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Native Edible Plants

Source of Recipe

Native


Recipe Introduction

This is far from complete. I am only doing the ones that I can prove. Bulrush
Most of USA, softstem (Scirpus Validus)to 10 foot tall, hardstem (Scirpus acutus) most of USA. Early Fall.Sweet young root
Grows in shallow water, ditches, resevoirs-etc....
Sweet young shoots as an herb.
Seeds raw for gruel or a fine flour. Fall; Mix with flour for baking
Root as a starchy vegetable. baked core excellent. Chew roots for thirst. Rootstalk, year around.
shoots and lower stalks edible raw. Shoots in spring and fall (Peel)
Dried rhizome can be crushed to remove fibers and ground to flour.
Dried sap can be rolled into balls for storage
Young rhizomes, boil and make syrup.
Pollen, press into cakes and bake or mix with flour.

Rush (Juncas effusus)Family: Rush.
Early sprouts (Snoqualmi)

Wood Rush (Juncas xiophioides)
Bulb (swinomish and Makah)

Burdock (cockleburr)(arctium minus) Family; asteraceae
Greater burdock, edible burdock, lappa burdock
Species was introduced.
Young stems and shoots. peel and cook
Skin is bitter. boil in 2 waters
the inner pith of fireweed added to the water adds a sweetness.
Root used as a vegetable, especially by the Japanese and Chinese.
Leaves not recommended, they absorb contaminants.
Chehalis and Cowlitz.

Cactaceae
Opunta sp.
Lummis harvest in eastern. WA

Cascara
A buckthorn.
Late summer and autumn(July-August)
Berries, eat in small amounts. Tasteless and a number of seeds.
Berries can cause a stomach ache if you overdo it.
Boil the green bark
Bushy tree can grow to 30 foot by 15 foot.
Blue-black berries ripen unevenly
Some berries grow pointing up
Makah eat the berries.
Not recommended except in emergencies. or a laxative.

Cow Parsnip (Heracleum lanatum)
Native to the Pacific northwest.
5-10 foot tall
Cook the root, or use in soup-stew, etc....
Hollow stems can also be cooked and peeled(Chinook)
Eat the flower raw or cooked.
Burn the leaf and collect the ashes for a salt substitute.
Young tops are eaten raw in the spring. (Makah)