Puffball Memories: Forest Magic Across Generations

Tucked along the edges of old meadows and mossy stumps, there’s a kind of childhood magic hiding — waiting for curious hands to find it.

When I was young, my brother and I would stumble across these little round mushrooms while wandering through the fields.

We didn’t know their real name.

We just called them stink bombs — tiny treasures to throw at each other, laughing as brown clouds puffed into the air like a secret weapon of the woods.

We had no idea what they truly were — just that they were wild, mysterious, and fun.

First find of the day!

Now, years later, it’s my turn to kneel down with my own kids in the tall grass and soft leaf litter.

We find them just the same — round little puffballs clustered at the base of an old stump, tiny doors to another world.

Only now, the story I tell is a little different

I tell them these aren't just stink bombs.

They're forest fairy dust — tiny capsules of magic that hold the next generation of the forest inside.

When you squeeze them gently, the spores swirl out like a whisper, carried by the wind to wherever new life needs to begin.

But some things don’t change.

Even though they know about the fairy dust, my kids still call them stink bombs too —

and sure enough, that afternoon turned into a full-on stink bomb fight.

Clouds of spores filled the air as they ran and laughed, just like we used to do.

they both had to get a squeeze to see the magic !

A Simple Magic

There’s something beautiful about teaching them that magic still exists —

not in plastic toys or blinking screens,

but in the quiet puff of a wild mushroom,

in the laughter shared between brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers under the open sky.

Some memories are too good not to pass on.

From my family to yours,

— Alberta Wildcraft

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