Cattails....................(typha latifolia)
The common cattail is one of the first wild edible plants that all hikers should familiarize themselves with. It not only has several edible parts, but there is some part of the plant that can be harvested for food during any season. In addition, it has other uses as well. In the spring you can find a cattail swamp and cut the fresh tips of the plants from the mud. Rinse them in some safe water and they are edible either raw or cooked. Once you know the plant, identifying the new shoots is no problem. The stalks and dried flower heads of the old plants are always around. In the summer you can first harvest the tender stems. The lower several inches will be white and ready to eat. If you pull slowly, they will often come loose at the base. Raw, they taste something like a cucumber. Cooked, the taste is more like corn. Later, the green flower heads can be cooked and eaten like corn-on-the-cob. By mid-summer the yellow pollen will be falling from the spike atop the flower heads, and can be shaken into a paper bag to use in thickening soups or even mixed with flour for making bread. In the fall you can still locate the cattail by the the old stalks and dig up the rope-like roots that cris-cross the swamps. Clean these, mash them in water and let the mix sit for a few hours. What you'll get when you pour off the water is a gooey mass of starch at the bottom of the container. this can be used to make a bread of sorts, or just put into emergency soups. In the winter you can get the roots. just as in the fall, provided the water or mud isn't frozen. Sometimes you can dig into the muck and find fresh new tips of the plants to eat as well. This is especially true as you get closer to spring. New plant tips, tender parts of the stalks, flower heads, pollen and roots- five edible parts, and at least one available in each season. But that's not all. The 'fluff' of the mature flower heads was once used to stuff life jackets, and is still perfect as an emergency insulation. If you are lost and without sufficient clothing you can fill your jacket with it. Use it to make a warm mattress as well. Cattail flower head fluff is also very flammable. Break open a mature flower head (available almost any time of the year) and make a pile of it. Then strike a match to it, or even a good spark, and it will burst into flame. The tight heads are often dry inside even after heavy rain, making this a great survival tinder. The leaves are long and flat, which makes them easy to weave into simple mats for sitting on. These mats can be used to serve food too, or as a barrier between you and the ground in an emergency shelter. For many centuries they were also woven into baskets and other containers. The stems were used for weaving and other purposes as well. The common cattail is not only one of the best wild edible plants, but one of the best wilderness plants to know for many other purposes. How many other plants have five edible parts and several parts that are used for a variety of survival needs? Best of all is the fact that they can be found in most wetlands across North America. As a chef that has grown up respecting, foraging and exploiting wild edibles like cattails, I try to put them on my menus as much as possible...... Going out to a fine dining restaurant in any major city you can find clabber pork & chicken, as well as sea salt from millions of years ago; but can you walk into the same restaurant an experience a wild edible like cattails......? I didn't think so........ enjoy your clabber pork & chicken (corn of any kind was not intended for farm animal consumption, this is the genetic modification done down on the farm, isn't it....?) this sounds as good as farm raised fish (ie: salmon) that have been fed corn- and we all know that fish aren't meant to consume corn either....... The resurgence in 'EATING LOCAL' has people talking about foraging and gathering, so get out in the woods and find your food........ Being that our roving rural supper club (TNEF2FP) is parked at an organic apple orchard, the cattails up in the pond are prime for pickin'..... Since they are far from the road (automobile exhaust- yum oh) we will harvest them and feature them on our MAINE GAME DINNER and our NEW ENGLAND GAME DINNER menus.... I love to introduce diners to these type of wild edibles that are not seen or found in the 'big city' restaurants of today's chemical driven chefs that still purchase their beef, chicken and pork from the same conglomerates they purchase their toilet paper from......
The common cattail is one of the first wild edible plants that all hikers should familiarize themselves with. It not only has several edible parts, but there is some part of the plant that can be harvested for food during any season. In addition, it has other uses as well. In the spring you can find a cattail swamp and cut the fresh tips of the plants from the mud. Rinse them in some safe water and they are edible either raw or cooked. Once you know the plant, identifying the new shoots is no problem. The stalks and dried flower heads of the old plants are always around. In the summer you can first harvest the tender stems. The lower several inches will be white and ready to eat. If you pull slowly, they will often come loose at the base. Raw, they taste something like a cucumber. Cooked, the taste is more like corn. Later, the green flower heads can be cooked and eaten like corn-on-the-cob. By mid-summer the yellow pollen will be falling from the spike atop the flower heads, and can be shaken into a paper bag to use in thickening soups or even mixed with flour for making bread. In the fall you can still locate the cattail by the the old stalks and dig up the rope-like roots that cris-cross the swamps. Clean these, mash them in water and let the mix sit for a few hours. What you'll get when you pour off the water is a gooey mass of starch at the bottom of the container. this can be used to make a bread of sorts, or just put into emergency soups. In the winter you can get the roots. just as in the fall, provided the water or mud isn't frozen. Sometimes you can dig into the muck and find fresh new tips of the plants to eat as well. This is especially true as you get closer to spring. New plant tips, tender parts of the stalks, flower heads, pollen and roots- five edible parts, and at least one available in each season. But that's not all. The 'fluff' of the mature flower heads was once used to stuff life jackets, and is still perfect as an emergency insulation. If you are lost and without sufficient clothing you can fill your jacket with it. Use it to make a warm mattress as well. Cattail flower head fluff is also very flammable. Break open a mature flower head (available almost any time of the year) and make a pile of it. Then strike a match to it, or even a good spark, and it will burst into flame. The tight heads are often dry inside even after heavy rain, making this a great survival tinder. The leaves are long and flat, which makes them easy to weave into simple mats for sitting on. These mats can be used to serve food too, or as a barrier between you and the ground in an emergency shelter. For many centuries they were also woven into baskets and other containers. The stems were used for weaving and other purposes as well. The common cattail is not only one of the best wild edible plants, but one of the best wilderness plants to know for many other purposes. How many other plants have five edible parts and several parts that are used for a variety of survival needs? Best of all is the fact that they can be found in most wetlands across North America. As a chef that has grown up respecting, foraging and exploiting wild edibles like cattails, I try to put them on my menus as much as possible...... Going out to a fine dining restaurant in any major city you can find clabber pork & chicken, as well as sea salt from millions of years ago; but can you walk into the same restaurant an experience a wild edible like cattails......? I didn't think so........ enjoy your clabber pork & chicken (corn of any kind was not intended for farm animal consumption, this is the genetic modification done down on the farm, isn't it....?) this sounds as good as farm raised fish (ie: salmon) that have been fed corn- and we all know that fish aren't meant to consume corn either....... The resurgence in 'EATING LOCAL' has people talking about foraging and gathering, so get out in the woods and find your food........ Being that our roving rural supper club (TNEF2FP) is parked at an organic apple orchard, the cattails up in the pond are prime for pickin'..... Since they are far from the road (automobile exhaust- yum oh) we will harvest them and feature them on our MAINE GAME DINNER and our NEW ENGLAND GAME DINNER menus.... I love to introduce diners to these type of wild edibles that are not seen or found in the 'big city' restaurants of today's chemical driven chefs that still purchase their beef, chicken and pork from the same conglomerates they purchase their toilet paper from...... 