February 25, 2025 • 6 mins
A Bay of Plenty woman has made a massive mushroom find while on a walk.
Julie Gallagher stumbled upon two mushrooms measuring 30cm-plus across the cap on a neighbour’s kiwifruit block at Paengaroa.
Gallagher joined the Afternoons team to discuss the super-sized specimens.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
A great story in the Herald about humongous fungus or
fun guy. So a woman in the Bay of Plenty,
her name is Julie Gallagher. She stumbled across two a
massive mushrooms measuring thirty centimeters plus across the cap on
a neighbor's Kiwi fruit block and Julie is on the
(00:37):
phone right now and joins us, Julie, very very good
afternoon to you.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hi, well, congratulations on the fine I think that's the
right way to say it. Where it was clearly that's
the biggest mushroom that you've ever ever found.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Ever seen?
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Yes, is it find as keepers when it comes to
a mushroom, because you found it, is it yours?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Well, I guess so I just couldn't leave it there.
It was already over mature, so I have heard. So
it just needed to be picked and it needed to
be shown because it's just so unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
So just to give a sort of a visual, you know,
and so people can sort of get their head around
at what what kind of object? Would you say? It's
the size of.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Oh gosh, well it's bigger than a dinner plate.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Bigger than a bigger than a dinner.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I can't think a small trampoline.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Maybe bigger than a dinner plate, and about the size
of a small trampoline.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
It is a big mushroom inside.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
But yeah, what you're saying, so that the stem is
the dinner plate, and then the wider bit, the umbrella bit,
for the want of a better term, is the size
of a small trampoline.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Well, you're probably more a small umbrella. Now you mentioned
an umbrella, Okay, yea, as I say, thirty centimeters across
in one point two kilogram. So it was quite a
mission to carry the both of them home, I bet
it was.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And were they side by side or were they in
different parts of your neighbor's property?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
No, side by side, and the smaller one had another
smaller one starting to grow from the stem, so it
might have got humongous as well. But I picked them
because I just couldn't believe it and couldn't leave them there.
And it's gone rather viral.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
And it's an exciting fine. What happens with a fine
like this? Where does it go from? Now? Do you,
I don't know, varnish it up and keep it for
all eternity, or do you chop it up and eat it?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well, the reporter I first spoke to, he contacted land
Care Research and we were told it was it either
a horse mushroom or a krocodulinus, which is a crocodile mushroom.
They weren't sure, but they did not recommend. They didn't
advise that we eat it right, And I think being
(03:12):
over mature as they said it was, it might have
been tough. And so what I did was I popped
it up because after a couple of days of keeping it,
it started to go a bit moldy. So I chopped
it up and I sprinkled it back along our driveway
in the hopes that maybe more will grow.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Wow it with those uber sized jeans in there, maybe
you would just get a hole a whole driveway of them. Yes,
maybe it's my oap And then you can you can
hop between them, just bounce across them when you go
up your driveway.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
True, i'd picked them while I was still edible. I
wouldn't let them get that. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah, oh well, how good?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
And what did your neighbors think, Julie, you're obviously on
their property. Were they a bit gutted they didn't find
these super sized fung Guy, No.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
He said, up, I don't care. He said, take a
photo of it with your grandchildren. He wasn't particularly worried.
So yeah, because I often walk around the orchard, I
can't walk out on the road because we're on a
main road. And yeah, he was happy about it.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Well, good on you, and thanks for sharing your story with.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Us, Julie, all the best. That is Julie Gallagher out
of the Bay of Plenty, who has gone viral for
finding some pretty incredibly sized mushrooms.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Now I feel like as a society we aren't celebrating
our giant produce as much as we once were. I
don't hear these stories. The last thing I heard was
dug the spud, dug the spud, that then it was
giant spud, and then a got sort of knocked down
as and the accusations that it was in a spud,
that it was a what is that tuba?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Apparently, but that was controversial, you know, as you say,
dug the spud, he put his head above the parapet
and anders finder Colin I think his name was, and
then for the Guinness Well Records to come along and say, nah,
there's not a potato. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Well, we've got so many, many, thousands of texts and
that I've come through and I'm trying to scroll back.
Someone sent me through some information around a particularly massive
pumpkin that they were running.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I did see that ticks come through and I can't
remember how big it was, but I remember seeing that
and thinking, that's a massive pumpkin.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
See I think it was eighty five kg's So that's
why I'm scrolling through these thousands of chicks texts because
i'd been an eighty five kg pumpkin? Is that big
people that grow pumpkins? Is an eighty five kg pumpkin?
Unheard of? Yeah, I've grown an eighty five kg son.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
That's a good effort.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, well done.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
That's a good effort.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
That's a good effort.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
But that seems quite doable to grow an eighty five
kg son. I've also got a I've got a ninety
five kg son as well, now I think about it.
So I've grown some pretty big sons.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
You're successful growing sons, but I.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Think feel like eighty five kg's for a pumpkin. Maybe
someone will know I'm a vigable grower, and I say
we should. I know this is a different thing. Actually
I've found the wrong I thought that might be a no,
that's on a for an issue. That one.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We're going to find that pumpkin ticks. We are going
to treat it down. So many blood ticks that have
come through.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
For more from News Talks at b Listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow
this and our wide range of podcast now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
A great story in the Herald about humongous fungus or
fun guy. So a woman in the Bay of Plenty,
her name is Julie Gallagher. She stumbled across two a
massive mushrooms measuring thirty centimeters plus across the cap on
a neighbor's Kiwi fruit block and Julie is on the
(00:37):
phone right now and joins us, Julie, very very good
afternoon to you.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hi, well, congratulations on the fine I think that's the
right way to say it. Where it was clearly that's
the biggest mushroom that you've ever ever found.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Ever seen?
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Yes, is it find as keepers when it comes to
a mushroom, because you found it, is it yours?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Well, I guess so I just couldn't leave it there.
It was already over mature, so I have heard. So
it just needed to be picked and it needed to
be shown because it's just so unbelievable.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
So just to give a sort of a visual, you know,
and so people can sort of get their head around
at what what kind of object? Would you say? It's
the size of.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Oh gosh, well it's bigger than a dinner plate.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Bigger than a bigger than a dinner.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I can't think a small trampoline.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Maybe bigger than a dinner plate, and about the size
of a small trampoline.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
It is a big mushroom inside.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
But yeah, what you're saying, so that the stem is
the dinner plate, and then the wider bit, the umbrella bit,
for the want of a better term, is the size
of a small trampoline.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Well, you're probably more a small umbrella. Now you mentioned
an umbrella, Okay, yea, as I say, thirty centimeters across
in one point two kilogram. So it was quite a
mission to carry the both of them home, I bet
it was.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And were they side by side or were they in
different parts of your neighbor's property?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
No, side by side, and the smaller one had another
smaller one starting to grow from the stem, so it
might have got humongous as well. But I picked them
because I just couldn't believe it and couldn't leave them there.
And it's gone rather viral.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
And it's an exciting fine. What happens with a fine
like this? Where does it go from? Now? Do you,
I don't know, varnish it up and keep it for
all eternity, or do you chop it up and eat it?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well, the reporter I first spoke to, he contacted land
Care Research and we were told it was it either
a horse mushroom or a krocodulinus, which is a crocodile mushroom.
They weren't sure, but they did not recommend. They didn't
advise that we eat it right, And I think being
(03:12):
over mature as they said it was, it might have
been tough. And so what I did was I popped
it up because after a couple of days of keeping it,
it started to go a bit moldy. So I chopped
it up and I sprinkled it back along our driveway
in the hopes that maybe more will grow.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Wow it with those uber sized jeans in there, maybe
you would just get a hole a whole driveway of them. Yes,
maybe it's my oap And then you can you can
hop between them, just bounce across them when you go
up your driveway.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
True, i'd picked them while I was still edible. I
wouldn't let them get that. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah, oh well, how good?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
And what did your neighbors think, Julie, you're obviously on
their property. Were they a bit gutted they didn't find
these super sized fung Guy, No.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
He said, up, I don't care. He said, take a
photo of it with your grandchildren. He wasn't particularly worried.
So yeah, because I often walk around the orchard, I
can't walk out on the road because we're on a
main road. And yeah, he was happy about it.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Well, good on you, and thanks for sharing your story with.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Us, Julie, all the best. That is Julie Gallagher out
of the Bay of Plenty, who has gone viral for
finding some pretty incredibly sized mushrooms.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Now I feel like as a society we aren't celebrating
our giant produce as much as we once were. I
don't hear these stories. The last thing I heard was
dug the spud, dug the spud, that then it was
giant spud, and then a got sort of knocked down
as and the accusations that it was in a spud,
that it was a what is that tuba?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Apparently, but that was controversial, you know, as you say,
dug the spud, he put his head above the parapet
and anders finder Colin I think his name was, and
then for the Guinness Well Records to come along and say, nah,
there's not a potato. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Well, we've got so many, many, thousands of texts and
that I've come through and I'm trying to scroll back.
Someone sent me through some information around a particularly massive
pumpkin that they were running.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I did see that ticks come through and I can't
remember how big it was, but I remember seeing that
and thinking, that's a massive pumpkin.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
See I think it was eighty five kg's So that's
why I'm scrolling through these thousands of chicks texts because
i'd been an eighty five kg pumpkin? Is that big
people that grow pumpkins? Is an eighty five kg pumpkin?
Unheard of? Yeah, I've grown an eighty five kg son.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
That's a good effort.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, well done.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
That's a good effort.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
That's a good effort.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
But that seems quite doable to grow an eighty five
kg son. I've also got a I've got a ninety
five kg son as well, now I think about it.
So I've grown some pretty big sons.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
You're successful growing sons, but I.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Think feel like eighty five kg's for a pumpkin. Maybe
someone will know I'm a vigable grower, and I say
we should. I know this is a different thing. Actually
I've found the wrong I thought that might be a no,
that's on a for an issue. That one.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We're going to find that pumpkin ticks. We are going
to treat it down. So many blood ticks that have
come through.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
For more from News Talks at b Listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
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