Medicinal Monday Cow Parsnip - Multi-purposed and Toxic

Cow parsnip is indigenous to North America and is enjoyed by many Native American communities. This plant is used medicinally in a wide variety of ways and eaten as a green vegetable. This is somewhat surprising because Native Americans had to transform the plant into food by reducing its toxic characteristics. As a food source, it is very important to communities living in northwestern North America.

About Cow Parsnip

This plant is a hardy perennial herb of the celery or umbel family and consists of more than sixty species that are native to North America. It can be found throughout America with the exception of the Gulf States. It ranges from Alaska to Newfoundland, south as far as Georgia, and west to California. Cow parsnips grow from a taproot or cluster of roots to a height of three feet at maturity The leaves are quite large, they have three segments divided into lobes and are coarsely toothed. The stems and lower leaves are hairy. The flowers or umbels are flat on top with clusters of small white flowers. Flowering time is from June to August depending on the elevation. The fruits are white in color and have an oval shape that is flat and winged.  Cow parsnips grow in clusters and can be found along streams, in moist meadows, thickets, and clearings. The genus name, Heracleum refers to the size of the parts of this plant, especially the leaves. The fresh foliage can cause dermatitis. If the juice and hairs of this plant are left on the outer skin it will cause blisters because it contains furanocoumarins.

Medicinal and Culinary Uses

The stalks of this plant were gathered in the spring from early April through late June before flowering occurred and eaten as a green. Once budding started, this plant was considered no longer good for eating because it got very bitter. It was the primary green of Alaskan Native Americans with some communities like the Sechelt people traveling long distances to forage for this herb. It was noted that the stalk could cause skin irritations so the stems were often split and the inner portion was pulled from the skin of the plant and eaten raw. Sometimes the stalks were heated in a fire by the Blackfoot, Gitksan, and Kootenay, before being peeled. The Kari and Ksan people chopped and cooked them in a stew. Sometimes they were stewed in sugar and served as a dessert. Another way they were prepared was in a stew served with meat. The Kaigani Haida picked and peeled the stems and packed them in grease and stored them for use in the winter. 

Cow parsnip was used to treat a wide variety of medicinal complaints. Interestingly enough even though it is a skin irritant it is used as a poultice. The Bella Coola made a compound of roots to treat hip pain and a poultice of crushed boiled or baked root was applied to boils. The Blackfoot used an infusion of young leaves to treat diarrhea. The Chippewa make a poultice of the dried flowers and boiled roots to treat boils; the root was also held on a sore tooth to treat a toothache. The Cree Woodlands make a poultice of the ground root, calamus, and yellow pond lily to treat headaches. The Haisla made a poultice of the roots, Indian hellebore, and Sitka pine pitch and applied the mixture to wounds. The Gitksan combine the cow parsnip root with red elder and juniper boughs and used it as a smudge against witchcraft victims. The Makah heated a poultice of leaves and used it to treat eye problems. The Menominee used it as a hunting medicine in the form of a smudge. The Iroquois made a compound infusion of this plant for a bath to treat headaches. The Shoshoni combined a decoction of the root with whiskey and took it like cough medicine. The Salish Coast mixed the boiled root with dogfish oil and put it on their hair to make it grow. The Winnebango smoke the plant to treat fainting.

Did You Know...

This plant is not to be confused with a parsnip.

The flavor of a young stalk tastes somewhat like celery.

A yellow dye can be obtained from the roots.

Other names for cow parsnip are Indian celery, Indian rhubarb, or pushki.

Among the Nootka and Nitinaht people, pregnant women were warned not to eat the flower bud stalks because it was thought that it would make the baby choke.

The root contains psoralen which is being researched for use in the treatment of psoriasis, leukemia, and AIDS.

The Art of Spring Foraging in the Eastern Woodlands - April 18, 2021

Native Americans lived off the land and were able to identify edible plants and fungi from a young age. Most people today don’t invest the time to gain the experience required to know where to look for and how to identify wild food and edible plants. If you have ever been curious about foraging and what is edible in the woodlands of Connecticut, don’t miss the Spring Foraging Forum on April 18 with Griffin Kalin, a Museum Educator and Traditional Skills Expert at the Institute for American Indian Studies located at 38 Curtis Road in Washington, Connecticut. This program is recommended for the entire family and will be held in three one-hour time slots starting at 1:00 pm.

Simply put, foraging is searching for wild food and provisions. It is a wonderful way to experience the natural world and connect with the land through traditional ways that have become less commonly practiced. Wild greens and edibles in the Spring were an important source of nutrition for many Native communities and this forum offers a fascinating glimpse of how important this food source was. Spring is one of the most important times of year to forage because many types of plants and fungi are just starting to re-emerge after a long winter’s rest, which helps supplement the end of winter food supplies. 

 Foraging can be as simple as picking berries or identifying plants, tubers, and mushrooms that are good to eat. It can also involve more complicated and time-consuming processes, like grinding acorns into fine flour or tapping a maple tree for sap. This forum teaches us that foraging is an art that requires us to use all our senses and to understand and respect the habitat that plants grow in. Please note, this program is intended for educational purposes only; never eat any forage item you can’t be 100% certain about. Space per time slot is limited and pre-registration is required. To sign up for this workshop, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spring-foraging-forum-with-griffin-kalin-tickets-149317226845. Please call (860) 868-0518 or email events@iaismuseum.org with any questions. 

About Institute for American Indian Studies

Located on 15 acres of woodland acres the Institute For American Indian Studies preserves and educates through archeology, research, exhibitions, and programs. They have the 16th c. Algonquian Village, Award-Winning Wigwam Escape, and a museum with temporary and permanent displays of authentic artifacts from prehistory to the present that allows visitors to foster a new understanding of the world and the history and culture of Native Americans. The Institute for American Indian Studies is located on 38 Curtis Road, Washington, CT.

Medicinal Monday - the Vanilla Fragrance of Sweet After Death

This small flowering plant with a very interesting name was a favorite of the Native American communities of the Pacific Northwest. They found several interesting uses for this attractive flowering plant that has the faint scent of vanilla...after the leaves of this plant die!

About Achlys triphylla

This herb in the Berberidaceae family grows from British Columbia to California and can be found from the Cascades to the Coast Ranges at elevations of up to 5,000 feet. It is usually found in the semi-shade of forests in mountainous regions. This perennial can grow up to 16 inches and is a hermaphrodite that is pollinated by the wind. It has white flowers that grow on stalked, bractless spikes that bloom from April through July. The flowers lack sepals and the petals can contain up to ten white stamens. The showy white upright spike can grow to three inches above the basal-shaped leaves with three fan-shaped asymmetrical blunt toothed leaflets on the stalks. The fruit is a reddish-purple achene, a small dry one-seeded fruit that doesn't release the seed. The dried leaves emit a vanilla fragrance.

Medicinal Uses

Many Pacific Northwest Tribal Communities including the Cowlitz, Lummi, Saanich, Skagit, and Nlaka'pamux make an infusion and take it to treat TB. The Lummi and the Skagit use a decoction of leaves to wash their hair. The Paiute strain an infusion of dried roots and use it as a wash for cataracts. The Thompson use a decoction of the roots to delouse sheep. This decoction is also used as a wash to remove lice, bedbugs, and other household pests.

Did You Know

Native People hang bundles of dried leaves in their residences to deter insects that swarm.

The word Achlys comes from the Greek goddess of hidden places. In this plant, it refers to where this plant is found, deep in the woods. 

The common name, Sweet After Death refers to the sweet vanilla fragrance of the dried leaves of this plant.

Other common names of this plant are Vanilla Leaf, Deerfoot, and Deervetch.

The vanilla scent is caused by the presence of natural coumarin which is a powerful blood thinner.

Medicinal Monday...Cloudberry- Gold of the Arctic

This delicate flowering plant produces amber-colored edible fruit that is highly prized as a culinary component, for its wealth of vitamins, and for its medicinal use. They are often referred to as the gold of the Arctic as they are an important part of the culture of northern indigenous people including the Cree, Micmac, and the Inuit.

About Cloudberry

Cloudberry or Rubus chamaemorus is a species of flowering plant in the rose family that is native to cool temperate areas including the Arctic and Alpine environments. Although it is called a berry, it is actually considered a fruit, or more precisely a cluster of fruits with stones. The fruit requires pollination from a male plant. This delicate plant grows up to ten inches high and has leaves that alternate between lobes. After pollination, white flowers emerge and form raspberry-sized fruit that consists of 5 to 25 drupelets. The fruit is initially pale red and ripens to an amber color in the early autumn. Cloudberries spread through their rhizomes that can grow up to 33 feet long. They grow in bogs, marshes, wet meadows, and in the tundra.

Cloudberries can be found throughout the northern hemisphere. In Europe, they grow in the Nordic countries, Iceland and Greenland, the Baltic states, and across Russia and as far south as Japan. They can also be found in the Scottish Highlands and in Germany's Weser and Elbe Valleys. In North America, they grow wild across northern Canada, Alaska, northern Minnesota, New Hampshire, Maine, and New York.

Medicinal & Culinary Uses

The Cree Woodlands make a decoction of the roots and use it as a "woman's medicine" and to help ease hard labor. A decoction of the root and leaves were made into a drink and given to barren women as a stimulant. The Micmac made a tea from the roots and used it as cough medicine; roots were also used to treat fever and consumption. The Inuit usually found cloudberries near the shore of lakes or by the sea and would make a good-tasting tea from the entire plant. A tea made from leaves picked in the fall is drunk to treat kidney ailments, stomachaches, and general ailments. 

Cloudberries are made into jam and used as a sweetener. They are eaten raw or frozen for winter food. They would be preserved alone or in grease and stored in a birchbark basket in an underground cache. Arctic Yup il mixed the berries with seal oil or reindeer fat and sugar to make akutaq (ice cream). The Inupiat added the berries to fluffy fat and ate this mixture as ice cream or would mix them with blackberries and preserve them in a barrel for winter use. 

Did You Know

Cloudberries are also called bake-apple, baked-apple berry, salmonberry, knot berry, aqpik or nordic berry.

In Nordic countries, cloudberries are used as a flavoring for akvavit. 

In northeastern Quebec, there is a cloudberry liqueur known as chicoutai.

In Norway, it is illegal to pick cloudberries that are not ripe.

Cloudberries contain four times as much vitamin C as an orange.

Cloudberry cream is the national dessert of Norway.

Medicinal Monday...How to Use Deadman's Leather!

 The fear of eating wild poisonous mushrooms has been inherited from as far back as ancient Rome and Greece where their use was first documented in association with political assassinations. There isn't a great deal of written documentation of how Native Americans used different types of mushrooms because of this fear and also because many Native American communities were displaced far from their original settlements. This relocation meant the loss of valuable mushroom knowledge. One mushroom, known as deadman's leather had several interesting uses.

About Laricifomes Officinalis

Laricifomes Officinalis, a medicinal polypore also known as deadman's leather is a wood-decay fungus that causes brown heart rot on conifers, particularly Douglas-fir.  It is found in Europe, Asia, and North America. The fruit or conk of this hoof-shaped mushroom is large and can grow up to two feet long. When it is young the outer layers are soft and yellow and as they mature they become white and chalky. The taste of the conk is extremely bitter.

Medicinal & Spiritual Uses 

The conks are important medicinally and spiritually to indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America such as the Tlingit, Haida, and the Tsimshian. They referred to this mushroom as the "bread of ghosts" and carved the fruiting bodies and marked the graves of tribal shamans with them. The Laricifomes Officinalis was called "Jibi-Jabosiganug" by the Ojibway, meaning "spirits of purgation-fungus."  The conk was dried and then ground up into a fine powder and used as a purgative especially when treating pneumonia.

Did You Know...

The fruit of this mushroom known as a conk or a quinine conk because of its bitter taste was once collected for the production of medicinal quinine.

The ancient Greeks used this to treat consumption according to the writings of Pedanius Dioscorides in 65 AD.

This fungus has antibacterial properties and can live up to 75 years.

Meet the Challenge @ the Award Winning Wigwam Escape and Save 20%

Escape rooms are the new medium for learning, storytelling, and play. In December 2020, Wigwam Escape, located at The Institute of American Indian Studies in Washington Connecticut won the coveted escape room National 2020 Golden Lock Award by the Room Escape Artist. They were impressed by Wigwam Escape's unique take on learning through play, with their innovative and interactive puzzles allowing for problem-solving and critical thinking from multiple perspectives. 

 “We are thrilled that Wigwam Escape has won this award – it is truly an honor. It is really rewarding to have Wigwam Escape recognized not only for its educational value but also for the fact that it is fun,” said Lauren Bennett-Dionne, Manager of Wigwam Escape. 

The Wigwam Escape journey begins in the year 1518 - players leave all modern-day devices like watches and cell phones behind, learning to take cues from the world around them. The room itself has hand-painted murals of New England forests, fields, streams, ponds, and gardens that allow players to be immersed in the pre-contact environment of Connecticut's woodlands. The centerpiece of the room is a to-scale wigwam, crafted using traditional methods from local bark and trees. Players learn that a nearby fishing village has requested help, so they must hunt, forage, and gather supplies for the journey ahead. This unique, hands-on approach connects players to the ways Native peoples lived and the skills they relied on 500 years ago in their daily lives. Some of these lessons are timeless, allowing for an even broader takeaway from the experience of Wigwam Escape. 

If you have friends and family members that are puzzle lovers, history buffs, story seekers, and enjoy immersive experiences, this adventure will definitely challenge and delight them! Wigwam Escape is committed to keeping visitors and staff safe by having each escape room be a private experience, with only one group playing at a time and strict sanitation of all touchable game surfaces and waiting areas between groups. 

 This spring from March 15th – April 25th, Wigwam Escape is offering players a special deal. 20% off your ENTIRE booking with discount code DEERANTLER If you are looking for a safe and exciting outing that is sure to chase away the winter doldrums, call Wigwam Escape at 860-868-0151 or book online at https://wigwamescape.org/book-now

Medicinal Monday - Tinder Fungus

This tough perennial mushroom in the polypore family has an interesting hoof shape. Native Americans found many interesting uses for this mushroom that is one of two that Tyrolean Icemen were carrying around 5,000 years ago.

About Fomes fomentarius

This hoof-shaped mushroom, sometimes called tinder fungus is usually found on standing and fallen hardwood trees. It is a parasite meaning that it attacks live wood and is also saprobic meaning that it survives on dead or decaying organic matter like wood using it as food. It is especially destructive to birch and beech trees causing white rot. Its upper woody surface cap has many layers and ranges from a grayish color to black. The relatively flat underside has a brown porous surface that is made up of tiny round pores. The lower layer of the fungus is the youngest. A large number of spores are produced in the spring and a smaller number are released in the fall. 

 When sliced open, which is not easy to do because of its toughness its flesh is composed of tube layers that form long parallel lines that point straight down. The color is typically lighter at lower altitudes. They live on trees long after they have died changing from a parasite to a decomposer. They can be found in northern and southern Africa, throughout Asia and Europe, and in eastern North America where they are most commonly found on birch trees.

Medicinal and Other Uses

This mushroom is very good at catching sparks that smolder at a high temperature for a long time, large pieces can smolder for hours making them perfect for starting fires. The Ojibway found several interesting medicinal uses for this mushroom. They dried pieces of this mushroom then pounded it into a fine powder and mixed it with a small amount of gun powder. This mixture was applied to infected wounds and ignited to draw the puss out. This mixture was also used to treat blood poisoning. Immature mushrooms were used as styptics and coagulants because of their absorptive properties.

Did You Know

The 5,000-year-old Otzo the Iceman carried four pieces of F. fomentarius that scientists believe he used for tinder.

This species is known as tinder fungus, hoof fungus, ice man fungus, or false tinder fungus.

The fruit bodies of these mushrooms can survive for up to thirty years.

Fly fisherman process this mushroom to make dry flies that float on top of the water.