Is The Village* Nearby?

Last night, I was standing in front of the sink whilst I was preparing supper.  There is a window over the sink, which looks out into the backyard, and something rather odd caught my eye in the way back. 

It hadn't been there earlier in the day, or the day before.  Because of their abrupt appearance on the scene, I wondered if Number Six hadn't, somehow, snuck into the house in the course of one of his escape attempts. 

Since Number Six didn't appear to be in the vicinity, the husband and I figured it was safe to go out and investigate. 

This thing is the size of a socccer ball, as is the other one.  I'll be interested to see what the little one looks like later today. We had no clue as to what it could be, but the husband did a little research, and it turns out it's a mushroom with an apt classification: Calvatia gigantea or "giant puffball" mushroom.

{...}Most giant puffballs grow to be 10 to 70 centimetres (3.9 to 28 in) in diameter, although occasionally some can reach diameters up to 150 centimetres (59 in) and weights of 20 kilograms (44 lb). The inside of the mature Giant puffballs is greenish brown, whereas the interior of immature puffballs is white. The large white mushrooms are edible when young. To distinguish giant puffballs from other species, they must be cut open; edible puffballs will have a solid white interior. Some similar mushrooms have the white interior (or yellowish) but also have the silhouette of a cap-type mushroom on the interior when cut open. These are young cap-type mushrooms and may be poisonous.

The fruiting body of a puffball mushroom will develop within the period of a few weeks and soon begin to decompose and rot, at which point it is dangerous to eat. Unlike most mushrooms, all the spores of the giant puffball are created inside the fruiting body; large specimens can easily contain several trillion spores. Spores are yellowish, smooth, and 3 to 5 micrometres (0.00012 to 0.00020 in) in size. The dry spores can be used as a coagulant to help stop bleeding.{...}

Can you believe that?  It's actually edible. That's a shedload of mushroom!  And, yes, the husband reverted to his eight-year-old self and poked it, repeatedly, with a stick, and found that the inside is, indeed, white.  We could, technically speaking, eat the thing.  But we won't, because I'm entirely too much of a chicken to eat fungi from the backyard. 

Interesting what can spring up in your backyard overnight, no?  I find it somewhat comical that we've spent all summer laboring to get grass to grow, but giant puffball mushrooms spring up instantly. Weird. 

*Verily, praise will be heavily heaped on those who can spot the source material.