I learned a new food source today! Get this!! "The cattail is a close as you will get to a WILD SUPERMARKET. It is easily harvested and highly nutritious. The shoots are like tender zucchini and cucumbers, adding both flavor and texture to salads. The immature male green flower head can be steamed or simmered. Cattail pollen is high in energy and nutritious. It can be used raw or sprinkled on yogurt, in fruit shakes oatmeal and salads.
Cattail leaves can be twisted to make dolls, like corn husk dolls or used in thatching roofs making baskets and mats.
The brown flower heads make good punks with a slow burning flame that drives insets away.
The Native Americans used cattails medicinally, applying the jelly of the young leaves to wounds, sores, and boils for external inflammations and to soothe pain."
I quote the 2010 Calendar for Otter Tail County. Interesting!
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