Nature's wonders wowed on edible plants walk

Sally Cornwall explains some of the various uses for cattails during a edible and medicinal plants walk on Sunday in New Durham. Below, walkers don fern hats to keep away bugs. (Art Slocum photo)

NEW DURHAM - More than 30 intrepid foragers joined naturalist Sally Cornwell on Sunday afternoon to search for local edible and medicinal plants.

Cornwell started by whetting participants’ appetites for wild foods with sips of pineapple weed tea and a taste of burdock root sautéed with carrots.  She then led the group on a two-hour walk that revealed a remarkable variety of edible and medicinal plants that are easy to find and identify. She was careful to point out that some plants have inedible or toxic look-alikes and recommended using a guidebook. Foragers need to harvest native plants sustainably and to watch out for poison ivy, she said.

Many people are familiar with native edible plants, such as wild blueberries and strawberries, but might be surprised to learn that the young leaves of daisies, plantain, and hemlock are also edible. (That’s the Eastern Hemlock tree, not the infamous poison hemlock plant that Socrates was reportedly forced to eat.) Young hemlock needles are such a potent source of vitamin C that Native Americans offered them to European sailors to treat scurvy.

Bracken fern is a dual purpose plant, offering edible fiddleheads in the spring, and a stylish three-corner “hat” to deter bugs in the summer. Common cattails have a myriad of uses:  an asparagus-like stalk that’s edible in springtime as well as an edible starchy root, pollen that can be used as a flour substitute, and brown flowers filled with fluffy fibers that Native Americans used for diapers.

Young people on the walk enjoyed digging for the tasty edible root of the Indian cucumber. For ‘dessert’, they chewed minty flavored wintergreen leaves. (Wintergreen also soothes sore muscles.) Afterwards, host Gail Holm provided drinks and cookies for anyone who was still hungry.

Assisted by MMRG, Gail and Don Holm donated the conservation easement on their property to the town of New Durham in 2008. A combination of wetlands and woods bordering Shaw Pond, their land provides habitat for deer, porcupine, turkeys, herons, and many songbirds. The Holms are delighted to know this abundance of wildlife will be protected in perpetuity.

The outing was presented by Moose Mountain Regional Greenways and sponsored by Trager Massage LLC.

MMRG, a non-profit land conservation organization, works to conserve and connect important water resources, farm and forest lands, wildlife habitats, and recreational land in Brookfield, Farmington, Middleton, Milton, New Durham, Wakefield and Wolfeboro. Throughout the year, MMRG offers many educational opportunities to inform all ages about the benefits of our region’s natural resources.

For more information, visit www.mmrg.info.

(Bruce Rich photo)