Looks like an ascocarp, which species I couldn't tell you. Would not recommend eating it.

Aimee, this is the best place on the internet to obtain information about safe canning practices. We've all made goofs. There are a lot of knowledgeable folks here who are helpful, and the forum is friendly. Get these canning books...So Easy to Preserve and at least one of the Ball books, such as the Ball Blue Book, or the Ball Complete Book of Preserving. There are other canning books that are recommended, too. When in doubt, ask here, or search at the NCHFP (national center for home food preservation). Be very aware there are a lot of blogs, youtube videos, and websites that promote canning of just about anything, and a lot of it is just plain crazy unsafe! I've been canning for several years now, and still review all the instructions and information before I start a session. Also, the instruction book that came with your canner may not be up-to-date. Good luck. Hope you have room in your freezer. Potato soup is one of my favorites. Jill

I have about 30 volunteer plants of what I thought was squash that washed down the hill from our chicken run. Tons of male flowers, lots of female flowers. I have fertilized them and taken care of them just as if I had planted them. Because they were very dense, I have cut back some of the foliage to let in the sunlight. Yesterday, I found several nice fist-sized squash, so I picked them and brought them into the house. I googled pics of small, round squash but could find nothing that looked like the ones I had picked. I was trying to find out when they should be picked - what they looked like, etc. Suddenly, it dawned on me that these were probably not squash (we feed our chickens leftovers and unsellable veggies & fruits from a local produce stand where I work on occasion), as I couldn't remember any time that we had fed the girls any small, round squash. However, we had fed them several PUMPKINS last fall! I quickly looked up pics of immature pumpkin and THERE THEY WERE! I felt badly that I had picked 2 of them so early, so looked it up to see if you could eat unripe pumpkin. YES! That young, you can prepare them like regular squash, which I decided to do so as not to waste them. THEY WERE ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!! I sliced them about 1/4" and sautéed them in coconut oil with just a bit of Himalayan pink salt and some freshly ground black pepper. That's all I did. I just couldn't believe they were so delicious!!! So for dinner, guess what I'm having . . . So all those plants up on the hill, I'm using for the huge yellow flowers and the small unripe pumpkin for a side dish. I had transplanted 4 of the seedlings earlier to a nice plot in my organic garden - so those I will let grow to maturity. I really don't need 30 plantings of ripe pumpkin! What a tasty surprise! You might want to try it . . . just cook them like you would in your favorite squash recipe.

More plants are toxic to some degree than those that are not. Ones to avoid sampling are most that produce berries (holly, daphne, sweet box, yews, honeysuckle, pokeweed, Virginia creeper, cotoneaster). There are other forms of toxicity besides just ingestion. Many plants contain oils or saps that can create an allergic reaction to those who are sensitive when they come into contact with them - stinging nettles, poison ivy and euphorbias are common ones but there are scores more. Here is one list of poisonous plants......note the number of fruits and vegetables that are considered mildly to seriously toxic if you eat the wrong part or if improperly prepared for consumption. The important take-away from this is if you do not know for sure that the plant or plant part is safely edible, don't eat it!!