Oh, really, Mr. Ed???

Well. I hear my veracity has been challenged.
Really, Mr. Ed, didn't they make you take a "Stuff I Can Eat If
I'm Stuck In The Wild" kinda class when you were all Marined up??

Yes, you can SO eat cattails. You can eat the shoots like we do,
as described in a previous post, or the pollen can be used as a
flour to make a kind of dumpling, and the roots can even be dug
up and the starch used as a food source.



Cattail Recipes
(A straightforward type of title, yes?)

Pretty much everyone knows you can eat dandelions, just as long as they aren't contaminated with herbicides. We don't spray anything on our yard, due to children and animals, plus I like "weeds." They're interesting.
Dandelion Recipes

Okay, this one you probably SHOULDN'T eat, but if you cook the
YOUNG shoots of pokeweed, or poke salat, or poke salad, for fifteen
minutes (as you would greens), it's considered edible. But since the
mature plant is poisonous, I'm thinking I'll stick to the dandelions,
thanks. BUT the poke plant is really big and gorgeous and tropical
looking, so we let it grow in certain spots in the yard. Plus, we make
ink and dye from the berries.


Now this is one I've let grow because it's pretty, but haven't eaten--it's called purslane. BUT you have to make sure you're getting purslane, and not the poisonous plant that looks kind of like it. It's easy to tell them apart by breaking the stem--if it's milky inside, DON'T eat it. Here's some
purslane recipes.

We also have something called Black Medic which grows in a pretty big patch in our yard, which is raised as a food source in some areas of the world, but we haven't yet tried to harvest any. Here it's used for animals, or considered a weed. Black Medic information.

Now, it's back to the kitchen. Basically avoided cleaning out my artroom
this week (I still feel pretentious calling it a studio. Personal hang-up. It sounds great when anyone else says it, but I just feel like a ninny). This has been accomplished by planting the garden, working in the yard, cleaning out the pantry, the cereal cabinet, and the vast majority of our kitchen cabinets. There is a huge pile of things to give away, and it's true I've been productive, but in an "avoiding-the-big-issue" kind of way.

And it is a big, and deep, and wide issue . . .