Cattails

[racoon]

I live in Florida have a fascination with aquatic plants. I can remember gathering cattails along the banks of fresh water lakes and canals when I was a kid. Whenever camping or boating along a river or lake I keep my eyes opened for these beauties. I've recently learned they have culinary purposes, too, I was never aware of. There is nothing like the real thing to beautify your home!

[Gabbie]

Our kids picked some of these one time when they were little. They put them in a vase and they looked so nice on the kitchen counter. That is until the next morning when we walked into the kitchen and they had 'fluffed' out all over the place! It was a mess to clean up.

[Grandpa]

Cattails are valuable in a primitive environment. I attended a primitive cooking class last fall. The lady demonstrating wrapped a nice roast in the cattail fronds, stopping to pass out pieces of the stalk for us to eat raw. She had a pit fire on river rocks. When the coals burned down she placed the roast on the coals, covered with cabbage leaves and covered that with dirt. She also had an assortment of native plants in another packet for vegies to go with the meal. Couple hours later, we dug it up and it was delicious.

She also cut the roast with her knapped obsidian knife that she kept in her deer skin sheath tied with a buckskin thong onto her brain tanned deer skin dress. Wonder how hard it would be to write a book with her? hmmmmm