Edible Plants

 

 

 

Search  Inquiry Net

Back ] Home ] Up ] Next ]

Activities
Archery
Axe, Boy Scout
Axe, Saw, Forestry
Axe, Saw,  Knife
Axe Use: Beard
Axe Use: Seton
Axe Use: Traditional
Axe Throwing
Beds, Woodcraft
Bedding Materials
Bicycle Maintenance
Birch-Bark Torch
Birds
Bird Houses
Blocks Tackles Purchase
Blood Red Cross
Broom: Camp or Witch's
Buttons
Campcraft
Camp Hygiene
Camp Planning
Campfire Programs
Catapult
Chainsaws
Checklists
Chuck Box Riddance!
City-Craft
Compass Bear Song
Compass, Home-Made
Cooking
Cotton Kills Bear Song
Deduction in Tracking
Deduction & Detective
Drum
Dyes
Edible Plants
Equipment, Leader
Equipment, Personal
Equipment Maintenance
Equipment, Lightweight
Equip, Pickle Bucket Camp
Estimation
Field Signals
Fire-Building
Fire Building
Fire Laying
Fire Lighting
Fire Starters
Fire: Rubbing-Stick
Fire Types, Wood Types
Fire Council Ring
Fires: Woodcraft
First Aid
First Class Journey
Flint & Steel
Flowers
Forest
Gesture Signals
Ground to Air Signals
Handicraft Stunts
High Adventure
Hiking
Hike Planning
Indian Sundial Clock
Insect Collecting
Insect Preserve
Indian Well
Knife & Hatchet
Knots, Bends, Hitches
Knots: Diamond Hitch
Knots: Lashings
Knots: Rope Work
Knots: Seton
Knots: Traditional
Knots & Whipping
Lashings
Lashing Practice Box
Lace or Thong
Learn by Doing
Leave No Trace
Leave No Trace
Lights
Local Knowledge
Log Ladders, Notched
Log-Rolling
Logs: Cut Notch
Logs Split with Axe
Loom and Grass Mats
Lost in the Woods
Manners
Maps
Map & Compass
Maps: Without Compass
Measurement
Measurement Estimation
Menu Worksheet
Menu (Adult IOLS)
Mosquitoes
Mushrooms
Night Tracking
Observation
Old Trails
Paints
Pioneering, Basic
Pioneering Models
Plaster Casts
Preparations
Proverbs
Rake
Rope Care
Rope Making
Rope Spinning
Scout Reports
Signal & Sign
Sign Language
Silent Scout Signals
Smoke Prints
Snakes
Spanish Windlass
Spoons
Staff/Stave Making
Stalking Skills
Stalking & Observation
Stars
Stools
Story Telling
Stoves & Lanterns
Summoning Help
Sun Dial: Scientific
Survival Kit
Tarp Poles
Teepee (4 Pole)
Tent Care
Tent Pitching
Tom-Tom
Tomahawk Throwing
Tomahawk Targets
Totem Making
Totem Animals
Totem Poles
Training in Tracking
Tracks, Ground, Weather
Tracking & Trailing
Trail Following
Trail Signs & Blazes
Trail Signs of Direction
Trail Signs: Traditional
Trail Signs for Help
Trees of the NE
Wall Hangings
Watch Compass
Weather Wisdom
Wild Things

Scout Books

Site Contents

by Ernest Thompson Seton

 No one truly knows the woods until he can find with certainty a number of wild plants that furnish good food for man in the season when food is scarce; that is, in the winter or early spring.

During summer and autumn there is always an abundance of familiar nuts and berries, so that we may rule them out, and seek only for edible plants and roots that are available when nuts and berries are not.

Rock Tripe. The most wonderful of all is probably the greenish-black rock tripe, found on the bleakest, highest rocks in the northern parts of this continent. There is a wonderful display of it on the cliffs about Mohonk Lake, in the Catskills. Richardson and Franklin, the great northern explorers, lived on it for months. It must be very carefully cooked or it produces cramps. First gather and wash it as clear as possible of sand and grit, washing it again and again, snipping off the gritty parts of the roots where it held onto the mother rock. Then roast it slowly in a pan till dry and crisp. Next boil it for one hour and serve it either hot or cold. It looks like thick gumbo soup with short, thick pieces of black and green leaves in it. It tastes a little like tapioca with a slight flavoring of licorice. On some it acts as a purge.

Basswood Browse or Buds. As a child I ate these raw in quantities, as did also most of my young friends, but they will be found the better for cooking. They are particularly good and large in the early spring. The inmost bark also has food value; but one must disfigure the tree to get that, so we leave it out.

Slippery Elm. The same remarks apply to the buds and inner bark of the slippery elm. They are nutritious, acceptable food, especially when cooked with scraps of meat or fruit for flavoring. Furthermore, its flowers come out in the spring before the leaves, and produce very early in the season great quantities of seed which are like little nuts in the middle of a nearly circular wing. These ripen by the time the leaves are half grown and have always been an important article of food among the wild things.

Many Indian tribes used to feed during famine times on the inner bark of cedar and white birch, as well as on the inner bark of the slippery elm and basswood, but these cannot be got without injury to the tree, so omit them.

When the snow is off the ground the plants respond quickly, and it is safe to assume that all the earliest flowers come up from big, fat roots.

A plant can spring up quickly in summer, gathering the material of growth from the air and soil, but a plant coming up in the early spring is doing business at a time when it cannot get support from its surroundings, and cannot keep on unless it has stored up capital from the summer before. This is the logic of the storehouse in the ground for these early comers.

Wapato. One of the earliest is wapato, or duck potato, also called common Arrowleaf, or Sagittaria. It is found in low, swampy flats, especially those that are under water for part of the year. Its root is about as big as a walnut and is good food, cooked or raw. These roots are not at the point where the leaves come out but at the ends of the long roots.

Bog Potato. On the drier banks, usually where the sedge begins near a swamp, we find the bog potato, or Indian potato. The plant is a slender vine with three, five, or seven leaflets in a group. On its roots in spring are from one to a dozen potatoes, varying from an inch to three inches in diameter. They taste like a cross between a peanut and a raw potato, and are very good cooked or raw.

Indian Cucumber. In the dry woods one is sure to see the pretty umbrella of the Indian cucumber. Its root is white and crisp and tastes somewhat like a cucumber, is one to four inches long, and good food raw or boiled.

Calopogon. This plant looks like a kind of grass with an onion for a root, but it does not taste of onions and is much sought after by wild animals and wild people. It is found in low or marshy places.

Hog Peanuts. In the early spring this plant will be found to have a large nut or fruit, buried under the leaves or quite underground in the dry woods. As summer goes by the plant uses up this capital, but on its roots it grows a lot of little nuts. These are rich food, but very small. The big nut is about an inch long and the little ones on the roots are any size up to that of a pea.

Indian Turnip or Jack-in-the-Pulpit. This is well known to all our children in the East. The root is the most burning, acrid, horrible thing in the woods when raw, but after cooking becomes quite pleasant and is very nutritious.

Prairie or Indian Turnip, Bread-root or Pomme-blanche of the Prairie. This is found on all the prairies of the Missouri region. Its root was and is a staple article of food with the Indians. The roots are one to three inches thick and four to twelve inches long.

Solomon's Seal. The two Solomon's Seals (true and false) both produce roots that are long, bumpy storehouses of food.

Crinkle-Root. Every school child in the country digs out and eats the pleasant peppery crinkle-root. It abounds in the rich, dry woods.

The Birch Bark Roll 

 

 

   

 

 


Additional Information:

Peer- Level Topic Links:
Activities ] Archery ] Axe, Boy Scout ] Axe, Saw, Forestry ] Axe, Saw,  Knife ] Axe Use: Beard ] Axe Use: Seton ] Axe Use: Traditional ] Axe Throwing ] Beds, Woodcraft ] Bedding Materials ] Bicycle Maintenance ] Birch-Bark Torch ] Birds ] Bird Houses ] Blocks Tackles Purchase ] Blood Red Cross ] Broom: Camp or Witch's ] Buttons ] Campcraft ] Camp Hygiene ] Camp Planning ] Campfire Programs ] Catapult ] Chainsaws ] Checklists ] Chuck Box Riddance! ] City-Craft ] Compass Bear Song ] Compass, Home-Made ] Cooking ] Cotton Kills Bear Song ] Deduction in Tracking ] Deduction & Detective ] Drum ] Dyes ] [ Edible Plants ] Equipment, Leader ] Equipment, Personal ] Equipment Maintenance ] Equipment, Lightweight ] Equip, Pickle Bucket Camp ] Estimation ] Field Signals ] Fire-Building ] Fire Building ] Fire Laying ] Fire Lighting ] Fire Starters ] Fire: Rubbing-Stick ] Fire Types, Wood Types ] Fire Council Ring ] Fires: Woodcraft ] First Aid ] First Class Journey ] Flint & Steel ] Flowers ] Forest ] Gesture Signals ] Ground to Air Signals ] Handicraft Stunts ] High Adventure ] Hiking ] Hike Planning ] Indian Sundial Clock ] Insect Collecting ] Insect Preserve ] Indian Well ] Knife & Hatchet ] Knots, Bends, Hitches ] Knots: Diamond Hitch ] Knots: Lashings ] Knots: Rope Work ] Knots: Seton ] Knots: Traditional ] Knots & Whipping ] Lashings ] Lashing Practice Box ] Lace or Thong ] Learn by Doing ] Leave No Trace ] Leave No Trace ] Lights ] Local Knowledge ] Log Ladders, Notched ] Log-Rolling ] Logs: Cut Notch ] Logs Split with Axe ] Loom and Grass Mats ] Lost in the Woods ] Manners ] Maps ] Map & Compass ] Maps: Without Compass ] Measurement ] Measurement Estimation ] Menu Worksheet ] Menu (Adult IOLS) ] Mosquitoes ] Mushrooms ] Night Tracking ] Observation ] Old Trails ] Paints ] Pioneering, Basic ] Pioneering Models ] Plaster Casts ] Preparations ] Proverbs ] Rake ] Rope Care ] Rope Making ] Rope Spinning ] Scout Reports ] Signal & Sign ] Sign Language ] Silent Scout Signals ] Smoke Prints ] Snakes ] Spanish Windlass ] Spoons ] Staff/Stave Making ] Stalking Skills ] Stalking & Observation ] Stars ] Stools ] Story Telling ] Stoves & Lanterns ] Summoning Help ] Sun Dial: Scientific ] Survival Kit ] Tarp Poles ] Teepee (4 Pole) ] Tent Care ] Tent Pitching ] Tom-Tom ] Tomahawk Throwing ] Tomahawk Targets ] Totem Making ] Totem Animals ] Totem Poles ] Training in Tracking ] Tracks, Ground, Weather ] Tracking & Trailing ] Trail Following ] Trail Signs & Blazes ] Trail Signs of Direction ] Trail Signs: Traditional ] Trail Signs for Help ] Trees of the NE ] Wall Hangings ] Watch Compass ] Weather Wisdom ] Wild Things ]

Parent- Level Topic Links:
Scuba ] Skills ] Games ] Shelter ] Fire ] Night ] B-P's Camping ] Hikes ] Indian ] Spring ] Summer ] Autumn ] Winter ]

The Inquiry Net Main Topic Links:
 [Outdoor Skills]  [Patrol Method [Old-School]  [Adults [Advancement]  [Ideals]  [Leadership]  [Uniforms]

Search This Site:

Search Amazon.Com:

When you place an order with Amazon.Com using the search box below, a small referral fee is returned to The Inquiry Net to help defer the expense of keeping us online.  Thank you for your consideration!

Search:

Keywords:

Amazon Logo

 

 

Scout Books Trading Post

Dead Bugs, Blow Guns, Sharp Knives, & Snakes:
What More Could A Boy Want?

Old School Scouting:
What to Do, and How to Do It!

To Email me, replace "(at)" below with "@"
Rick(at)Kudu.Net

If you have questions about one of my 2,000 pages here, you must send me the "URL" of the page!
This "URL" is sometimes called the "Address" and it is usually found in a little box near the top of your screen.  Most URLs start with the letters "http://"

The Kudu Net is a backup "mirror" of The Inquiry Net.  

©2003, 2011 The Inquiry Net, http://inquiry.net  In addition to any Copyright still held by the original authors, the Scans, Optical Character Recognition, extensive Editing,  and HTML Coding on this Website are the property of the Webmaster.   My work may be used by individuals for non-commercial, non-web-based activities, such as Scouting, research, teaching, and personal use so long as this copyright statement and a URL to my material is included in the text
The purpose of this Website is to provide access  to hard to find, out-of-print documents.  Much of the content has been edited to be of practical use in today's world and is not intended as historical preservation.   I will be happy to provide scans of specific short passages in the original documents for people involved in academic research.  

 

Last modified: October 15, 2016.