Cattails, Chickadees and Other Delectable Dishes

This past week, we received a magazine that had some great information on edible wild plants. I love searching out free food...it is the Dutch in me. We came home from church and went on a nice walk a'hunting for some. What better Sunday afternoon pasttime! Cattails being the first to find and plentiful.


Apparently most cattails, if uprooted in the Fall, have a *horn root* growing from the root ball. It is distinctly brite white and filled with goodies for our bodies. Yay! There it was after the first plant was plucked from the muck!

With a little twist, it snaps off into your hand. We replanted the cattails and put the horn roots in our pockets. Many parts of the cattail are edible, highly nutritious and readily available. They taste like corn if eaten raw, but I, being Dutch, took them home to fry them in that health oil called butter...oh and salt. Yeah, I could eat wild...I could eat a piece of firewood if I had enough butter and salt. Anyhow...it was good! I thought it tasted a lot like artichoke.

I have this dream of when my children are older...I am wearing a hand-knit sweater, a khaki hemp skirt(with beads sew about the hemline) wool socks and trusty ole birkenstocks on my feet. I will lead groups of happy, energetic children through the woods and will show them how to provide a meal for yourself using only the plants we find....sigh....sooooooomeday.

Then there is my favorite, plantain. Every part of this plant can be used. The seeds yummy and a great brain food. The Spring leaves great in salad. These plants are found everywhere, I guarantee you can find a plant with in 1/2 a block from your home, if not as soon as you step out the backdoor. The leaves are medicinal. They can draw poisons out of stings and bites. We have used these on deep cuts or scrapes as they work as an antibacterial, astringent, anti-inflammatory & antiseptic. It speeds up healing. In case of an injury or bee sting, grab a leaf, chew it in your mouth and spit the whole mess on the injury, It will make a paste that will adhere. Really, it isn't just something touted in books, it really works and we have seen sores close amazingly fast.

Then there is Lambs Quarter. We just discovered this beauty! We noticed it was our goats favorite snack, that should have been a clue. It looks completely different now as it has gone to seed, but still good. It is a wild relative to spinach. Very nutritious to eat.

Here is what it looks like right now. You can also google image lambs quarter and see what it looks like in the Spring. I love making green salad for my family to go with dinner, but man, greens are NOT cheap..especially the amount we consume. I am confident we can eat wild next Spring...oh...did I mention free?

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Then there is the issue of meat...

According to my calculations, my sons would have to shoot >90 of these beauties a day to provide a meal for our family. Meet the Black-Capped Chickadee. Danny took out this big guy in one shot yesterday. He has been trying to get up the guts to follow through with tasting a wild bird. His brother caught wind that I was blogging about it and so he followed suit.

Two chickadees later, the pot was boiling on the stove. They wanted to dip the birds like we do our turkeys to loosen the feathers. Can't say plucking could have been thaaaat difficult, but oh well.

Dip, dip, ouch, dip, dip, ouch.

Ewe.

Roasting over an open fire. Mamma made sure tweets were well done. Burnt if anything.

I LOVE this face. LOL! "Tastes like chicken" was the consensus. I even tried some! Jessica would not come within 10ft, but Emma was right there to taste. Danny didn't care for it and Jacob said it had too much flavor. For the record, it was quite gamy and strong.

Daniel found this little gem while dissecting the birdie later, isn't it cute?

The tiniest little heart we ever done did see.