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| Cymopterus longipes |
The most common species in my area is Cymopterus longipes, which is one of the earliest plants to grow in the spring. It can be recognized by the clusters of yellow flowers rising from a rosette of bluish-green parsley-like leaves. A more specific characteristic to look for is a pseudoscape. This is a sort of stem between the top of the root and the leaf rosette. This allows the top of the root to be lower in the ground, but later in the season, it may elongate and lift the leaves off the ground. It prefers dry fields with full sun.
The root is a vertical tap root which can go quite deep, so I usually just get as much root as my spade will go deep, assuming the ground is not too rocky to dig at all. This species tends to have roots which can be up to a half inch in diameter, and as long as you can dig. They have a thin dark outer layer, and the inside is white. Some of the better-known Lomatium species of biscuit roots can form larger tuberous roots, but I dig what is available to me.
The traditional processing of the root takes several steps. 1) Peel or scrape off the dark outer layer. 2) Dry the root. 3) Pound it into a powder with a metate. 4) Form it into "biscuits" of various size and thickness. 5) Bake or dry the biscuits.
I found that removing the outer layer is necessary in order for the root to dry out completely, which is not too surprising for a plant so well adapted to dry desert habitats. I used a food dryer running at a low temperature overnight to dry the roots. The dried roots are light and brittle, so pounding them would turn them into a powder pretty easily, but in modern times, a blender or coffee grinder is much easier for making it into a powder. If fully dried and kept that way, they should store well, but I have not tested how long one can store the biscuits.
To make the biscuits, combine the powdered root with some salt and fat (lard or bacon grease or butter or whatever you have) for flavor. Without the salt and fat, the biscuits will be very bland and crumbly, and much less enjoyable to eat. Add water until you have a good doughy consistency. The root can probably absorb more water than you expect, because that is what these roots are made to do. Form it into a biscuit shape, and bake or fry it. There is no gluten, of course, so the result will be the sort of dry bread-like consistency we describe as a biscuit.
The taste is mild and pleasant, though it varies some depending on the species. It's not too different in taste from a dry whole wheat biscuit. It may be important to collect the roots of Cymopterus longipes in the spring, because I have tasted them later in the year and found them to be bitter.
The leaves are also edible. They have a good earthy-parsley flavor, which is probably too strong to eat much of it alone, but it can work as a pot-herb when combined with other milder plants, or better yet, as a spice to improve the flavor of soups and sauces. They get quite mushy when boiled, so they will soon disappear into the broth if stirred much. When the leaves are used, the plant is often called "spring parsley" instead of "biscuit root". And this particular species is called "longstalk spring parsley" because of the pseudoscape.
The next most common species in my locality is Lomatium triternatum. I get similar results with its roots. The flavor of the biscuit is very similar, but maybe a little lighter in flavor. There is a hint of carrot flavor in the raw root. The few narrow leaves have a strong resiny flavor, so I don't like eating those.
Lomatium dissectum is also common around here, but you should not use this species for food, at least not the root in the same way as other biscuit roots, because its roots are very resinous and balsamic. It is more of a medicinal plant.
