I just enjoyed eating the young male pollen spikes tonight. You have a very short window of time to harvest the male pollen spikes before they go to pollen. I harvested my first batch on May 25th here in Ohio and I harvested some today on 6-3-23 with most being already into pollen stage. Once boiled for about 5 minutes and dipped in melted butter, they taste very much like corn, but with a different texture. Every part of this plant has a use depending on the season. But you must choose plants from a healthy environment where chems aren't used if you're going to eat them. So that eliminates railroad ditches, golf courses, under powerlines and so forth.
The cattail flower tinder can also be used as a nation insulation by pulling apart & fluffing. Just remember to add a natural bug repellent such as cedar saw dust.
This was super interesting. I will be testing cattails now. My best plant friends so far have been nettles and dandelions, but this one sounds incredible.
cattail fluff can be nitrated, and is very interesting, once you treat it with potassium nitrate it changes from a flash tinder and it will take a spark from flint and steel easily and burns hot and fiercely.
Your videos are great, I just wish I had found them when you were still making them. I like this one in participating, because cattail is, by far, my favorite wild plant. Every year I look forward to cattail pollen biscuits and pancakes!!! And the cordage is petty good stuff, and easy to harvest, process, and make into cordage. Excellent to teach beginners. The other thing that really drew my attention was your mention of the Dragonfly Multi-tool. Looking it up online, it looks fantastic, for a bushcrafting and foraging tool, but unfortunately I can't find them anywhere. I don't suppose they're still made or sold anywhere are they?
Before Las Vegas converted it's river beds into concrete water diversions ,to prevent fludding. I'd sale to all the flower shops they'd use in flower arrangements. I'd let my kids have sword fights with the ones I couldn't sale, my yard looked like it was snowing a lot of fun That was before I knew I could use for medicine or eat them .
I noticed the tinder thing too myself, it didn't work by itself but worked great with a tissue, better than the tussue alone which we had been using with a striker
This is an old railbed that is occasionally used by local community members to access the wetland for hunting. We frequently get the water and soils tested in this location as the wetland is the drinking water source for our camp. This is a safe location.
I am seeking information about processing cattail fluff to use as quilt batting. Years ago I attended a quilt show where the speaker said that it is great to use as quilt batting, as it is therapeutic for people with arthritis. Then she passed around a sample for us to try. Definitely felt good. Since then I’ve wanted to make some. It is early fall and I am seeing the heads opening up. Is this when I need to harvest!? Then how do I process? Some time in the oven, perhaps? Thx for an help you can help me with. Look forward to hearing from you.
Good video.... Can you tell some industrial use of cattial? For fire.... How to make it some shape so that it can be easily stored in house.... Should give less smoke & more fire power Thanks
I don't have any problem pulling up the roots if I grab hold of the base of the plant that's out of water. I don't have to run my hands around in the mud to pull most of the roots.
I THINK THE ONLY SAFE WAY TO EAT WOULD BE TO ROAST OR BOIL THE ROOTS . I HAVE HAD PROBLEMS WITH CRYSTAL CLEAR WATER FROM NATURAL SPRINGS UPSTREAM FROM BEAVER PONDS . YOUR THOUGHT .
The analgesic properties of cattail are effectively low, especially early in the growth development, hence the eating of raw young shoots being no problem. Cooking the roots breaks down any of the properties to worry about that might be present in the roots. As for "don't natives", there were over 500 Nations before Columbus. Every Nation had different uses. Us Ojibways use it for a thousand different tasks. Many of those were foods. Both raw and cooked.
