I just read "Patriots" and was struck by the travels of one of the characters from New Mexico to Montana mostly on foot. One of his problems was food.
He lived on MREs and then on a deer he jerked. He was often hungry and the all-meat diet played havoc on his guts. A bit longer and he'd have had a good case of scurvy.
With a little training, one could easily live off the land using local plants with very little effort.
Dandelion, plantain, malva, and a number of other lawn weeds are excellent food as are dozens of other plants. Many plants also have medicinal properties.
I'm a serous herbalist and (to a lesser degree) a wild plant eating nut.
I'd encourage those with an inclination to bugout to learn some basic edible plants information. Those with the inclination would also do well to study a bit of medicinal herbology of local plants. Then practice.
he should have ate cacti like the prickly pear, cut away the thorns and "hairs"(fine thorns) and they are easy to carry if packed right... just a thought...
__________________ 12-21-2012: Party like theres no tomorrow!!!
Just got back from a weekend backpacking trip, and thanks to a very enthusiastic amateur botanist, I can identify edible manzanita berries, edible flowers and gooseberry plants. That was really all she could identify successfully, so at least that should get me an extra few calories and vitamins.
__________________
I take my coffee how I take my women: bitter and overbearing.
Any smooth grubs/caterpillars. Do NOT eat fuzzy ones.
Most beetles except bombardier beetles. Wasp larvae, cicadas in any form,
katydids, grasshoppers and just about anything else. NEVER eat insects raw, not even in an emergency as they can carry parasites that can be fatal. Never eat any "wild" meat raw for the same reason. The guy on that survival show (can't remember his name) is an idiot. You can get severe salmonella poisoning or parasites from eating raw snake .
Cook everything. You're never starving to the point where you can't take five minutes to build a fire.
Here is a short list of plants to look into for edibility:
Wild rose hips.
Amarinth.
Any mint.
Almost any nut.
Staghorn sumac NOT poison sumac (Makes a very refreshing lemonade like drink).
Sassafrass (Worlds best tasting drink but Don't eat the berries!!!).
Lambs quarters.
Shepherds purse.
Dandelions.
Cresses.
Cattails/tules.
Pokeweed.
Shawnee.
Mayapples.
salsify.
chickweed.
Wild asparagus.
Spring beauties (The BEST in my opinion).
Docks.
Fiddleheads.
Nettles.
Purslane.
Chia.
Chufa.
Mesquite.
Manzanita.
Orach.
Most seaweeds.
Wild onions (If it looks like an onion but doesn't have the smell, LEAVE IT!!).
Alifaria.
Pickleweed.
Toothwort (Great pepper substitute).
Nasturtiums (tastes like watercress).
Groundnuts
Puffballs.
And many more.
No matter where in the country you are, you'll find at least six of these plants.
As I have eaten everything on this list, I don't care for the docks much but they're rich in iron and vitamin C. I don't care much for Alifaria because it tends to be tough.
My favorite outdoor sandwich is made of a tortilla made from cattail roots.
I thought I might share it with Y'all.
Pound wet roots in container of water and sift out fibers.
Mix it with regular flour or greens as a binder if you like.
let starch settle to bottom. Carefully pour off water, roll starch into patties and let dry. Roast this "flatbread" on a fire heated, thin, flat rock.
Fill sandwich with the following:
Roasted spring beauty tubers. (soft and nutty flavored)
Watercress or Nasturtium. (for a little "bite" )
cooked spring beauty greens or raw Miners lettuce. (For a flavor that surpasses spinach)
And if your near a creek, Creek chubs (cleaned), crawfish or boned frog legs. Canned sardines are superb in this sandwich. YUM!
If you want something similar but don't have the time or resourses:
Arrowroot flour/wheat flour mix, salt and eggs for flatbread.
Roasted then cooked chestnuts instead of spring beauties.
Nasturtiums can be found in most flower gardens.
Spinach, collard greens or kale. Purslane is very easy to find anywhere and is good here too.
Canned sardines, salmon or makerel.
It's not exactly the same but fairly similar and very tasty!!
Oh! You can have raw cattail/tule shoots on the side as they taste like cucumbers when raw, very refreshing.
I just read "Patriots" and was struck by the travels of one of the characters from New Mexico to Montana mostly on foot. One of his problems was food.
He lived on MREs and then on a deer he jerked. He was often hungry and the all-meat diet played havoc on his guts. A bit longer and he'd have had a good case of scurvy.
DJ
wasn't it true that the Lewis and Clark expedition, also suffered from an all meat/no carbs diet while encamped during the winter???
__________________
MOE! LARRY! THE CHEESE!
Life Member the Elmer Fudd Hunt Club
My favorite outdoor sandwich is made of a tortilla made from cattail roots.
I thought I might share it with Y'all.
Pound wet roots in container of water and sift out fibers.
Mix it with regular flour or greens as a binder if you like.
let starch settle to bottom. Carefully pour off water, roll starch into patties and let dry. Roast this "flatbread" on a fire heated, thin, flat rock.
Fill sandwich with the following:
Roasted spring beauty tubers. (soft and nutty flavored)
Watercress or Nasturtium. (for a little "bite" )
cooked spring beauty greens or raw Miners lettuce. (For a flavor that surpasses spinach)
And if your near a creek, Creek chubs (cleaned), crawfish or boned frog legs. Canned sardines are superb in this sandwich. YUM!
If you want something similar but don't have the time or resourses:
Arrowroot flour/wheat flour mix, salt and eggs for flatbread.
Roasted then cooked chestnuts instead of spring beauties.
Nasturtiums can be found in most flower gardens.
Spinach, collard greens or kale. Purslane is very easy to find anywhere and is good here too.
Canned sardines, salmon or makerel.
It's not exactly the same but fairly similar and very tasty!!
Oh! You can have raw cattail/tule shoots on the side as they taste like cucumbers when raw, very refreshing.
Dammitt! Now I'm hungry!
Enjoy!
Man, I would STARVE to death before I got all those ingredients figured out, found and put together!
__________________
I child-proofed my house, but they still keep getting in!
Man, I would STARVE to death before I got all those ingredients figured out, found and put together!
LOL! Nah! alot of this stuff grows pretty close together. Other stuff can be substituted. Making the flatbread is the only time consuming part of it. You can take lots of pita bread or flour tortillas and skip that part, I do that sometimes.
"Figuring out" is more education. Take little day trip walks with a field guide around where you live. The Audubon series is best as they have photos. I bet you'll be surprised at how much you can find. Just remember to positively identify everything before you eat it. You'll soon be hooked.
I don't care for the "universal edibility test" as you can accidently wind up with terminal poisoning. Good examples of what can kill you with a small taste are:
Poison/water hemlock (quite possibly the deadliest plant on earth).
Foxglove (digitalis, need I say more?)
Amanitas (possibly the second deadliest)
Rosary peas.
Showy Monkshood.
Zigademus (death camas).
Some that could make you really ill:
Datura (Jimson weeds).
Belladonna (Nightshades).
Anything that looks like an onion but lacks the smell.
Raw, unripe elderberries.
unripe mayapples.
I advocate the "learn now while you have time" method instead of the "Learn because you now have no choice" method.
I've been eating wild edibles since I was a kid and continue to do so now.
Hunting, learning and eating wild edibles is one of the few great adventures left to discover in life! If you love the outdoors, then it will be an addiction that is worse than gun addiction.
Maybe I should write a book. (j/k)
I'm sorry if I hijacked the thread, I really didn't mean to.
Dragonuv has covered the Edible plants book list well.
For herbs, get Michael Tierra's "The Way of Herbs", John Christopher's "School of Natural Healing" and James Green's "The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual "
There are several good field guides as well. Get one you like for the part of the country you live in.
Herbalism is something that can be used very simply for simple things or, if you have the inclination, can be a very deep and useful avocation. The references above will be good guides for either path.
I buy most of my herbs in bulk from San Francisco HErb Co
Powdered herbs and capsules have a shelf life of a year or so. Tinctures (liquid alcohol etracts of herbs) can last many many years. I make all my own tinctures using Vodka or Everclear as the base. Throw the herbs into the right percentage of booze in a mason jar, keep them in a dark cupboard and shake them well daily for a couple of weeks. Then strain and store.
I work with about 75 different herbs in my Vet practice (also use modern medicine of course) and am a consultant for a large herbal supplement company. The herbs really do work. When TSHTF we would do well to be able to doctor ourselves with lawn and garden weeds regular medicines will be scarce and costly at TEOTWAWKI.
I'd like to add a hearty "Amen" to Dragonuv's recommendation of Larry Olsen's book (BTW, Hijack away brother, I'm lovin' the posts ) .
I read that book so much I about wore it out as a kid growing up in Iowa. As an adult I moved to Idaho. I was sitting in a church council meeting once and I met a guy named Larry Olsen...nice guy, we became good friends. It was about a year later that I realized that my friend was also my childhood hero! I couldn't believe it. I guess the white shirt and neck tie threw me. Not sure what he did with his buckskins. He lives about 5 miles from me...in a house, not a wikiup. LOL
Didn't change anything about our relationship, but was a cool and funny experience.
I'd like to add a hearty "Amen" to Dragonuv's recommendation of Larry Olsen's book (BTW, Hijack away brother, I'm lovin' the posts ) .
I read that book so much I about wore it out as a kid growing up in Iowa. As an adult I moved to Idaho. I was sitting in a church council meeting once and I met a guy named Larry Olsen...nice guy, we became good friends. It was about a year later that I realized that my friend was also my childhood hero! I couldn't believe it. I guess the white shirt and neck tie threw me. Not sure what he did with his buckskins. He lives about 5 miles from me...in a house, not a wikiup. LOL
Didn't change anything about our relationship, but was a cool and funny experience.
I will say this again...if you do not have a copy of The Boy Scout Manual, yer missing out on one of the BEST sources of information about what you can & can't eat in the wild
Kinda helps if you were a Boy Scout as well
Also, "My Side of the Mountain", by Jean Craighead George, which was also a decent old Disney Movie (can't play it these days, the Liberals would have a cow). The other 4 books in the series were good reading as well, but it's definitely the one to start with.
The average 5th grader with an above-average reading level should easily be able to handle it, with a few questions to Parental Units about a few more technical words.
The average adults will find it a fun read, with quite a few instances of hearkening back to one's woodsy childhood
__________________ Marlin & Calico Specialist
I'm not just Trigger Happy, I'm Trigger Ecstatic!!
