Camas

Camas (also known as common camas, edible camas, blue camas, or sweet camas) has deep blue-violet flowers atop a stalk 30-50 cm tall, with long, narrow leaves at the base of the stalk.  

The large bulbs have a high protein content and sweet taste (once cooked). Their taste has been compared to baked pears (Ringuette), beets, parsnips, chocolate, brown sugar, and molasses (Hakai).  They have long been an important food source for Indigenous Peoples in the Salish Sea and inland in southern British Columbia, Washington, and Idaho.   They grow in meadows and in soil pockets in rocky areas (Turner, Food Plants, p. 42), and need to dry out in the summer (Native Plant Nursery).   Vancouver Island Salish peoples cultivated abundant camas fields, enhancing the health of this food source by harvesting the larger bulbs and replanting bulblets and seeds, weeding and aerating the soil, and doing controlled burning to maintain the meadow (Bryce; Turner, Food Plants, p. 43) James Douglas and other settlers perceived camas fields as “Edenic” untended beauty (Ringuette).  Revival of camas as a food source is connected to language and culture revitalization (Bryce) and may contribute to food security strategies for all (Ostrander).  Since the 1990s, camas pit cooks have been revived in communities and at the University of Victoria and Camosun College (Ostrander).  Bulbs were and are steamed in a pit oven, or cooked in a modern oven or slow-cooker (Ostrander, Native Plant Nursery).  Cooked camas bulbs can be eaten at once or flattened or pounded and dried for future use (Turner, Ancient Pathways, 2014, Vol. 1, p. 292).   

When harvesting camas, it is important not to confuse with the poisonous death camas, which has a white flower but otherwise looks much like blue camas and can grow nearby (Turner, Food Plants, p. 44). 
—DT, HS.