For years, I had it in the back of my mind that cattails were a survival food if the need ever arose. Then I saw a documentary about using natural methods to filter (i.e. clean) water. One of the plants used was cattail because the roots were so good at soaking up heavy metals (I think it was - or some type of pollutant in any case).
So my question is this: In today's reality of so many polluted water areas, how safe is it to keep cattails on the 'wild edibles' list? Thanks in advance!
Dean, I was out foraging for mullein and came across some young cattails...in an old sand pit, near a swamp. When I pulled the middle stock and it released...there was a mucous like slime similar to that of an aloe plant, is this normal? I also decided to taste it, but spit it out, just in case....anyhow it tasted similar to cucumber, would you describe the taste along that line? Thanks in advance, love your videos, keep up the good work.
wonderful information Green Deane! Now that we are into spring I would like know if you would revisit the cat tail and touch more on the flower portion.
Hi Deane, Cattails are very prevalent in many areas here in south texas. my question is: Is the water the cattails are in an issue when it comes to eating the roots?
@whisperingdeath308 Absolutely. While cattails are not as bad as some plants regarding up take of this or that the better and safer the water the better and safer the roots.
hello Deane.. i have a problem when im eating raw cattails( that part at 01:30 ) they give me an itchy, irritated feeling in the back of my throat for hours... havent tryd them cokked yet... but is some people allergic to raw cattails.. ?
@slqk2 1) are you sure you have cattails, it could be irises, and 2) one usually doesn't eat cattails raw, except for some tender inner stalk and "teeth" off the main root. Usually one cooks the root or the root starch. The fiber in the root can be quite irritating.
@slqk2 I can perhaps help you with that I think. Some people are allergic to peanuts, some to strawberries, some to certain spices, etc. If you have allergic reactions to certain foods or vegetables than you may be allergic to wild edibles. Never eat an abundance of any wild edible until you test yourself to allergic reactions....especially if your susceptible to allergies from foods. But from what you describe as an symptom, you sound like you are having an allergic reaction.
Thank you once again for your very informative videos...I think I trust myself to pick out a mature cattail. I still havent found the guts to try much of the other wonderful looking wild edibles I've seen you identify, I keep watching though smile. good day to you.
Many of my plants are found in arid environments, cactus, yucca, et cetera. The local Native Plant Society usually has a local edible plant expert. As for books... there is Plants of Texas and the Southwest by Tull. It is not a guide book but more a compendium.
I'm sorry, I did not see this entry. The Tull book is a good compendium of plants but it is not a good guide. There aren't that many for you area. However. Dr. Dan Austin is finishing up an ethnobotanical book for your area so it should be availabe withint the year. Meanwhile I recommedn Edible Plants of North America by Elias and Dykeman (2008 edition, make sure it is the 2008 edition.)
The "asparagus" part is the white part I showed you as long as it is not fibrous. That may require some peeling, it may not. As you chew up the plant it gets fibrous. The pollen can be used to augment flour but it does not work well as flour on its own. Starch can be separated from the rhizomes and used like flour, but the process is labor intensive. It is easier to roast it and chew the starch off the fibers, then spit the fiber out.
ok i was hunting for cattails today, i didnt find any of last years cattails, but there were(what i thought) yougn cattails. and unfortunately i tried them out.they were mild tasting like you said, they were oval, and from what i could tell there was not anything wrong(exept now that i remember no last years cattails...).anyways i tried there, and like 3-5 mins later, my throat began to burn.does that normally happen or did i eat irisses?it wasnt a mild burn either, liek you could relll feel it.
There are a few possibilities. One is you ate young irises but apparently not a lot or you would be in the hospital. How do you feel? 2) It was something else all together 3) it was cattails and you have an allergy (or 4) the water was polluted.) I've never heard of an allergy to cattails, and they are very mild and do not burn. It sounds like irises. They tend to be flat, where as cattails are much thicker at the base. What part did you eat, and how much?
wel i ate a couple stalks, then when it began to burn i stopped. im feeling fine now, there was no problem afte rthe burning went away.i looked at the middle, and like you just pulled and out it came. soem came out flattish, but others came out kinda round. i thought it was supposed to be flatter so i ate the flattish ones too. and im not sure about the allergy or the water being polluted. but thanks alot, now i know which ones to choose.
@Burhan243 When I was young and foolish, I carelessly also ate a few iris shoots mistaking them for cattails. Thankfully I ate only a few and had the same reaction. So like Dean says, FIND LAST YEARS DEAD CATTAILS!
I am a beginner forager just newly getting dirt into my fingernails in search of wild edible foods. I have bought a few books on the subject but they lack what your videos offer which is "hands on" experience!
Now a cattail question: how much "asparagus" can you get from one cattail plant? Is what you are taking the "stalk" or a center "leaf" ?
A few questions below somebody asks what part makes flour. I've read that the pollen can be used to make flour perhaps?
Thank you all...Cattails is one of those resources that we tend to ignore. If you forage, or camp, it is one of those available plants that can accentuate or compliment a camping or a wild foods only outing.
Thank you sir. I've been curious as to when or if you would ever make a video on cattails. I know you could write a book on them but even just this 10 minutes video taught me a lot and here I thought I already knew the important basics. Again, thank you. Your video series are one of the best on You Tube by far.
You're welcome. Never heard of a cattail ingredient numbing gums but one never knows. Other plants do have that capacity, Hercules Club comes to mind. Now, can I spell it... Zanthoxylum clava-herculis
gc5484, Plants for a Future website says that the "roots are pounded into a jelly-like consistency and applied as a poultice to wounds, cuts, boils, sores, carbuncles, inflammations, burns and scalds", among many other things. Perhaps this's what you heard, gc548?
I really like how you continue to end with "toodles." Its a friendly and unusual word. Did you know it derives from the french phrase à tout à l'heure (meaning goodbye)?
Keep on doing your thing and thanks for sharing your knowledge with the rest of us.
I've had three gator encounters over the years. I was fishing once and caught a very angry 4-foot alligator which came swimming towards me. I let him have the line. The second time a friend and I was canoeing when we scared a sunning 12-foot alligator and in his fright he nearly landed in the canoe. But the third time. I was shooting video 24 when I saw two tiny baby alligators. I started to drift back in my kayak to take their picture when mama alligator swam under me and surfaced between us.
Hi Dean! I know you're into the wild plants, but those deep fried gator bits are sure good too. I bring back about 15# of them every time I go down to Florida.
Very nice Dean, I have a pond with plenty of cattails, one question, should I worry about the slime thats towards the botom? I hard it makes an ok antiseptic, in a pinch, but what about being edible? Just worried about ingesting it...should I be?
That depends on where your pond is. Slime is not so much an issue as pollution. Slime is natural. Pollution is not. There's little wrong with a healthy pond but I would stay clear of cattails that get drainage from any kind of road or company. One of the two times I was ill from a foraged plant was cattails below a discharging company I did not know about. I ended up praying to the porcelain god for a while.
Ok, well the pond is by a road, and there are some houses in the area that do use septic tanks, so I think Ill just be safe and not try them...Ill look eslewhere for a more secluded area...thanks for the response...
Ok, its a country road so it doesnt get alot of traffic, but enough regulars going down it...howevere on the side of the road there is a bank roughly 10 feet high then a walking pacth, then the pond, so it is elevated off the road a little bit...so it woudl be hard for stuff like rubber from tires or oil kicking up, off the road into the pond, but its not impossible...
sounds good Dean, thanks! Its actually a pond on my families property, my father likes me to cut them back a little in spring so they dont clog the outlet of the poind, I woudl much rather eat them they cut them and throw them away...Thanks again!
This past June I ate a lot of cattail, and I know I will be eating more in the future.
I have not eaten any roots.
Shoots: Taste like cucumber.
Male flower: boiled and eaten like corn on the cob. Yum. Stripped from the spike and mashed with butter salt and garlic added. Double yum.
Pollen: Made some tasty muffins.
Soup: Chopped shoot boiled in water previously used for boiling male flowers with mashed male flower2, mushrooms, salt pepper and garlic. DEEEEEEEEELICIOUS!!!! <3<3<3
When I first tried it, I got conflicting information, with some sources saying the female flower was edible and others saying it was not, so I did not eat them.
I did not eat any roots, because I am in a city without access to a clean area, and proceeded under the assumption that pollutants would be most concentrated in the roots.
Many years ago Dick Deuerling wrote a small book called "Florida's Incredible Edibles." A friend of his, Peggy Lantz, edited it and added this and that so they share the by line. They compared notes one day: He had always eaten only the immature female part that becomes the brown tail, and she had only eaten the immature male part that produces pollen. Both are edible when young and green, and later the pollen. (Proceeds from that book goes to a non-profit plant fund.)
As for the roots. That is a debate. I got sick eating root starch from a bad pond. But, Steve Brill, for example, forages in New York City's Central Park and the greater area and had for a quarter of a century. He argues there is no agricultural run off in city parks and if chosen wisely they can be safe to forage from. I would take wise to mean ponds above the drainage level, not below.
Remember, the starch is with fiber, so the starch has to be leached out, or if boiled or roasted, chewed up but don't eat the fiber. It won't kill you but it can upset the tummy. The raw starch can also so it should always be eaten cooked.
For years, I had it in the back of my mind that cattails were a survival food if the need ever arose. Then I saw a documentary about using natural methods to filter (i.e. clean) water. One of the plants used was cattail because the roots were so good at soaking up heavy metals (I think it was - or some type of pollutant in any case).
So my question is this: In today's reality of so many polluted water areas, how safe is it to keep cattails on the 'wild edibles' list? Thanks in advance!
NewbieCamper 3 months ago
@NewbieCamper Well, that is an issue and why there is an E for environment in my ITEM system. It takes observation and judgment.
EatTheWeeds 3 months ago
you may not be able to eat them, but the leaves are useful for weaving things like baskets.
37butterflyprincess 3 months ago
Dean, I was out foraging for mullein and came across some young cattails...in an old sand pit, near a swamp. When I pulled the middle stock and it released...there was a mucous like slime similar to that of an aloe plant, is this normal? I also decided to taste it, but spit it out, just in case....anyhow it tasted similar to cucumber, would you describe the taste along that line? Thanks in advance, love your videos, keep up the good work.
deadheat130 9 months ago
@deadheat130 What you describe is normal for cattails.
EatTheWeeds 9 months ago
Are there any methods for storing the roots?
ehermes83 10 months ago
@ehermes83 Leave them in the ground.
EatTheWeeds 10 months ago
Comment removed
shelties100998 1 year ago
good info
chillkill1192 1 year ago
Deane, any idea how many calories a fresh serving of cattails would provide?
Benalr 1 year ago
@Benalr The green, or bottom shoot parts would be low, but the starch would be similar to wheat flour.
EatTheWeeds 1 year ago
awesome video! I look forward to grazing in my backyard...
Benalr 1 year ago
Great web site, Green Deane. Excellent information on cattails, and other stuff. Thank you. Keep up the good work.
FloridaAdventuring 1 year ago
They can also be used as insulation. They're better insulators than down.
PissedFechtmeister 1 year ago
do cattails draw up heavy metals like lead?
123gfitzy 1 year ago
@123gfitzy That's big debate. Some say no, some say yes. Read the jury is out.
EatTheWeeds 1 year ago
wonderful information Green Deane! Now that we are into spring I would like know if you would revisit the cat tail and touch more on the flower portion.
BossWarEagle 1 year ago
Hi Deane, Cattails are very prevalent in many areas here in south texas. my question is: Is the water the cattails are in an issue when it comes to eating the roots?
whisperingdeath308 1 year ago
@whisperingdeath308 Absolutely. While cattails are not as bad as some plants regarding up take of this or that the better and safer the water the better and safer the roots.
EatTheWeeds 1 year ago
righto, thanks for the info
namamatherlfth 1 year ago
when you char the root over the fire embers can you eat the outer spongy part?
namamatherlfth 1 year ago
@namamatherlfth Well... yes but usually it is reduce to a crisp, that is, it is not longer spongy but charcoal.
EatTheWeeds 1 year ago
hello Deane.. i have a problem when im eating raw cattails( that part at 01:30 ) they give me an itchy, irritated feeling in the back of my throat for hours... havent tryd them cokked yet... but is some people allergic to raw cattails.. ?
slqk2 1 year ago
@slqk2 1) are you sure you have cattails, it could be irises, and 2) one usually doesn't eat cattails raw, except for some tender inner stalk and "teeth" off the main root. Usually one cooks the root or the root starch. The fiber in the root can be quite irritating.
EatTheWeeds 1 year ago
@EatTheWeeds yes im pretty sure its cattails, and its the tender inner stalk i tryd...
slqk2 1 year ago
@slqk2 I can perhaps help you with that I think. Some people are allergic to peanuts, some to strawberries, some to certain spices, etc. If you have allergic reactions to certain foods or vegetables than you may be allergic to wild edibles. Never eat an abundance of any wild edible until you test yourself to allergic reactions....especially if your susceptible to allergies from foods. But from what you describe as an symptom, you sound like you are having an allergic reaction.
deadheat130 9 months ago
Thank you once again for your very informative videos...I think I trust myself to pick out a mature cattail. I still havent found the guts to try much of the other wonderful looking wild edibles I've seen you identify, I keep watching though smile. good day to you.
charmsurprise 1 year ago
interesting stuff!
skullylovesroland 1 year ago
It's in paragraph two of the article on cattails on my website.
EatTheWeeds 2 years ago
you forgot about cattail down for insulation/warmth in the shelter.
charlesburch 2 years ago
Many of my plants are found in arid environments, cactus, yucca, et cetera. The local Native Plant Society usually has a local edible plant expert. As for books... there is Plants of Texas and the Southwest by Tull. It is not a guide book but more a compendium.
EatTheWeeds 2 years ago
i have tull's book, and it is difficult to use as a field guide, what books do you recommend for an edible wilds guide?
Tidnull 2 years ago
hey there, i'm planning on taking a course in arizona, do you have a video on desert plants?
and also can you reccomend a course or school for edible plants?
or maybe even a book?
runtothesun1702 2 years ago
I'm sorry, I did not see this entry. The Tull book is a good compendium of plants but it is not a good guide. There aren't that many for you area. However. Dr. Dan Austin is finishing up an ethnobotanical book for your area so it should be availabe withint the year. Meanwhile I recommedn Edible Plants of North America by Elias and Dykeman (2008 edition, make sure it is the 2008 edition.)
EatTheWeeds 2 years ago
The "asparagus" part is the white part I showed you as long as it is not fibrous. That may require some peeling, it may not. As you chew up the plant it gets fibrous. The pollen can be used to augment flour but it does not work well as flour on its own. Starch can be separated from the rhizomes and used like flour, but the process is labor intensive. It is easier to roast it and chew the starch off the fibers, then spit the fiber out.
EatTheWeeds 2 years ago
ok i was hunting for cattails today, i didnt find any of last years cattails, but there were(what i thought) yougn cattails. and unfortunately i tried them out.they were mild tasting like you said, they were oval, and from what i could tell there was not anything wrong(exept now that i remember no last years cattails...).anyways i tried there, and like 3-5 mins later, my throat began to burn.does that normally happen or did i eat irisses?it wasnt a mild burn either, liek you could relll feel it.
Burhan243 2 years ago
There are a few possibilities. One is you ate young irises but apparently not a lot or you would be in the hospital. How do you feel? 2) It was something else all together 3) it was cattails and you have an allergy (or 4) the water was polluted.) I've never heard of an allergy to cattails, and they are very mild and do not burn. It sounds like irises. They tend to be flat, where as cattails are much thicker at the base. What part did you eat, and how much?
EatTheWeeds 2 years ago
wel i ate a couple stalks, then when it began to burn i stopped. im feeling fine now, there was no problem afte rthe burning went away.i looked at the middle, and like you just pulled and out it came. soem came out flattish, but others came out kinda round. i thought it was supposed to be flatter so i ate the flattish ones too. and im not sure about the allergy or the water being polluted. but thanks alot, now i know which ones to choose.
Burhan243 2 years ago
@Burhan243 When I was young and foolish, I carelessly also ate a few iris shoots mistaking them for cattails. Thankfully I ate only a few and had the same reaction. So like Dean says, FIND LAST YEARS DEAD CATTAILS!
gotrocksinhead 2 years ago
I am a beginner forager just newly getting dirt into my fingernails in search of wild edible foods. I have bought a few books on the subject but they lack what your videos offer which is "hands on" experience!
Now a cattail question: how much "asparagus" can you get from one cattail plant? Is what you are taking the "stalk" or a center "leaf" ?
A few questions below somebody asks what part makes flour. I've read that the pollen can be used to make flour perhaps?
kRmAKiLLeR 2 years ago
great video, very informative. thanks for putting these up.
ZZOTH 2 years ago
Are the roots supposed to taste like spagetti?
countryisthelife 2 years ago
No, it is just a convenient way to explain them.
EatTheWeeds 2 years ago
i was reading somewhere that the natives would make flour from cat tails do you know which part?
coldmember 2 years ago
The starch in the root can be used like flour. It has to be separated from the root fibers. You can read how to do that at my website eattheweeds.
EatTheWeeds 2 years ago
Do you know if cattails grow in wisconsin?
woodlandsurvival 2 years ago
They most certainly do.
EatTheWeeds 2 years ago
I ate the inner stalk of the cattail for the first time last year it tastes like a combination between celery and carrots. Pretty good stuff.
ArboriusOwns 3 years ago
It is, and can be quite mild as well. I first started eating them as a kid.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
Thanks, cattails are every where here in Texas. If there's water, you can find cattails. Thanks again.
chuck830 3 years ago
Great video as always...thank you for making this. There are many cattails on my farm and I cant wait to use them :)...
Paladin57 3 years ago
Thank you all...Cattails is one of those resources that we tend to ignore. If you forage, or camp, it is one of those available plants that can accentuate or compliment a camping or a wild foods only outing.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
Euell Gibbons would be proud, thank you
sukitmang 3 years ago
Great Video Dean you are one of my few subscriptions.
wildernessoutfitters 3 years ago
Thank you, that is high praise. I watch and like your videos as well.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
Thank you sir. I've been curious as to when or if you would ever make a video on cattails. I know you could write a book on them but even just this 10 minutes video taught me a lot and here I thought I already knew the important basics. Again, thank you. Your video series are one of the best on You Tube by far.
mohmog33 3 years ago
mmm, they look so yummy. I can't wait to try some.
origirox 3 years ago
THank you GREEN DEAN!!!!
yardsnacker 3 years ago
That's great! Well done video, thanks for making it! I heard that there's something with the cattail that works as a numbing gel on your gums?
gc5484 3 years ago
You're welcome. Never heard of a cattail ingredient numbing gums but one never knows. Other plants do have that capacity, Hercules Club comes to mind. Now, can I spell it... Zanthoxylum clava-herculis
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
LOL spell check is a god send.. Another very informative video
Milkman12114 3 years ago
gc5484, Plants for a Future website says that the "roots are pounded into a jelly-like consistency and applied as a poultice to wounds, cuts, boils, sores, carbuncles, inflammations, burns and scalds", among many other things. Perhaps this's what you heard, gc548?
Khono 3 years ago
I haven't heard that. I think It was in a Tom Brown Jr book, I may have the wrong plant in mind lol
gc5484 3 years ago
ah yes ive been waiting from this one from you! thank you
Snowwarrior 3 years ago
It's been a while and I ran out of time... A book could be written about cattails.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
I live in Buckhead Ridge Florida and when I go on boat rides I see them in some of the canals.
gatrwrks 3 years ago
They are fairly common, in fresh water.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
Another great episode Green Deane!
I really like how you continue to end with "toodles." Its a friendly and unusual word. Did you know it derives from the french phrase à tout à l'heure (meaning goodbye)?
Keep on doing your thing and thanks for sharing your knowledge with the rest of us.
jokertim777 3 years ago
I picked it up from a Hungarian friend some 32 years ago. I knew it has some linguistic basis but not exactly where it came from. Thanks.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
They taste more like cattail than spaghetti, but the term works for me.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
Dean, don't you worry about gators! I know you're not foolish so we'll just assume your very brave
zenkaiser1 3 years ago
I've had three gator encounters over the years. I was fishing once and caught a very angry 4-foot alligator which came swimming towards me. I let him have the line. The second time a friend and I was canoeing when we scared a sunning 12-foot alligator and in his fright he nearly landed in the canoe. But the third time. I was shooting video 24 when I saw two tiny baby alligators. I started to drift back in my kayak to take their picture when mama alligator swam under me and surfaced between us.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
Hi Dean! I know you're into the wild plants, but those deep fried gator bits are sure good too. I bring back about 15# of them every time I go down to Florida.
grifola 3 years ago
I've got no problem with dining on alligator... but it is always a bit swampy... and of course I would rather eat it than it eat me.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
Very nice Dean, I have a pond with plenty of cattails, one question, should I worry about the slime thats towards the botom? I hard it makes an ok antiseptic, in a pinch, but what about being edible? Just worried about ingesting it...should I be?
cutlerylover 3 years ago
That depends on where your pond is. Slime is not so much an issue as pollution. Slime is natural. Pollution is not. There's little wrong with a healthy pond but I would stay clear of cattails that get drainage from any kind of road or company. One of the two times I was ill from a foraged plant was cattails below a discharging company I did not know about. I ended up praying to the porcelain god for a while.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
Ok, well the pond is by a road, and there are some houses in the area that do use septic tanks, so I think Ill just be safe and not try them...Ill look eslewhere for a more secluded area...thanks for the response...
cutlerylover 3 years ago
The road is an issue, depending on how well traveled it is, but the other concerns can be taken care of by cooking it well.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
Ok, its a country road so it doesnt get alot of traffic, but enough regulars going down it...howevere on the side of the road there is a bank roughly 10 feet high then a walking pacth, then the pond, so it is elevated off the road a little bit...so it woudl be hard for stuff like rubber from tires or oil kicking up, off the road into the pond, but its not impossible...
cutlerylover 3 years ago
Sound to me like you've got a pond of usable cattails.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
sounds good Dean, thanks! Its actually a pond on my families property, my father likes me to cut them back a little in spring so they dont clog the outlet of the poind, I woudl much rather eat them they cut them and throw them away...Thanks again!
cutlerylover 3 years ago
Five Stars!!!
MadBadVoodo 3 years ago
Thanks.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
This past June I ate a lot of cattail, and I know I will be eating more in the future.
I have not eaten any roots.
Shoots: Taste like cucumber.
Male flower: boiled and eaten like corn on the cob. Yum. Stripped from the spike and mashed with butter salt and garlic added. Double yum.
Pollen: Made some tasty muffins.
Soup: Chopped shoot boiled in water previously used for boiling male flowers with mashed male flower2, mushrooms, salt pepper and garlic. DEEEEEEEEELICIOUS!!!! <3<3<3
BoingotheClown 3 years ago
Don't forget, the female portion of the flower is also edible at the same time the male part is, just take it off and boil it.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
When I first tried it, I got conflicting information, with some sources saying the female flower was edible and others saying it was not, so I did not eat them.
I did not eat any roots, because I am in a city without access to a clean area, and proceeded under the assumption that pollutants would be most concentrated in the roots.
Is that a fair assumption?
BoingotheClown 3 years ago
Many years ago Dick Deuerling wrote a small book called "Florida's Incredible Edibles." A friend of his, Peggy Lantz, edited it and added this and that so they share the by line. They compared notes one day: He had always eaten only the immature female part that becomes the brown tail, and she had only eaten the immature male part that produces pollen. Both are edible when young and green, and later the pollen. (Proceeds from that book goes to a non-profit plant fund.)
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
As for the roots. That is a debate. I got sick eating root starch from a bad pond. But, Steve Brill, for example, forages in New York City's Central Park and the greater area and had for a quarter of a century. He argues there is no agricultural run off in city parks and if chosen wisely they can be safe to forage from. I would take wise to mean ponds above the drainage level, not below.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
Remember, the starch is with fiber, so the starch has to be leached out, or if boiled or roasted, chewed up but don't eat the fiber. It won't kill you but it can upset the tummy. The raw starch can also so it should always be eaten cooked.
EatTheWeeds 3 years ago
Thanks for the great videos Dean.
tle021764 3 years ago
Tried and True.
odin422 3 years ago
thanks for another good video
RES1ST0R 3 years ago