Wild Food

In a way we are going to take a little time away from the wilderness survival topic. However, what I am going to talk about today is very important to wilderness survival. That topic is the finding and gathering of wild food. You will be able to catch small animals and birds and if you have a firearm with you, you will be able to take somewhat larger game. How large depends on what type of weapon you are carrying. You should also be prepared to catch fish if there is any water around. But first of all we need to look at plants, nuts and berries. In the spring, summer and fall, they will provide you the most food for the least effort.

One of the things that I do each and every spring, summer and fall is to find wild plants that are edible. Some of them are actually delicious. In the spring I usually start with two old favorites of mine: dandelions and plantain. These are two plants that are so common that they are easily recognized and they cannot be mistaken for anything else. If you get these two plants when they are very young they make an excellent salad. Once they get a little older the need to be cooked like any greens. With both of them I like to cover with cold water, bring to a boil and then take them off the heat and drain off all of the water. I then put them back into some cold water and bring them to a boil once again. Add a little salt to the water and if you want to get fancy, you can add a little butter and you have an excellent meal. Well, not exactly a meal, but an excellent addition to any meal. I normally find these plants right in my yard. Just make sure that there are no poisons used on the area where you are picking these plants. In the spring I also have morel mushrooms on my property, so I get those also. On a camping/fishing trip I made a number of years ago, I went out trout fishing in the morning. I caught three trout, I found some watercress in the stream I was fishing and wound up finding some morel mushrooms on my way back to my camp. That was one of the best meals I have ever had. I fried the trout and morels in butter and used the watercress as a salad and I felt like I was living like a king.

I am not going to get too deep into plants because there are so many and some are only in one part of the country. I just want to show how easy it can be to live off the land. What everyone needs to do is to get a good field guide to edible plants in their area and study it. You may only want to try out one plant per month or maybe not even that many. Just remember, the more you try out now the less you will have to worry if it becomes a necessity. Cattails are one of the best food plants that you can find. Their root can be used like a potato, the stem can be peeled and eaten like celery and if the plant has the white fuzz on the upper part, this can be used as flour or to stretch flour you might have.

Summer is a great time for berries. So far this year I have picked wild strawberries, wild raspberries, wild blueberries and am waiting for the wild blackberries to ripen. I will also hopefully be able to pick some elderberries and some choke cherries. They come a little later in the summer or early fall. Then there will be the nuts. I will gather acorns and hazel nuts if I can beat the squirrels to them. The acorns will be leeched out to get the bitter tanic acid out and then will be ground up for flour. If I get enough this year I will be roasting some and roasting some dandelion roots and then I will grind both and use them as a coffee substitute. I have a spot where I can get walnuts and I will get all I can. They are a little difficult to shell, but at the price of walnuts in the store, it is well worth it.

Then there are strange things like Canada thistles. Using gloves I get one as large as possible and I take all of the leaves off and then I peel the outer skin off of the main stalk. Eaten raw with maybe a little salt on them they are excellent. Stinging nettles is another one that you need gloves to tackle but they are excellent table fare.

Something to look for in the wild is what appear to be old farmsteads. Here you can find apple trees, plum trees and many other domestic plants that have gone wild. The fruit may not be as large or as pretty as what you find in a store, but they can be tasty and healthy.

These are just a few suggestions on what to find in the woods. There are many more as I stated but there are many books out there that will give you all the information you need. You can also go on the web and Google wild plants for food and I am sure you will have plenty to keep you busy. If you have never done it, gathering wild plants for food can be a fun thing. You need to start right now and learn at least a couple of the most common ones in your area. Then go out and pick them and eat them. You may find, like any food, there will be some you will not like. You need to know this before the time comes when you may have to live off these plants.

We will get back to where I left off last time with the next entry. Until then Survive.