Cattail Fail

A recent cooking incident with some wild foraged cattails inspired me to write this phenology update.

Phenology is the study of the timing of plant and animal life cycle events. Scientists study phenology during the seasons as a means to track change. Wild-foragers, those who gather wild edibles, track phenology to learn when their favorites plants are ready to eat. In this case, I wasn't paying close enough attention to phenology!

In my family, the ripening of cattails is a major phenology event.This week, I heard from my Minnesota-dwelling cousins that they were harvesting the young flower heads for eating. I though that this week's Adventure Club, a canoe trip down the Manitowish River, was the perfect excuse for some foraging.

As our intrepid group of canoers paddled around a bend, we noticed a large stand of cattails accessible from the water. Rylie, Jon, and I set out to gather what I thought were perfect male flower spikes- covered in floppy stamens holding the yellow pollen.  I placed the flower spikes into a spent granola bar box to capture the pollen -it makes a great addition to pancake mix- with plans to boil them back at the Discovery Center.

To make a long story short, the boiled flower spikes looked pitiful and tasted horrible. Here's why it failed:

Cattail species are monoecious, having both male (pollen-producing) and female (seed-producing) flowers. The male flowers grow together in a dense cluster called a spike at the top of the stem, and the female flowers are clustered below the males in a fatter spike that looks like a hot-dog. As the male flowers mature, they grow stamens that produce mustard-yellow pollen. Eating the male flowers at this point gives an unpleasant mouthful, which is exactly what we experienced.

The key is to harvest the /young/ male spike just as it is emergering from the leaves, when it is yellow on the inside and green on the outside. Boiled and covered in butter like corn in the cob is a simple preparation.

This week's phenology update literally comes from my mouth. It appears that it is too late to eat the much-beloved male flower spikes, but cattail pollen season is here! Shake the pollen into a paper or plastic bag, sift, and add to any recipe that uses flour with a 1 part pollen to 3 part flour ratio. It adds a nutty flavor and a golden color.

Always make sure you forage from a clean environment, as polluntants can accumulate in plants. Also, be sure you have correctly identified your target species. If you are not sure, don't eat it!

Enjoy!

  -Caitlin