The cattail is one of the most important and common wild foods, with a variety of uses at different times of the year. Whatever you call it, a stand of cattails is as close as you'll get to finding a wild supermarket.

You can easily recognize a cattail stand: White, dense, furry, cigar-shaped overwintered seed heads stand atop very long, stout stalks, even as the young shoots first emerge in early spring. Cattails grow from 4-9' tall and their leaves are sword-like. The flowering stalks are stiff, erect, topped with yellow, pollen-laden male flowers above hot dog shaped, brown female flower heads. Cattails are perennials.

The edible parts are the young shoots and stalks, immature flower spikes, the pollen, sprouts, root stalks and corms. From the cattail you will get salads, asparagus, cooked vegetables, flour, pickles and potatoes. Harvest the young shoots, stalks, pollen, and sprouts in late spring; root stalk and corms all year. Cattails grow in fresh or bracken marshes, ponds and shallow water.

Gently dig the roots from the mud and wash them, then collect the little pearly white, cone-shaped corms growing along its length. Leave a few and replant the root back in the mud to insure more growth later in the spring. You can eat them raw. It is not an acquired taste, as with many of the wild edible plants and will please even the most finicky. No matter what time of the year, there is always something edible and nutritious on the cattail. It is one plant the survivalist can depend on. Once peeled to reveal their tender white core the young succulent shoots can be eaten raw or cooked like a vegetable. To make them crispy, steam them for only ten minutes. If you like softer vegetables, boil them for up to fifteen minutes. They can be gathered until they are a little over two feet tall.

The green flower stalks can be removed from their sheaths and eaten like corn on the cob. Gather in late spring just before they erupt from their papery sheaths. Steaming keeps much of the flavor. You can boil the immature spikes if you leave on the papery sheaths until cooked. The pollen can be gathered from the yellow pollen spikes in early summer. Lay it in the sun to dry and use it half and half with other flour. Large amounts of pollen can be gathered by shaking the heads in an open bag. Then shift through a strainer. Be sure to dry the pollen thoroughly before storing for future use. You can also use it as a soup or stew thickener and store much of it for winter use, as it is rich in protein. You can use the pollen like a hot cereal, simmering in water for ½ hour until it grows thick like oatmeal and eaten the same way. Cattails are also a good additive to pancakes or scrambled eggs.

In late summer, small horn-shaped cones begin to form on the root stock and remain until the following spring, where they mature into the new shoots. They can be eaten raw much like the flour spikes or cooked.

One of the best parts of the cattail is the flour of the root stock. During dormant months (winter), the root stocks can be dug from the muck, rinsed clean, and broken up in fresh water. This helps to remove the starchy flour from the fibers. It is best to peel off the outer layer of the root stock before breaking it up in the water. The flour should be allowed to settle to the bottom of the container, the water poured off and new water poured in, shaken and allowed to settle again. The process should be repeated one or two more times with any remaining fiber or grit being picked out. Spread in the sun and allow to dry slowly. Once thoroughly dry it can be stored and used the same way as store bought flour.

One recipe is to mix 1/3 root flour with 1/3 pollen flour and 1/3 boiled and crushed corm base. Made into ash cakes, these produce a fine energy-rich trail bread that lasts several days. Before eating soak the roots in a Clorox solution (½ tsp. clorox - 1 gallon of water for 30 minutes) or cook to kill parasites.

As a vegetable prepare by placing the spikes in a pot of lightly salted water and bring to a boil, cooking for ½ to 1 hour (the more spikes there are, the longer they need to cook.) Serve hot, with butter, and eat like corn on the cob. The taste is great and is a nice spring time change.