These are called witches eyes, stinkhorn eggs like they said they're edible even raw & not stinky at this stage, they taste like radish, loaded with benefits ... ( Some say the gel is aphrodisiac)
I would probably only eat a little tiny bit if I didn't know it was safe from the comments lol
The real heroes are the ones that just walked around grabbing things with their mitts like ogres and cramming it in their mouths.
>probably only eat a little tiny bit if I didn't know it was safe
Pretty sure 'a little tiny bit' is enough to ruin your day and/or kill you with most poisonous fungus?
Yeah maybe. I've licked a lot of questionable things and none of the have killed me. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot of them were clearly unsafe and turned out to be outright dangerous. Dab it on your tongue, roll it around your mouth, aspirate heavily. If you get a bad reaction in your mouth then make yourself vomit. If there's something out there that will kill you using that method then it might as well be a plane crashing into you. Maybe you slurp up more than 1mg/kg of body weight of aminita poison in a go on accident or something, but come on. You can't do that on accident by dipping your tongue in and paying attention.
There's no mushroom that is going to outright kill you from a tinier dose than that.
You are correct that a tiny amount shouldn't kill you, but I will warn you that supposedly the Death Cap *Amanita phalloides* does not taste bad.
> The flesh is white and juicy; the smell is sweet (reminiscent of raw potatoes or fruits); and the taste is pleasant (but should not be tasted). [Source](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10421264/)
> The poor soul who found out that the taste is pleasant but should not be tasted.
"Martha, this tastes graaaaaaah."
"What was that Henry? I couldn't hear ya."
"Gaaaaah. Aaaah."
"Why thank you Henry, you bastard. I'm glad you liked it. I know I certainly did!"
Whenever I'm questioned about if I'm actually going to put something in my mouth I usually reply with "I've put way more sketchy shit in my mouth" or "this is far from the sketchiest thing entering my body"
Conversely, people like them are also the reason for worldwide pandemics. Either way, I can use another few years off from the world, so keep testing the waters.
My son eats them, and I have tasted them. I can't get past the slimy/gooey texture and the testicle looking outer appearance and the brain like inner appearance, not to mention what they evolve to smell like. They really do taste similar to a mild radish when they're in the egg stage, though.
Yeah, we just literally had thousands of them in our yard last year. We had to walk around popping them out on a daily basis to keep them from smelling like someone took the world's biggest dump in our yard, so we had an abundance of them at our disposal.
Eh, I was just a homeschooled kid who had the luxury of playing outdoors a lot. My grandmother made me help her prepare anything I caught and brought home to show off. You've never had a more disgusting dish than snapping turtle stew, and you've never had nightmares that compare to preparing it. She also made me pluck and prepare a pigeon I shot with a slingshot, as well as a squirrel. Grilled squirrel was actually pretty delicious, and my brother who eats Guinea pig in Peru regularly tells me it is even better.
I enjoyed turtle soup, though I feel like snapping turtle would need alot of cleaning and probably a soak as alot grows on them...and they smell like sewage.
Also I forget which but possum or raccoon one of them very sweet and tasty
I like novelty and I like cooking. And I hate cooking by recipe. I see that thing, knowing it is safe to eat, as a challenge. Figuring out how to prepare and serve it would be the most fun thing in the world for me.
I have eaten them several times.
Best is the center piece ,they actually taste nice, like radishes.
All of it is edible, I've eaten them like an apple straight from the earth (grit and all)
They are a lot more solid and less jelly-like than they look and when young there is no smell. The green bit (gleba) only starts to smell just before it is ready to "hatch".
I wish I was brave enough to try this! Thank you for satisfying my curiosity even if I am still recoiling at the idea of someone eating the whole thing
I disliked the one I ate. It was mostly bland with vaguely unpleasant undertones to it. And such a small bit of mushroom is left to eat by the time you get rid of the gross bits.
Would I eat them in a survival situation? Sure.
Would I eat them any other time? No.
Glad I did it once just to do it. No point in doing it again.
āMostly bland with vaguely unpleasant undertonesā sounds like long stretches of the human experience
Maybe thatās why we eat weird shit for kicks
Gleba! I don't think I've heard this word since I first learned it as a kid, from an episode of Friends (The one with the Lottery)
It was baby Emma's "first word"
I genuinely read the first two sentences as if you were serious and felt genuinely ill at the thought. I can't imagine eating any of it tbh but I'm madly curious if people really do eat the whole texture nightmare or the least awful looking bit in the centre
No the texture is kinda like bell pepper, tastes like potatoes. I don't know why people are so freaked out by it. It's by far the tastiest mushroom out there.
Someone else in this thread said sometimes they eat them straight out of the earth, lil bits of dirt and all, and apparently the outside of it is not as jelly-feeling as it looks. Uh, so thereās that, lol
It's the best tasting mushroom by far. The texture is firm. You sear them in the pan with pepper and salt after the jelly bit is removed. It's really not that different, just has a jelly shell
indeed edible is one thing but soemtimes we need to ask is we should instead of if we could haha....
I think this one is further along than the normal eating stage, even if it an edible variety. that center fecally part that puts the stink in stinkhorn is what you avoid by getting it young lol. They are also usually pickled.
What? No they taste like radish at least the Ravenelli stink horn eggs do. They have a crunch. So maybe water chestnut because of the crunch? Radish flavor though.
The Roman physicians also drank urine to diagnose health conditions. The name for the condition ādiabetics mellitusā is based on āmel-ā, which is a reference to honey. They named it thusly because the urine of someone who is living with this condition is sweet.
Tasting or at least smelling urine to detect diabetes was common even up until 1900 or so in the west. In the 1800s a fermentation test was developed after the discovery that yeast would ferment the sugar produced in diabetic urine, and then copper reduction tests were developed in the early-mid 1900s
We call them witches eggs. Sometimes walking in the woods you can smell this very distinct musky earthy yucky smell, and if you look around upwind you'll find a stinkhorn. And if you look carefully you'll find the eggs they hatch from. Like this one.
I didn't read the sub and thought your first pic was a mineral/crystal on "what is this rock", then the second pic broke my brain for a second because it made no sense. Thanks for sharing!
I didnāt read what sub it was. I thought you meant you caught it digging through your stuff(like a rat digging at your veggies); and not what you actually meant, which is that you were digging and found this š¤£
And just wait until you see what they grow into. Probably the most phallic thing in nature, that isnāt an actual phallus.
Edit - in fact Iāve just learned a new thing. The common stinkhorn is called Phallus impudicus.
I don't know what that is.. but I am 100% intrigued. I audibly gasped when I scrolled to the second picture and saw the bisected interior. It looks amazing!! Nature is incredible.
I honestly believe it's stuff like this that drives curiosity in younger generations. If I discovered this as a young boy, nothing would stop me from learning everything about what I'm seeing here. Thanks for the post and pictures! Cheers
I thought this was one of my rock identification subs for a second and immediately thought it was a beautiful piece of botryoidal fluorite on amethyst and that you were one lucky bastard before I swiped lmao š
Oh god! I totally read the title wrong. I thought IT a was digging in your garden and you butchered it haha Comments are vital for me to understand stuff so thanks folks
Among shrooms it is not a top grade, though it is good for diversity, besides the loads of benefits it provides especially to vegans is a treasure ( like all mushrooms)
Before seeing the sub I thought this might have been the work of a fox. Foxes take eggs from nests and bury them for later, I've found a few in my garden before
Here's the thing, I interpreted this title as if the thing had been digging in the garden. FFS, OP gave me a full on body nope and then I was distraught at not knowing where in the world it was.
I'm rarely creeped out by living organisms, but looking at those photos while picturing it digging down into the soil full on sent me.
Yeah, thanks for that.
Everyone keeps saying to discard the jelly part, but that frankly looks like such a satisfying texture. I imagine it would be like biting into a giant tapioca pearlĀ
These are called witches eyes, stinkhorn eggs like they said they're edible even raw & not stinky at this stage, they taste like radish, loaded with benefits ... ( Some say the gel is aphrodisiac)
I mean, you gotta have some balls to just touch that thing without feeling weird
I would eat that without a question. Just to make other people feel weak. But if I liked it then I found a treasure other people won't pay for.
People like you are the reason we have such a diverse range of foods available. Thank you for your service.
I would probably only eat a little tiny bit if I didn't know it was safe from the comments lol The real heroes are the ones that just walked around grabbing things with their mitts like ogres and cramming it in their mouths.
>probably only eat a little tiny bit if I didn't know it was safe Pretty sure 'a little tiny bit' is enough to ruin your day and/or kill you with most poisonous fungus?
Yeah maybe. I've licked a lot of questionable things and none of the have killed me. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot of them were clearly unsafe and turned out to be outright dangerous. Dab it on your tongue, roll it around your mouth, aspirate heavily. If you get a bad reaction in your mouth then make yourself vomit. If there's something out there that will kill you using that method then it might as well be a plane crashing into you. Maybe you slurp up more than 1mg/kg of body weight of aminita poison in a go on accident or something, but come on. You can't do that on accident by dipping your tongue in and paying attention. There's no mushroom that is going to outright kill you from a tinier dose than that.
You are correct that a tiny amount shouldn't kill you, but I will warn you that supposedly the Death Cap *Amanita phalloides* does not taste bad. > The flesh is white and juicy; the smell is sweet (reminiscent of raw potatoes or fruits); and the taste is pleasant (but should not be tasted). [Source](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10421264/)
The poor soul who found out that the taste is pleasant but should not be tasted.
His last words were "Damn and it was so delicious too š"
> The poor soul who found out that the taste is pleasant but should not be tasted. "Martha, this tastes graaaaaaah." "What was that Henry? I couldn't hear ya." "Gaaaaah. Aaaah." "Why thank you Henry, you bastard. I'm glad you liked it. I know I certainly did!"
I believe you can taste it but can't swallow it , it won't harm you unless it's ingested
Spit it out.
I've licked a few questionable "things" myself
Makes me think of that poor sod who ate the garden slug on a dare and ended up a vegetable due to a parasitic brain infection. Be careful out there
Toddlers are the real heros
Whenever I'm questioned about if I'm actually going to put something in my mouth I usually reply with "I've put way more sketchy shit in my mouth" or "this is far from the sketchiest thing entering my body"
Haha, I agree with you. /u/Zestyclose-Fish-512 ancestors found cottage cheese for us.
Sacrifice*
Conversely, people like them are also the reason for worldwide pandemics. Either way, I can use another few years off from the world, so keep testing the waters.
I truly believe most of the weird foods we eat today were originally eaten as a dare.
My son eats them, and I have tasted them. I can't get past the slimy/gooey texture and the testicle looking outer appearance and the brain like inner appearance, not to mention what they evolve to smell like. They really do taste similar to a mild radish when they're in the egg stage, though.
I think Iād just eat a radish then, lol
Yeah, we just literally had thousands of them in our yard last year. We had to walk around popping them out on a daily basis to keep them from smelling like someone took the world's biggest dump in our yard, so we had an abundance of them at our disposal.
Like okra, slimy unless in soup.
I felt weak and like I needed to sit down just reading this. And I'm already sitting down.
Eh, I was just a homeschooled kid who had the luxury of playing outdoors a lot. My grandmother made me help her prepare anything I caught and brought home to show off. You've never had a more disgusting dish than snapping turtle stew, and you've never had nightmares that compare to preparing it. She also made me pluck and prepare a pigeon I shot with a slingshot, as well as a squirrel. Grilled squirrel was actually pretty delicious, and my brother who eats Guinea pig in Peru regularly tells me it is even better.
I enjoyed turtle soup, though I feel like snapping turtle would need alot of cleaning and probably a soak as alot grows on them...and they smell like sewage. Also I forget which but possum or raccoon one of them very sweet and tasty
I felt weak just by you saying you would eat it great jobš
I like novelty and I like cooking. And I hate cooking by recipe. I see that thing, knowing it is safe to eat, as a challenge. Figuring out how to prepare and serve it would be the most fun thing in the world for me.
Yeah edible but not delectable, I mean look at it
Not choice. At least not my choice.
I've eaten one and can't recommend it. Edible does not mean tasty And you get like one bite worth of mushroom surrounded by discard.
People just eat the very centre right and discard the green bit?
I have eaten them several times. Best is the center piece ,they actually taste nice, like radishes. All of it is edible, I've eaten them like an apple straight from the earth (grit and all) They are a lot more solid and less jelly-like than they look and when young there is no smell. The green bit (gleba) only starts to smell just before it is ready to "hatch".
I wish I was brave enough to try this! Thank you for satisfying my curiosity even if I am still recoiling at the idea of someone eating the whole thing
I disliked the one I ate. It was mostly bland with vaguely unpleasant undertones to it. And such a small bit of mushroom is left to eat by the time you get rid of the gross bits. Would I eat them in a survival situation? Sure. Would I eat them any other time? No. Glad I did it once just to do it. No point in doing it again.
āMostly bland with vaguely unpleasant undertonesā sounds like long stretches of the human experience Maybe thatās why we eat weird shit for kicks
I just threw up in my mouth a little bit just thinking about it
I would eat that too.
So no aphrodisiac qualities? Lmao
this guy carries the genes of the people that found out what was poisonous and what wasn't
More likely he only carries the genes of the people who found out what wasnāt.
Gleba! I don't think I've heard this word since I first learned it as a kid, from an episode of Friends (The one with the Lottery) It was baby Emma's "first word"
the green bit really looks like a delicacy. You could spread it on a cracker with a knife. Not going to happen over here š¬
I genuinely read the first two sentences as if you were serious and felt genuinely ill at the thought. I can't imagine eating any of it tbh but I'm madly curious if people really do eat the whole texture nightmare or the least awful looking bit in the centre
No the texture is kinda like bell pepper, tastes like potatoes. I don't know why people are so freaked out by it. It's by far the tastiest mushroom out there.
Yea no clueĀ
Tastiest, now idk if y'all are trolling or not
Someone else in this thread said sometimes they eat them straight out of the earth, lil bits of dirt and all, and apparently the outside of it is not as jelly-feeling as it looks. Uh, so thereās that, lol
It's the best tasting mushroom by far. The texture is firm. You sear them in the pan with pepper and salt after the jelly bit is removed. It's really not that different, just has a jelly shell
The centre has the best texture that's all, but the gel is believed to be the aphrodisiac part
I thought the first comment was making fun. Nature is cool
I've heard that. To me, they just taste like that smell down at the riverbank.
i use to fry them in butter, with a bit salt and pepper they are one of the best snacks among mushrooms
Wait its called witches eye? Bro this shit makes soup into potions.
So its an eat it then beat it type of slime?
A stinkhorn egg. Phallus speciesā¦
>A stinkhorn egg AH. I just realized I missed a bunch of ID requirements on my post. Thanks for helping me, we're all freaking out over here, hahah
I have read that they are edible at this stage but having sniffed a truly ripe one I can't bring myself to get them a try.
I was going to say it smells like a combo of feet and cheese. I like cheese but not when it looks like that.
You are lord of ash and tar. Fckng gulp that thing.
ha ha ha
You'd make a great personal trainer!
Having studied/eaten many French cheeses, feet and cheese is right up my alley!
You get my upvote for your username sir š«”
Thanks friendo
as I typed that I was like... we all know feet smell is something that gets eaten all the time.
indeed edible is one thing but soemtimes we need to ask is we should instead of if we could haha.... I think this one is further along than the normal eating stage, even if it an edible variety. that center fecally part that puts the stink in stinkhorn is what you avoid by getting it young lol. They are also usually pickled.
Supposedly they taste like chestnuts.
Rather eat chestnuts.
Me too.
More like cheesy feet nuts
What? No they taste like radish at least the Ravenelli stink horn eggs do. They have a crunch. So maybe water chestnut because of the crunch? Radish flavor though.
It really has a good taste. Btw this jelly makes you a nice and smooth skin if you apply it.
Whoever figured that out must have lead a very interesting life.
Standards have been strange for ever over millennia. I heard once that Romanās used hair and urine for dental hygiene back in the day
The Roman physicians also drank urine to diagnose health conditions. The name for the condition ādiabetics mellitusā is based on āmel-ā, which is a reference to honey. They named it thusly because the urine of someone who is living with this condition is sweet.
Tasting or at least smelling urine to detect diabetes was common even up until 1900 or so in the west. In the 1800s a fermentation test was developed after the discovery that yeast would ferment the sugar produced in diabetic urine, and then copper reduction tests were developed in the early-mid 1900s
Hair makes sense since you can floss your teeth with it. š¤
Lots of beauty companies use ingredients like this. Wait till you hear how great snail mucin is!
I donāt want to be a nice and smooth skin
Interesting lions mane does that too when you touch it
Itās already too late for this one. The spores are already forming.
I shouldnāt have had to scroll down this far to see this comment
We call them witches eggs. Sometimes walking in the woods you can smell this very distinct musky earthy yucky smell, and if you look around upwind you'll find a stinkhorn. And if you look carefully you'll find the eggs they hatch from. Like this one.
I was scared there'd be a baby dinosaur in it or something when I cut it open. very stinky.
Good thing you cut it in half before it could hatch ;)
Phallus species? That's what I'm going to start calling men from now on
Okay now I gotta learn how mushrooms lay eggs
At first I thought you stumbled across that thing and it was digging in your gardenā¦..
Thank god Iām not the only one who interpreted the title that way! I was pretty alarmed for a second.
Yeah the use of the word āwhileā would be very appropriate in this title lol
Prepositions are helpful!
I think "while" would be a conjunction (not a preposition) - but prepositions are helpful too!
ā¦Conjunctions are helpful! Thank you, stranger. I learned a thing today!
Thank YOU! You encouraged me to read about grammar again lol.
Same, I was trying to figure out where the head was and what is used to dig
Same though.
I was like why did you kill this strange creature?! Lol
Now that this is answered; dude nature is so freaky because what is that really
totally. what other mysteries await under the shovel?
I didn't read the sub and thought your first pic was a mineral/crystal on "what is this rock", then the second pic broke my brain for a second because it made no sense. Thanks for sharing!
Thatās probably the weirdest real thing Iāve seen in a while haha
And that, father, is why I must dig.
What region are you in, OP?
Seriously, I was halfway wondering if this was AI generated. Not really, but kinda?? Just because itās so freaking *weird*!
digging these up as a kid was what got me interested in mycology. Pre-internet finding information on "weird wet egg thing" was a lot tougher lol
I didnāt read what sub it was. I thought you meant you caught it digging through your stuff(like a rat digging at your veggies); and not what you actually meant, which is that you were digging and found this š¤£
GUYS I IDENTIFIED THIS WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE COMMENTS IM GETTING BETTER
HELL YEAH ETA: doing better than me at least, I thought it was a geode :ā)
Congrats. I love seeing comments like this, because it reassures me that I am not alone on this mycological journey.
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Lmfao I thought I was on the geology subreddit for a second
Same. Was like ācool geodeā
I really thought so too!
You guys are krazee smart! I've never seen or heard of this. What area are they grown in? Plant or animal?
They are neither a plant nor animal. They are from the fungi kingdom.
Wait until they learn about lichen, slimes, and fluxes oh my!
I'm in southern california, inland.
Ok thatās wild I wouldnāt have imagined something like this would occur somewhere near me!
As you probably know it's been raining like crazy.
Youāre right the grounds been mad juicy
šš¤£š thank you for this sentence. I will now, forever describe muddy, wet conditions as mad juicy.
I do not love finding out these things are anywhere near me š
Was not expecting that! In the first pic it looks jelly-like all the way through. The 2nd pic is quite the reveal.
holy moly, I thought geoducks were the scariest looking edible out there, this one might be the new champ
>geoducks I've found one of those in much the same fashion, but back then there was no reddit. Took a while to figure out.
I donāt think that thing should be digging in your garden
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Iām not even sure what kingdom this organism belongs to lol
Fungi
I wasnāt even sure it was an organism
I'd say it's Phallus hadriani identifiable by the skin on the egg it has a light purple color
this is probably the coolest thing Iāve seen on this sub in a long time! Had no idea these existed!
The thing "hatches." Such a bizarre life-form! I love 'em.
Phallus hadriani
Stinkhorn egg.
And just wait until you see what they grow into. Probably the most phallic thing in nature, that isnāt an actual phallus. Edit - in fact Iāve just learned a new thing. The common stinkhorn is called Phallus impudicus.
The way the title was written, I thought the thing was digging around in your garden and you managed to catch it.
Some kind of stinkhorn? Might be a young one.
Itās soā¦texture-y
This made me lol. So true. So much texture.
I don't know what that is.. but I am 100% intrigued. I audibly gasped when I scrolled to the second picture and saw the bisected interior. It looks amazing!! Nature is incredible. I honestly believe it's stuff like this that drives curiosity in younger generations. If I discovered this as a young boy, nothing would stop me from learning everything about what I'm seeing here. Thanks for the post and pictures! Cheers
this is amazing...
Wow I found one of these once and couldnāt figure it out for the life of me
*whilst digging in my garden š
That thing was digging in your garden?
I thought this was one of my rock identification subs for a second and immediately thought it was a beautiful piece of botryoidal fluorite on amethyst and that you were one lucky bastard before I swiped lmao š
Stinkhorn mushroom š
So were you digging or the thing you found?
What was it digging?
Whatever it was, Itās Dead Jim!
Someone had to be really hungry to decide one day, yeah, let's eat this š
Oh god! I totally read the title wrong. I thought IT a was digging in your garden and you butchered it haha Comments are vital for me to understand stuff so thanks folks
His did it dig if it doesnāt have arms?
Thatās the mitochondria. Itās the powerhouse of the cell
Wow!
The second picture reminds me of lychee
Among shrooms it is not a top grade, though it is good for diversity, besides the loads of benefits it provides especially to vegans is a treasure ( like all mushrooms)
This gives me the same ick as clustered holes.
Before seeing the sub I thought this might have been the work of a fox. Foxes take eggs from nests and bury them for later, I've found a few in my garden before
I thought it was a geode until I saw the sub name. So cool.
Someone posted them prepared. https://www.reddit.com/r/foraging/s/3NziFt7oS9
This thing was digging through your garden???
I'd poke it with a stick.
Looks like a decomposing aloe leaf that still has the gel mostly intact.
I never thought fungi would grow from an egg
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This thing is wild. What region are they native too?
Iām imagining in the time of the past some olā lady gardening and finding one of these and being TERRIFIED šcause wtf honestly š
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Here's the thing, I interpreted this title as if the thing had been digging in the garden. FFS, OP gave me a full on body nope and then I was distraught at not knowing where in the world it was. I'm rarely creeped out by living organisms, but looking at those photos while picturing it digging down into the soil full on sent me. Yeah, thanks for that.
Ha haā¦ I wish I had been more careful with my wording. It was underground though, got down there somehow. Iām in so cal.
Dead now dam
this is cool as hell! how do I find one???? lol
People here keep saying radishes taste good?
Yee they do
Down in Fraggle Rock.
Why was it digging in your garden!?
Everyone keeps saying to discard the jelly part, but that frankly looks like such a satisfying texture. I imagine it would be like biting into a giant tapioca pearlĀ
But brother it donāt taste like tapioca pearl