Test Your Knowledge Quiz Answers

Animals

Many of the forest animals provide us with all the meat we need. Our families have hunted all the regular animals like moose, caribou, deer, bear, and rabbit and, there are many cookbooks for all these meats. However, I encourage woodlot owners to consider expanding their palate and try the other vegetarian eating animals like beaver, muskrat, squirrel, groundhog, and porcupine. Food is a vital and social part of our lives. Some of our Algonquian community’s finest dreams and memories were when we all gathered for a wildlife feast. The event would begin by having the teenagers go out to hunt and collect a full basket of bullfrogs to be cleaned and prepared for supper, cooked on tinfoil plates, covered with onions and wild garlic. Next came a bowlful of a fish-head soup made with pickerel, pike, and perch, followed by a roasted beaver recipe accompanied with my wife’s favourite mustard, a side dish of potatoes and squash. The finale was scooping up a plate of fresh wild blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries, dropping them into a bowl of cold sweet cream. We would then make our way down to the lake, start a small campfire and make a pot of white pine and wintergreen tea. When darkness came, and the stories and legends were told, we would share a cup of hot tea, sweetened with our own Grampa Chief’s maple syrup, stand, raise our cups to our ancestors in the stars and joyfully sing: “OH CANADA OUR HOME AND NATIVE LAND”! ❧

Dick Lalande during a moment of relaxation in December 2020. Photo Credit: Chris Lalande Collecting sap April 2013. Photo Credit: Chris Lalande

Quiz 26 Answers

1. Although most of us think of dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) as a weed, it has long been used as food and in herbal medicine.

Most parts of the dandelion are both edible and nutritious. You should avoid the flower stems, as they have a white, sticky film that can have a laxative effect. Young dandelion leaves can be eaten raw or as cooked greens; the taste resembles that of a spicier arugula. The flowers can be fried or turned into dandelion wine. Dandelion root can be roasted to create caffeinefree dandelion coffee.

2. Wild leeks or ramps (Allium tricoccum) generally grow best in patches in rich, moist, deciduous forests preferring south facing slopes. They are one of the first edible wild plants to sprout in springtime. If you harvest them for eating, please only remove a few individuals from each patch. Wild leeks are a great delicacy, and can be used in a variety of dishes, including in soups and salads.

3. Morchella (the true morels) are safe to eat as long as they have been cooked thoroughly. Eating raw morels can cause gastric upset. Some individuals can have allergies to morels, so they should be consumed with caution the first time. Morels are considered to be one of the tastiest of the wild mushrooms. It is important to know the difference between true and false morels, as the latter is toxic and can cause serious illness.