Neil away with the Fairies.

We saw a 'Fairy Ring', up at Englefield; you often see strange circles in grass and over the centuries people have blamed them on Elves, Fairies, hobgoblins or.....whatever.

And they do say that if you stray into the circle terrible things happen to you.

Gulp!

This one was unusual because you can see what causes it too;

It's the trace left by a fungus as it grows out - eating up nutrients at the tip of its mycelium under the ground.

That leaves the soil infertile for grass so there's often a circle of bare ground, as there is here.

This time there's also a circle of toadstools, which are the fungal equivalent of flowers.

So no Fairies or Elves then.

Although, I didn't actually have time to jump into the ring.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me;  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Wow! A giant puffball......lets eat!

I went for a walk after I got back from hospital and saw these in a garden - they are giant puffballs, great big fungal fruiting bodies. They are a bit like mushrooms except it's a big white ball which then goes leathery and turns into a bag full of millions of brown spores which fly around the moment anything touches it.

I had a hunt around and......found one on the path!

It's a lot bigger than it looks in this picture; here it is on the kitchen table;

 

 

It's delicious and as its about the only edible fungus I can recognise, the only thing to do was to eat it! 

 



Here it is fried for supper, with garlic butter......mmmmmh!

 

 

And this was next day's lunch (rest in the freezer) a tomatoey, garlicy, oniony puffball stew.

 

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

 

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com