Beech Tree News Network

I’ve told you before how I enjoy watching survival shows like, “Naked and Afraid” and “Alone.  I’m drawn to the test of inner strength and determinations, as well as to the skill set of the competitors.  It amazes me what people can find to eat in those situations.  On a recent show, the competitors were digging up cattail roots, which I learned are loaded with starch.

I’ve always been fascinated with cattails.  I think I was drawn to their general weirdness.  They don’t look like anything else out there.  When I was growing up, people in my neck of the woods always looked at cattails as unwanted weeds, but I just loved them.  Also, I remember the picture of Moses as an infant, floating in a basket among the bull rushes (similar to cattails) in the Nile.  That picture was in the Bible story book my stepmom used to read to my sisters and me when we were young.  

Cattails are edible.  They don’t taste like the corndogs they resemble, however.  I’m sure you’ve seen those videos of the grandfathers taking their unsuspecting grandchildren out to pick a handful of corndogs.  The looks on the kids’ faces are priceless.  According to farmersalmanac.com, cattails are one of the top twenty edible plants in North America, producing more starch per acre than crops like potatoes and yams.

The roots, which are rhizomes, can be harvested all year long, but are best in the fall and winter.  There are websites, tutorial videos, and even master classes that will teach you how to prepare every edible part of the cattail, as well as sites that will teach you how to weave baskets out of the nonedible parts.  

If you decide you want to try your hand at cooking a cattail root, you will need to trim away the smaller root offshoots, then you can bake, grill or boil the large rhizome.  That large brown part that looks like a corndog is edible also, but not when it’s brown.  You will need to harvest those in the spring when they are green and still hidden in the leaves.  If you boil the green catkins and add salt and butter, you have cattail corn on the cob.  I watched a video on “Bushcraft Survival Skills” on how to prepare the dish.  The part that impressed me most was watching the creator’s toddler boys wolfing the green shoots down.

On that same video, we are shown how to collect the pollen on the flower before it starts to turn brown.  The pollen is like fine flour and is high in vitamin C and contains other important minerals.  Who knew?  The spring is also the time to harvest shoots and stalks near the roots.  You can cook and serve them like asparagus.

In the fall, the catkins turn brown then fuzzy.  The dried, fuzzy ones can be used as fire-starters.  Native American Indians used the fuzz to soften and insulate moccasins, as well as to make baby diapers (outdoorrevival.com).

In the late summer or early fall, you will be able to gather cattail seeds, which are edible, as well.  A single catkin can contain up to 25,000 seeds.  You need to cut the catkin from its stem when it is just starting to burst open and show a bit of white fuzz.  Allow the seed head to dry in a paper bag for a couple of weeks, then the seeds should easily come free.

You can buy cattail roots and seeds online, but why would you…in our area, anyway.  You can dig them up in ditches along the roadway or from a neighbor’s pond.  You can also buy cattail leaves—they look like long blades of wide grass—that have been processed for basket weaving online.  If you want to gather your own, now (September) is the time, before the first frost.  According to the Wicker Woman (not to be confused with the Wicker Man of horror film notoriety), when you gather cattail leaves, make sure you keep them laid out flat and straight.  You can dry them on an elevated screen and wrap them in a bundle with newspaper as a covering before standing them up for later use (wickerwoman.com).

So maybe this is the year I try my hand at a Moses basket.  My stepmom gave me those Bible story books years ago when I had my own children.  I have the picture to go by.  I think I’ll give it a go.