cattails

cattails

cattails

Look like hotdogs on a stick. They grow at the edge of water and ponds. You can use the reeds (leaves) and weave them together to make a basket that can last 20 years. The white tender root in the springtime can be eaten raw or cooked and tastes like potato or carrot. Helps detoxify, chelate and remove heavy metals from the body. The green shoots when they are fresh in the springtime can be eaten raw in a salad, or cooked in a stir fry like spinach. When the hot dog thing is green early in the year, cut it off, steam or throw in boiling water, put butter and salt on it, tastes like sweet corn and is probably more nutritious than corn. As the year progresses and the hot dog turns brown and becomes furry, take it and grind into a flour with mortar and pestle. This can be done year round, including the winter months when the hot dogs stick up through the snow. You can do the same thing with the root, but you need a shovel to dig it out. It's a mangled ball of white starch which you can peel, dry and grind into a powder and make flatbread from it.