Neighbor Gave Me a Bag of These …What Are They, and How Do You Eat Them .first comment

The cooked flesh can be eaten on its own or incorporated into other dishes.

One Important Warning Before Trying Them

Identification matters.

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A photograph alone isn’t enough to guarantee that an unfamiliar wild or gifted plant is safe to eat. If your neighbor gave you these without telling you exactly what they are or where they came from, confirm their identity before eating them.

Water caltrops also should not be treated like a snack that is automatically safe straight from the bag. Raw or inadequately prepared aquatic plants can carry biological hazards, and safe preparation practices can differ by region and source.

There’s another surprising issue: in some places, certain Trapa species are invasive and are regulated because they spread aggressively in waterways. So you shouldn’t plant leftover fruits or toss them into a pond, lake, or stream.

Why Did Older Generations Recognize Them Immediately?

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That’s part of what makes photographs like this so fascinating.

Foods that seem completely mysterious in one household may be ordinary childhood memories in another.

Someone may look at this bag and see bizarre little horns.

Someone else may remember sitting beside a grandmother, waiting for a pot of them to finish cooking.

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That’s the wonderful thing about traditional foods: sometimes the strangest-looking ingredient comes with generations of history hidden beneath its shell.

So if your neighbor hands you a mysterious bag like this, don’t throw it away immediately—but don’t start eating it blindly either.

Ask what it is.

Confirm the identification.

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Learn how it’s traditionally prepared.

Because those strange black “horns” may turn out to be something people have been cooking and eating for generations.