We take a moment before each post to acknowledge that the land we learn from, responsibly take from, and generously give back to, is the traditional and contemporary homeland of the Anishinaabe peoples, specifically the Council of Three Fires (the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations), among others.
We pay respect to their ancient stewardship, ecological wisdom, and continued presence here in the Great Lakes region, committing ourselves to learning and practicing the ethics of stewardship and harvesting that they pioneered.
Land is not property, land is a relation.
One of my happiest memories as a kid is sticking my tongue out during a snow storm, bundled up in about 30 different layers of clothes.
I would look up at the beautiful gray sky with large globs (globs?) of soft snow falling down into my peripheral.
I had heard about yellow snow (we had dogs) so I knew not to eat that.
Something fun we would also do is get colored liquid dyes and squirt out drawing onto the snowbanks.
Definitely haven’t heard about that since it was made so who knows if it’s still made today.
I didn’t know until I reached my thiiiiiiirties that snow was used culinarily, when I got my copy of Phaidon’s “America: The Cookbook” and found a recipe for “Sugar on Snow” with just two ingredients: maple syrup and snow.
“Gather clean, fresh snow and pack it in a shallow pan. Put the pan of snow in the freezer while the syrup is cooking.
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the maple syrup to a boil. Cook until a candy (sugar) thermometer reads 235-240F (113-116C).
Drizzle the syrup over the snow. Eat with a fork or fingers. Serve with sour pickles and plain doughnuts.”
The syrup will be extremely hot—hotter than boiling water—and will need to be handled carefully when drizzling over the snow to avoid burns.
Sour pickles aside (but maybe it’s a “don’t knock it ‘til you try it” situation), the recipe sounds really awesome.
If I remember correctly, Anthony Bourdain had this during one of his No Reservations episode in Quebec where he visits a “Cabane à Sucre” (Sugar Shack).
I’ve never had it before myself.
As the years went on and I started getting curious about it and wanting to try it, I started reading mixed thoughts about it all, what with the chemicals, pollutants, bacteria and other crap I might be ingesting.
I picture weeks of bad diarrhea like one of those drain unclogging videos.
Sorry, that’s a bad mental image.
So what do we do?
We have these recipes for eating snow, but many people are saying either to not eat snow or eat a very specific amount, from a very specific area, during a very specific time, if you’re above a certain age.
Colorado State University snow hydrologist Steven Fassnacht said, “Snow has more surface area than rain, so it can pull more contaminants out of the air…”
“They come out of the tailpipe, out of the smokestack, et cetera. So, if you’re downwind from a major industrial source of these, then the likelihood that you have these in the snowpack is a lot higher.”
Okay, so we’ve learned two things:
- Avoid any snow by a road.
- Avoid any snow downwind from an industrial source.
“There are just so many little bits and pieces of plastic around. Think about going out in the snow. You’ve got plastic ski boots on and plastic skis and poles, and your jacket and all your equipment, that’s all plastic. Any breakdown of that – which will happen over time – is going to put microplastics onto the snowpack.”
- Avoid any snow that is or may have been in contact with plastic.
So in the case of plastics, I can see the shedding of plastic being a potential environmental issue anyways, regardless of the time of year.
But what about the vessel you put the snow in?
I would say nothing made of plastic.
As a matter of fact, just go along with the recipe from above and put fresh, clean snow directly into a shallow metal pan.
Regarding dust, Reddit user Clcooper423 said, “Safe, probably. More gross than you think though. There’s a spec of dust in every snowflake.”
To which KronusIV replied, “There’s dust in everything you eat and drink, unless you live in a clean room.”
So the answer I’m getting after doing some research is this:
Eat freshly fallen snow in moderation, and don’t eat snow that is off-color, near a road, downwind from an industrial source, or has come in contact with plastic of any kind.
I like this answer from Redditor sapient-meerkat, “For the most part, it’s not a smart idea to eat snow, drink rainwater directly from a bucket it collected in, or chew on dirt. All of those have the risk of being contaminated by bacteria in the natural environment that (a) you wouldn’t be able to notice and (b) could make you quite ill.
Does that mean that every kid who runs outside, grabs a handful of snow, and eats it is going to get diarrhea? Of course not.
But it’s probably not a good idea to do that with anything but freshly fallen snow or to make a regular meal habit out of it.”
Get eaten by the wild things (but not literally),
Trevor.
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