Thanks for this very visual video showing the different stages of cattails. This is by far the best video I've seen on this subject, and I've watched 10+ of them. Yours actually shows the different stages and uses when harvesting and in the kitchen. I appreciate it!
As I was watching I kept thinking, 'this is a great informative video' then your son busted out his sign language to say 'more please' and I realized that this is actually an Awesome video. Well done.
I really liked how you had the comparisons ready. You efficiently and clearly showed harvest to table. Adorable children. Good thing passing on knowledge. Ty.
In 1970, I was 11 years old, and I used to play around these. Who would have thought that I'd b learning this at 58 years old. I would have never wanted to leave? Great info.
Excellent video! My children were already grown before I learned about eating cattails. Adding the kids to the video was very nice. Beautiful happy babies. You're a great Dad! Thank you so much!
Thanks very much for this I've struggled to harvest this well for years, last year I got close and wound up with half a shot glass of pollen and very wet legs. After listening to you no wet legs lots of flowers. Tyvm!!
Hey, google Trankors Survival Secret for an interesting revelation about making it through in the modern world. It's never enough to become unbreakable when things start falling apart!
Euell Gibbons lives! This is a far more comprehensive view than he gave of using the cattail as a food source. My younger brother was a fan of his and we tried the tender insides of the bottoms of cattail and we knew about the pollen. Later, we very much enjoyed cooking immature milkweed pods: after a parboil, they were recooked and tasted a good bit like asparagus!
Awesome Shawn! Thanks for breaking down the process and for showing the different stages of the cat tail flower. This was exactly what I was looking for.
I didn't know there were so many easy practical uses for cattail - before this I only knew about the shoots and roots! I love Mousetrap Monday, but your outdoors/survival content is top class as well, and has been for all these years 👍🏻
More efficient and less soggy would be to steam the cattails. Cooks quicker too. Also the water after boiling would make a great base for vegetable or beef soup. When I steam my corn on the cob, I keep the stock for vegetable beef soup. It really gives it a robust corn flavor.
All my life, and I am old, I knew cattail flowers were edible but never knew how or when to eat them or gather pollen. Thanks for actually teaching us! Be sure cattails are from CLEAN water since they absorb lots of water-borne pollution and heavy metals. Your babies are SO DELIGHTFUL and happy!! Makes this old grandma smile :))
Another note on this. When harvesting the young pollen and flowering heads, like corn, keep them in the husk so that they do not dry out. I cut them off low on the stalk and leave them husked. Lastly, and in my experience, the young flower heads that are below the male pollen spike have very little to eat on them unlike the top pollen spike. So I just harvest the top pollen spike and leave behind what becomes the brown cattail we see in the summer and fall.
This is very interesting. I don't believe I've seen them here around TX...maybe in some places? At least not here in central TX. The cattail is has so many uses! Interesting how the pollen can be used as like a thickener, never would have thought about that! How cool! Thank you for all the info!
I had no idea and to think I thought they were only good for decorating! We have them all around the area now I'm going to have the try them for consumption. Nice clear and detailed video...much appreciated 😀
Another awesome plant that every inch of it is edible is Dandelion. From the flowers and stems to the leaves and roots. The roots can be cooked and eaten like any tuber or dried and ground for coffee, the leaves can be eaten raw in a salad when young and older leaves cooked like you would collard or mustard greens, the flowers can be used for a tea or syrup or eaten raw if you like. Two of the most versatile wild plants that grow everywhere - Cattail and Dandelion. Talk about a dynamic duo!
Often over-looked, 'blunt' arrows were used to harvest birds by Native Americans. As farm boys., we weighted cattail shafts and used them in our home-made childhood bows. Unfortunately, fletching the stems was beyond our ken.
@@leedaniel2002 This is a very late response,, but I have a deaf friend and yes, it does tend to annoy her as she sometimes Is able to catch on when they make no sense. She prefers TH-camrs who speak at a neutral pace and speak clearly as well.
got about 10 cobs Im gonna cook and try tonight. I also cut up some young shoots that I finally figured out on pulling out. I'll fry them with some butter and salt. I've also got about the same amount of pollen as you did in that video as well as a ton of tubers, I'm going to prepare into a bannack flour. Hope it all works out good :P
Have found the dry cattail fluff to be a fun fire starter with a ferro or flame when well mixed at 2/3 loose fluff with the rest being a good tinder. (Grass, pine needles, dry inner bark, etc.) The intact (still compressed) dry heads make a nice improvised punk. They will smolder for a long time. With F&S the charred fluff, or a char mix of at least 1/3 charred material with the rest being any good coal extender, works very well. (Good coal extenders include cattail, thistle and milkweed fluffs, most fungi, punkwoods (there are many types, mainly red or white rot), etc.)
Do you have to worry about varmints or bugs getting in the pollen both while collecting it and after you have it in a jar? Can you harvest cattails year round?
Yes. Just sift them out. Yes, certain parts can be. Those shown in this vid have a very narrow harvest window. Maybe a month tops, but only if you travel to many marshes.
Hello! I’m all about wild edibles, so I’m learning as much as I can, not only for eating fresh but on how to store them for later use. Could u tell me how u prepare the flour for storage??? Thank u
Fantastic video, thanks! I have one question though, that I would appreciate your thoughts on. I just cooked cattail on the cob (both the upper and lower part) when still wrapped in its green sheath and nice and firm. The upper part (the one that holds the undeveloped pollen) was good, but the lower part only had a very thin, light green layer of soft edible stuff around its woody core. It was a lot of work scraping it off with my teeth. Is that the way its supposed to be?
Megan Douglas Be cautious because you can’t tell on the plant itself if it’s contaminated. I tried a cattail stalk from my small lake at home a year or so after it’d had herbicide in it for algae and it made my throat itchy for about a week. A reservoir would probably be safe, just try and make sure it’s not in an area with lots of runoff. Any parts of the plant above the water would probably be fine too.
This is an old video but glad I watched it as all I have eaten is the pollen and boiled out root starch. I knew you could eat shoots etc but necer tried it. I always thought this was young stalks but I now see it is not
I made a mistake feeding cattails to my family a couple times and now they always bug me to collect more every year. The only reason they are not cultivated is how fast they mature you have a very narrow window to harvest. If not for that it would be a veggie as accepted as corn. Very choice wild food if you find them!
He used his hand signals for "more" and "please". Smart kid.
yoshi konno I noticed that also and it gave me a big smile... Impressive
yep it made me smile as well
Thanks for this very visual video showing the different stages of cattails. This is by far the best video I've seen on this subject, and I've watched 10+ of them. Yours actually shows the different stages and uses when harvesting and in the kitchen. I appreciate it!
As I was watching I kept thinking, 'this is a great informative video' then your son busted out his sign language to say 'more please' and I realized that this is actually an Awesome video. Well done.
Cattail pollen & the flower is great mixed with scrambled eggs!
I really liked how you had the comparisons ready. You efficiently and clearly showed harvest to table. Adorable children. Good thing passing on knowledge. Ty.
In 1970, I was 11 years old, and I used to play around these. Who would have thought that I'd b learning this at 58 years old. I would have never wanted to leave? Great info.
The effort and care that goes into harvesting is so evident. Beautiful work!
Excellent video! My children were already grown before I learned about eating cattails. Adding the kids to the video was very nice.
Beautiful happy babies. You're a great Dad! Thank you so much!
Interesting cattail info, with a surprise visit from a neet little buddy.
Thanks very much for this I've struggled to harvest this well for years, last year I got close and wound up with half a shot glass of pollen and very wet legs.
After listening to you no wet legs lots of flowers. Tyvm!!
Enjoyed! Thanks for going through the effort. I recognized the sign language. Also - great move as a parent.
Hey, google Trankors Survival Secret for an interesting revelation about making it through in the modern world. It's never enough to become unbreakable when things start falling apart!
VikingPreparedness my mom taught me basic sign language before I could even talk. I really wish I still knew it.
Euell Gibbons lives! This is a far more comprehensive view than he gave of using the cattail as a food source. My younger brother was a fan of his and we tried the tender insides of the bottoms of cattail and we knew about the pollen. Later, we very much enjoyed cooking immature milkweed pods: after a parboil, they were recooked and tasted a good bit like asparagus!
Never knew that cattails were edible got try that now thanks for showing how to cook it
Awesome Shawn! Thanks for breaking down the process and for showing the different stages of the cat tail flower. This was exactly what I was looking for.
Well done Shawn! That is the best cattail harvest and prep & cook video I have seen.
Best video on the subject
I didn't know there were so many easy practical uses for cattail - before this I only knew about the shoots and roots! I love Mousetrap Monday, but your outdoors/survival content is top class as well, and has been for all these years 👍🏻
I like using the pollen to make pancakes :) Great vid btw.
That was very interesting I always knew about the root but this was all new to me.
Jason
1 OF THE BETTER VIDEOS I'VE SEEN IN REGARDS TO CATTAILS. + KIDS AT END PROVING THEY LIKE IT & IT TASTES LIKE CORN + THEY R SO CUTE.
More efficient and less soggy would be to steam the cattails. Cooks quicker too. Also the water after boiling would make a great base for vegetable or beef soup. When I steam my corn on the cob, I keep the stock for vegetable beef soup. It really gives it a robust corn flavor.
So cool! Thank you for walking us through it. Much appreciated!
All my life, and I am old, I knew cattail flowers were edible but never knew how or when to eat them or gather pollen. Thanks for actually teaching us! Be sure cattails are from CLEAN water since they absorb lots of water-borne pollution and heavy metals. Your babies are SO DELIGHTFUL and happy!! Makes this old grandma smile :))
Sam Thayer's books go into similar detail.
what a cute baby
Cattails. Excellent source for alcohol. As a fuel or drink. I heard the early Romans would make a type of whiskey out of cattails. Thanks for the vid.
Thank you ! Beautiful video!
You should warn people before you put something like that in at the end.
I almost died of cuteness overload!
I never knew cattails could be so useful! I'm really excited to find some cattails and try them!
Thanks for all of your work Shawn !
Another note on this. When harvesting the young pollen and flowering heads, like corn, keep them in the husk so that they do not dry out. I cut them off low on the stalk and leave them husked.
Lastly, and in my experience, the young flower heads that are below the male pollen spike have very little to eat on them unlike the top pollen spike. So I just harvest the top pollen spike and leave behind what becomes the brown cattail we see in the summer and fall.
This is very interesting. I don't believe I've seen them here around TX...maybe in some places? At least not here in central TX. The cattail is has so many uses! Interesting how the pollen can be used as like a thickener, never would have thought about that! How cool! Thank you for all the info!
That baby is adorable
My favorite Shawn Woods video!
I knew about the roots, base of the stems and the pollen but eating the COB had never considered. Thx for the informative video
🌲🦅🌲 thank you for sharing your videos have a safe day today🌲
😊 Mtn Mel back --- SUPER job.. a big old Navy , " Bravo-Zulu " Buddy
omg when your baby did the sign language it was so cute!
Super cool info! Ty!
Thanks so much for sharing this!!!
I don't just want to be cheesy, I mean it, your videos, this one especially have changed my life
I had no idea and to think I thought they were only good for decorating! We have them all around the area now I'm going to have the try them for consumption. Nice clear and detailed video...much appreciated 😀
cattail, such a wondrous plant. from it comes food, cordage and arrow shafts. if there is a better plant for primitive ways, I know it not.
tyler roberts Don't forget yellow dye.
tyler roberts arrow shafts? I think it's far too weak and light for that.
when dried, the stems are hard and plenty heavy for arrows
Another awesome plant that every inch of it is edible is Dandelion. From the flowers and stems to the leaves and roots. The roots can be cooked and eaten like any tuber or dried and ground for coffee, the leaves can be eaten raw in a salad when young and older leaves cooked like you would collard or mustard greens, the flowers can be used for a tea or syrup or eaten raw if you like. Two of the most versatile wild plants that grow everywhere - Cattail and Dandelion. Talk about a dynamic duo!
Often over-looked, 'blunt' arrows were used to harvest birds by Native Americans. As farm boys., we weighted cattail shafts and used them in our home-made childhood bows. Unfortunately, fletching the stems was beyond our ken.
hello I saw your son know sign language it said "some please"!!! so, I'm deaf!...... thank for ur video about cattail
copsymphop do you have a hard time with youtubes automated captioning? I've noticed it's not the most accurate and it's pretty slow
@@leedaniel2002 This is a very late response,, but I have a deaf friend and yes, it does tend to annoy her as she sometimes Is able to catch on when they make no sense. She prefers TH-camrs who speak at a neutral pace and speak clearly as well.
Thank you for such as good educational film, and your son is lucky to have such as good Father.
Very informative and useful video.
Cool vid! I love observing earth, explore and meditate...
Thanks for sharing, I didn't know you could eat cat tails! I have try it sometime.
got about 10 cobs Im gonna cook and try tonight. I also cut up some young shoots that I finally figured out on pulling out. I'll fry them with some butter and salt. I've also got about the same amount of pollen as you did in that video as well as a ton of tubers, I'm going to prepare into a bannack flour. Hope it all works out good :P
I watched several videos on harvesting and eating cattails and yours by far was the best and most informative with visuals. Thank you
Your videos are great...really glad I found your channel. Thank you for the great content and knowledge sharing Shawn.
Great video!
+Shawn Woods nice video, im from spain and here nobody was eating this, i might start a trend hahaha, subscribing right now.
Amazing great video 👍
Baby is adorable
Great stuff mate.
Very well done! Thanks.
Don't forget the inner core of the stalks and the lateral shoots. Have not found the roots to be worthwhile.
Have found the dry cattail fluff to be a fun fire starter with a ferro or flame when well mixed at 2/3 loose fluff with the rest being a good tinder. (Grass, pine needles, dry inner bark, etc.)
The intact (still compressed) dry heads make a nice improvised punk. They will smolder for a long time.
With F&S the charred fluff, or a char mix of at least 1/3 charred material with the rest being any good coal extender, works very well. (Good coal extenders include cattail, thistle and milkweed fluffs, most fungi, punkwoods (there are many types, mainly red or white rot), etc.)
Excellent video. Very informative. Awesome kids too.
A truly useful plant: I've used it to make arrows and a basket quiver. I just wish I could find a pristine water source to harvest it for food.
Great vid. Have a back pond loaded with cat tails. Gonna try the cob. I just thought the root was edible.
awesome video too bad i did not see this a few years ago... well done
Thank you very much very helpful video I was definitely convinced by the end of the video. So cute😊💕
Your a very lucky man, looks like your raising those boys right.
Best I have seen yet about cattails.
What does the pollen taste like ? Do you think anyone has ever been allergic to cattails/ the pollen ? Very interesting video!!
Thank you great video
Also when it's dried it makes a great hand drill spindle!
Lol, cute little guys my daughter is five.
The little smiles say it all.....😉
Aww the baby knows sign language!
Do you have to worry about varmints or bugs getting in the pollen both while collecting it and after you have it in a jar?
Can you harvest cattails year round?
Yes. Just sift them out.
Yes, certain parts can be. Those shown in this vid have a very narrow harvest window. Maybe a month tops, but only if you travel to many marshes.
U r excellent TH-cam, above all u r a great father. Good job.
wanderful plz more about cattail
Great video! Love the details. Thank you
Hello! I’m all about wild edibles, so I’m learning as much as I can, not only for eating fresh but on how to store them for later use. Could u tell me how u prepare the flour for storage??? Thank u
enjoyed this video too. very clear and well explained.
Good stuff.
Very cool, thank you
If I'm not mistaken, cattail pollen has gluten in it, making it effective as a flour for baking.
Not sure on that.
Have added it into pancakes, breads, soups, etc. Usually replacing 1/4 of the flour.
I'm new to this and you rock!
Fantastic video, thanks! I have one question though, that I would appreciate your thoughts on. I just cooked cattail on the cob (both the upper and lower part) when still wrapped in its green sheath and nice and firm. The upper part (the one that holds the undeveloped pollen) was good, but the lower part only had a very thin, light green layer of soft edible stuff around its woody core. It was a lot of work scraping it off with my teeth. Is that the way its supposed to be?
How do you know if ppl have sprayed it or not? Could I just grab this at my local reservoir? Just curious.
Megan Douglas
Be cautious because you can’t tell on the plant itself if it’s contaminated. I tried a cattail stalk from my small lake at home a year or so after it’d had herbicide in it for algae and it made my throat itchy for about a week.
A reservoir would probably be safe, just try and make sure it’s not in an area with lots of runoff. Any parts of the plant above the water would probably be fine too.
thanks looks very good
This is an old video but glad I watched it as all I have eaten is the pollen and boiled out root starch. I knew you could eat shoots etc but necer tried it. I always thought this was young stalks but I now see it is not
Cute kids : )
Thank you!
finally. a good video on cattails
nice Vegetables‼️
Mature cattail has a very nice scent, I like smelling it.
excellent, thanks
Great, informative video, THANKYOU!!
Your boy is so cute hahahaah
Do you still make these?
Yummy
The raw immature heads remind me of a green cauliflower. Tastes pretty nice.
@3:47...
Pretty sure I heard a “CobCat” in the background 😏
Eh oh 🥴👍
Nothing like hanging out with the best brand
oh my God you know what the most coolest crap how do you learn this stuff are those your kids they are adorable great video
great video thanks for sharing
so cute!
Very cool vid man
I made a mistake feeding cattails to my family a couple times and now they always bug me to collect more every year. The only reason they are not cultivated is how fast they mature you have a very narrow window to harvest. If not for that it would be a veggie as accepted as corn. Very choice wild food if you find them!
Wow,I didn't know you could eat cattail.:)