Because there were several Catbriar (Smilax spp., also called Greenbriar, Horsebriar, and Rip-your-thumb) vines growing nearby, I went inside and googled "catbriar tubers" and discovered that... Catbriar grows from tubers! (In fact, part of the reason Catbriar is challenging for gardeners to eradicate is that, indeed, it grows from tubers, not just simple roots. When an ungloved gardener risks thumb-ripping and pulls out a Catbriar, the tuber is left behind and simply sends up a new shoot.)
In reading about Catbriar, I also learned that you can eat several parts of the plant (which seems more respectful to the plant than using herbicides to kill the tuber). The new-growth tips can be eaten in salads (or out in the field) and various Native Americans processed the tubers to make a caloric starch product and to make a sarsaparilla-like flavoring for beverages. (Commercial sarsaparilla today comes from the tubers of a Central American Smilax species).
I found three websites with information on preparing and eating Catbriars.
First, one site writes about both the tendrils and the tubers. "To find the edible tips just pull on the greenbriar vine until you get to it's top end. You can eat any soft, tender portion of the plant (stem, leaves, and tendrils). ...These above ground portions of the plant can all be eaten raw, the leaves and tendrils can also be cooked like spinach, and the vines can cooked like asparagus." And, the tubers "can form a mass up to 75 pounds but are difficult to dig due to their many long roots. The starch produced from the tubers may have an astringent, unpleasant taste but it is rich in calories. It is exceptionally good at thickening stews and even water to the point of becoming almost Jello-like. Native Americans would slow roast the tubers under a fire for several days, then chew the cooked starch out of the tubers and spit out the fibers. The youngest tubers are the best to harvest. They will be the lightest in color though the color may be white, light pink, light purple or light yellow." Another site mentions making the syrup from the tubers; a third site describes actually making the syrup and using it in a vodka and soda drink.
Based on this advice, I kept the three light-colored tubers for making faux sarsaparilla and replanted the dark tuber to repair my relationship with the spirit of the Catbriar plant.
I chopped the three light-colored tubers into small slices of one-quarter inch thickness.
Once they were all sliced, I put them in a pot, filled the pot with water...
... brought the water to a boil, and then let the tuber chips sit at a slow boil for several hours until the boiling water had evaporated down to the level of the chips.
I then fished out most of the tuber chips with a spoon and poured the rest of the liquid residue through a paper coffee filter.
In the end, this made about 2/3s of a cup (150 ml) of flavored liquid. As a standalone syrup, it had a slightly bitter taste.
I put one teaspoon of the syrup in a wine glass...
...and filled the rest of the glass with carbonated water (from my home SodaStream soda machine).
The verdict: It's a very refreshing beverage with a taste like... no surprise here... sarsaparilla or unsweetened rootbeer. If I added more of the Catbriar syrup to make a stronger-flavored drink, I would probably add a little bit of sugar or sweetener to reduce the bitterness. However, at the concentration I used, the bitterness is not at all unpleasant.
Would I make this again? Yes. I enjoy diet root beer and will probably continue to experiment with this Smilax sarsaparilla as a locally-harvested alternative to store-bought root beer syrups.
Afterthought: Although several of the web sites referenced above mention that Native Americans used the Smilax tubers, I don't find any reference to this practice in John Lawson's journal (A Voyage to Carolina containing the Exact Description and Natural History of the Country) describing his 1700-1701 travels through Native American cultures in the lands which were to become South and North Carolina. Lawson gives many details about how various plants were used both by Native Americans and by the European colonists. I wonder whether there were so many other foods available that the Native Americans in eastern North Carolina actually did little with Catbriar tubers. There's also no mention of Catbriar in Douglas L. Rights' The American Indian in North Carolina (Second Edition, 1957). I can easily imagine fish, oysters, and other game were tastier.
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