When foraging for delicious bites of snow, steer clear of plowed piles and manure, researchers say.
Ryan Kellman/NPR
Editor’s note: A version of this post first appeared in January 2014.
Many people will see the snow currently blanketing much of the U.S. Eastern Seaboard as a nuisance coating sidewalks and roads. Others are celebrating it as an excuse to spend the day swooshing down a hill.
As for me, I like to think of snow as food.
Growing up in Missouri, I consumed as much snow ice cream as possible from November to March. Each time the winter sky let loose, I caught a bowl of fresh flakes. My grandmother mixed raw eggs, cream and sugar and poured it over top.
Snow is one of the first “wild” foods small humans learn to forage. And this time of year it’s both free and plentiful to many.
But is snow a magical, local and seasonal specialty, or is it an adventure in extreme eating? As with many wild foods, it can be a bit of both.
I asked Jeff S. Ga…