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| Shin happy holding a new root vegetable |
My good friend Shin biked over from
Victoria to visit me and Katrina this weekend.
Shin has a fascinating perspective on food because he grew up eating all
kinds of wild foods on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in Japan, and since
Katrina and I were still excited from last weekend’s taste of Yampa (Perideridia gairdneri), we decided to
take him on a similar harvest adventure.
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| Several Yampa plants ready to be cleaned |
This time, finding our way safely to the
Chuckanut Balds was a little easier. Rather
than scrambling up a cliff-face, we ditched our bikes at the trailhead, and
hiked up the short trail to the top. As
before, there were many Yampa plants but we learned that their distribution
throughout the bald is patchy. They
sometimes grow alone out of a thick layer of Rock Moss (Racomitrium sp.), and at other times they are in loose groups
amongst Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria
lanceolata), grasses, and sedges.
Using a garden trowel, we harvested
about 25 plants, and I started to notice how difficult it was to predict the
size of the corm from the size of the leaves.
I was also surprised to find a few plants that had not one, but two
robust corms in addition to an old shriveled corm and a baby corm. I removed and replanted all the baby corms I saw. When we got back home, Katrina and I
carefully measured the length and width of all the corms as well as the number
of leaves per plant and total length of each Yampa plant. As I suspected, there was only a weak
correlation (R2 = 0.4) between plant size and corm size. There was a stronger correlation (R2 =
0.62) between the number of leaves and the corm length. Despite large variability in the corm length,
they were nearly all 1 cm wide.
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| Steamed Yampa |
As Katrina and I crunched numbers, Shin
cleaned, pealed, and steamed the Yampa.
After 10 minutes in the steamer, the corms easily broke apart and he
concluded it would be best to cook them with the skins on. He garnished the Yampa with Chili Pepper-infused
Lummi Island sea salt, a Garlic-soy sauce reduction, pickled Grape leaves, fresh
Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum) bulbs,
Cranberry Spinach salad, and a handful of dried Dates. Our steamed Yampa had all the flavor of a Parsnip
with the soft granular texture of a baked Potato. As far as I can tell, they are well suited to
the uninitiated and even unadventurous palate.
With a little luck, they will grow well in my garden so that I can
easily make them a regular part of my diet.
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| Shin's Yampa masterpiece |
Using a garden trowel, we harvested
about 25 plants, and I started to notice how difficult it was to predict the
size of the corm from the size of the leaves.
I was also surprised to find a few plants that had not one, but two
robust corms in addition to an old shriveled corm and a baby corm. I removed and replanted all the baby corms I saw. When we got back home, Katrina and I
carefully measured the length and width of all the corms as well as the number
of leaves per plant and total length of each Yampa plant. As I suspected, there was only a weak
correlation (R2 = 0.4) between plant size and corm size. There was a stronger correlation (R2 =
0.62) between the number of leaves and the corm length. Despite large variability in the corm length,
they were nearly all 1 cm wide.
