Wetland Plants?

[moonwolf]

I was reading one of the posts and something in passing caught my interest...
Growing wetland plants for food and feed? Now, that sounds interesting.
I guess parts of cattails and arrowroot are edible.
Anyone have experiences with growing wetland or pond plants for the purpose of food, feed, or other use? and how do you process what you would harvest?

[deberosa]

Careful there are regulations around wetlands. Around here they can declair anything and gathers water in a heavy rain a wetland and if that's the case you can't legally touch it - no livestock within a set distance. It can disable a good part of your property. Harvesting wetland plants is out of the question!

Part of the "green" movement.

[Clara Bell]

Cattails can be used as candles.
Check out the plants growing in your wet. Something about discovery when its all yours!
I was really intrigued with a root I found in the bog when we first moved here. I actually potted the root up. The root was really bad. Poison Hemlock.?
found an unreal mint and a bunch of edible crawdads. And blackhaw and honeysuckle. Plenty of berries.
I'd like to harvest watercress in this little stream of mine.
It's fun finding all your micro climates on a new homestead.

[moonwolf]

Originally Posted by Clara Bell

Cattails can be used as candles.
Check out the plants growing in your wet. Something about discovery when its all yours!
I was really intrigued with a root I found in the bog when we first moved here. I actually potted the root up. The root was really bad. Poison Hemlock.?
found an unreal mint and a bunch of edible crawdads. And blackhaw and honeysuckle. Plenty of berries.
I'd like to harvest watercress in this little stream of mine.
It's fun finding all your micro climates on a new homestead.

Cattails for candles? interesting.

Yes, there is a lot of wild mint which grows on the dams.
Hemlock is a fairly common weed around here in many areas besides bogs.
Low bush cranberries also I've noticed in other bog ponds that seem to be associated with pine growth.

Marsh mairgolds are quite noticable in spring. Was interesting when heavy rains once was overbearing for the beavers and their dam gave way emptying it and a meadow formed. That brought in a different array of wildlife. That's when cranes nested and even black bears were rooting around for the bottom pond stuff like snails and what not. How the changes can occur is sometimes incredible.

[moonwolf]

Originally Posted by deberosa

Careful there are regulations around wetlands. Around here they can declair anything and gathers water in a heavy rain a wetland and if that's the case you can't legally touch it - no livestock within a set distance.

I've heard of that even in some subdivisions that corner off wet areas where they can't build a house. That must be a real mosquito haven for the new house residents that would move there. yuk!
So, deberosa, in your case, if you have a dug pond for livestock that collects rainwater, then you would have to keep the livestock away from the pond where they need the water to live? That seems cruel to not allow the livestock access to the pond. I guess you mean a 'natural' pond, right?
I know here that farmers have ponds ('wetland') that are dug. I had one dug also. It's got cattails and the algie scum needs to be cleared. There are suckers in there that help. Shiners in there, some that would weigh about 2 lbs. are my 'pets' :haha:

[uncle Will in In.]

Here you can pasture or make hay on a wetland but you can't fill or drain it. You can't plant it to a Gov. supported crop. You can pull cattails or anything growing there that you want.

[jackie c]

What about wild rice? I'm not sure what the water level has to be but I do know its expensive. I get it a little cheaper from Minnesota, where native americans harvest it naturally.

[moonwolf]

Originally Posted by jackie c

What about wild rice? I'm not sure what the water level has to be but I do know its expensive. I get it a little cheaper from Minnesota, where native americans harvest it naturally.

That's a great suggestion, jackie. To save from buying seed, I guess one could get some seed in the fall from another pond where wild rice grows wild and get it to take root. If I'm not mistaken, the natives only can harvest wild rice in this area. Wild rice also would be great to attract and feed wild mallards if it grew in the pond, so even if one didn't plan to harvest for personal use, it could enhance the wildlife potential.

[Clara Bell]

This thread got me thinking about my boggy area again. I want to build a boardwalk through it, or rather interlaced above it and down in the vegetation, from the front yard down into the persimmon patch. The birds, wildlife and palnts are so different than anywhere else on the farm.
After reading here, I started searching again to understand the bog and found some interesting sites. I recognized a lot on this one. You might enjoy it.
http://www.cedarbog.org/bloomcalendarearlysummer.htm
There is a really fragrant clear smelling mint I found in the bog that makes a nice tea if any one wants a start. It's not as heavy as peppermint and not fruity like spearmint. Not like wintergreen, but brings to mind wintergreen, more fragrance properties than actual smell. Don't know quite how to describe it. It's pretty docile and doesn't take over like most mints. Feet are always growing in the water. Maybe that's the reason it has more of a delicate smell? Maybe that's what keeps it docile? Think a ziplock with paper towels would work for shipping?
Let me know if you're interested. I'll be happy to send a start if you'll reimburse the postage.
Moonwolf and all of you, thanks for this. A simple question sparks something inside. Some of us dream of one day finding that special dream of a homestead. Some of us finally got it, have gone through life changes and fought to keep it through life changes, have it and working to reconnect with rebuilding inside the changes setting us back, and dreams start coming back communicating with others of like mind from all over.
Life goes on.
The hemlock? It's a member of the carrot family and a lot of educated guys that forage in the wild have made a mistake with this plant. It's supposedly sweet tasting and sounds simalar to death by rabies.
Oh welllllllll Life is interesting without the FDA. Clara