Natural Foods

Under natural conditions forest foods available were roots, pith, shoots, and leaves of selected trees. Fruit and berries were also eaten in season. Most important of the root foods were the rhizomes of the bracken fern (Pteris aquilina). Special preserves of fern, some more highly esteemed than others, were carefully conserved by all tribes. Bundles of rhizomes were collected and thoroughly pounded with a wooden pounder (patu aruhe) on a stone base. The starchy material thus separated was made into cakes which were cooked in hot ashes. Fern rhizome was also cleaned and chewed raw by commoners and slaves. (See alsoPlants, Edible.)