Is Nostoc a no-no? Photo by Green Deane

Nostoc: Nasal Nostalgia and Edible, Too

My website is “Eat The Weeds and other things, too.” Well, this one of those other things. While I have put seaweed in the mainstream index, I thought best to put Nostoc in the “other edibles” index. Green slime shaped like marbles takes a little getting used to. (Read the concerns in the comments below the article) 

Nostoc is a freshwater bacterium in the Blue-Green family. This is important: NEVER eat any alga that is blueish-green in color. It can kill you. Nostoc is bright green, despite the family association. If you visually have a green blue color problem, this is a family to stay away from.

Nostoc marbles are made up of nostic filaments. The spheres are uniform size and usually green or olive green in color. Again void any blue-green ones.  The filaments are long and held together by firm mucilage. They form colonies often marble size but also as big as a baseball. They can also be leaf- or hair-like. They are used like other algae or sea weed but not without some controversy.

Nostoc has been eaten in Asia for thousands of years — is an essential ingredient in traditional bird-nest soup — but a recent study asserted it could contribute to Alzheimer’s Disease. Containing protein and vitamin C, N. flagelliforme and N. commune are eaten in China, Japan and Java, N. commune is served in the Andes. The preferred species in Central Asia is N. ellipsosporum. Dried Nostoc can be purchased in most Asian groceries, should you want a test taste run.

The aforementioned research team from the Chinese University of Hong Kong said “fat choy” (Nostoc flagelliforme) has no nutritional value and contains Beta-methylamino L-alanine (BMAA), a toxic amino acid that could affect the normal nerve cell function. Professor Chan King-ming said eating fat choy could lead to degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia. A 2008 study in Peru also found BMAAS, now you have both sides of the food, eaten but potentially toxic or toxic.

While I have found Nostoc many times my main objection to it is I have not found it in wholesome water or soil. It has not so much been the Nostoc I don’t like as the environments I’ve found it in. I think mountain streams and meadows could be different. Among the known edible Nostoc are N. commune var flagelliforme, N. parmelioides (edule) N. ellipsosporum, N. verrucosum and N. pruniforme.  Dehydrated Nostoc is black but it can rehydrate quickly after storms and the like and appear to have grown seemingly overnight. This made those in the Middle Age think it fell overnight from the stars or planets. It wasn’t until 1727 that it was figured out that Nostoc wasn’t extraterrestrial and showed up around the roots of grasses after a lot of rain.

The genus name, Nostoc, was coined by “Paracelsus” which is a story unto itself. Auroleus Phillipus Theostratus Bombastus von Hohenheim, who later called himself “Paracelsus,” was born in Switzerland in 1493. He was the son of a well-known physician. Paracelsus became a physician, alchemist, professor and a heretic of much fame and controversy. He studied mineralogy, medicine, surgery, physics, astrology and chemistry, was a teacher by the time he was 16 and generally irritated the establishment with his intellect and ideas. Doctors often denounced him an impostor and his quick death in 1541 suggests someone got fed up with his arrogance and knocked him off.  Controversial to say the least it was said of him he “cured the incurable, gave sight to the blind, cleansed the leper, and even raised the dead, and whose memory could turn aside the plague.” He also gave zinc its name and was the first to describe tuberculosis as a disease of the lungs. His motto was “alterius non sit qui suus esse potest” which means “let no man that can belong to himself be of another.”

He is quoted as writing: “Nostoch … pollution of some plethoricall and wanton Star, or rather excrement blown from the nostrills of some rheumantick planet…. Nostoch understandeth the nocturnall.” “Nostoch” is a play on two words, one English and one German, each associated with nostril  and “extracellular polysaccharide (the stuff that comes out of your nose.) Nostryle was the English contributor of NOST and Nasenloch contributed the OCH, shorten today to OC. Paracelsus likened Nostoc to nose dribble and named it accordingly. I should add if it gets too much light it can smell like ammonia. Not all are palatable. One noxious version is Pwdre Ser (yes that is spelled correctly.) It is Welsh and means “rot of the stars.” The Chinese view of Nostoc is very different.

The Chinese know (Nostoc flagelliforme) as Fat Choy, Black Moss and Black Hair. When dried, it has the appearance of black hair. Because of that its name in Chinese means “hair vegetable.” This sounds the same as a Cantonese saying meaning “struck it rich” or “Kung hei fat choi” which is often proclaimed during the Chinese New Year. So Fat Choy is a popular ingredient in dishes used for the Chinese New Year. Its texture which is like very fine vermicelli. Because over harvesting has caused erosion the Chinese government has limited collection which has increased prices. To find use look for “fat choy recipes” on the internet.  See recipe below.

 Green Deane’s Itemizing Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: A jelly like green mass , spheres from the size of marble to baseballs.

TIME OF YEAR: Any time but usually warm weather after rain

ENVIRONMENT: In fields after it rains, especially among grass, bottoms of lakes or springs, on moist rocks, rarely on ice bergs.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Dry, them use as is or as a thickener

Oysters and Nostoc

1 Chinese lettuce

1 Iceberg lettuce

8 jumbo oysters

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

8 black mushrooms, soaked in water

1/2 pound black hair seaweed (fat choy)

1/3 cup chicken stock

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

1/4 Teaspoon salt  (optional to taste)

1 Teaspoon sugar

1 Teaspoon cornstarch

1 Tablespoon water

Soak the Fat Choy for a few minutes in warm water before you begin and drain on paper towels before you add to the wok.  Remove enough lettuce leaves from the two kinds of lettuce to line a large serving dish.  Place lettuce leaves quickly in hot seasoned water. You want to soften the lettuce and blanch it, but not cook it. Remove and line the serving dish with the leaves.  Poach oysters in the same water until about halfway cooked (quick – about 30 to 45 seconds).  Remove the oysters from the water.  Heat a Chinese wok or large frying pan and quickly saute the oysters with vegetable oil. Stir in the black mushrooms, pre-soaked fat choy, chicken stock and oyster sauce. Cook for a few minutes until the mushrooms are soft. Season the sauce with sesame oil, salt and sugar. Thoroughly mix cornstarch and water until it forms a paste. While stirring, add the cornstarch mixture to the sauce until it become slightly thick. You may not need all of the cornstarch so add slowly. Place oysters, black mushrooms and fat choy on top of lettuce in a nice grouping.  Serve and if you are preparing this for the New Year table, have a prosperous year!

Armadillidium vulgare: Land Shrimp

What shall we call them? Roly Pollies? Rollies? Pill Bugs? Woodlice? Sowbugs, or a half a dozen other names?

They are not bugs (more than six legs.) They are not lice, and not all of them roll. And their scientific name is a mouthful, Armadillidium vulgare. Land shrimp might be more accurate for these little creatures in the class of Crustaea are closely related to shrimp, crabs and lobsters, whose taste they resemble. There are land versions and water versions including large deep sea ones. In the world there is some 3,500 species of them and they tend to be parasite free.

Let’s stick with Pillbugs for two good reasons. Those are the only ones that roll themselves into a ball, and they are the most edible of the lineup (some non-rolling sowbugs are foul-smelling and tasting.) Look for them in moist places such as basements, under rocks and logs (but also look out of other more harmful creatures.)  They dry out easily so they are never far from moisture.

Besides being edible some people believed — not yet proven — that Pillbugs helped ease upset stomachs and complaining livers. There could be a hint of truth to that in that their shells are high in calcium carbonate, which counteracts stomach acid. To collect a lot of them effortlessly turn half a cantaloupe upside down in the shade near a moist area They will collect under it and feed as they are mostly vegetarians.  Note there can be as many as 10,000 of them per square meter and sometimes they are kept as pets, living up to five years (with good veterinary care no doubt.)

In his 1885 book “Why Not Insects” Victorian Vincent Holt wrote about Pillbugs on pages 58 and 59: “I have eaten these, and found that, when chewed, a flavour is developed remarkable akin to that so much appreciated in their sea cousins. Wood-louse sauce is equal, if not distinctly superior to, shrimp.

“The following is the recipe: Collect a quantity of the finest wood-lice to be found (no difficult task, as they swarm under the bark of every rotten tree) and drop them into boiling water which will kill them instantly, but not turn red, as might be expected. As the same time put into a saucepan a quarter of a pound fresh butter, a teaspoonful of four, a small glass of water, a little milk, some pepper and salt, and place it on the stove. As soon as the sauce is thick, take it off and put in the wood-lice. This is an excellent sauce for fish. Try it.” 

Among other Pillbug features is that they can change sex and do not urinate. They exchange ammonia gas through their exoskeleton and can drink through their anus. And their blood is blue when carrying oxygen, clear when not. Pillbugs are monogamous and dad helps with the chores.

Their scientific names translates into something more mundane than it sounds. Armadillidium (ar-mah-dil-LID-ee-um) means like an Amadillo, and vulgare (vul-GAR-ee) means common. Oh, nearly forgot: When Issac Asimov was a boy he filled his mouth with Pillbugs to see if they would tickle his tongue, giving his mother quite a fight.

In the recipes below Pillbugs were fed potato for several days before cooking, which always started with the desired amount first put in boiling water until cooked. Non-rolling pillbugs — sowbugs — can also be eaten also long as they don’t have a foul smell or taste.

Pillbug Fritters

*  1 egg

* 1/4 cup of creamed corn

* 1 cup of flour

* 2 tablespoons of boiled Pillbugs

Put egg in a bowl, add corn, flour, Pillbugs and milk. Lightly mix. Ingredients should be moist. Add more flour or milk as required to make mixture the correct consistency. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into a thin layer of hot oil in a frying pan. Turn when brown on the bottom. Tastes like fish cakes.

Pillbug Semi-sushi

*  1 eggs

* 1 carrot

* 1 cup of dry rice

* 3/4 cup of water

*  seaweed sheet

* 2 tablespoons of vinegar

* 2 table spoons of sugar

* 1 teaspoon of salt

* 2 tablespoons of boiled illbugs

Add rice to the water and microwave for 10 minutes or until cooked. Add the vinegar, sugar and salt. Cut carrot into thin lengths. Cook in microwave with a small amount of water until tender. You can also use thin strips of egg omelette to add color. Spread rice in a thin layer over the seaweed sheet. Put strips of carrot, eggs, Pillbugs in the center of the rice.     Tightly roll up the seaweed sheet using a little water to seal the edges. Cut into short lengths with a serrated knife.

 Pillbug Scones

*  1 ounce of butter

* 2 cups of flour

* 2 teaspoons of baking powder

* 2 strips of bacon

* 1 small onion

* 3/4 of a cup of milk

* 2 tablespoons of boiled Pillbugs

Mix flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add butter and rub into dry ingredients. Add bacon, onion and Pillbugs, mix in and then add all the milk. Mix. The dough should be soft enough to roll out onto the bench top. Add extra milk or flour as required.     Roll/press out into serving squares, 425F for 10-15 minutes.

Scrambled Pillbugs

Add cooked Pillbugs to scrambled eggs. The amount varies with your taste for them.

Hog Lice Wine

Yeph…. was popular in the 1700’s. Take half a pound of Rollie Pollies and put them in two pounds of white port (this is right from the recipe.) Let them work for a few days. Strain, toss the Hog Lice, drink the port.

Giant puffball

Do not eat any mushroom without checking in person with a local, live, mushroom collector.  

Lycoperdon perlatum: Edible Puffballs

I avoided mushrooms for a long time, and with good reasons. Some of them are on par with cyanide and arsenic and can melt your liver. Worse, unlike most plants that let you know within the hour you have erred, mushrooms can wait several days. So when I decided to learn about mushrooms I went with the classic first: The puffball,  Lycoperdon perlatum (lye-ko-PAIR-don  per-LAY-tum) also called the Common Puffball, the Gem-studded Puffball and the Devil’s Snuff Box.

Most of us learned about puffballs when were were kids, finding them in the spore stage and flattening them into a puff of spore smoke. Remember the brown cloud that used to spray out from under our foot? Then it will come to no surprise to you that the genus name is Lycoperdon, which plainly said means “wolf fart.” As for the species name, perlatum means pearl-like and the puffballs often in clumps like a bunch of pearls.

While perhaps the puffball is the least complicated mushroom to identify, there are things you must absolutely look for and here is the reason why. Two other mushrooms can resemble it, both fatal.  The look alikes are young Sclerodermas and Amanitas.

Puffballs are white inside and one texture.

Always cut your “puffball” from top to bottom and examine the inside. A young Sclerdomera will be round and white inside like a puffball but the white flesh will be hard. The white flesh of the puffball is marshmallow soft. The young Amanita can be round and white inside like a puffball but it will show the outline of the yet unopened mushroom. The Sclerdomera has caused deaths and the Amanita is nearly always fatal without medical attention and often fatal with medical attention.  See photos below.

The deadly Amanita can look like a puffball but has the outline of a mushroom-to-be inside.

Never take for granted you have a puffball. Always cut each one open vertically, top to bottom, and make sure it is one solid soft white mass inside with no outline.  You should make sure the inside is pure white, never dark, and that the outer skin of the puffball is thin. If the inside is dark from the start and the outer skin is thick you probably have Scleroderma, one of the earth balls.

With smaller puffballs you must make sure the entire fruiting body is homogeneous, consistently a texture of  marshmallows. You should slice down the center of every puffball to make sure there is not a pre-formed mushroom inside. If so, it is likely to be an immature form of the death angels, Amanita bisporigera, Amanita virosa, and Amanita verna. They are all deadly. Do NOT eat them. In fact they are quite cruel. Feeling better after the first attack is the sign of impending death.  Ninety percent of all mushroom fatalities involve Amanitas.

On the other hand, there are no poisonous puffballs, and most forms are edible when young. Though as with everything, some individuals are allergic to them. Giant puffballs, that can grow as big as a basketball, are not only edible but mighty difficult to mis-identify. They are edible as long as the flesh is white and soft.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Round or pear shaped mushroom up to 3.5 inches tall, tapered base. Outer surface is composed of conical spines and irregular-shaped whitish to cream-colored warts that become brownish with age. They eventually fall away leaving pits or net-like scars on the spore case beneath. The spore case is divided into an upper fertile portion (gleba) and a sterile, stalk-like base, tan to pale brown or grayish brown, darker in age, thin-walled, papery, gleba white and fleshy at first becoming olive-brown and powdery as spores mature.  Base sterile, chambered, taking up about a third to one half of the fruiting body.  Spores round, minutely warted, pale yellow (yellow-brown to olive-brown in mass.)

TIME OF YEAR: Nearly year round in warm climates, summer fall in northern climates.

ENVIRONMENT: Usually in groups, often in clusters on ground, sometimes on well-decayed wood, in forests or open areas.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Edible when immature and entirely white inside and soft.  Can be sauteed in butter or added to soups and stews. Cut every puffball vertically and check to see that there is no outline of a mushroom inside.

Florida Bark Scorpion

Southern Fried Scorpions

If I were going to rely on scorpions in Florida for sustenance, I would starve to death.

Guiana Striped Scorpion

In over 30 years of rummaging around the wild of Florida I have seen scorpions exactly three times, twice under domestic conditions. Once while living in Titusville there was one on my sink next to the soap dish, not much bigger than a cockroach. (This was the same apartment complex where I saw two rattle snakes up close and personal. I’ve only seen one rattler in the wild.)

Heinz Scorpion

The next scorpion sighting was also in Titusville at a statuary store outside. I moved a small statute and a half a dozen little ones scurried away. Only once on the trail have I run into a scorpion. I was near Lake Tarpon in 2010 giving a class and talking about pines when a student pulled off some bark and found a very tiny scorpion, a Florida Bark Scorpion, Centruroides gracilis, which grows up to four inches long. Non-deadly, but painful and most painful of the local three (or four) scorpions. If stung while in gastronomical pursuit clean the site with soap and water and hold an ice pack against it to reduce swelling. (Others say run as hot a water as you can stand over it for 10 minutes. Choose your poison, so to speak.)

Asian House Scorpion

Other scorpio contenders in Florida are the Hentzi Scorpion (Centruroides hentzi) the most common and smallest, up to two inches. And the Guiana Striped Scorpion (Centruroides guianensis) the middle-weight, up to three inches.

The problem is the one I saw in my apartment some 30 years ago didn’t look like any of those three. Perhaps it was the Isometrus maculatus, selectively imported from Asia and called the House Scorpion.  It is usually found in port cities. Titusville is not exactly a port city but is on the inter-coastal boat route.

Vaejovis carolinianus also lives east of the Mississippi River but not in Florida

The Guiana Striped Scorpion is supposed to be in only Collier, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, including the Keys. However there are unofficial reports of it in Pasco County. Hentz is the most common but is not found in the lower Keys. The Florida Bark Scorpion is widespread but mostly in the lower two thirds of the state. The only other scorpion east of the Mississippi is the Vaejovis carolinianus, which tends to reside in other southern states. In the United States, there are 90 or so species of scorpions. Only one in the desert southwest is considered life-threatening if stung.

Scorpions glow in the dark under UV light

Florida scorpions should be edible but I have not run across  enough to give them a try.  I suspect if one goes looking for them they are easier to find. If they are like most scorpions they are edible, usually cooked. However, do not eat them if you are allergic to seafood. They are related to crabs, lobsters and shrimp.

About the stinger. The Chinese maintain that if the stinger is cooked the poison is weakened but even then they caution not to eat more than five at a time. They view the cooked stinger more as medicine than food. From a culinary point of view, remove the stinger before or after cooking. Or at any rate don’t eat it unless you know something about the toxin and Chinese medicine.

As for glowing under Ultra Violet light,  upper left, no one knows why scorpions glow in UV light. Let’s think this thing through. Flowers look different under UV light because it confers some advantage. In their case being found by insects. So what are the possibilities? Scorpions glow to help scorpions find scorpions, or glwo to help insects see them, either to avoid or find. Or perhaps it is the same as flowers: The scorpion glows under UV light, the insect is attracted, and the insect is the scorpion’s dinner. To our eyes the scorpion only looks different when in the dark and lighted by UV rays. In daylight the scorpion could look much different to an insect, just as flowers do. The only question I would have is whether that a difference is an attraction or a warning. Oh, scorpions are cannibalistic, and can live three to five years.

Deep fried scorpions are the most common way they are served. They are stuck on a skewer and plunged into hot oil. At home you might want to freeze them first, snip off the stingers, then fry.

Scientifically, Centruroides (sen-true-ROY-dez) is Dead Latin’s bastardized Greek meaning sharp-ended tail-like. Hmmmm. Not too inventive there. Gracilis (GRAS-il-is) is slender or graceful. Guianensis (gwee-an-NEN-siss) of Guiana. Vaejovis (VEH-joe-vuss) is based on the name of the Etruscan god of the underworld. Carolinanus (care-row-lin-ee-AY-nus) means of southern United States. Isometrus (eye-suh-MET-truhs) combines is Greek combining uniform and measure to mean single. Maculatus (mal-yuh-LAH-tuhs) is Latin for spotted. Hentzi is for Nicholas Marcellus Hentz (July 25, 1797 – November 4, 1856) a French American arachnologist born in Versailles, France. He emigrated to the United States in 1816.

Scorpion Soup

Ingredients

½ cup olive oil
30-40 live scorpions, washed
4 ounces fresh pork
1 large garlic bulb, crushed
fresh ginger root, about one-inch piece, chopped
salt and pepper
½ liter water
1 handful dried Chinese dates
1 handful dried Jujube berries (optional)
1 large carrot, sliced

Preparation

Heat the oil in a large wok. Stir-fry the scorpions for 20 seconds. Add the pork, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir-fry briefly, then add the water slowly. Add the other ingredients and simmer on a low heat for 40 minutes.

Scorpions have a woody taste and should be eaten whole, except for the tip of the tail.

 Scorpion Scallopini

8 hairy desert scorpions, or similar species, thawed

1 pint low fat milk

1 cup white cornmeal

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Using a sharp knife, remove and discard the stingers and venom glands from the tips of the scorpions tails. Pour milk into a medium-sized bowl; add scorpions and set aside. In a 12-inch skillet, melt butter. Remove scorpions from milk mixture, allowing the excess to drain off. Dredge scorpions in cornmeal, one at a time. Shake off excess. Place scorpions in hot butter and cook until golden brown (approximately two minutes), turn and cook a minute more, until done. Drain on paper towels. Once plated, sprinkle with lemon juice and salt.