Typha

[raymondo]

One species, Typha orientalis, is very common in waterways here. It is listed in a book I have on plants used by Australian indigenous people.
Parts used:

• rhizome - roasted, though it must be very fibrous because the book says the left over fibre was used to make string
  
• new shoots - eaten raw or cooked
  
• young flower spikes - steamed and eaten much like sweet corn
  

Has anyone tried Typha? If so, which parts and how did you prepare it?

[ottawagardener]

I"ve read about using pollen here and cutting it half and half with flour.

[raymondo]

Pollen ... that's interesting. The Italians use fennel pollen in soups I believe.

The local creek is choked in places with Typha orientalis so it's a good opportunity to do some wild harvesting. Spring is a long way off though so plenty of time to explore and choose a good spot.

[cortona]

Raymondo we use not exactly the pollen of fennel and not exactly in soups;-)
we pick the flower umbrellas of the fennel and we let it dry in a shade place after this we crush the flower and we separate the yellow part (that are pollen , petals , and other part)from the green part and we use it in a lot of recipes! queen of this recipes are the porchetta(is a whole pork roasted at the fire filed wit spices and other meath that people here love to eat with bread as street food!(a glass of red wine is something that i love with it) something fantastic!
i know too that typha are used in various way as ottawagarden tell

[raymondo]

I'd like to learn how to use fennel in that way Emanuele. I'll grow some next season and experiment.

[cortona]

if you next year want some seeds just ask and if is possible for you to recive it i'm more tan happy to send you all the seeds you want!

[bunkie]

interesting thread ray. i'm experimenting with growing 'wild fennel' this year. i believe it is a larger plant than fennel and has a stronger flavor...

[stevil]

I love the new shoots of various Typha species - excellent in oriental stir-fry type dishes. Very easy to harvest - you just grab the shoot and pull it and it will come free. Just remove the coarser outer leaves and you're ready to go... Mild and crunchy taste..wild gourmet food..

Sam Thayer has an excellent article about Typha in one of his books - the Forager's Harvest I think it is.

[bunkie]

how different is the Typha orientalis to the common cattail, Typha latifolia? we have the common here and have eaten the inner leaves/stalk. has a hint of cucumber, and is crunchy. we have not tried the roots or flower spikes...yet.

[cortona]

uh, i have just googled for thypa photos and i have recognised that we have plenty of this plant growing wild (latifolia) so...bunkie wen can i try to harvest some thypa to taste it stalk?
Emanuele

[extremegardener]

Emanuele - Thanks for the info about fennel flowers - I love fennels, and have found some of the "wild" Italian kind that seems to be hardy here, at least this past winter, so I am looking forward to trying this when they bloom

Raymondo - I have used our native Typhos for a number of things - the immature bloom spike is nice steamed like asparagus. The root starch is delicious (mixed with flour for muffins, etc), but it is a huge pain to harvest and process - digging up roots in wet wet ground amongst the sedges, etc is not easy. The pollen is a lot easier to collect for a flour supplement, but you have to have a lot of plants and good timing to get enough to do anything with. I weaved a hat that I really liked from the leaves about 25 years ago - which reminds me that it's now falling apart and I should replace it...

[ottawagardener]

Extreme: My eyes perked up when I found that you had some wild type fennel that's hardy. I haven't had that luck yet. I do have some LISP reseeding florence fennel that did flower and I seem to have some babies coming up. Where did you get yours?

[cortona]

wel, i think the underground part can survive in realy cold climates in our climate it dye in winter so i think it can resurrect in more cold climate too...a good mulch can help maybe?
if you want to try ask and wen is season i have plenty of seeds to play if you want!