Cattails taste like corn
Chances are good, if you have been around a lake or any swampy area, you have seen cattails. They love getting their feet wet. (grow in very wet soil). They are known by a variety of names such as bulrush, cattail, corn dog grass, cumbungi, punks and raupo.
Almost every part is edible
The root (rhizomes) can be dug up, cleaned and made into a flour that is a source of starch (comparable to rice) Dry the roots first, then peel. They are very hard to peel when wet. After chopping (or slicing) them into small pieces add some water and mash them until the fibers start to break up. Remove the fibers. Allow it is sit a while and the starch will drain to the bottom. It may take adding more water and mashing several times to get all the fiber out. Allow the starch to settle, pour off the top water and the allow the starchy lump to dry and use it like any flour.
It you don’t have enough time to go through that process, you can cut the clean roots into slices and boil them. Then chew them to release the starch, spitting out the fibers. Note that almost every person I have spoke to about cattails say eating the fibers will give you a belly ache.
The stem is edible with the part closest to the root tasting better and less fibrous. Starting for the root, the stems are almost white slowly darkening to green the higher they go. Most people only go for the white parts. I have never done it, but I would imagine the green stems could be treated similar to the roots.
The leaves can be cooked and eaten like any green leafed veggie (spinach, collards, etc.). Use them in recipes or eat them by themselves if nothing else is available.
The upper part that looks like a corn dog before it goes to seed can be eaten raw. They are best in spring when they are young and taste a lot like corn. You can eat them like it was corn on the cob, biting off the outer seed (or soon to be seeds) as if they were corn kernels.
Poisonous look-a-likes
When the plants are young, there are a few look-a-likes that are poisonous. But there is nothing that looks like the mature plant. Always look for the tell-tail left overs from prior years if you are forced to harvest when young. If there are no prior year plants around, do not eat it.
Sources:
Images: Pixabay
artofmanliness.com
eattheweeds.com
cattails.info
wikipedia