By way of review, renowned wild edible plants author and guide Cattail Bob invited me and a friend to attend his last class of the season on September 12, 2009, in Drake, Colorado. This invitation came in sort of a roundabout way. My sister bought me his book, Best-Tasting Wild Plants of Colorado and the Rockies (1998), as a gift for my 35th birthday. However, when Cattail Bob wrote a personalized greeting addressed to her instead of me on the receipt, she took charge and contacted him (as my sister is wont to do) and told him about my blog, specifically the entry where I glowingly review his book. So Cattail Bob contacted us with his generous invitation, and the rest is history.
The tour kicked off pretty fast despite the rain. We were to learn a promised 75 to 100 wild edible plants, and it was remarkable the number of plants within an arm's reach of each location at which we stopped. There was a lot of identifying, discussion, and tasting, although not a whole lot of walking at first. In the morning we basically walked in a 2.5-hour circle around Cattail Bob's house, learning, eating, taking notes, and--as far as I was concerned--taking pictures obsessively. In several cases, Cattail Bob invited us to take some seeds home with us; with Gregg's help I took advantage of the invitation every time.
For lunch we all took shelter, many of us shivering, in Bob's unfinished yet beautiful dodecagon-shaped house with big glass windows, a spiral staircase, and a veritable jungle of plants.
The rain miraculously let up after lunch. Bob dug us up some wild carrots and showed us the many wild edible plants he is trying to grow on the property--some desert plants that he started in the house and then moved outdoors, others aggressive plants that took root with a simple scattering of seeds. We discussed medicinal uses as well as the origin of our local wild edible plants, many of which came over to North America, both on purpose and by accident, with the original European setters. We discussed the ethics of wild foraging considering the plight of echinacea, a once common wild plant in the Midwest that has been over-foraged so much that it is now difficult to find in the wild. As far as safe and sustainable foraging is concerned, flowers and leaves are safe bets, as long as you only forage a few from each plant or stand of plants. When you forage a root vegetable, however, you kill the plant entirely--so if the plant is not plentiful, it is best to leave the root vegetables alone.
A short walk up the dirt road by Cattail Bob's house revealed a whole new microhabitat of wild edible and medicinal plants, including devil's shoelaces, plantain, chokecherries, lamb's quarter, false salomon's seal, tomatillos, catnip, and mariposa lilies--and these are just the ones off the top of my head.
In the end the day was a long but information-packed one and it seemed like every participant went home a satisfied customer; Gregg and I are already hashing up plans to attend one of Cattail Bob's classes in the spring as it is another matter entirely to identify the new shoots of wild edible plants as opposed to mature plants, which are arguably much easier to pick out.
I'd like to help announce the fact that Cattail Bob is hard at work on a much larger volume/series of volumes--including edible, medicinal, and otherwise useful plants--for the intermountain region of the Rockies from Mexico to Canada. His 1998 book, Best-Tasting Wild Plants of Colorado and the Rockies, is currently out of print and has become a collectible book, so if you like what you've read here on the blog and you trust my review, you best order one of his remaining 100 books before they go up in price or run out completely!
And to Cattail Bob: I'd like to thank you, publicly, once more. We had an absolute blast! Since your tour, we have found several new plants around the house, including red high bush currants that I have discovered make an outstanding sweet sauce to serve on ice cream--but more on that in a subsequent entry. In the meantime, "Happy grazing!" right back at you.
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