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Food from nature
While I was reading Infidel's thread on pine needle tea I was wondering what experience fellow GIMers had with natures (unconventional) offerings such as fiddleheads, mushrooms, berries etc.
I spend a LOT of time in the bush (working, hunting, fishing, prospecting) and I have often thought how hard it would be to find enough to eat in an emergency situation. Berries and such are obvious choices, however as many know, they are not always found in heavy timber/bogs/rough terrain. Grubs, worms and bugs would probably have to do in these locations. So if anyone has any experience, insight or books which are helpful, please share. NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO INGEST ANYTHING THAT IS MENTIONED IN THIS THREAD WITHOUT POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION AND CONFIRMATION ON IT'S SAFETY FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. |
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Yes! I love a thread that includes a safety disclaimer!
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Jerry's the guy for this thread...
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I was wondering if I needed one or if that one is sufficient. Lots of crazieeees.:D
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My Grandfather was a man of the woods. We spent a lot of time when I was very young collecting everything from berries to different saps to wild mushrooms. Due to my parent's divorce and moving away I didn't get to spend much time with him after about 6 years old. I've forgotten most everything except the easy things like maple syrup making, tree trimming, and some basic gardening. We live in Minnesota and I recall at least 4 types of mushrooms he collected and dried. I've tried to get back into it but upon reading about the destroying angel I decided that store-bought was fine with me. Someday I'll get back to the woods.
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I have picked Morels (mushroom, sp?) and they are very good. They are a springtime mushroom and tend to grow in sandier areas of boreal forests in my part. Unfortunately, they are pocketed in certain areas and not everywhere.....like most other things in the wild.
Codger, I highly recommend 'getting back to the woods'. You know, I kind of have a philosophy that the more time a individual spends in urban areas, the less we feel rooted and of some consequence on the earth. Having your hands in the dirt and your feet on unlevel ground gives a lot of 'mental and spiritual connectedness" to our environment and in turn to our existance. For me anyways. Some though seem quite content living shoulder to shoulder for their whole lives. |
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Morels were on our list as kids. There is a common white cap mushroom that everyone eats around here but the reasson I stopped is that the Destroying Angel looks almost exactly the same and the first aid section in my mushroom book basically said "calling an ambulance or administration of first aid is moot, enjoy the sunrise if you can." We've also got some poisonous berries in our area but I can handle the runs. |
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I thought I'd look it up quickly and find a photo. I was surprised by some of this info, mostly that a component of the milk thistle, which grows in the area, has been successful in treating the toxins in the mushroom.
Destroying angel From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search <!-- start content -->For other uses, see Destroying angel (disambiguation). The name destroying angel applies to several similar, closely related species of deadly all-white mushrooms in the genus Amanita. They are Amanita bisporigera and A. ocreata in eastern and western North America, and A. virosa in Europe. Another very similar species, A. verna or fool's mushroom was first described in France. Closely related to the death cap (A. phalloides) they are among the most toxic known mushrooms, containing amatoxins as death caps do. <TABLE class=toc id=toc summary=Contents><TBODY><TR><TD>Contents [hide]
[edit] Description http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...g_Angel_02.jpg A half-grown destroying angel Destroying angels are characterized by having a white stalk and gills. The cap can be pure white, or white at the edge and yellowish, pinkish, or tan at the center. It has a partial veil, or ring (Annulus) circling the upper stalk, and the gills are "free," not attached to the stalk. Perhaps the most telltale of the features is the presence of a volva, or universal veil, so called because it is a membrane that encapsulates the entire mushroom, rather like an egg, when it is very young. This structure breaks as the young mushroom expands, leaving parts that can be found at the base of the stalk as a boot or cuplike structure, and there may be patches of removable material on the cap surface. This combination of features, all found together in the same mushroom, is the hallmark of the family. While other families may have any one or two of these features, none have them all. The cap is usually about 5�12 cm across; the stem is usually 7��20 cm long and about ��2 cm thick. They are found singly or in small groups. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ying_Angel.jpg Young specimens like this are sometimes confused with puffballs or other non-deadly mushrooms Destroying angels can be mistaken for edible fungi such as the button mushroom, meadow mushroom, or the horse mushroom. Young destroying angels that are still enclosed in their universal veil can be mistaken for puffballs, but slicing them in half longitudinally will reveal internal mushroom structures. This is the basis for the common recommendation to slice in half all puffball-like mushrooms picked when mushroom hunting. Mushroom hunters recommend that people know how to recognize both the death cap and the destroying angel in all of their forms before collecting any white gilled mushroom for consumption. [edit] Distribution and habitat All Amanita species form ectomycorrhizal relationships with the roots of certain trees. Thus destroying angels grow in or near the edges of woodlands. They can also be found on lawns or grassy meadows near trees or shrubs. Several species called destroying Angel are found all over the world. [edit] Toxicity The destroying angel and the death cap (Amanita phalloides) are responsible for the overwhelming majority of deaths due to mushroom poisoning. The toxin responsible for this is amatoxin. Symptoms do not appear for 5 to 24 hours, when the toxins may already be absorbed and the damage (destruction of liver and kidney tissues) done. As little as half a mushroom cap can be fatal if not treated quickly enough. The symptoms include vomiting, cramps, delirium, convulsions, and diarrhea. One experiment treated some patients with "fluid and electrolyte replacement, oral activated charcoal and lactulose, IV penicillin, combined hemodialysis and hemoperfusion in two 8 hour sessions", some with "IV thioctic acid, others IV silibinin" and "all received a special diet." It was concluded that "...intensive combined treatment applied in these cases is effective in relieving patients with both moderate and severe amanitin poisoning."<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-0>[1]</SUP> "Physicians have had success in treatment of amatoxin poisoning using "anti-hepatotoxic" compounds from the milk thistle, Silybum marianum. A crude extract of flavolignans from S. marianum seeds, called silymarin (trade name Legalon) has proven useful in amatoxin poisoning cases. In a recent trial of one of the flavolignans silybin, in 60 patients poisoned by amatoxin-containing Amanita species, there were no deaths. (see Der Marderosian & Liberti 1988 and Foster 1991 for a summary of this work)."<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-1>[2]</SUP> |
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for myself, i started out learning about 3 ( purslane* / yellow wood sorrel / chickweed )
got to know these three fairly well and able to recognize them easily and expanded from there while some of these can be eaten raw, what i've been lacking in, is actually preparing these edibles in the field and at home purslane* - not to be confused with spurge (poisonous) |
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There's a lot of info on the net, but in the field it's difficult identifying. Weeds like thistle and nettle are easy to identify, but probably aught to be cooked first cuz they sting.
I once took a mycology course and have tasted many varieties of wild mushroom, but collection is spotty around here. My personal favorites are chantrelles, various oyster mushrooms and sometimes if I'm lucky, the King, boletas edulis. Lucky if they aren't wormy anyway. One note on mushrooms. There are very few that will kill, the amanita phalloides as mentioned above being one, however there are quite a few that can make people feel like crap and to get to my main point, mushrooms in general contain very rich, complex and relatively unknown chemical cocktails so if you do partake, eat light till you know how you may react, even if you know what you are eating. Stay away from little brown mushrooms, especially if they're growing in clumps. Morels are pretty much a spring mushroom, popping up right after the snow melts. At this time of year if you find what look like morels in the deeper woods, it'll likely be brain mushroom, which are edible IF you par boil them two or three times, otherwise drop em. Puffballs are safe if you cut them in half to see if they're solid all the way through. Sometimes you might even come across giant puffballs. I've found giant puffballs the size of soccer balls and they're very tasty and filling. They need to be white through and through though. Old brown puffballs are worthless. I've gotten to know almost every weed on the property and have at least tasted most of them. Some I've added to my meals and find them ok. I just discovered flag Pawpaw growing here and the fruit is awesome. Pawpaw is indigenous to most of the US and I recommend locating the tree or shrub where ever you are. In the south, palm and palmetto hearts and shoots are quite good. I've got wild watermelon growing here too. Citron melon... It's ok in a pinch, but kind of puckers the mouth. The thing about foraging greens and berries and flowers is it takes a lot of time to fill up on. I don't have a book to recommend, I mostly just observe and if it interests me I taste a little. If it tastes like crap I spit it out. I have to say I've never gotten ill off any wild weed, nut, berry or grub I've eaten. Worms and grubs kind of gross me out, though I'll eat em if I need to. :D I prefer chicken eggs. |
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Morel mushroom from this Spring:
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...IMG_0002-1.jpg http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...IMG_0005-2.jpg Food of the Gods! |
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You don't need any initials behind your name if you grew up in the country, with parents that lived through the depression! We ate "wild" all the time as kids growing up.
Brett |
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Leave the shrooms alone, yes Morels are tasty but shrooms have very little nutritional value and if you don�t know what you�re doing they will kill you quick! In a survival situation 6-legged insects are eatable. Crawfish are eatable. Worms with no legs are eatable. Bird eggs are eatable. All of these will sustain life and easy to find.
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I'm glad I don't like mushrooms anyway! I can pretty much guarantee that if forced to eat them, I would find the one deadly poisonous mushroom in a field of good ones and eat it by mistake :D.
My BO place has a lot of blackberries, wild garlic, and no doubt plenty of other edible stuff which I've never looked for - but I do keep a book about "wild foods" up there so that I'll be able to keep an eye out for anything should the need arise. Until then, bacon sandwiches it is! |
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I once spent six months with my young wife, attempting to live off the land, eating primarily wild foraged food. I did have dried rice, beans, oil, salt, and various other taste enhancers that I felt were going to be necessary. It wasn't about survival. It was about experience. I carried around a couple of books on the subject of wild edible foods and quickly discovered how limited the written information was in the field.
I recall finding some wild onions in a meadow. I smelled them and tasted them.Yep, wild onions. But then I read in the book that a deadly look-a-like existed, called the death camass, that put the kibosh on my find. "All parts of the death camass are toxic, and the fact that the sego lily, wild onion, and death camass often grow side by side�sometimes within inches of one another�makes proper identification essential and difficult. For example, when digging the sego lily or wild onion, it's not unusual to break the stem from the bulb . . . and, in searching for the lost edible, to come up with the bulb of a death camass instead! A single one of the poisonous bulbs�even if added to a large stew�can be dangerous . . . so knowing and checking the number of rings could prevent your becoming a medical statistic." Even knowing that the death camass doesn't smell like onion or garlic didn't really help, since when picking onions my fingers smelled like onion, so I wasn't quite certain one plant was the same as the other. Still, I ate the wild onions anyway, and never got sick. I love mushrooms and eat them every chance I get, but I do go to some lengthy trouble identifying what I eat. For instance there is a common garden mushroom sometimes called the shaggy mane that is delicious, but it happens to look exactly like the Chlorophylus, which causes more poisonings than any other mushroom in the US. The way to determining the difference is to take a spore print. The good shroom drops white spores. The bad mushroom drops green or beige spores. What this means is if there's ANY color to the spore except snow white I drop the mushroom. When you take a spore print do it on either a pure white backdrop or pure black. Adding to the confusion when collecting meadow mushrooms is the fact that the Amanita drops white spores also, and it looks an awful lot like the shaggy mane as well. I'd have to double check, but I think the shaggy mane is in the same family as the common store bought agaricus family. So I don't make it a habit to eat meadow mushrooms. Anyway, I don't guess I'm being much help, am I? Oh well, bon appetite. |
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Pink bottoms or Agaricus Campestris are growing in the meadows around here at this time of year. Very tasty and unmistakable. I get the most awesome mmushrooms growing out of my front lawn every year. The book calls them King mushrooms and says they are delicious but I don't eat anything that I haven't been personally shown is a good edible. I'm scared of dying in a nasty way. Stumpers will be out in a couple months and they are unmistakable.
I hit and killed a spotted fawn with my truck the other morning. Broke it's neck clean. Woulda been excellent eating but I was in a terrible hurry to get to a job. What a shame. Coyotes will eat it though. I guess you could eat coyote in a pinch but I'd rather eat venison. Reminds me of a joke: Teacher is telling class about different meats. She names the meat and asks the class to I.D. the critter before trying a little of it. "Okay class, this is beef. Can anyone tell me what kind of animal this comes from?" A little kid says "Cow, teacher." and they all get to taste some. Same thing with pork and mutton. The teacher gets to 'venison' and the kids don't know where it comes from. The teacher says, "Well kids, I'll give you a hint. It's what your Mommy calls your Daddy when he gets home from work." A little kid in the back of the class cries out, "Gross! Don't eat any. It's an asshole!" |
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Is this kind of rule of thumb info, or do you have some read on this. I think your right on the money, but some links would be great. |
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Thanks for sharing your experience. Have you ever heard about boiling the inner bark of a birch tree, the consistancy is supposed to be much like lasagna noodle. What were some of the most common things you ate that really filled your belly. Besides fish/meat or other foods in bulk availability (berries in season) foraging for edibles could be a net energy loser unless you really know what your going after. How many calories do you think you were getting? How much of your day was spent foraging..........please tell more. |
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Also I have read that almost no poisonous berries have a crown (like a blueberry for instance). Can't guarantee the accuracy of it (see BB's disclaimer:bear_w00t:). I eat berries that i pick all the time, but never too much of them(and besides , the wife gets mad at me, 'specially i do it in front of the littluns). Just sample everything as i see it. I think only once did I have a negative reaction - just some mild tightening/stinging back of the throat - i think they were a dark yellow, but don't recall). Truth is , a lot of them taste like sh*t. But you'd be amazed how many berries grow all over the place once you start looking for them. I don't think I'd try mushrooms myself, seems the risk is too high and I don't know enough. |
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/299034/FM-...anual?page=108 |
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Basically you need to know what you can't eat and what you can. Anything else is a risk. For instance you ought to know what poison oak looks like and where it grows, and in general don't even taste plants with greasy red or yellow leaves or anything with three leaves per stem. Other than that you can eat one leaf and see what happens.
You can eat anything that looks like grass but you only chew it and spit out the solids. Your lawn is probably not very tasty, but most wild grasses you find are ok. Many plants less than ankle high are edible. Taste a leaf and decide whether you consider it food. Tree bark is often good, but only the inner bark, not the groaty stuff exposed to the weather. Cat tails are fine. The whole plant is edible. Rinse the mud off the roots. The rest of the stalk tastes like asparagus. You can beat the tails to a fluff and use it to make biscuits. Many cactuses are edible, but you need gloves and pliers to get the thorns out of the way. Strip a pad and fry it. If you can find a prickly pear the fruits are very nice, something like a weak mixture of lemon and strawberry. |
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How about fiddleheads anyone? I've never tried them but a close friend eats a batch every spring.
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By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press Writer Wed Jul 30, 4:01 AM ET
<!-- end storyhdr -->SYDNEY, Australia - Lost in the rocky, remote Australian Outback, a former pest exterminator faced dehydration and death. Desperate for food, he turned to what he knew best � bugs, he said Wednesday. <TABLE class=ad_slug_table cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle>ADVERTISEMENT </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><SCRIPT language=javascript>if(window.yzq_d==null)window.y zq_d=new Object();window.yzq_d['AO..AEwNBlM-']='&U=13fh6rd5d%2fN%3dAO..AEwNBlM-%2fC%3d674272.12804963.13083852.1442997%2fD%3dLREC %2fB%3d5406809%2fV%3d1';</SCRIPT><NOSCRIPT></NOSCRIPT> Theo Rosmulder, 52, managed to survive for four days by feasting on termites and other insects before local Aborigines happened upon him Tuesday and brought him back to civilization. A weary-looking Rosmulder told reporters that he found some relief from hunger at a giant termite mound. "I just hit the top of the termite nest off and got stuck into them," Rosmulder said. "Termites don't taste too bad," he said at a news conference in the southwestern Australian mining town of Laverton. Rosmulder was suffering from dehydration but otherwise in "surprisingly good condition," Western Australia state police Sgt. Graham Clifford said. He said the insects and termites provided Rosmulder a bit of moisture and some protein. "He kept eating what he used to kill," Clifford said. Rosmulder had been searching for gold with his wife and a group of other prospectors about 80 miles north of Laverton, police said. On Friday, he became lost after heading out alone, armed only with a pocketknife, flashlight and a metal detector, Clifford said. His prospecting group called police Friday night after he failed to return to camp. Police launched a large search operation at first light Saturday morning, with dozens of searchers combing 77 square miles of the rocky desert terrain by land and air. "The chap did say he saw planes on a number of occasions and waved items of clothing, but they didn't attract the attention," Clifford said. Rosmulder said he managed to get some rest during his ordeal. "Found a hollow in the rocks where the kangaroos slept and crawled into it, got a few bushes over the top of me and stayed the night," Rosmulder said. On Tuesday morning, a couple members of a local Aboriginal community who were out shooting spotted Rosmulder about 6 miles from his camp. He was still holding onto his metal detector. "It was just magic," he said of his rescue. "I just collapsed." Rosmulder was treated and released from Laverton Hospital the same day, authorities said. Rosmulder told officials that he planned to continue his gold hunting vacation. "Why not?" Clifford said with a chuckle. |
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