Giant 5kg mushroom feeds family for a week

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

Alissimon Minnitt, 27, was walking with her father in a field in North Marston, near Winslow in Buckinghamshire, when they spotted the enormous fungi in the grass.

"It fed my family for a week... I've been eating it ever since. I still have three slices left in my freezer. I'll be honest - I'm a little bit sick of it," she said.

The musician is a keen forager with "an interest in mushrooms", and said she knew how to identify it and not mistake it for something poisonous.

Ms Minnitt, from Chesham, found the fungi close to where she previously found another giant, but slightly smaller, mushroom in 2017.

"A giant puffball is the most easily recognisable 'forageable' mushroom," she said. "It looks like something from another planet, they are so weird."

The amateur mycologist explained she knew what shapes and colours to avoid. Experts say people without such knowledge should not take any risks.

The fungi was used to cook a meatloaf and mushroom steaks - and a mushroom-based pizza.

"My mum found a recipe on TikTok," Ms Minnitt added. "We used the actual mushroom as the base for the pizza. That was nice."

The rest was sliced, put into boxes and frozen, to be used at a later date.

In September, three people in Jersey were poisoned after mistaking a death cap mushroom for an edible one.

Mycologist Charlotte Shenkin warned people not to eat wild mushrooms they could not confidently identify themselves.

She said: "It's essential to be aware of the real and potentially deadly risks of eating wild fungi without knowledge and caution."

Ms Shenkin also advised foragers to seek a second opinion and keep an uncooked sample in case they did fall ill.