Have you ever seen cattails being sold in the market or just on the field, and you wondered if you can actually eat them? There are actually a lot of parts of cattail that you can use in the kitchen. There are a lot of native Americans that regularly get cattails so they can use them for food. In terms of survival, since cattails are all around everywhere, you should be able to use them well. If this is your first time dealing with them, you might be wondering what parts of cattail are edible, so below are things that you can easily use in your kitchen.
Cattail Pollen
You might have never tried this before, but pollen from the male cattails can be mixed in with regular flour to make muffins or pancakes. It is very healthy and is known to be a great source of protein. If you are thinking about having cattail pancakes and cattail muffins, then you ought to get that pollen and give it a try. You might never know how it tastes if you do not try it. There are a lot of people saying they will never eat pancakes and muffins the same way after trying the cattail version. Truly, it is something that you need to keep in mind.
Female Flower
Another thing that you ought to have a taste of would be the female flower which can be cooked and then eaten together with butter. You would be able to have a nice time gobbling it up and enjoying this. You can also try out the flowers for soup as it is something that would be pretty delicious. Trying out something new whenever you eat is a good way to keep exploring food and also to teach you things that you might use for survival in the long run or in the future. You even get to make them into pickles if you do it right and refrigerate them so they can last you for a while.
Shoots and Roots
You also need to consider the taste of the shoots and the roots of cattails, or at least the young ones. You can strip them of their outer leaves and then just stir fry them, and you are good to go. Those who have tried them say they taste like cucumbers, so it might be a good alternative to that. On the other hand, the roots are a little tough, so you might need to boil them, and then you can easily fry them up.
The best part about learning how to prepare and knowing what parts of cattails are edible is that you will be able to store this knowledge and use it in the future. It might just be the best survival food out there since they grow everywhere, and you can use a lot of different ways to preserve them at the same time. Cattails are what you can call an allrounder, so you better pile up your knowledge on them.
Dan here. Prepping is key to surviving when SHTF, and that’s what I’m all about. Check out my blog for both prepper tips and general survival tactics.