Wapato

---

Wapato  is also known as arrowhead, duck-potato and Indian potato as it is cooked just like one. a dozen slightly different species and varieties, in marshes, swamps, borders of lakes, streams, and ponds in every one of the lower 48 states except Nevada, as well all of Canada south of 60° North Latitude. 

Growing Plants: Tubs: We grow wapato in mini ponds (50 gallon barrels cut in half) and let the surface water almost dry up in summer. Plants go dormant in fall and are best harvested at that time. Growing in the ground: Wapato species may be planted from bare root stock, by transplanting the tubers, and by seeding directly into wetland soil. Live plant transplants or transplanting tubers are preferred methods where there is moving water. It takes two years for seed to germinate; planting bare root stock or tubers gives faster results. Live Plant Collections: No more than 1/4 of the plants in an area should be collected. A depth of 15 cm (6 in) is sufficiently deep for digging plugs. This will leave enough plants and rhizomes to grow back during the growing season.Harvesting wapato can be done in shallow and deep water, the bulbs are a great one to pick as they float to the surface once disloged.
March 1806: Clark recorded how the women harvested Wapato ”by getting into the water, Sometimes to their necks holding by a canoe and with their feet loosen the wappato or bulb of the root from the bottom from the Fibers, and it immediately rises to the top of the water, Those deep roots are the largest and best roots.

Watato or Wapati, or Katniss, can be eaten raw, should you be in a survival situation. But, they’re bitter and don’t taste good. Boiled or roasted for about a half hour, (just remember to cut off the sprout before cooking and peel after cooking.) Once cooked, they can be used like potatoes. They can also be dried and ground into powder for soups and bread. Hank Shaw, a man whos knowledge I respect greatly was observed preparing wapato after a days harvest *Taking them back to the Boutards' house, we washed off the mud and peeled the bulbs with a paring knife, then Hank sliced them and fried them in duck fat from some breasts that we were having for lunch. The first bite? A crunchy, light French fry was my first thought, much less dense than a potato but with the same sweet, starchy flavor as its fellow tuber.

 Wating the young shoots — before the leaves are fully unfurled — are delicious cooked like spinach and have the same sweetish, corn-like flavor as the tubers.