…and I raise you a puffball!
Recently, I read The Manitoulin Expositor to learn about a puffball Rob Simon and his wife Collette found visiting their sugar bush near Ice Lake. I was visiting my friend Joe Ann Lewis and we were driving to her camp on Barrie Island. On the rough winding road to her property, she stopped and exclaimed. “Look at that puffball!”
This New Yorker said, “What is that? It looks like something from outer space!”
“Bonnie, it is a Manitoulin delicacy,” Joe Ann said. “Would you get out of the car and go pick it up and put it in the back seat?”
“You want me to get out, go into the field and pick that thing up?” I asked. “It might be too heavy. What if it bites?”
Oh you New York City girl, stop ranting and go get that puffball, Joe Ann urged. “I will cook some of it up tonight for dinner!”
After 23 years on Island, I always want to learn Manitoulin customs and culture and I stopped whining and picked it up, why it was heavy and so big. When we got it to the camp, Joe Ann measuredit to be 64 inches around.
Well, I sure got to see the Manitoulin mushroom as a thing of beauty. And later, when she cooked it up, with spices, it was delicious!
And then she shared it with neighbours, and so there is no proof except this picture, because all of the puffball was eaten…happily! Here’s to Manitoulin’s constant discoveries!
Respectfully, Bonnie Kogos Author of “Manhattan, Manitoulin”
