Article Contributed on: 8/6/2009 10:30:56 AM
For years I tried to ignore the stinky mushrooms in my yard, but this year I did something different. I ate them.
If you walk around Denver much, you've probably seen the strange mushrooms with a long white stem and slimy greenish top. They emerge from what looks like a pink golf-ball, and they grow in lawns all over the city.
If you haven't had the dubious pleasure of seeing these mushrooms, there's a good chance you've smelled them. Their putrid odor wafts across lawns and gardens throughout the summer, particularly after it rains.
And this year, with all the rain, our lawn produced dozens of them. As an amateur mycologist, someone who studies mushrooms as a hobby, I've known for years that these things were edible. They're called stinkhorns, or Phallus impudicus in scientific parlance, but who wants to eat something that looks about as weird as it smells?
I decided to take the plunge after this summer's rains kept putting the mushrooms in my face, literally, as I was weeding my garden. I'd read that President Richard Nixon ate stink horns in China, where they're considered a delicacy. If they're good enough for Nixon, they're good enough for me. I recruited my parents, also mushroom buffs, and we sat down together for a mid-morning snack.
Fortunately, you don't eat the slimy part -- only the pink balls that produce the mushrooms. We cut these balls in thirds, revealing a white interior with a beautiful green stripe around the edge, followed by avaguely gelatinous layer.
I tried to make myself believe they smelled like radish, but the odor had a rottenness about it, I must admit. We pan fried them in olive oil, and we were happy to see the gelatinous layer fade away, leaving a crispy morsel. Well, morsel makes them sound too good.
I really wanted them to be delicious, but they were more like something that had been in the refrigerator too long, sort of stale but not yet gone bad. Oh well. The good news is, I've been eating mushrooms from my yard for years -- and from the nearby mountains. There are dozens of delicious species, including some of the world's top gourmet varieties.
But if you want to eat these yourself, first you'll need to learn about mushrooms, to be absolutely sure you know what you're eating.
You can get started by attending the Colorado Mycological Society's Mushroom Fair, Aug. 16, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Denver Botanic Gardens, 1005 York Street, in Denver. You'll see a giant display of mushrooms, and experts will be on hand to identify your collections and answer questions.
Find more information, go to the Colorado Mycological Society's Web site
www.cmsweb.org.