{"id":11781,"date":"2019-07-10T07:51:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T11:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/currents\/?p=11781"},"modified":"2024-05-02T15:18:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T19:18:16","slug":"enticing-edibles-hail-from-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/currents\/2019\/07\/enticing-edibles-hail-from-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Enticing Edibles Hail from Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nAbove: <\/em>Dog fennel (Eupatorium capillifolium<\/em>), one of many edible plants found in coastal North Carolina.<\/p>\n

BY DEBBI SYKES BRASWELL<\/strong><\/p>\n

To many people, dog fennel is a weed that ought to be yanked up.<\/p>\n

\"A

Common cattail (Typha latifolia<\/em>), “the marsh’s supermarket.”<\/p><\/div>\n

But The Caswell Beach Conservation Group thinks the feathery plant commands a special place at the table. At a recent event featuring plant ecologist Paul Hosier, group members put together refreshments drawn from plants indigenous to coastal North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Member Barbara Waite harvested dog fennel, then blended its tiny fronds with cream cheese and spread the tasty concoction on crackers.<\/p>\n

The menu also included yaupon tea, prickly pear cactus jelly, muscadine grape jelly, stuffed grape leaf rolls and Smilax<\/em> tips \u2014 all boasting ingredients that can be found growing locally.<\/p>\n

Some people today may not value plants that appear unattractive. But Waite notes those plants had been key parts of menus \u2014 and sustenance \u2014 going back centuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have their own beauty, and they belong. It\u2019s a different kind of beauty,\u201d she added. At the event, she highlighted the beauty of dog fennel by arranging some in a vase and sprinkling sprigs on the serving platter.<\/p>\n

The Caswell Beach group came together a few years ago to preserve native plants and to help others see their appeal. At a recent event, members even wore native flowers, and arranged their fare elegantly.<\/p>\n

Hosier appreciated the presentation. \u201cThat was attention to detail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He is author of the new edition of Seacoast Plants of the Carolinas<\/em><\/a>, a publication of the University of North Carolina Press and North Carolina Sea Grant. The book includes details of 200 plants, and he notes those that are edible.<\/p>\n

Max and Vicki Kohler of Caswell Beach enjoyed the samples. \u201cIt\u2019s almost nutty in flavor,\u201d Max said of the tea.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really loved the Smilax<\/em>,\u201d Vicki added. \u201cWe were trying to figure out where it was grown.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group did purchase some items on the menu. Prickly pear cactus jelly was an easy call after the group\u2019s literally painful history with the plant. Members were able to rescue a specimen of the cactus before clearing began for the Oak Island Lighthouse parking lot. After all those spines, \u201cwe had enough of messing with prickly pear cactus, and no one wanted to take on jelly making,\u201d Emily Wilkins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the fruit is beautiful, and picking the fruit to make jelly would not have been as hazardous as digging the plant, transporting it and replanting it.\u201d She jokingly called herself the group\u2019s “Native Plant Projects Coordinator.”<\/p>\n

Although the yaupon did not come from Caswell Beach, it is prolific there. Yaupon has a curious claim to fame as the only caffeinated plant native to the United States. \u201cIt is rich in antioxidants,\u201d Wilkins said. \u201cIts caffeine compares to other teas\u2019, and historians have written about indigenous peoples drinking the tea. To prepare yaupon tea, harvest young leaves, dry them in the oven and steep them in hot water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts\u2019 Advice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hosier notes that native plants can play a valuable supporting role on coastal tables. They add variety and interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like oysters or flounder, where you\u2019re going to make a meal of them,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of the items on the menu were side items like the jellies and the tea. The Smilax<\/em> was a little bit more substantive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Common

Common elderberry (Sambucus canaden<\/em>) fruits.<\/p><\/div>\n

The young Smilax<\/em> stems were tender, with a slight snap \u2014 a success for the Caswell Beach group. \u201cIt really was quite tender, and I enjoyed it,\u201d Hosier recalls. The perfect point is tricky. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get that very tip where it\u2019s still flexible. Once it hardens up, it\u2019s like bamboo.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also sympathized with the group\u2019s decision not to make prickly pear cactus jelly. \u201cYou can mess with its fruits, fool around with them, and then after an hour or so you realize your hands are covered with these tiny, tiny, tiny spines,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Terri Kirby Hathaway, marine education specialist for North Carolina Sea Grant, knows all about unconventional coastal food. Earlier in her career, she oversaw Marsh and Sea Fest, a series at the N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island. Participants foraged for wild food like marsh periwinkles, sea lettuce and cattails, then feasted on a meal featuring their discoveries. People returned year after year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it goes back to the food to fork, farm to table, slow foods movement,\u201d Hathaway says. \u201cIt reduces your carbon footprint to eat local foods that don\u2019t have to come a long distance. It\u2019s a real accomplishment: I collected this, I cooked it up and I ate it, and it\u2019s cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hathaway recommends caution with some foods. Only two fungi experts were allowed to collect mushrooms for the Marsh and Sea Fests. \u201cThere are some mushrooms that will cause intestinal distress,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to be absolutely sure of what species it is because you don\u2019t want to take a chance on those kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, participants never collected cattails from roadside ditches, where pollutants could wash onto the plants. Instead, they ventured beyond the ditches. Hathaway calls cattails the marsh\u2019s supermarket because so many parts of the plant can be used for food.<\/p>\n

\"Red

Red mulberry (Morus rubra<\/em>) fruits.<\/p><\/div>\n

Hosier suggests several more native plants that can entertain your taste buds:<\/p>\n