By Beth Teague
Most people see an ugly yellow
weed. Ila Hatter sees a delicious – and nutritious –
gourmet meal.
“Dandelions are probably one of
the most nutritious veggies to come out of your garden,”
says Hatter, a wildcrafter and interpretive naturalist
who resides in Robbinsville, N.C. “They are an
incredibly rich source of vitamins and minerals, and yet
we throw them away all the time.”
Those who attend a seminar or
nature hike led by Hatter just might get to sample a
dish or beverage prepared from dandelions or other
natural ingredients – and most are surprised at how
unexpectedly tasty these so-called weeds can be.
“It’s fun for people to find out
how good they taste,” she says. “Even picky teenagers
will eat dandelion pizza sandwiches.”
Dandelions are just one of many
natural resources Hatter finds in the wilderness to
utilize for food or medicinal purposes. When she’s not
working for the U.S. Forest Service and the Great Smoky
Mountain Natural History Association, Hatter spends her
time traveling across the south, presenting seminars and
interactive explorations of the great outdoors. Her
mission: to tune people in to the many ways they can
make Mother Nature’s pantry and medicine cabinet their
own. She says her work is guided by a quote from writer
Henry David Thoreau.
“Thoreau wrote that the woods and
fields are a table always spread,’” she says. “To me,
that’s exactly what I do – that’s what I teach.”
What is Wildcrafting?
Hatter says she is both a
wildcrafter and an interpretive naturalist. Traditional
wildcrafting – gathering native plants for use or sale –
has been performed for many years, though Hatter says it
was especially prevalent in the days of the Great
Depression.
Unlike those early wildcrafters,
Hatter does not forage the woods in the hope of making a
profit. “In my case, I’m not gathering things to sell,
but instead am using them for education – teaching
people what these plants are, how to identify them, what
the traditional uses are, what the potential market
might be for them,” she says.
This is a central component of her
work as an interpretive naturalist. “Interpretive
naturalism is really what I do,” says Hatter. “I’m not
an herbalist because I don’t grow herbs. Mother Nature
grows them, and I simply collect them,” she says. “I’m
not a naturalist, because that would imply a lot more
knowledge of biology, knowledge about the fauna as well
as the flora. What I do is in between – I combine my
knowledge of the flora with folklore, telling
interesting stories that go with the botany of what I
do.”
She inherited many of these
stories, as well as her overall love and respect
for nature, from her parents, who wanted to ensure
their child would grow to be self-sufficient. “They had
lived through two world wars and the Great Depression,”
Hatter explains. “They took me hunting and fishing and
foraging. Some of my earliest memories were of gathering
wild fruits with my mother and making jelly; and wild
mints and sassafras for tea.”
This knowledge and love of nature
stayed with Hatter during her early career as an airline
stewardess, which she viewed as an exciting opportunity
to learn about flora in new parts of the world. “I
suppose I was strange stewardess,” she says with a
laugh. “Instead of going out partying or sightseeing in
different parts of the world, I spent my free time
asking about trees or herbs used to prepare meals.”
She later made the transition from
airline stewardess to graphic artist, a career she held
for 27 years. “But I became a dinosaur in my field when
computers entered the scene,” Hatter says. “Not wanting
to go back to school to learn computers, I decided to be
a more ‘hands-on’ artist.”
Her desire for something new led
her to Gatlinburg, Tenn., where she worked as a
decorative painter. Soon after moving there, she was
asked to be a leader for Gatlinburg’s annual Spring
Wildflower Pilgrimage, and later served as an instructor
in the University of Tennessee’s Smoky Mountain Field
School. These early experiences lay the foundation for
her new career as an interpretive naturalist and
wildcrafter; in 1994, she moved to North Carolina to
continue her work.
Using nature every day
Hatter shares her knowledge with
the general public through books and videos offered
through her Web site and through various interactive
seminars she teaches across North Carolina, Georgia, and
Tennessee. Seminar topics range from practical tips for
hikers who may have to find food or practice first aid
while in the woods, to “Resources of Field and Forest,”
which helps people identify natural resources used by
our ancestors to cure common ailments or make food more
palatable.
No matter the topic or audience,
Hatter encourages people to learn about and take
advantage of natural resources, particularly for
nutritional and medicinal purposes.
“There is so much good food that
surrounds us, but is going to waste,” she says. “There
so many things that are readily available to us. And
we’ve forgotten that there are an awful lot of wonderful
flavors available in nature.”
To introduce students to delicious
and nutritious ingredients found in nature’s kitchen,
Hatter often leads excursions to forage for ingredients,
then prepares a full meal using what she finds. There’s
always a few guests who have their doubts – but most
leave the meal feeling as satisfied as they are
surprised.
“After a full meal, they’ll lounge
on the porch like hound dogs,” she laughs. “Everyone
rubs their bellies and says how great the meal was – and
no one feels the need to stop on the way home to grab a
hamburger.”
She also offers tips for using
natural ingredients for medicinal purposes. “It’s so
important to take an integrated approach to health care
– to have knowledge of both modern medicine and natural
remedies,” Hatter says. “It behooves us to be more in
control of our health; it saves the aggravation of
always having to go to the doctor right away.”
She recalls an evening when her
husband required medical attention, but couldn’t get to
the hospital due to a severe snowstorm. ”He had had
surgery and the incision needed to drain,” she says.
“Something needed to be done, but there was no way to
get to the hospital.”
Hatter remembered a remedy for
mastitis that utilized compresses made from hot cabbage
leaves and castor oil to relive swelling and
inflammation. “I thought it might help – at least it
would give him some relief until we could get in to see
the doctor,” she says. “But by morning, the incision had
opened and drained on its own.”
Teaching responsibility
As she introduces people to the
wonders of wild food and medicinal plants, Hatter also
focuses on the basic principles of responsible foraging:
identification, location and multiplication.
“With identification, you must be
absolutely sure that you identify what you’re about to
ingest or put on your skin,” she explains. “With
location, you must make sure area where you’re
collecting is free of pesticides and other contaminates.
Finally, with multiplication, you must practice what the
Indians described as a ‘rule of four’: Leave the first
plant you see because there might be another animal or
insect that needs it for food for its young. Leave the
second plant you see in case someone is coming along
behind you – that person may be in desperate need of
that plant, or may have a need greater than your own.
Leave the third plant to reproduce additional plants,
and the fourth one – you can take that plant for
yourself.”
Hatter says she teaches these
principles to prevent overharvesting, which has become
all too common in forests nationwide. She refers to the
summer of 2001, when the Appalachian region was flooded
with requests from gourmet chefs for ramps – North
American leeks with an aroma and flavor akin to onion
and garlic.
“Ramps are a traditional spring
green in Appalachia; they come up mid March to mid
April, and it is a real tradition to gather them in the
mountains,” Hatter explains. “Last year, ramps became an
‘in’ thing among gourmet chefs – interest went up, and
ramp patches went down. Collection of ramps was banned
in the Great Smoky National Park because there was a
danger of overharvesting.”
Teaching for the future
With all of her books, workshops
and videos, Hatter has one common goal: to maintain and
renew the general population’s interest in the natural
world. “There is an awful lot of wonderful knowledge
that isn’t being passed on, that isn’t viewed as
something valuable, and it is – it might even save our
lives someday,” she says. “In the days of the Great
Depression, people had to rely on resources around them;
a situation like that could happen again.”
Though she enjoys working with
groups of all ages, she views educating young children
as an opportunity to encourage practical use and
conservation of natural resources.
“Children are exposed to too much
virtual reality – they need a dose of the real thing,”
she says. “With children, in particular, if you get them
outdoors, in nature, they will become friends of the
forest. It is so important to have this information out
there, to teach children to love nature; they can’t
conserve what they don’t love.”
Beth Teague lives in Hickory,
NC.
To learn more about Ila Hatter’s
upcoming event schedule or to order her books and
videos, visit her Web site:
www.wildcraftingwithila.com.
Two recipes from Ila Hatter –
you may publish both or just one:
ILA’S DANDE-OLIS
(Winner of the 1995 National
Dandelion Cookoff in Dover, Ohio)
Ingredients:
2 cups dandelion greens
1/4 cup chopped wild onions (or
spring onions or chives)
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 package eggroll wrappers
Egg white
1 can tomato soup
Instructions:
Cook dandelion greens with wild
onions until soft; drain. Chop and mix with ricotta
cheese, chopped mushrooms, parmesan cheese, and egg.
Start 4 cups water boiling with chicken bouillon cubes.
Take 1/2 package eggroll wrappers
and cut into 4 squares. Place 2 tablespoons of filling
in the center of each pastry square; moisten edges with
egg white. Place another square on top and seal together
with fork tines around the filling. Trim off excess
pastry, making square or round shapes. Simmer gently in
bouillon about 3 – 5 minutes.
Remove with slotted spoon and set
aside in bowl. Stir tomato soup into remaining liquid
for Dande-oli sauce; pour over Dande-olis. Makes 18 – 24
Dande-olis.
JEWELMINT LOTION
Used for poison
ivy, nettle rash, sunburn, insect bites or as a facial
astringent.
Ingredients;
2 cups Jewelweed
stems, peeled and cut in 6" pieces
1 cup mint leaves (optional)
1 cup Aloe Vera gel or juice
1 cucumber, peeled and seeded
1/2 cup Witch Hazel (optional)
1 cup water (1/2 cup if Witch Hazel added)
Instructions:
Put in blender or
food processor and blend well, adding more water or
Witch Hazel as needed. Strain and bottle in sterile
jars. Keep refrigerated.
--
Similar recipes are available in Roadside
Rambles, a collection of wild food recipes edited by
Hatter. It is available for sale through her Web site,
www.wildcraftingwithila.com.
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