Alternative food sources.

5948 Views 68 Replies 16 Participants Last post by animalspooker, 5 mo ago

Moroco Mole

Discussion Starter · May 19, 2022

I was asked to post a recipe for the Home made Baby Formula My mother used sometimes. That we also gave to our infant child. When my wife could not breast feed. We could not get the only formula at the time, that he was not sensitive to, on a regular basis.
Without it he would have starved.
So here is my mother's recipe as modified with recommendations from our
pediatrician.

Also encouraged on this thread is alternative food sources and recipes for them, for when stuff just runs out. Like nettles,Dandelions, ect.
Stuff that may not be absolutely nutritious, but will keep you alive .

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41 - 60 of 69 Posts

PaleHawkDown

· #41 · May 25, 2022

Moroco Mole said:
How about pine trees. If you shave one to the inner bark (the first layer where you see white. It is quite edible and has lots of carbs.

Once cones have developed, they have good size seads inside, which are very delicious slightly roasted. They are full of vitamins and minerals.
The black for indians used to stone grind pine cones. Then mix with lard, and cook on a rock to make a kind of bread.
I have ate both pine nuts, which I thought were a great treat.
I have also ate dinner bark on a few of my survival outings. An acquired taste but fills the bellies, kinda has the effect of a big bowl of spaghetti. Energy wise. You can either lay down and take a nap afterword or push on and benefit from that carb high.

I like pine nuts with veal, but the "meat" of the tree tastes bad and has an unpleasant texture. Tea made from the bark of long-leaf and loblolly pine "meat" is an old-wives cure-all for congestion, and hot resin can be used like Vapo-rub. The sap or pitch can be used as poultice for different types of wounds; pitch for weeping wounds, blisters and toothaches, and the sap and resin for bleeding wounds as the "meat" can be ground into a paste for styptic.

Reactions: 3

PaleHawkDown

· #42 · May 25, 2022

Moroco Mole said:
False Morels? Two Types To Look Out For - FreshCap Mushrooms

Worries about morel lookalikes? Learn about the two types of false morels that you need to avoid- Verpa Bohemica and Gyromitra esculenta.

learn.freshcap.com

.

I wonder if that "verpa" one is the kind people used to pick and boil as a laxative.

Reactions: 2

ncnascarlady

· #43 · May 25, 2022

Willow bark is going to be incredibly useful...

Willow bark Information | Mount Sinai - New York

Learn about Willow bark or find a doctor at Mount Sinai Health System.

www.mountsinai.org

.

https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/natural-health-guide/benefits/white-willow-bark

wildfoodsandmedicines.com

Willow — Elise Krohn | Wild Foods and Medicines

On the bands of the river, I am cloaked in a thicket of willow. Its protective branches reach out over the water, providing shade and shelter to birds, mammals and fish. Deer have grazed on the delicate spring growth. The sound of bees and other insects feasting on willow pollen and nectar hums...

wildfoodsandmedicines.com

wildfoodsandmedicines.com

Reactions: 2

Moroco Mole

Discussion Starter · #44 · May 25, 2022 (Edited)

PaleHawkDown said:
I wonder if that "verpa" one is the kind people used to pick and boil as a laxative.

I have been told that it will give you the craps and make you act like you are drunk.
I am not bold enough to try it and see. L O L

Reactions: 3

runfiverun

· #45 · May 26, 2022

aspen i also useful.
they used [still do?] to make aspirin from the inner bark.
good dry aspen is also a great fire starter, peel some bark and scrape at the inner lining to foof it up.
a little spark and it'll get going, we use it all the time when out hunting and packing.

Reactions: 4

shanebrews

· #46 · May 26, 2022

My grandfather used to go out round about the beginning of September and dig ginseng up through the end of October. He'd dry it and go up to Paintsville, KY to sell it. They had some Asian buyers come through around Thanksgiving time every year. That stuff goes for hundreds of dollars a pound. It was how he made Christmas money many years.

He'd save just a little bit for personal use. He affirmed that a dose of ginseng would put the lead in a man's pencil.

Reactions: 2

Moroco Mole

Discussion Starter · #47 · May 26, 2022

That it will. And a kick on the butt to get him started writing

Reactions: 2

ncnascarlady

· #48 · May 26, 2022

Wild ginseng hunting has gotten so bad in the NC mountains that it's illegal and comes with serious fines and jail time. The "hunters" were stripping huge patches bare instead of carefully harvesting it so more would grow back.

Reactions: 2

Moroco Mole

Discussion Starter · #49 · May 26, 2022 (Edited)

ncnascarlady said:
Wild ginseng hunting has gotten so bad in the NC mountains that it's illegal and comes with serious fines and jail time. The "hunters" were stripping huge patches bare instead of carefully harvesting it so more would grow back.

Yep we still have a right to take it but Ohio has limits on the size of the root you can sell. To small and they go to jail for buying it. Shame it has to come down to that.

Reactions: 3

AK Hunter

· #50 · May 27, 2022

Most of us live by a small lake or water source that has cat tails growing in it, did you know they are eatable?
In fact they may be the ultimate survival plant. Who knew??
Cattails actually produce more starch per acre than potatoes and were almost helped the US win WWII.

https://www.therusticelk.com/how-to-eat-cattails/

Reactions: 4

runfiverun

· #51 · May 27, 2022

the roots are the best, but you gotta watch what time of year you take the various parts.
too late and they are more bitter than that milky sap stuff you get from a dandelion.

oh and those are NOT wild hot dogs, but they do poof something marvelous in december when you hit them with a load from a shot shell.

Reactions: 2

blue fox

· #52 · May 27, 2022

AK Hunter said:
Most of us live by a small lake or water source that has cat tails growing in it, did you know they are eatable?
In fact they may be the ultimate survival plant. Who knew??
Cattails actually produce more starch per acre than potatoes and were almost helped the US win WWII.

https://www.therusticelk.com/how-to-eat-cattails/

I have read stories about using cattail pollen to stretch flour supplies

Reactions: 2

ncnascarlady

· #53 · May 27, 2022

Water source yes, cattails no...😕

Reactions: 1

neophyte

· #54 · May 27, 2022

repeating-adding. Reading 🤓 a link.

www.eattheweeds.com

Cattails - A Survival Dinner - Eat The Weeds and other things, too

Array

www.eattheweeds.com

Cattails: Swamp Supermarket
The United States almost won WWII with cattails.
No green plant produces more edible starch per acre than the Cat O’ Nine Tails; not potatoes, rice, taros or yams. Plans were underway to feed American soldiers with that starch when WWII stopped. Lichen, not a green plant, might produce more carbs per acre. One acre of cattails can produce 6,475 pounds of flour per year on average (Harrington 1972).

Cattail pollen
Two species of cattails are common in North America today. One is Typha latifolia (TYE-fuh lat-ih-FOH-lee-uh) the other Typha angustifolia (an-gus-tee-FOH-lee-uh.) Typha is from Greek and means “marsh” — now you how “typhoid” got its name and Typhoid Mary. Latifolia mean wide leaf, angustifolia means skinny leaf. Besides that difference, the T. latifolia likes shallower water, the T. angustifolia deeper water, but it is not unusual to find them living side by side and also crossbreeding — L’angustifolia perhaps. Cattails get their name from their mature brown cylindrical flower spikes. When I was a kid we used to used the dried spikes as torches while skating in the winter time. The end of season fluffy “tails” make excellent tinder and the Indians used them insulation, mattresses and absorption

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ncnascarlady

· #55 · May 27, 2022

How To Make Flour From Cattails

Cattails produce a high protein pollen which can be easily collected and used just like any flour you buy from the store.

www.survival-manual.com

Reactions: 2

PaleHawkDown

· #56 · May 27, 2022

I wonder how many useful plants have been lost through the centuries. The Romans drove a plant to extinction that acted as a birth control. I read an article that India has lost more than 3000 medicinal plants over the centuries, and there are dozens of critically endangered ones. There are dosens of native American plants that have gone extinct, and more that are endangered.

I once interviewed the last medicine woman of the local band of Muskogee. She showed me a journal of a previous medicine woman that contained a single, pressed, blue flower. The flower cured migraines, among other things, and only grew in one area of Escambia County. When the government built the Indian school in the early 20th Century, they bulldozed the area where the flower grew, and they never came back. The current medicine woman had had her flower analyzed to see if it grew anywhere else, or even had a name. Nope, it was a novel species.

I also read that we only have a fraction of the plant diversity that they had a century ago, and previous generations suffered from less diversity than their fore-bearers. (Actually around 1/4, What is Agrobiodiversity?)

Just since the 1950s we have lost several banana, apple (86%, What is Agrobiodiversity?), fruit and vegetable varietals due to over-harvesting or blight, as well as several species of fish due to overfishing. Flipping through any good vintage cookbook you are bound to find something that has to be substituted. Even the milk and cheese we get has less diversity than just 40 years ago (How Globalization and Climate Change Are Taking Away Our Favorite Foods).

We lost a popular variety of pear around 1920, the most popular type of banana in 1965, and countless varieties or tart apples and persimmon over the last 200 years. Chocolate, agave, Arabica coffee beans, peanuts, several species of wine grape, honey, avocado, and maple syrup are the most likely losses over the next 30 to 100 years.

It's even worse when you think about the meat that has gone extinct, or even "cheap" meat that has become expensive luxury due to increased rarity.

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Reactions: 2

shanebrews

· #57 · May 27, 2022

PaleHawkDown said:
I wonder how many useful plants have been lost through the centuries. The Romans drove a plant to extinction that acted as a birth control. I read an article that India has lost more than 3000 medicinal plants over the centuries, and there are dozens of critically endangered ones. There are dosens of native American plants that have gone extinct, and more that are endangered.

I once interviewed the last medicine woman of the local band of Muskogee. She showed me a journal of a previous medicine woman that contained a single, pressed, blue flower. The flower cured migraines, among other things, and only grew in one area of Escambia County. When the government built the Indian school in the early 20th Century, they bulldozed the area where the flower grew, and they never came back. The current medicine woman had had her flower analyzed to see if it grew anywhere else, or even had a name. Nope, it was a novel species.

I also read that we only have a fraction of the plant diversity that they had a century ago, and previous generations suffered from less diversity than their fore-bearers. (Actually around 1/4, What is Agrobiodiversity?)

Just since the 1950s we have lost several banana, apple (86%, What is Agrobiodiversity?), fruit and vegetable varietals due to over-harvesting or blight, as well as several species of fish due to overfishing. Flipping through any good vintage cookbook you are bound to find something that has to be substituted. Even the milk and cheese we get has less diversity than just 40 years ago (How Globalization and Climate Change Are Taking Away Our Favorite Foods).

We lost a popular variety of pear around 1920, the most popular type of banana in 1965, and countless varieties or tart apples and persimmon over the last 200 years. Chocolate, agave, Arabica coffee beans, peanuts, several species of wine grape, honey, avocado, and maple syrup are the most likely losses over the next 30 to 100 years.

It's even worse when you think about the meat that has gone extinct, or even "cheap" meat that has become expensive luxury due to increased rarity.

There's a handful of old-timers in Western North Carolina trying to preserve the heirloom apples.

Reactions: 2

PaleHawkDown

· #58 · May 27, 2022

We had a cider apple tree and a pear tree at the farm. The apples were small and tart, and incredible. I've spent hours online on Google images looking for them and I can't find anything. The pear tree produced really soft, sweet pears that lacked the gritty feel of most pears. Likewise, I can't find any pears that look like them.

My grandaddy grew the trees from cuttings off of old dying trees at the original homestead.

Reactions: 2

shanebrews

· #59 · May 27, 2022

I got really fascinated by those guys a couple of years ago. One of them has like a 3 year waiting list to get a sapling. He's pretty low tech and verging on 80. He's tramped from West Virginia to Georgia looking for unique varieties of apples.

Reactions: 2

neophyte

· #60 · May 27, 2022

PaleHawkDown: Sir; adding 🤔

Silphium was used by the Romans as a form of herbal birth control. They used it so often, in fact, that the plant went extinct before the fall of the Roman Empire

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