Supposedly edible when young (and necessarily white all the way through when cut in half), by the time the little spines have completely dropped off these specimens, they will be yellowing slightly and have become distinctly inedible. Nevertheless, I’ve always been fascinated by Puffballs and I remember how, more than fifty years ago back in my primary school days, I took several mature brown specimens in at the start of the Autumn term for the class nature table (for which I was always responsible) and to demonstrate to the other children how clouds of minute spores could be forced through a hole in the top of each fruiting body simply by squeezing gently on the sides. In the wild, this emitting of spores is usually triggered by drops of rain hitting the Puffball itself.Incidentally, these particular specimens were growing on the side of a rotting log in a small wood on a hilltop in the Cotswolds in Late October and if you’re stupid enough to think it might be worth testing the edibility of similar young Puffballs for yourself, then you’d better be absolutely 100% certain that you can tell the difference between them and young versions of the incredibly poisonous Common Earthball….but then it’s your a*se so it’s tough sh*t if you really are that stupid and believe me, doing a Chris Packham and thinking it’s enough to set off into the woods to search for edible fungi armed with nothing more than a Dorling Kindersly’s “Pocket Nature Guide to Fungi” just ain’t going to hack it! Plus, if one day any of you decide to sign up for one of those ridiculous wilderness survival courses that have become so popular of late and the so-called “expert” instructors start banging on about using various types of fungi as survival food, then tell them exactly where they can stick their Penny Buns and Crab Brittlegills because there’s a damn good chance it wont be what they say it is and besides, there’s more nutritional value in a Big Mac than any kind of edible mushroom or toadstool….Well, maybe not a Big Mac, but certainly a piece of cardboard!
