Unbeknownst to most gardeners who own one or many of these plants is that they are one of the world’s richest sources of starch, being a very important forage crop to Native American cultures. This starch is primarily found in the rhizomes of this plant and in fact, this plant has the largest particles of starch known to exist in all plant life. Native Americans would cook the rhizomes and eat them just like potatoes or they would make flour from them. This is done similarly to how one makes flour from green briar tubers. Slice the tubers into one-fourth of an inch disks, allowing them to dry for a day or so before crumbling these disks up in a bowl of water. Any starch, which is what will be used to make the flour, will sink to the bottom of the bowl. The fiber, however, will float to the surface and can then be discarded. Now allow the starch from the bottom to dry completely and simply grind or pound it into a flour. The roots should be used within a few days of harvesting and can also be eaten raw, though many cultures, like those in Peru, will slow roast the rhizomes for about 12 hours by placing them in small pits in the ground and covering them will coals, hot rocks, and dirt. Furthermore, the young shoots of cannas can be cooked and eaten just like asparagus and the leaves can be used like banana leaves to wrap food for baking and cooking. In some remote areas of India, cannas are actually fermented into alcohol.
Unlike most plants that have made their way to the New World from Europe and Asia, the canna lily originally came from the Americas. It was introduced to Europe from the East Indies and first sketched by Charles L’Ecluse, Flemish doctor and botany pioneer. Because of the hard, protective covering of the seeds of canna, archaeologists assert that if it had originated in the Old World, then there would be surviving archaeological evidence to support this fact. Canna seeds are so tough that they have been known to stay viable for six-hundred years and were once used as a primitive buckshot. The seeds are edible, however, if you cook them while they are still immature, as they gradually harden during development.
So remember, try and eat one wild food every day! If you have any questions or comments, please email [email protected].