Huge 5 kg mushroom feeds a family for a week

A woman who found a giant 5 kg (11 lb) mushroom on a country walk said the vegetable fed her family for an entire week.

Alisimon Minuit, 27, was walking with her father in a field in North Marston, near Winslow, Buckinghamshire, when she spotted a giant fungus in the grass.

She said, “It fed my family for a week… I’ve been eating it ever since. I still have three pieces left in my freezer. I’ll be honest – I’m a little sick of it.”

The musician is a keen hunter with an “interest in mushrooms”, and said she knows how to recognize one and not mistake it for something poisonous.

Ms Minuit, from Chesham, found the fungus close to the same spot where she previously found another giant, but slightly smaller, mushroom in 2017.

“A giant puffball It’s the most easily recognizable ‘payable’ mushroom,” she said. “It looks like it’s something from another planet, they’re so weird.”

The amateur mycologist said she knew which shapes and colors to avoid. Experts say that without such information people should not take any risk.

The fungus was used to cook meatloaf and mushroom steak – and mushroom-based pizza.

“My mom found a recipe on TikTok,” Ms Minuit said. “We used real mushrooms as the base for the pizza. It was good.”

The rest were cut up, put into boxes and frozen, for later use.

In September, three people in Jersey Death cap mushrooms were poisoned after mistaking them for edible mushrooms.,

Mycologist Charlotte Sheinkin warned people not to eat wild mushrooms they cannot identify with confidence.

She said: “It is important to be aware of the real and potentially fatal dangers of eating wild fungi without knowledge and caution.”

Ms Shenkin also advised villagers to seek a second opinion and keep a crude sample in case they fall ill.