A Dish of Puffballs
A correspondent in America, writing to me about the reluctance of people in this country to eat our native funguses other than the mush- room expresses surprise that puffballs are not esteemed as greatly as mushrooms. In his part of the U.S.A. they are relished. Now I have always wanted to sample a dish of puffballs, and I am well aware that most of our funguses are edible, but I have never been able to overcome a prejudice against all but the mushroom. Some of the deadly funguses poison so quickly that no antidote can be given, and I know so little about the characteristics of the edible funguses that I have visions of a horrible death at the thought of eating them. For this reason, if I am to believe those with less prejudice and more courage, I deny myself dishes that taste like nothing I have yet eaten and wonderful flavours to tempt the gourmet. While I may 'shrug off a mistake in bird-identification, it, might not be so easy if I ate the wrong stew.
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