97. Common Camas

One of the emblematic wildflowers in the Garry Oak meadow is  Camassia quamash. The blue swaths begin sometime near the end of April and are usually finished by the May long weekend. The bulbs were a very important traditional food . Carbohydrates were in short supply and the  bulbs were a coveted source.  Fields of camas were passed on between families, the death camas "weeded" out and the ground cleared of rocks, sticks and other debris to provide the best growing conditions. The bulbs have to be cooked for long periods of time to break down the long chained inulin into something that can be digested. 
It is interesting that this quote from Lewis (of Lewis and Clarke) was mid June; long after our camas have dropped all of their "blumes".

• "......the quawmash is now in blume and from the colour of its bloom from a short distance it resembles lakes of fine clear water, so complete in this description that on first sight I could have swoarn it was water.
  

"Meriwether Lewis: Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (entry June 12, 1806)