Bulbs as a food resource
Diana Chapman (Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:24:24 PDT)

Well, yes, but they probably weren't eaten straight, but put into stews with
meat and herbs. They were roasted by the Shoshone and Nez Perce Indians by
putting them in a large pit, layering with wet alder branches, then more
bulbs, then more branches, until the pit was full. A fire was built on top
and kept going for at least two or three days. The slow cooking turned the
starches to sugar, and they were removed from the pit, cooled and peeled,
then dried. They are like a sweet cookie this way, and could be stored for
extended periods. For many western tribes they were the staple food, as
important as acorns were to California Indians (and acorn soup is a bit
bland, but you get used to it).

Patches were weeded, but also the seed heads are very different, and one way
of making sure you were getting what you wanted was to trace the stem down
from the camas seed head, then dig that bulb. The bulbs are very difficult
to tell apart.

I used to do a presentation on bulbs used as food for Indian kids at a
campout, and cooked several different bulbs various ways. Some were pretty
interesting, Calochortus was the favorite when roasted, it had the flavor of
a corn nut. The kids were wonderful, and ate them all, and they liked the
steamed bulbs of Camassia, although they are a bit gluey all by themselves.

There's a couple of postings on Native American uses of bulbs on the blog:
http://www.thebulbmaven.typepad.com/.

Diana
Telos Rare Bulbs
http://www.telosrarebulbs.com/