, it adds something. It picks up flavours around it. Puffballs are similar. They’re mild and they more or less mind their own business. I wouldn’t go out of my way to pick a bunch but on the other hand, if I stumbled across some nice fresh ones in the woods, and I had plenty of room in my basket, I wouldn’t hesitate to collect a bunch.