Has anyone eaten cattail rhizomes? I had to dig some up the other day and decided to try them. I cut them up and boiled them, as suggested in a cookbook I found, but they were woody. Is there a season for harvesting them or a size limitation or did I just prepare them wrong?

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), September 13, 2001

Answers

Response to cattail rhizomes

Only thing I know of that eats cattail reizones is muscrat's.

-- paul (treewizard@buffalo.com), September 13, 2001.

Hey, hope you find a good way to cook them. I have a bunch and you are welcome to them !!!!! Sorry couldn't resist.

Rickstir

-- Rickstir (rpowell@email.ccis.edu), September 13, 2001.

Eat them like the northern plains Indians. Dry and coarsely grind into "flour" to add to soup.

-- Joe (CactusJoe001@AOL.com), September 13, 2001.

The Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants has a lot of info on all the different edible parts of cattails. They are quite a versatile plant. A good one to know about if foraging for food ever becomes a necessity. Like Jerusalem artichokes, cattail rootstock should be harvested in late fall (usually after the plant dies back so you may need to mark your plant locations),winter or early spring (before new growth).

-- Bren (WAYOUTFARM@skybest.com), September 13, 2001.

Please find some field guides and check this out - either book, or search on the web (I think there was an article on the BackwoodsHome site). I've only read, but if I remember correctly there are other plants which look similar, but are poisonous. Also IIRC, a way to use the roots is to scrub them, then pound them in water to separate the starch from the fibres, let the starch grains settle out, then pour the water off the starch and use or dry.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), September 14, 2001.

Euell Gibbons referred to Typha latifolia/Common Cattail as 'Supermarket of the Swamps', for the many ways in which it could be eaten. He was a very adventurous man in the respect of wild gathered food, but in reference to the rope-like roots, he mentions making flour out of them by a complicated method of washing,pounding,rinsing, stirring, draining, and using,similarly to processing sago.

For eating peeled an boiled, he says to use only the bulblike sprouts on the leading ends of the roots. It stands to reason that tender spring growth would likely be move desireable. Perhaps you used roots that were too mature?

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), September 14, 2001.

The book I got my instruction out of is a foraging cookbook by Jean Craighead George. I'm sure what I tried were the right plant, but the rhizomes had woody centers. The idea of pounding out the starches makes sense since there was slightly sweet starchy material between the woody fibers. In the book's illustrations it showed both the rope-like rhizome and the storage bulbs, so maybe just the storage bulbs can be eaten straight (like potatoes or jerusalem artichoke). I'll hit the library with some of your book suggestions and get back to you all!

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), September 14, 2001.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/duffyk43.html is the article I remember. Copy and paste into the address line of your browser.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), September 15, 2001.