{"id":7702,"date":"2016-05-20T19:20:13","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T19:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/?p=7702"},"modified":"2016-05-20T19:20:13","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T19:20:13","slug":"a-blue-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2016\/05\/20\/a-blue-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"A BLUE LAKE"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY LESLIE REGO<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Upon seeing the blue camas lily (Camassia quamash) on June 12, 1806, Meriweather Lewis wrote, \u201cthe quamash is now in blume and\u00a0from the colour of its bloom at a short distance it resembles lakes of fine clear water, so complete in the deseption that on first sight I could\u00a0have sworn it was water.\u201d<\/p>\n

My husband and I drove to Boise this past weekend and the blue camas was in full bloom \u2013 on May 7 (not June 12) \u2013 a whole month\u00a0earlier than when the expedition saw the plant! Blue camas grows in moist meadows or alongside streams or rivers. The fields by Fairfield\u00a0were full of the flower and it certainly did resemble clear blue lakes. The \u201clakes\u201d even had gentle ripples as the flowers swayed in the wind.<\/p>\n

The camas bulb was a main staple for Northwest Native American cultures. The bulbs were cooked in stone fire pits and provided\u00a0large amounts of energy as they were a good source of carbohydrates. \u00a0Apparently, the cooked or dried bulbs were almost as valuable as\u00a0smoked salmon for trading purposes.<\/p>\n

Meriweather Lewis wrote lengthy passages about the flower in his journal. On June 11, 1806 he devoted several pages to the description\u00a0of the flower as well as the preparation of the root as a food source. After a particularly long passage of all the possible ways to eat the\u00a0roots and how they fit into the daily culinary life of the Northwest Native Americans, he ends the description ominously with, \u201c\u2026this root is\u00a0palateable but disagrees with me in every shape I have ever used it.\u201d The camas root is notorious for producing large amounts of intestinal\u00a0gas and Lewis goes on to note in his journal, \u201c\u2026when in the Indian hut I was almost blown out by the strength of the wind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first time Lewis and Clark and their men encountered the flower was when they finally staggered down from the Rocky Mountains onto\u00a0the plains. They were malnourished and ready to eat anything. The Nez Perce generously shared one of their prized camas roots with\u00a0them. Unfortunately, the root was extremely difficult on the men\u2019s already compromised digestive systems. Clark wrote, \u201cI am verry Sick to\u00a0day and puke which relive me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the plants are not in flower, it is easy to confuse the blue camas bulbs with the death camas bulbs, which are highly poisonous. The\u00a0Native American women, as gatherers of the camas roots for the tribes, did all of the collecting and were well versed in how to tell one from the other. We\u00a0would be wise to enjoy the vivid blues of the flowers from afar and not take our chances on whether we have mistakenly chosen a\u00a0poisonous one.<\/p>\n

Leslie Rego is an Idaho Press Club award-winning columnist, artist and Blaine County resident. To view more of Rego\u2019s art, visit www.leslierego.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY LESLIE REGO Upon seeing the blue camas lily (Camassia quamash) on June 12, 1806, Meriweather Lewis wrote, \u201cthe quamash is now in blume and\u00a0from the colour of its bloom at a short distance it resembles lakes of fine clear water, so complete in the deseption that on first sight I could\u00a0have sworn it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,2,35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-commentary","9":"category-sketchbook-hiking"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}