Raw Paleo Tubers

[PaleoPhil]

Most of the posts on tubers are in a yam thread. Since yams aren't generally regarded as edible raw, I figured there should be a raw tubers thread. I'll start it off with Eskimo potato (aka Indian potato), which can be eaten raw and of which there are reports of at least three varieties. Because they can be eaten raw, Eskimo potatoes qualify as raw Paleo/Instincto per the definition of Ray Audette and Instinctos.

Eskimo potato (aka Indian potato)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_potato

"The Eskimo potato is a type of edible plant that grows in the northern areas of Canada and Alaska. The plant's scientific is name variously attributed as either Claytonia tuberosa[1][2] (Inuit: oatkuk[3]) or Hedysarum alpinum (Inuit: mashu[3]). Both species have a range in the northern area of North America, have edible roots, and have been documented to have been used as a food source by Inuit peoples.[4] Due to its nutritional qualities, the eskimo potato is one of many edible foods listed in survival guides, such as the US Army's field manual Survival[2], and is used in modern times to subsist in nature; for instance, Christopher McCandless used the plant as a food source while he survived in the Alaska wilderness.[5]"

References

1. merriam-webster.com  Retrieved June 21, 2011.
2. a b United States Army. Field Manual 3-05.70 . May 2002. p B-50.
3. a b Heller, Christine A. and Edward M. Scott. The Alaska Dietary Health Survey 1956-1961. US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service. p 180
4. Gucker, Corey L. "Hedysarum alpinum ". U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. 2007.
5. Bryson, George. "Theories differ on the cause of McCandless' death"  Anchorage Daily News. October 8th, 2007. Retrieved June 24, 2011.




Using caribou antlers to dig up Eskimo potatoes. The author says they looked "like thin, brown carrots."


Caption: "Eskimo Potato, Hedysarum alpinum, photographed on the Bering Sea beach, along the Nome to Council Hwy, Alaska, 6/30/2007. The name is a result of the roots being eaten, raw and cooked by natives." The variety of Eskimo potato with pink flowers has the most Internet images.

Biocultural diversity and indigenous ways of knowing: human ...
Karim-Aly S. Kassam - 2009 - 270 pages
"Eskimo Potato is eaten either boiled or raw, often with seal oil (Ulukhaktok Interviews). Stefansson (1913) recorded that ... Eskimo Potato was abundant in the regions of Prince Albert Sound, Minto Inlet and Victoria Island."

The Associated Press Stylebook for Alaska - Page 45
Dean M. Gottehrer - 2000 - 128 pages
"Eskimo potato. White, fleshy, sweetly flavored root gathered by Natives throughout Interior, Western and Arctic Alaska. Roots are washed, dried and stored in seal oil, fish oil or bear fat and eaten raw, boiled or roasted."

Traditional plant foods of Canadian indigenous peoples, Page 193
Harriet V. Kuhnlein, Nancy J. Turner - 1991 - 633 pages
"They were eaten raw, or more commonly boiled or roasted by the Iroquois, Ojibwa, Huron, Abenaki, Mic- mac and Malecite ... Sweet Vetch, "Eskimo Potato," "Indian Potato," Licorice Root, Bear Root, or 'Alaska Carrot' (Hedysarum alpinum)"


Greenland Eskimo (domestic) potato farmer. I didn't know that potatoes could be farmed in Greenland.

Limited potatoes OK in Stefansson's idea of an "Eskimo diet":
"While there were in pre-white times many Eskimos who used no vegetables, there were some, especially in Labrador and Alaska, who got as many calories from vegetables as the Holiday Diet does; so, even with a few things like lettuce and potato, we may well name this regimen for the Eskimos. The same diet is described in my 1921 book Friendly Arctic, as used and enjoyed by whites who, like the Eskimos, found it nonfattening, and thus a good reducing menu." (The Fat of the Land, 1960, p. xxvi)

[billy4184]

Great topic!
If I found a supply of raw edible tubers I feel that my diet would be almost complete. I'll be looking into this.
Cheers

[Hanna]

Perhaps not a tuber in the narrow sense of the word, but interesting:

Cattail rhizomes

A few species of cattail grow throughout the world on the edges of ponds and lakes. ... Cattails are one of the most important and easiest to obtain sources of food in the wild. ... Their rhizomes ... were used by many nations, including early settlers of Virginia and Native Americans. ... The Cree Indians would store whole roots for winter.

http://www.luczaj.com/ang_jadalne.htm

Indian peoples in both arid and more moist regions utilized virtually every part of the cattail. (...) The rhizomes (underwater root-like stems) are a good source of starch and were dried and pounded into flour, or eaten raw. (...) The Navajo ate the white young stalks and rhizomes raw in the summer (Vestal 1952:14). (...) In the northern areas cattail roots were collected, dried, and stored for the winter months (Fowler 1990). Harvesting cattail roots, stems, and pollen has been demonstrated to be a very cost-effective (in hunter-gatherer terms) means of securing calories (Simms 1987).

Also interesting:

Since cattail pollen grains measure between 25-45 microns (about .014 inch) depending on the species, it is legitimate to ask "Why was this a sought after food, and how did the Indians collect and eat it?" First, cattail flowers are very compact and easy to collect, and second, each flowering spike contains hundreds of thousands of pollen grains. ...

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/coast/nature/images/cattail.html

[Löwenherz]

I very very rarely feel a desire for any plant food beside fruit. Vegetables drain my energy. I always feel sluggish after eating them. And salads cause constipation, in my case. Beside this vegetables have nearly zero calories.

Do we need vegetables if we get sufficient amounts of a variety of raw animal foods?

Aajonus says that raw vegetables impair raw meat and fat digestion. From my own experience I would say he is right. He recommends green juices as a mineral source without the constipating fiber.

Löwenherz

[Hanna]

I eat the more vegetable the less SEAFOOD is available for me. When I just ate "red" meat, fruit and green salad, my teeth became sensitive over time.

I always feel sluggish after eating them. And salads cause constipation, in my case.

I've never noticed anything like that.

Aajonus seems to be a psychotic. How can anyone take him seriously?

[PaleoPhil]

Great topic!
If I found a supply of raw edible tubers I feel that my diet would be almost complete. I'll be looking into this.
Cheers

It's not easy. Most of the tubers sold in supermarkets are the kind that require cooking, although I found that sweet potatoes were tasted OK surprisingly good if I soaked them overnight. The most common tubers sold in US markets that are edible raw are the legume tubers, jicama and yacon.

[PaleoPhil]

Perhaps not a tuber in the narrow sense of the word, but interesting:

Cattail rhizomes

That's a good thought. I should have named the thread "Raw Paleo Tubers and Other Underground Storage Organs," to allow for rhizomes, corms, roots, etc. Given that even the traditional Inuits ate them, they seem to be one of the most common types of human foods. Not highly preferred and not as common as meat/fat/organs, but still common.

Thanks for the interesting links, Hanna.

Cattail roots are an oddball food. Surprisingly, they contain gluten. I'm guessing that they weren't as much of a problem as wheat, though, because they weren't as highly processed or high in gluten content as the modern dwarf strain of wheat and apparently tended to be eaten either raw, roasted in a fire, or boiled.

[PaleoPhil]

Chuño--frozen sundried Inca potatoes:

"Chuño...is a freeze-dried potato product traditionally made by Quechua and Aymara communities of Bolivia and Peru,[1] and is known in various countries of South America, including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. It is a five-day process, obtained by exposing a frost-resistant variety of potatoes to the very low night temperatures of the Andean Altiplano, freezing them, and subsequently exposing them to the intense sunlight of the day (this being the traditional process). The word comes from Quechua ch'uñu, meaning frozen potato...." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu%C3%B1o

[jessica]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camassia_quamash

I saw a ton of these up in Idaho, but most of this roots native lands were and are destroyed by industrial wheat and grains, soy, garbanzo, pea and lentil fields.  Its a huge loss.

http://mrcamas.com/Cooking-with-Camas.htm

http://www.aihd.ku.edu/foods/blue_camas.html


definitely seems that this could have been the spark to more primitive agriculture on this continent
http://camosun.ca/ccr/news/2008/july/camas-harvest.html

[primalgirl]

I love raw sweet potatoes—delicious, sweet and smoky flavor. Sliced, chopped, grated.
Sliced—like a round cracker with avocado and a piece of green onion or garlic on top, maybe pesto or butter.

[goodsamaritan]

I love raw sweet potatoes—delicious, sweet and smoky flavor. Sliced, chopped, grated.
Sliced—like a round cracker with avocado and a piece of green onion or garlic on top, maybe pesto or butter.

Post pics pls?

I have yet to find a variety of sweet potato I can eat in substantial amounts.

[Iguana]

I thought that only the sweet potatoes pink inside  are good, but here in Algarve they grow some variety which is white inside with a dark purple skin. The first time I tasted one, I didn’t like it, but I tasted it again a couple of days latter and found it palatable, and now I like them…   

[cherimoya_kid]

I thought that only the sweet potatoes pink inside  are good, but here in Algarve they grow some variety which is white inside with a dark purple skin. The first time I tasted one, I didn’t like it, but I tasted it again a couple of days latter and found it palatable, and now I like them…   

I think you're talking about the Chinese Yam, called Shan Yao in chinese.