Local Cattails

Growing up we did a lot of camping.  So much so that I might go a month before I had a weekend at home.  On the plus side of things though that meant I learned a lot about the world outside of the four walls. Among them was plants.  Of course we had a garden and I was taught a lot about that as well but the wild plants you can harvest and use for various reasons such as the cattail

These guys are on my way home from work. They grow in a ditch near a corn field so they always get some water throughout the year.  They particularly sprang up during the spring rains we had.  And if you've read much of this blog you know we had a lot of it.

These plants are super edible.  The brown cattails can be harvested young and added to recipes in various ways.  These are a bit thinner than the ones we were around down in Southeast Texas.  There they were nearly twice the size of these.  But the one thing I always found fascinating was that the roots are edible.  I've yet to try them but originally I was told they were usable like potatoes.  Looking into this more, they are nothing like potatoes...  They are a grass and they are more like, well, grass.  One site said that after cooking they are eaten like an artichoke, peeling back the leaf areas to eat the starchy stuff at the bottom.