Dear Mary: I have several large, white mushrooms growing on and around my patio.
One is the size of a bowling ball, the other near the size of a soccer ball and one larger than a golf ball. They are hard.
Has the strange summer weather caused these to sprout?
Anon
Those alien-looking mushrooms are giant puffballs, Calvatia gigan-tea. They often sprout in early fall after heavy rains, and so do questions about them.
The smooth, white mushrooms are edible when they're young, if you're so inclined.
But if you want to eat them, you need to pick them while the insides are still uniformly white.
Once the insides start to turn yellow or brown, the mushrooms are no longer tasty and might even be toxic.
