Edible Wild Things: “Cossack Asparagus”

The Common Cattail (Typha latifolia), a.k.a. the broadleaf cattail, and its cousins the narrowleaf cattail, southern cattail and blue cattail, grow throughout North America and much of the rest of the world. They like to grow in shallow water-catchments off the side of roads, at the low end of agricultural fields, near ponds, lakes and swamps. Most people are very familiar with stands of cattails in their area, but may not have thought much about how useful this plant is as food and medicine.

Almost all parts of the plant are edible at the right time of year. As a member of the grass family (as are wheat, rice, corn, oats, barley and rye) that has thus far escaped concentrated cultivation, the homesteader might develop as much a liking for cattail foods as for other wild foods such as acorns, sun chokes, ground nuts and kudzu. Particularly if s/he has a nice natural stand of cattail in the bottomland marsh, where it’s easy to harvest edible parts at all times of year. In fact, management by harvesting can contribute to the general robustness of a fine stand of cattails and increase yields.

According to the USDA’s pdf National Plant Data Center Plant Guide: Broad-Leaved Cattail, young shoots (the round flower stems, not the flat, pointed leaves) can be cut from the underground ribozomes (stems) in the spring when between 4 to 16 inches long. These taste like cucumbers raw, and make some fine pickles. When steamed they taste a bit like cabbage. The lower part of the stem where it attaches to the ribosome can be boiled like potatoes and is good in soups and stews like you’d use sun chokes (a fall harvest).

As the stalks get 2 or 3 feet tall, they can still be harvested and peeled to remove the woody outer layer, then boiled, sauteed in stir fry or steamed and eaten like corn. Cattail is sometimes called “Cossack Asparagus” because of the Russian fondness for steamed stalks.

By late spring and early summer the female bloom spikes and male pollen spikes begin to emerge. These are a cylindrical projection at the center of the plant, you’ll have to peel back leaves to see it. Each spike has the male pollen part above and the female flowers below. It is the female part that will eventually develop into the familiar brown ‘cattail’ seed head, while the male portion will dry out and easily break off. These pollen spikes can be boiled and eaten like corn on the cob, or simply eaten raw.

At this time of year you can collect the spikes for pollen, which is a good substitute or additive to all flours for pancakes, breads, cookies or biscuits. The yellow color is nice, and the pollen requires no special processing… it just has to be collected. The underground ribosomes and above ground stalks can be gathered throughout the season, peeled and eaten raw, baked, boiled, broiled or roasted. They have a sweet taste and a high starch content. The peeled ribozome cores can also be dried and ground into flour. According to one study (Harrington 1972) an acre of cattails would yield approximately 6,475 pounds of flour - more than any homesteader is going to use in a year, so there’s no need to decimate the stand!

Cattail flour contains gluten, so should be avoided by those intolerant. It does rise well for breads. The Iroquois Indians macerated the roots and boiled them down to a syrup used to sweeten cornbread and other dishes. Native American tribes had many uses for cattail, making baskets, mats, caulking and rope. The late fall fluff from cattail heads was used to make bedding. In some areas bundles of stems were bundled to produce tule boats, or arrow shafts.

Euell Gibbons called cattail the “Supermarket of the Swamp” in his book Stalking the Wild Asparagus [linked below]. In my bottomland the ground near the creek is marshy, growing a pretty good collection of stunted bamboo, cattail and some bushy white willow trees. So far none of these “invasive” species have grown out of the marshy creek edging, I suspect because of the hardwoods and hemlocks that shade everything away from the water. All of these plants are useful (we love bamboo shoots here, and both bamboo and willow are good for crafting furniture).

Links:

The Incredible Cattail

Wonderful World of Weeds

The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants

A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants (Peterson Field Guides)

Stalking the Wild Asparagus

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