AT HOME IN THE WILDERNESS PART V: EDIBLE PLANTS

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Pines. Not all evergreens are edible, but the Pinus (pine) species are. These trees offer a wide assortment of munchables that are all easily collected and prepared. You can, for instance, add the pollen to stew as a thickener and to bread for flavor. And if you heat the cones gently by a fire until they open, the seeds can be easily extracted. These can then be eaten raw, parched and winnowed, or shelled and baked—depending on the species—and added to soup and bread. Use pine needles (along with those from spruce and hemlock . . . but be sure you're not gathering the needles from the red-berried, poisonous American yew, Taxus canadensis ) to make a nourishing tea. You can also dry the inner bark of pine, spruce (Picea species), and hemlock ( Tsuga canadensis ) and add it to stew and bread.

Cattails. The cattail (either Typha latifolia or T. angustifolia ) can be utilized at almost any time of the year, because at each stage of its life cycle it has a number of edible parts. For example, you can mash the root up in cold water to separate the soluble starches, and—once these have settled, and the fibers and water have been removed—add the material to stew or mix it with other wild flours to make bread. The new shoots can be eaten raw, and those up to a foot tall may be prepared like asparagus. The head, before it emerges, can be cooked and eaten like corn on the cob. Finally, it's possible to collect cattail pollen for use in soup or as a flour.

. . . AND MANY MORE
Clover. Many clovers ( Trifolium species) are edible, the best being the red, sweet, yellow, white, white sweet, buffalo, alsike, and crimson varieties. Boil or steam the flowers and new green leaves and eat them as you would spinach. Tea made from the dried flowers is also relatively high in food value.

Mint. Most members of the mint family ( Mentha species) can be used as tea or provide flavoring for other foods and drinks. For example, you can steep the green (or dried) leaves for a short time in hot water and add the liquid directly to a stew.

Spicebush. The spicebush ( Lindera benzoin ) is the forerunner of our modern allspice, and the pioneers dried and powdered its berries to make a versatile flavoring. For a zesty tea, steep its bark, young twigs, and young leaves in warm water for about ten minutes. (This beverage is flavorful, but its food value is quite low.)

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