Fergus' fungus turns out to be no small fry

Fergus MacDonald stumbled upon the two-and-a-half foot fungus as he was playing near to his home in South Queensferry last week.

At first the 10-year-old thought the huge chunk was polystyrene, before realising it was the largest mushroom he had ever seen.

After Fergus, his brother Archie, 4, and dad Ramsay hauled it back home the family found themselves feasting on the mushroom for days.

Fergus' dad Ramsay, 46, a project manager in the oil industry, said: "Fergus came across it amidst some trees and thought it was a chunk of polystyrene, but then he realised it was this huge mushroom.

"The kids tried to shift it and then I helped them take it back to the house because it weighed more than one stone.

"One of our neighbours has a friend who is a bit of an expert and he said that it is the largest he had ever seen.

"Apparently there is quite the demand for these from some of the city's best restaurants, so I suppose it could be valuable."

Ramsay said that the family had been intrigued by the mushroom and soon had a taste for fungi.

He said: "When I first brought it home my wife Helen said there's no way that's going in the dinner. But we found out if it's clean and white on the inside it's okay to eat, so we fried some chunks of it in butter and ate it on its own.

"It was very fresh although it was slightly bland compared to other speciality mushrooms I've had. To their credit both of the boys tried it, although they weren't that keen on it."

The giant puffball mushroom, or calvatia gigantea, is a mushroom usually found in meadows, fields and deciduous forests worldwide, usually in late summer and autumn.

They can grow to be 70cm, although some specimens found in the United States can reach 150cm and weigh 20kg.

Nick Read, professor of fungal cell biology at Edinburgh University, described the rare specimen that Fergus found as "certainly very big", but added that he had heard of some reaching six feet in the US.

Helen, 45, added: "It was very strange to look at, and it looked quite grubby, but once you cut it open it had this huge pearly white inside like the freshest button mushroom.

"We cooked it on a barbecue that night and it was really nice, it's just a shame you can't keep it."

Ramsay added: "We've been eating away at it this week and there was actually not much left of it, so Fergus scattered the remains on the land and the spores could mean that they will grow there again.

"I've heard that mushrooms can be very good for youand can treat various conditions.

"I must admit that there has been quite a bit of mushroom eating since we made the discovery so I think it will be featuring quite a lot in our diet from now on."