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Wild Food (Read 7343 times)
english
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Wild Food
Feb 14th, 2005 at 2:50pm
 
I was out with a friend of mine today, trying to teach him primitive skills.  I gave him a digging stick and told him to dig up any thistle, bristly ox tongue, burdock, dandelion, cat-tail and arrowhead roots he could find.  He went off for a while. about an hour, as I was making a simple atlatl he could use.  He came back nearly empty handed, with only two good size (golf ball size) arrowhead roots.  He said that he had dug up all the plants I had mentioned and shown him, but he hadn't thought they were edible because the roots were tiny, most being smaller than his little finger.
  He had clearly been surprised by this.  I guess he was expecting some carrot and potato sized tubers.  He also was not expecting digging up roots to be so tiring.
  Gathering is the less glamourous, but far more important, side of hunting and gathering.  It is the part that I do most of, partly because any kind of primitive hunting is pretty much illegal, but also because it is the thing that would take up most time for a hunter gatherer.
  My message is basically, get out there and find that food.  You don't become an all powerful master of the woods, you don't get a fancy weapon.  You get muddy.  But it is worth it.
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #1 - Feb 14th, 2005 at 3:08pm
 
yea i need to lern some of the edibal plants in my area(cenrol
North Carolina)but i dont evan know were to start
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #2 - Feb 15th, 2005 at 8:17am
 
Well, Thomas J Elpel has some very good books.  I haven't got his "Botany in a day", but apparently it's great.  And "Participating in Nature" is brilliant.  Get a load of books on wild flowers (as these will normally contain a lot of wild varieties of staple foods - for instance, I found "wild carrot" and "wild parsnip" in a book, and they are the pre-domesticated versions).  Ray Mears does good books, but I doubt you can get them in the USA (might be able to, not sure), and most survival guides have a large section on wild plants for food.
  If you have cat-tails, then you have a great food source just sitting there.  Dandelions are pretty common everywhere.  Just look around.
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #3 - Feb 15th, 2005 at 10:05am
 
Yea we have Cattails and Dandeilions here. I'v seen the Dandeilions and eaten them(you suposed to eat the greens right?) but I hav'nt seen the Cattail though I'v been tould that we have them.
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #4 - Feb 15th, 2005 at 10:24am
 
Oh and were did you get "Particeipating in Nature" and how mutch did it cost? becuase when I went to go get it the store said it was out of print. ???
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #5 - Feb 15th, 2005 at 1:09pm
 
I have a very dog-eared copy of Wild Edible Plants of Western North America by Donald R. Kirk.
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #6 - Feb 15th, 2005 at 2:21pm
 
I got Participating in Nature on www.amazon.co.uk (amazon.com for Americans, I think.)  I'm fairly sure it's not out of print.
  Cat-tails live by the banks of rivers, lakes, and so on.  Very easily recognisable.
  You can eat dandelion leaves, but they are best left for rabbits and hamsters.  What you really want (especially at this time of year) is the root.  Fairly small, occasionally a bit bitter, but generally tasty and filling.
  I think I will try to find that book, Douglas.  It may not be any use to me at the moment, but you never know.
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #7 - Feb 16th, 2005 at 8:52am
 
Great episode of Killer Instinct with Rob Bredl on last night about Australian bush tucker. Evidently, if you know where and how to look, the whole bush is chock-a-block full of stuff to eat.
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #8 - Feb 18th, 2005 at 10:39am
 
I went out for a walk today with a hippy girl I know, and I didn't bring anything along with me to eat, except a bottle of chilli sauce and some mustard, and no money.  But we basically had a feast.  I found food everywhere, and this is winter! I collected about forty edible roots, including arrowheads, phragmites reeds, bulrushes, pignut and wild onion, in an hour, which is something of a record for me.  We also had plenty of greens, from nettles to hedge garlic, cleavers, dandelion leaves (which normally I wouldn't eat, but there were loads of them), sea purslane (just like spinach, and I had loads of it).  No meat, though, not even any fish.  Tasty lunch, cooked on the beach.  Large salad, and some skewered, roasted vegetables.  Quite amazing.  Used a fire plough set to start the fire, and my companion was very impressed.  The only downside was Fawley oil refinery, visible across the sea.  It is a tremendously ugly thing, the price of a modern life.  It's also very loud.  It must have been twenty ks away, but we could hear the sounds coming from it, a sort of dull hum.  It was ok if we didn't look in that direction, and the sea was nice, but....
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #9 - Feb 18th, 2005 at 11:42am
 
I remember scanning a Tom Brown book about survival for kids. In it he said that you can usually find either pine needles, cattails, grass, or something else and basically have something to sustain you. The grass you put in your mouth and suck out the juice.
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #10 - Feb 18th, 2005 at 11:47am
 
I read something like that somewhere.  Doesn't sound too great, to be honest.  Not exactly appetising.  Cat-tails can be eaten any time of the year, but I wouldn't want to survive totally on them.  They taste like roast chestnuts, but I only like those around Christmas and rarely any other time.
  I'm curious, has anyone eaten any insects ever?  I must have mentioned this before, but I don't really remember.  Toasted grasshoppers are some of my favourite summertime treats.  Well, survival foods.  Hmm.  With a bit of mustard, they are quite tasty.
  I found a great website, btw, that probably a lot of people know already. http://www.uqac.uquebec.ca.  Loads of great stuff.
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #11 - Feb 18th, 2005 at 2:41pm
 
ive eaten lots of ants. and on mistake a few flys Smiley i think i have tryed grass hopper once but im not shure.
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #12 - Feb 24th, 2005 at 1:13pm
 
i found a mound of really long maggots a few months ago and eat half of them
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #13 - Feb 24th, 2005 at 1:44pm
 
I used to eat whatever i hunted, the most odd i've eaten are snake,  rats, frogs and snails,,, i've never been eating insects or worms, but i think if i'm hungry enough i would eat them all  Tongue
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Re: Wild Food
Reply #14 - Feb 24th, 2005 at 6:52pm
 
i know someone who eats fried grasshoppers like popcorn, it was pretty crunchy.

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