At their tops, most of them still had some brown, rod-shaped inflorescences, already burst open to reveal the white fluff inside.

The bitter cold wind blew through and occasionally took away a small handful of white, dandelion-like seeds, dancing in the air.

On Lin Yu'an's face appeared an expression of joy akin to discovering a gold mine, impossible to suppress.

"So lucky! Just so lucky!" He could hardly contain his excitement as he spoke to the camera.

"Look there! That's a large patch of broadleaf cattail!"

He quickly walked to the cattail patch, and to allow the audience to clearly identify it, he specifically broke off a dried stalk with white fluff at the top and held it in front of the camera.

"Many people confuse it with reeds because they both like growing by the water, and their inflorescences become fluffy in winter, preparing to spread seeds."

"But in the wild, misidentifying plants can sometimes be fatal. Even when they're burst open, the difference remains very obvious."

He pointed to the fluffy, but still cylindrical cattail inflorescence in his hand.

He pinched a bit of the delicate white fluff with his fingers: "The cattail's inflorescence, even after bursting, has a core that remains an extremely solid, velvety cylinder."

"All the fluff bursts from this hard 'core,' resembling a huge cotton swab, and its structure is centripetal."

"In contrast, the reed's inflorescence structure is entirely different. It doesn't have a central cylinder, but consists of countless slender, branched stems."

"It's like a miniature, white-flowered Christmas tree. Its structure is dispersed, like a large, fluffy broom."

"The difference can be understood as one being a solid spiked club fluffed up, and the other a feather duster turned white."

"Even though they look similar, their values are completely different."

"In North America, cattails are called the 'wilderness supermarket' because every part of them is treasure."

"Spring shoots can be eaten as vegetables, summer pollen can be used as flour, and the autumn rhizomes are a source of starch!"

"And what we need most now are the rhizomes buried under the ice layers and permafrost! With them, we have the most reliable carbohydrates!"

Then, using the Damascus Hunting Knife handcrafted by Old George, he whittled one end of the wooden stick into a flat and sturdy excavation rod.

He carefully stepped onto that thin ice skirt, which protested with a creak, but fortunately supported his weight steadily.

"It's late autumn now." He explained to the camera while moving on the ice.

"While the above-ground parts of the cattails have withered, they've stored the energy accumulated all year through photosynthesis in underground rhizomes as starch."

"The ones dug up now are not only the largest but also the highest in nutritional value."

He approached the dry, yellow cattail cluster, selected the most robust dried stalk, and instead of digging directly, he first raised his Gränsfors Forest Axe.

But instead of using the sharp axe blade, he turned it around and used the thick axe back to strike the ice layer around the cattail roots like a warhammer! 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

With each crisp ice-breaking sound, he forcefully hammered open a circular hole about half a meter in diameter, exposing the cold, not yet fully frozen black mud underneath.

After clearing the broken ice, he cautiously walked into that muddy patch just over his ankles, wearing high waterproof heavy-duty hiking boots.

Then, using the wooden rod to dig deep into the mud beneath the ice hole, he pressed down forcefully!

A large chunk of black mud, intertwined with tangled roots, was lifted up intact by him.

Wearing waterproof gloves, he disregarded the icy water and carefully searched through it.

Soon, he yanked out a spindle-shaped rhizome, a circle thicker than his finger, covered in coarse brown fibrous roots.

He used the Damascus Hunting Knife to scrape a small piece of the outer skin, revealing the white, tightly packed, starch-rich flesh inside.

"Look at this, snow-white perfect ingredients!"

He tossed the heavy rhizome, weighing at least two or three pounds, onto a dry spot on the shore and continued his harvesting work.

In the next half hour, using the same method, he harvested over a dozen similar thick rhizomes before hurriedly returning to the shore.

He didn't want to dig more, but despite the boots, his feet were freezing, so he quickly left the cold, wet muddy ground.

"These are enough to last me a few days, and I just need to place them in the embers of the fire to slowly roast them—tasting exactly like the best roasted potatoes."

"I can even mash them, wash out the starch, and make the most primitive flatbread. This cattail patch will be my most stable and reliable staple food source for the next few months!"

After Lin Yu'an harvested the staple food, he consciously searched for other plant resources on his way back to camp.

On a sun-facing slope with exposed rocks, he discovered a low-growing plant spread out like a red carpet on the ground.

It was adorned with frost-bitten, round fruits, glistening like red rubies.

"Fantastic! Bearberries!" He immediately recognized this most common berry near the Arctic Circle.