WAYS OF THE WILD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAYS OF THE WILD.

FERN ROOT.

IMPORTANT VEGETABLE FOOD

OF THE MAORI.

(By A. T. PYCROFT.)

When motoring through the Waitakcre Ranges this month with two Christchurch friends who had not been many years in New Zealand, a remark was made that the bracken was taller than the English species. Surprise was expressed that one variety, Pteris esculenta, formerly constituted one of the chief vegetable foods of the Maori. Colenso states that the ancient Maori had plenty of good and wholesome food, both animal and vegetable, but all such with them was only to be obtained by labour, in one shape or the other, almost unremitting. Wild or uncultivated food-producing plant?, were obtained from trees, shrubs and herbs, ferns, algae and fungi. The trees and plants generally of this large and densely forested country scarcely bore a fruit worthy of being eaten by a European, yet the Maoris made the best of them and commonly used advantageously what nature had provided. The principal of these uncultivated foods was the fern root, the starchy rhizome being eaten. Good edible fern-root, that which produced a large amount of fecula or nutritious matter, was not to be found everywhere. In some districts, particularly at the North, it was comparatively scarce, and had to be dug and brought many a weary mile on the backs of the people to their homes, especially to their seaside or fishing villages. In other parts, in many patches of the low-lying rich alluvial grounds, on the banks cf the rivers, it was more readily obtained. The best roots were produced in loose, rich soil where the plant had been undisturbed for years. Battles have been fought for the occupancy and use of these area 3. All fern-root diggings and places cf good fern-root were rigidly preserved; no trespassing was ever allowed. Experiments were made in England many years ago with the root of the common bracken, Pteris aquilina, to test its food qualities. The experiments were not successful, j/obably because it was dug at the wrong times, used in a fresh state, and not prepared in the right way. When Dug and Manner of Drying. The old Maoris had their set fixed times of digging the root, in the spring and early summer months. They knew when the roots were abundant in nutriment and would no more have dug tliem up in the wrong season than we should our potatoes. They were also careful not to burn off the fern plants from their digging grounds, save at the proper time of the year, as such careless burning injured the roots; but burning off the fern in the proper season, in August, improved them. In doing so they were ceremonially careful, in the north, to use the wood of two plants for firing the fern; these were the supplejack and mahoe. In digging the fern, which was always done with their long wooden sharp spade, they took care not to bruise or break it into pieces; at the same time they examined it, by breaking, etc. If it was dry internally, then it was good, and they went on with their digging; if wet, inferior. The freshly dug roots were put up In loose, stage-like piles, on wood, to dry in the wind, shading it from the sun. When it was quite dry, at the end of a fortnight, it was examined, selecting and separating it into several kinds or qualities, of which they had many, some being for the chiefs, some for warriors, some for visitors, some for common daily use, and some for the slaves. Each quality was put up separately, and carefully stored away in large quantities from both sun and rain for future use. Properly harvested, dried and stored, it would keep good for years- Captain Cook tasted roasted fern root and states: "Instead of bread they eat the root of a kind of fern. Of these roots, after roasting ano beating a soft substance remains, somewhat clammy and sweet, not impleading to the taste." Preparing Fern Root for Daily Food. In preparing the fern root for daily food it was never used green. The dried root was slightly soaked in water, roasted a little on the embers and beaten soft with a stone or wooden pestle or one made from the bon«s of a whale or ; a large smooth water-worn stone. This : beating of the root was constant and hard work. In the roasting and beating 1 the black outer bark, or skin, peeled o . ; The better quality root so prepared was ■ as soft as a bit of tough dough. It soon, however, became stiff and hard, when it I snapped like glass or good blsc ' l, . ,t : T > 1 it wis prepared in large taking with them to sea m their coast 1 voyages, and also for going to fi lit then it was made up into a kind of pounded mass. In the spring of he year the succulent young shoots which ro.e out of the ground like asparagus were °.so eaten fresh. They were very muc.lat nous No doubt the fern root was vcrr nutritious. The old Maoris thought My of it and always liked it, even preferring it in the summer with fresh fish of which, i" that season, those near the'eoasts always had abundance. Pigs fed on it in their wild state yield the finest and most delicious pork. The large, scaly bracht-like species of the big tuberous root of the para, or kingfern, Marattia fraxinea, were also formerly eaten by the Maoris and the plant was ' occasionally cultivated near their villages. Cheeseman states that this fern is now fast becoming rare, being found in the lowland forests from Mangonui southwards to Cape Egmont and Waitotara, usually in rich damp soils. The very young succulent and mucilaginous shoots of two small ferns Aspleniuni Sulbiferum and Asplenium lueidum were used in their season as vegetables. The mucilaginous pith of the trunk and lower parts of the stripes of the mamaku. or black tree fern, was formerly baked and eaten by the Maoris and was considered to be an excellent article of food. This excellent boiled sago-like substance- was certainly one of their very bsst wild vegetable productions, so easily obtained, but it could be used only occasionally, because it was slow of growth and required several years to bring it to any size and when once cu« died.