The Adventures

They would catch and split mullet, season it with salt, black pepper and a little dab of Louisiana Hot Sauce, and stake it with a forked mangrove stick by the fire and let it roast slowly in its own fat.  If you’ve never had it this way you need to try it sometime.  It is lip smacking good! 

But that was about the extent of their cooking knowledge.   Once they were camping down near the mouth of the Wacasassa River.  They cut some cabbage palm to cook swamp cabbage for their supper.

Man Harvesting Swamp Cabbage

The cabbage palm is our “State Tree of Florida the Sable Palm”. The Sable Palm is not actually a tree, it is a Palm. The heart or the bud is a sweet, nutty tasting delight.

Cabbage Boots

You need to know how to dress it out right; if you cut any of the bitter into it you will have a severe upset stomach, but they didn't know that,

Dressed Out

By the time they got it dressed out and cooked, they were starving and ate hearty, and spent the rest of the night with their rear ends hanging over a log, They were afraid to move, they might not make it back in time.

By day break they were as weak as little kittens.  And before they decided to ever have swamp cabbage again they got some instruction about cleaning and cooking one.There’s a variety of recipes on how to cook them and I won’t get into recipes here.  I have never eaten any cooked that I didn't like except some that had been cooked in a black label beer.  It was down right yucky! 

Hearts of Palm

All the rest were delicious.  It is also great eaten raw in a salad.  And again, there are several recipes for the salads, it is called, (“Heart’s of Palm”), and there are several recipes for the dressings.

To be continued