My son Alec, who frequently tags along with Amy and me on our foraging hikes, is camping this week in upstate New York, with my wife Marti, and his cousin Colten. I received a picture mail message today around lunchtime which is displayed here. The caption in the text message read: Your son's catch. Complete with butter and garnish!This was a crayfish it turns out, and not what it looks like. It was a rather large crayfish I'll agree though. Marti called me and explained the garnish. Alec insisted that it needed something else for the picture, and looked around. He noticed queen anne's lace, a common flower that I've taught him is actually wild carrot. The younger, smaller leaves look, and taste somewhat like parsley. That is what you see around our friend the crustacean.
A quick warning though. If you want to partake in wild carrot, the larger plants and especially the ones in flower already are not what you want. The roots of these will have the texture of a drumstick (the musical kind). What you're after is the first-year taproots. Queen Anne's lace is a biennial, and flowers in its second year. There are a few poisonous members of this family, so be sure you have the right one. The stems will be fuzzy, the leaves parsley-like, and the root will tell you for sure. It will smell like a slightly spicy carrot. Marti told me she watched as Alec carefully pulled a root first and had everyone smell it. How can you not be proud?
I was also told that they ate the micro-lobster you see in the picture. Alec said it tasted like lobster but milder.
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