Giant Puff Balls (these were the smallest ones) - September 2007


Old Grey Frog With Giant Puff Balls - September 2007


Me and My Mom Posing With Giant Puff Balls - September 2007

Word of the Day

Craptent - Content that lacks quality.

Puff the Magic....Puff Balls?

HTP and I were driving down our driveway on the way to go shopping in the city. We try to avoid or minimize these shopping trips because of the gas prices and the fact that the city is 20 minutes away from The Lake...but...needs must. Anyway, as we were heading down our driveway a glimpse of white hit my eye. White where there shouldn't be such a startling shade of white. White mounds. Giant Puff Balls? No way, no how. I'd never even seen one before...outside of the occasional newspaper article. "Stop!", I called to my husband. "STOP! Back up!" His reply was predictable, "Huh?" "Back up! Back up!", I said. By this time, he's looking at me with that peculiar look that I've become fairly accustomed too over the many years of our marriage. Anyway. He backed the car up. There...off to my right... "The Fabled Giant Puff Ball"....A Myth...OK...it exists but a thing so rare that I've never actually seen one in person. Three! My husband was poo-poo'ing this siting...almost as rare as a Big Foot siting, at least here in Wisconsin. Despite his obviously negative attitude, I exited the car and braved the blackberry thorns (I was wearing shorts and did major scratch damage to my legs) to check out these wondrous mounds of white. "It's just rocks!", claimed my hubby, from the safety of the car. Hah! I was right! Giant Puff Balls. Huge! Each one (there were three), larger than my son's basketball. I delicately gathered each into my waiting arms. Actually, it was kind of hard to do this because they were so huge and I must have looked like, and certainly felt a bit like a juggler juggling three basketballs. As it is, I broke one of these giant puff balls as I struggled back to the car. No matter, a broken puff ball tastes just fine. I brought them back to the car and....my husband said, "You aren't actually thinking of bringing them inside this car, are you?" *sigh* He's got a cold. Forgive him. "Just leave them on the side of the drive and we'll pick them when we get back from the city.", he said. No way! No how! This was like telling me that there's be no reason to take that picture of Big Foot and that Big Foot would still be there when we got back. So....I loaded my treasure into the car and HTP turned the car around in our drive so that I could store my "legend" back in the kitchen of our house.

Have you all ever had a chance to eat a bit, a bite, of legend? I've got pictures. I made HTP take pictures. I brought one of the giant puff balls over to my Mom. The last time she'd seen a giant puff ball was when she was in high school. We won't go into how many years have come and gone since then. And...she tells me that the giant puff balls that she and her Dad (my grandpa) had seen at that time were not nearly as big as these! There is a reason that I took pictures. A rare site, this may be my last opportunity to see such a thing. I gather puff balls here to enjoy but none of the regular puff balls are bigger in diameter than a fifty-cent piece, most measure closer to a quarter. As HTP and I were heading back to the house, I noted even more giant puff balls on the other side of our driveway. I harvested two of these after HTP and I returned from shopping in the city.

I eagerly called my Mom to report this wondrous find. I loaded one of the large puff balls and two of the smaller puff balls into the Sidekick to take over to my folks' place so they and my sister could share in this bounty. As I was driving down their 3/4 mile driveway, a glimpse of white hit my eye. No way! I stopped my car and went to investigate. Sure enough. More giant puff balls. I harvested two of the three, leaving one to "ripen" and maybe produce at some future generation, more giant puff balls. I gave my sister three giant puff balls (smaller...but as large as honeydew melons). I gave my Mom one of those smaller ones and another that was bigger than a basketball. Me?

I kept two of the basketball-sized giant puff balls (one broken) to fry up....to freeze and nibble a bit for supper last night. HTP won't eat anything that doesn't come wrapped in cellophane at the grocery store...well...OK...that wasn't nice. He does eat fish that we catch in the lake. Anyway, I've never understood how anyone can turn down a bite of legend. *sigh*

Anyway, there I was with two huge Giant puff balls. How does one cook a legend? I mean...there aren't any recipes for this sort of thing. Roasted Unicorn? OK...I figured it out. Butter. Garlic. A bit of salt and fresh ground pepper. I'm telling you that I've NEVER had anything near as wonderful as this! I had to quarter these huge puff balls and then slice and slice again and I could only cook a quarter of each of these puff balls at one time in my largest frying pan. I cooked them is Wisconsin butter with garlic with fresh ground pepper. How can I describe this? Every morsel melted in your mouth. Really! I mean...do you like mushrooms? You don't? Well, this didn't taste like mushrooms. It tasted like...I can't tell you what it tasted like because I've never had it before even though I've had puff balls before... but not GIANT PUFF BALLS. Wonderful! There's no description! I really feel like I've eaten a legend. Please note that I left a single giant puff ball in each clump so that spoors could develop and hopefully be fruitfull and propagate. I'm going to keep the locations of these giant puff balls recorded in my mind. I'll have to check back next year at around this time. I may even check back in a couple days to see if any new giant puff balls have decided to offer themselves up to my culinary expertise.

Murphyism of the Day

Dale's Parking Postulate

If only two cars are left in a parking lot, one will be blocking the other.

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

There is no Them, there is only Us. Some of Us think this or some of Us think that, but we're all Us. -- Lisa Williams