On my walk the other day, I noticed cattails – ya, big deal, eh? Well, I have seen them most of my life but never gave them much more than a look. By that I mean, I didn’t do any in-depth study about them. So it was time, so here goes – ready or not!
In early spring the roots are edible and choice. They can be pealed and eaten raw, but Survive Outdoors strongly suggests boiling. It can be served with butter and seasoning to increase the flavor. The pollen of cattails can be shaken into bags and dried and used as protein rich flour for cooking. [OMG this sounds just yummy!]
Cattails at this stage with the brown tops can be soaked in kerosene and used as torches for light. Although the burning time may be short, it is a useful light source. Dried tops also make great tinder for starting fires.
I can see you are very impressed – but what I really wanted to share with some photos. In particular this cattail that looks like a pretzel – now, this is just to cute not to share with you and the other photo is when cattails are done and “fluff” out – kind of impressive and makes a great photo.
Friday nights entertainment fair choices were: St. Lawrence County fair had the Monster Truck Pull OR Franklin County Fair had the Phil Vassar concert – which one would you pick? My daughter and I chose Phil and what a great concert. I found the sound a bit loud, I know, it’s a concert it’s supposed to be loud. But too much base makes my ears ache [call me old but still with my hearing vs. young people who need everything loud to hear at all!]. However my daughter had no problems, she sang along, cheered, yelled and had a blast.
Prior to the attendance we had to have the mandatory “corn dog” and sadly we were disappointed – the stand we chose did not serve the best corn dog we ever have eaten but we managed to get it down and decided if a second dog were needed, we’d find another snack stand! Then we wanted cowboy hats and went on that search and found some adorable straw hats that looked good and could be shaped to our comfort level. Basically keep the sun out of our eyes – ya, sun that thing we haven’t seen in days!
Franklin’s grandstand is HUGE and man, the hike up the sucker is truly a physical challenge. Coming down was no piece of cake either. And the bench itself was aluminum with ridges – a tad hard on the butt! After a bit your ass feels like a ridge and slowly goes numb with this slow aching pain – all you want to do is get up and move, or find a nice soft place to plant your ass for a few minutes – what a relief that would have been! Sadly we regretted our choice not to purchase track seats, for ten bucks, and we’d of had metal chairs with backs and closer to Phil, which would have allowed for close up photos. Sometimes being cheap is stupid and this was one of those moments! Oh well, live and learn.
All and all a fun Friday night and as we drove home, it was one dark night and we worried about the deer, who seem to love to cross at the darkest time. And of course we ran into a few showers too. Oh well, home safe and sound and happy we went.
Oh just in case you wonder, Phil Vassar truly puts on a great show and he's truly a nice man too. We'd go see him perform again in a heartbeat!
Have a great weekend -- stay safe and keep smiling!
1 comment:
so the cattails make me hungry for corndogs again geez ma
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