San Juan Family

Cattails are a food that you can eat almost all year-round. Every cattail plant is a hermaphrodite, with male parts on top and female parts beneath. After the male parts have done their job, they fall off.

There are two types of edible cattails, the common cattails, which are the most familiar, growing to be over 9 feet tall and the narrow-leaf cattail, which is much shorter.

How to Identify Wild Cattail

In early spring the only way to identify cattails from other (poisonous) plants is that last year’s cattails are still there. The cattail shoot has an odorless, tender, white, inner core that tastes mild, sweet, and pleasant—a far cry from the bitter poisonous plants like wild daffodils or irises, or the spicy, fragrant calamus. Since the look-alike plants stop growing, ending up no more than a few feet tall, the cattails become unmistakable, even for beginners.

For survivalists, cattails are a sure sign of water. cattails were a staple of native American Indians because every part can be harvested and is edible, without much work.

Eating Cattail Shoots

Harvest the shoots before the flower forms – peel off the fibrous green layer of “skin” and enjoy what Russians call “Cossack’s asparagus.” You can eat it fresh or steamed. Wild man Steve Brill says

They’re like a combination of tender zucchini and cucumbers, adding a refreshing texture and flavor to salads. I love mixing them with pungent mustard greens to balance their mildness. Added to soup towards the end of cooking, they retain a refreshing crunchiness. They’re superb in stir-fry dishes, more than suitable for sandwiches, and excellent in virtually any context. I love sliced cattail hearts, sautéed in sesame oil with wild carrots and ginger.

Harvesting Cattail Shoots to Eat

When you’re harvesting the cattail shoots, pick the biggest ones, before they flower and peel them open as much as you can while they’re still in the ground. Then reach in and break the shoot out, cutting away the fibrous covering with a pocketknife. Your hands will be covered in a mucilaginous substance which is a great thickener for soups, tasting similar to okra. Scrape it off into a ziploc bag and save it for later.

After the flowering tip has emerged, the male tip is edible. Snip it off and steam it, it tastes similar to corn. It’s a bit dry, so add butter or oil. You can also just chew on it without cooking.

Eating Cattail Pollen

Just before the summer solstice, the male flowers produce TONS of pollen. instead of buying bee pollen for a small fortune at the health food store, use cattail pollen, Brill says that it provides more energy and nutrients anyways. On a windless day, bend the pollen-heads over a paper bag and shake them off. You can add it to baking flour, but it doesn’t rise so you can’t usually replace all of the flour in a recipe but you can replace up to 25% with cattail pollen. You can also eat it raw, sprinkling it on yogurt, cereal, salads and pasta. For vitamin supplements, you can buy an encapsulating kit from ez-cap and make your own.

Eating Cattail Roots

In the winter, the roots store the energy and nutrients of the whole plant, in the form of starch. You can dig them up and then rinse them off. They’ll be rather muddy and mucky, so swish them around in the water (if it’s not too frozen) before bringing them to your porch. Once they’re clean, smash them or use the blender to grind them to a pulp and then soak them in water, so that the starch can separate. Use that starch to thicken soups or in baking. The young buds that are on the rhizomes also make great soup vegetables, but don’t add them until the soup is almost done, otherwise they’ll cook too fast and you’ll never get to taste them.

Medicinal Qualities of Cattails

The mucilaginous stuff in the shoots can sooth minor burns, abrasions and boils.

Using Cattail Fibers

The dead leaves of the cattail have been used over the years to weave mats and for thatching the roof. Cattail baskets are popular for many native people and the leaves can also be used to make dolls, kind of like the corn husk dolls made by pioneers.

Using Cattail Heads

You can poke the cattail heads into the ground to use like tiki torches, they burn really slowly and the smoke repels insects.

Stuffing with Cattail Fluff

You can stuff dolls and pillows with cattail fluff, it’s inexpensive (free) but beware, most people are allergic to it, so while it may be soft, you need to use a thick cotton batting to keep from getting hives all over.

The fluff can also be toasted, the seeds won’t burn but the fluff will burn away, those seeds are edible and yummy when toasted.

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