Hawke's Bay woman seeing fairies after mushrooms sprout in paddock

Kathy White picking bucket loads of mushrooms at her Meeanee property. Photo / Ian Cooper

Some might say Kathy White has some magic mushrooms growing.

White has been living at her lifestyle property in Meeanee for nearly 13 years but has never had a mushroom season like this one.

On one hand they're absolutely abundant. And on the other, they're growing in perfect circles.

"A couple of weeks ago I was taking my animals for a walk around the place and noticed a couple of mushrooms in this paddock so I picked them and took them home, there was only a few so I didn't really take any notice of it," she said.

"But over the next few days I noticed more started to come out and they were appearing in rings with plenty growing and after a couple of weeks there are around five full rings of mushrooms."

White was stumped by the growth but some research and a Facebook post led her to realise that it was a somewhat common occurrence, albeit her first experience of it.

According to a Utah State University study, the occurrence is most commonly known as fairy rings which comes from an old folk-tale.

In the tale, people once believed that mushrooms growing in a circle followed the path made by fairies dancing in a ring.

Fairy rings are found in open grassy places and in forests.

The body of this fungus, its mycelium, is underground and it grows outward in a circle.

As it grows, the mycelium uses up all of the nutrients in the soil, starving the grass. This is the reason a fairy ring has dead grass over the growing edge of the mycelium and mushrooms sprout up.

She said the number of mushrooms growing is now "unbelievable" and she now has her very own little "mushroom field".

"I was going to put the cows in the paddock after I picked them but they just keep coming back. Every other day I have to freeze a bunch just to keep up with the demand," she said.

"I've ended up just giving them most away because there are only so many I can eat and freeze."