The Scout's Guide to Wild Edibles. Mike Krebill
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A handful of blueberries provided a thirst-quenching treat and an energy boost.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
The berries are edible raw and make a delicious, energy-filled and thirst-quenching nibble – a wonderful trail treat when hiking. Dried leaves make a decent tea. The flowers, if you should be lucky enough to be present when blooming, are a floral taste treat. See page 144 for the Double-Good Blueberry Pie recipe.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Spring for flowers; mid to late summer for berries. Leaves throughout the season
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Don’t damage the bushes when picking. Leave some berries for birds and other animals. Birds will help spread the patch.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Freeze a single layer of berries on a baking sheet, then pour them into a freezing container with a screw-top lid. Label with a date and use within a year for the best flavor. Berries can also be dehydrated. I’ve not tried drying and saving the leaves, but if you do, I’d suggest using them within a year so that the flavor isn’t lost.
On a family camping trip in the Mt. Hood River Valley east of Portland, Liz – my Oregon sister – introduced me to mountain huckleberries. These grew on bushes from five to seven feet tall.
Burdock, Common
RANGE:
Widespread and invasive in the U.S. (except Texas and Florida), and the southern provinces of Canada
HABITAT:
Barnyards, pastures, open woods, sunny patches along trails
POSITIVE ID:
• Burdock is a weed with large rhubarb-like leaves. The underside of the leaf is covered with a thin, woolly mat of fine white hairs. Leaf petioles may be reddish to purplish at the base.
• Although considered a biennial, burdock’s flowering stalk may take four or more years to appear, according to a study at Michigan State University. It depends on environmental conditions and how much energy the root has been able to store for the event. The stalk can range from 4–7′ tall.
• Thistle-like flowers give way to the round, infamous burdock burs.
• Each bur is a stick-tight whose tiny hooked ends catch in clothing and dog fur.
Burdock leaf rosette in early May.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
My favorite way to eat burdock is to peel the tender, non-woody sections of the taproot, cut up into matchsticksized pieces and do a stir-fry with carrots. This is a Japanese side dish known as kinpira gobo. Gobo is Japanese for burdock. The company-pleasing recipe is on page 132.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
While the taproot from burdock that hasn’t yet sent up a flowering stalk can be dug at any time, it will be at its largest in the fall and at its sweetest in early spring.
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Taking the taproot kills this often despised weed. If you wish to grow more in your own garden, use the seeds found inside a dried bur.
PRESERVING THE HARVEST:
Burdock roots can be kept cool in barely damp soil, and retrieved for use during the winter. If you have a chance to shop at an Asian market in a large city, you may be able to buy refrigerated packages of gobo.
Burdock’s burs are seedpods that hitchhike on mammals to new locations. When the mammal tries to scratch or rub them off, the burs break apart, releasing the seeds. The burs are difficult to remove from dog fur, and vexing when stuck in a sweater. Pull on a piece and the rest remains behind. It seems to take forever to remove it all.
Cattail
RANGE:
Widespread in U.S. and Canada
HABITAT:
Wet soil; shallow, still or slowly moving water
POSITIVE ID:
• Cattail is an emergent aquatic plant 4–9′ tall. Up to 6 long, narrow leaves 1/4–3/4″ wide surround an unbranched, cylindrical stalk.
• In late spring, the yellow pollen-producing male flower spike tops the stalk. The larger female flower spike is below it.
• The female spike resembles a brown hotdog as tiny seeds mature in late summer.
• Rhizomes – finger-thick starch storage organs – run horizontally through muck or sand, often connecting plants.
Common cattail’s hotdog-like seedhead begins ripening to its brown color in July. Filamentous green algae covers the surface of the pond behind the cattail. Neither the blanket moss, as the algae is often called, nor cattails will be found in fast moving streams.
EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:
Separate the young shoot from its base by grasping the leaves together and steadily pulling upwards. The white tip/core is edible raw. Roast rhizomes at the edge of a fire; split open to chew the hot, white, fibrous inner core. After extracting the starchy essence, spit out the wad of fibers. Husk male flower spikes and treat them like corn on the cob. Boil them, butter them, sprinkle a little salt on them, and nibble away. Stir the pollen into pancake batter for yellow, highprotein pancakes. Sharply pointed white lateral buds at the end of rhizomes make a fine cooked vegetable. The brown hotdog part of the cattail provides perfect texture as a vegetarian substitute in a mock barbecued pulled-pork recipe, page 134.
Instructor Sunny Savage points out the edible parts of the cattail she and her class harvested at a Wild Food Summit in mid-June. The starch-filled rhizome goes from her left forefinger to over her shoulder. The Summit, held for 10 years on tribal land in northern Minnesota, provided an opportunity to gain many insights on wild foods. Participants witnessed the reverence that Native Americans have for Mother Earth. Sustainable harvesting of wild foods is a way of life for them as it should be for all people. The Summit was hosted by the White Earth Tribal and Community College Extension Service.
WHEN TO HARVEST:
Late spring for “cattail corn” and pollen from male flower spikes; spring and summer for shoots; late August through fall for cattail head; year-round for rhizomes and laterals. (Rhizomes should be a mottled tan and white, with a white starchy core. If gray or black, they are too far-gone. Laterals should be firm and white. If gray or black or squishy, don’t collect them.)
SUSTAINABLE HARVESTING:
Leave part of the colony to regenerate.
Chokecherry
RANGE:
Widespread throughout the U.S.