That’s a big mushroom!
Rob Gibson – 07/28/2020 / 4:00 a.m. | History: 306349
Photo: Elizabeth Kozub
The 90-year-old George Kozub and his daughter Elizabeth
That’s a big mushroom!
Ninety-year-old Lake Country mushroom hunter George Kozub was out with his daughter Elizabeth on Sunday when he came across the largest puffball mushroom he has ever seen.
“My dad and I went to Fir Valley on Sunday and found these puffball mushrooms. The largest weighed over 11 pounds. My dad is 90 and he’s been an avid mushroom picker all his life and he said he’d never found it so big, “says Elizabeth Kozub – George’s daughter.
“When I was a boy, I went mushroom picking with my mother and I’ve never seen one this big,” says George Kozub to Castanet.
“My mom made me do it. I love to eat them, so I just love going to the hills around Beaver Lake and Fir Valley to look for mushrooms,” says Kozub.
Unfortunately, this big boy was past his best before date, so George has to keep looking: “We were about a week late – this one is stale.”
Kozub says the puffball mushroom is good food, “season it and fry it. I don’t sell it, I eat it.”
For George and other mushroom pickers, the season goes into September, depending on the mushroom variety. He recommends driving up Beaver Lake Road, “if you look closely, you can see them growing right on the side of the road.”
