edible whatsits

[Cleddyf]

some of you might have seen my post in the lets talk about woodcraft thread,
anyway i thought maybe i should start a thread about the whole edible whatsits thingy.
here in new zealand there isn't much stuff to be found in the bush, there are a few fungi and the uncurling fronds of some ferns are edible, other then that its sort of a question of wether you can catch a possum or a bird, if there is a large enough stream you might find a few fresh water krayfish, and depending on where you are there are deer, goats, sheep, cattlebeast thar or chamois, running wild , but thats about it,
if you are by the sea then there is shelfish and seaweed.
anyway i was wondering what it was like where all you lot where, and if you do gather stuff while you are out rangering and if so what sort of stuff?

[Peter Remling]

I live about 40 miles north of New York City and we have an abundance of wild life: squirrel, opussum, raccoon, deer, rabbits, frogs, turtles, snakes, fish and small rodents. We have turkey year round and ducks, geese and swans seasonally.

For vegetation: wild onions, berries and nuts in season, and these are the most common ones that virtually anyone will recognize by sight or smell. A good many flowers that can be eaten are prevelant.

None of the ones I mentioned come close to the bugs, larvea and other eatible things on some of the survival shows for the gross out factor.

[Greg]

Ithuriel's Spear is a purple flower with a delicious, starchy edible tuber around here that can be eaten straight out of the ground or thrown into a stew or salad.

The Brodeia, another common wildflower, has a small bulb at the base that is an acquired taste, but edible.

We also have Miner's Lettuce which I pick and eat straight, much like leaves of fresh spinach, with a somewhat bitter but palatable taste.

We also have wild blackberries, and I can make a nice apople/fruity-like drink by stirring in the blossoms or berries off of a manzanita bush (manzanita means "little apple"...as such, the berries are hard, but are edible, and when they're still blossoms, you can pop them in your mouth like raisins.)

We have crayfish in the lake as well, which I'm making plans to more seriously pursue on one of my paddling trips, and, of course, there's always squirrel, jackrabbit, quail and turkey that are readily catchable via hawk or bow. If I get more adventurous, there's deer to be had via bow, and wild boar here aplenty, which can be taken by bow, spear, or a combination of the two. If I get even MORE adventurous -- ie. stupid -- there's black bear, which someday might be a fun challenge to pursue with a bow and hand-forged broadheads...but I'd rather whet my dangerous game whistle on boar.

[Jon]

Where I like to do rangering, though don't get much chance cus we live in the city; there are little purple flowers (don't know their name) that taste delicious, olives (when you're lucky), an assortment of berries, slightly further south dates, little black beetles (nice and crunchy! never eaten one raw though), and not sure which ones, but I know some of the weeds are edible.
If you're careful, snakes aren't too hard to get. Never done it myself, only seen other people do it!

[Chris Russo]

The last trek I did, a year and a month ago, we ate mostly what we found for three days, supplemented by a little rice we brought along. We ate several trout, some freshwater mussels (always taste like pond scum without garlic, but hey it's protein), two garter snakes, plenty of wild leeks, dandelion salad...

[Greg]

Maia caght a stripe racer (garter snake) a few months ago, and we roasted it in the backyard. With a little salt, it tasted somewhere between fish and chicken, with lots of tiny bones in it. Rumor has it there's far more stubstantial muscle on a rattler.

[Eledhwen]

Rattlesnake is really good eating. Mmmmmm.

Eledhwen

[Axemurderer]

Pete all those things are great and very tasty. However do not eat the American Tortouse(Box Turtle) they really like to eat mushrooms. and they do not discriminate about which are poisonous or not. Toxins build up and that can make your day really bad!!!!!

Mike

I live about 40 miles north of New York City and we have an abundance of wild life: squirrel, opussum, raccoon, deer, rabbits, frogs, turtles, snakes, fish and small rodents. We have turkey year round and ducks, geese and swans seasonally.

For vegetation: wild onions, berries and nuts in season, and these are the most common ones that virtually anyone will recognize by sight or smell. A good many flowers that can be eaten are prevelant.

None of the ones I mentioned come close to the bugs, larvea and other eatible things on some of the survival shows for the gross out factor.

[Cleddyf]

this is even more interesting then i thought it would be,
its a pity there are no snakes in new zealand
dirhael, your comment about olives made me wonder, what are fresh olives like?

[Jon]

Tasty. Sort of. I must say though it's quite rare to find wild olive trees as most of them are part of huge orchards.

[kaelln]

Down here in Dixieland, we have every sort of edible animal you could want: squirrel, possum, raccoon, deer, snakes galore, fish, turkey, and the list could go on and on. Some things you might think aren't edible really are with a little processing, for example, stinging nettle is similar to turnip greens when its boiled, and is highly nutritious, to boot.

When I was a child, I used to wander the woods randomly trying various things to eat. Probably pretty dangerous, but I never even got sick, and I never went hungry. Saw palmetto has edible parts, which you wouldn't think to look at it, but the center of the big woody things that the fans grow out of is edible. In my experience, you're more likely to find poisonous plants in your yard than in the woods. For example, elephant ear plants, extremely poisonous! Acorns, if processed properly, are edible. You have to shell them, boil them a couple of times, and throw away the water. Acorns can then be ground and used for flour. If you have a natural forest of a decent size that's been allowed to grow without interference from humans for a few decades, you can probably find enough to eat. Bear Grilles always seems to have problems getting enough calories, but he's also always engaged in high calorie activities, like trying to get out of his environment as fast as possible. I think water is usually a bigger problem. Good luck finding clean water in the US these days!

[Jon]

Talking of water, how and how much water do you carry for like a 3 day trip?

[Peter Remling]

You can't carry enough for 3 days, unless that's all you're carrying.
You will need to rely on finding water sources and purifying the water as best as possible.

You can boil water and use it for washing yourself and dishes/pots but for eating and drinking purposes you'll need to step it up.

The easiest way to collect pure water, would be to set up a solar still. You can look it up on line but you'll need a sheet of clear clean plastic, not period to ME. I keep several of the disposable plastic ponchos in the car which can double as the plastic I'd need to set up a solar still.

The next way to collect pure water is by useing a clean sponge and wipe up the dew off vegetation in the morning. The big drawback here is if you arn't familiar with poisonous plants you can poison yourself.

The best ME available way to purify water is with a charcoal filter and then boiling the filtered water. You can find how to set up a chacoal filtration system easily on the web. It's very easy to set up and won't involve anything you're not going to bring or find trekking anyway, just make sure you use charcoal not ash.

If you need to travel light and fast take a few coffee filters, filter then boil the water, it will do in a pinch.

There is also bringing clorine or one of the many water purification tablets on the market. When purchasing tablets many are light/air sensitive and will deteriorate quickly once the package is open. It you go to use the remainder on your trip, it may be next to useless, so check the label before you buy.

[Eledhwen]

Layer some sand with the charcoal, let it percolate through, boil it. Not perfect, but probably the safest primitive method .

Eledhwen

[Jon]

You can also use what I know as an ''Abraham's well'', which is where you
-find a pool
-dig a hole about a foot away from the pool, at least 10 inches deep
-let the water from the pool seep into the whole, through the sand.
-if this water is clean and filtered enough, proceed. If not dig another well next to it.
-collect to water and boil it.

I'm 80% sure that's how you do it, you'll have to check though. As far as I know, it works fine with sand but it probably won't work very well with earth. Bear Grylls uses this in one of his episodes, for you Bear-loving fans out there