Snow can be safe to eat, says Oregon State University professor
It's a question many Maritimers are wondering — what should we do with all this snow?
Shovel it? Salt it? Sled in it? Or maybe — eat it?
While it's common sense to avoid gulping down a handful of the yellow stuff, what about fluffy white snow? Is it OK to eat?
To find out, CBC's Mainstreet contacted a professor who researches snow and ice.
"Absolutely. It's fun to eat snow," said Anne Nolin, a professor at the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science at Oregan State University.
"When I first lived in Vermont, we used to eat snow in the spring. We had a tradition at the ski area where we'd go out and get a big bowl of snow. Then they'd have freshly made maple syrup and we'd pour it on. We'd call it a Vermont sundae."
Nolin said freshly fallen snow is essentially just distilled water falling out of the atmosphere.
"It's as pure as the distilled water that you might buy at the grocery store," she said.
"In fact, it's so pure that when I was working in Greenland, and we had to melt snow for our water supply, we had to add electrolytes to it because you can't just go on drinking distilled water because it removes the electrolytes from your body."
Instead of an egg, try snow
Not only is it OK to eat snow on its own, it can apparently be used for baking, too.
Last week, Nova Scotia Archives tweeted a recipe out of a wartime economy cookbook that dates back to 1945.
"Any batter cake requiring one egg, can be successfully made without it, by substituting for the egg, one level cupful of snow, folding in just before putting the cake in the oven. Good idea for winter baking when eggs are scarce and high," reads the recipe, submitted by Mrs. Alex E. Hudson of Country Harbour.
Marc Kimble, the pastry chef at Smith's Bakery in Halifax, said while he's eaten snow, he's never baked with it.
"I've definitely shovelled quite a few handfuls in my mouth over the years," he said.
He'd never heard of baking with snow until he saw the Nova Scotia Archives' tweet.
"My best guess is that it would work because there is a small amount of ammonia in snow, which would react with any sort of baking soda or baking powder," said Kimble.
Don't eat pink, grey or brownish snow
For people who want to try baking with snow at home, Kimble encourages them to take their favourite pancake recipe, replacing a quarter of the eggs with 1 cup of snow. And he also has a snow cone recipe that calls for sugar, water, fruit puree and salt.
While snow is extremely pure in its freshly fallen state, Nolin reminds people to think twice about eating it if you're downstream or downwind from a pollution source.
Other snow to avoid is the pink stuff, also known as watermelon snow, as pretty as it might be. That's because it contains toxic algae, which can be bad news for your gastrointestinal system.
"You certainly don't want to eat grey or brownish snow that's got mineral dust or soot," said Nolin. "If it's in a snow drift next to a road, I would not eat that."
But the bottom line: if you're tempted to eat freshly fallen snow, it's going to be just fine. And potentially delicious.
