I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what to do when I run out of food stores, because I just don’t have the money to store stuff up like a lot of you are. So, I’d like to pick brains (forgive me if this has already been covered on another thread). So…
Someone once mentioned you could eat pine needles. Is that true? What about pine cones (a friend’s horse recently died from eating pine cones, so that gives me grave concern). Could mice, squirrels, and certain bugs be captured and cooked for, at the very least, the dogs to eat? (I realize there is a concern with all mammals and BF, but just because there is panflu doesn’t necessarily mean all living creatures are going to be infected, right?) I, obviously, wouldn’t want to catch birds. I live in the suburbs and am trying to think of worst case scenario stuff. My grandmother survived the great depression (and helped others survive, too) by always having a pot of soup going on the pot-bellied stove that she threw all kinds of weird stuff in. I do have a lot spices to work with. And, have some seeds for window-type gardens (it is my presumption this will hit in wintertime). And, I once read that grass is even edible (there’s always some grass growing on the south side of my house even in winter). What about tree bark? I thought I might try to find some real bargains on cheap jerky because I bet that would be a great base for some of these pots of soups. I thought this information might also come in handy even for those with lots of preps because if neighbors start asking how come you’re surviving with “no food” you’d have some really good stories to tell them that might make them leave you alone.
Any suggestions?
Nova,
It IS hard for some to store foods and of course you’ll hear that the basics of rice, beans, etc are cheap & can be stored in large quantities for not much money, but sometimes space AND lack of funds can create a very real situation where the knowledge you’re talking about would come in handy.
I know you can eat dandilions, nastursium flowers, and things like that as well as any thing that the tv show Fear Factor has people put in their mouths and you won’t die. I had a book somewhere on wild plants you can live off of but I’m not sure where it is right now. Why don’t you go to www.motherearthnews.com I think it is, and search the online magazine’s archives to see what you come up with and let the rest of us know!
Here’s one link to a part 5 of a Mother Earth News article that talks about oaks, grasses, mint, etc. see if you can find the parts 1–4.
Nova- www.backwoodshome.com
excellant self-reliant magazine around.
Cattails are an excellent free food. Many sites on the net have good info on eating in the wild. Yes squirells are good to eat but good luck catching one. Really need a gun for that.
Again rice and beans are cheap.
Someone once mentioned you could eat pine needles.
Euell Gibbons swore by the natural goodness of pine cone seeds. “They are edible, y’know.” Of course, he died a natural death.
Sorry…BB slinks back to his dark, cold corner…
This link has a list of edible flowers http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm
German Carp, the scourge of the North American waterways, but prolific as Hell. Can survive low oxygen and muddy conditions and will live in about any stream. Get good with a speargun. They are easy to spot swimming in shallow water with their backs out of the water.
When you clean them shave the reddish streak of meat off of both sides of the fish after you have skinned them. In the Spring when the water is fresher they taste okay.
DW, the ultimate crafter, is making pine cone Christmas decorations. After a pine cone foraging session, I introduced her to pine nuts…used to eat them occasionally as a kid. They’re not real tasty or filling. I prefer to let the squirrels cut the cones and eat the pine nuts, then eat the squirrels. I’ll take mine fried or as squirrel dumplings, please.
Medical Maven mentioned taking fish with a speargun. If you already have a bow, a bowfishing rig is relatively inexpensive. It just requires some sort of reel (mine are the ‘hand-wind’ type), some sturdy line, and a solid fiberglass arrow with a heavy point with reversible barbs. The trick in bowfishing is learning to judge for the refraction of light when the target is submerged and judging the amount of rise of the arrow when shot at a shallow angle. Bow sights are fairly worthless in this application.
What about game or free ranging cattle? Do you think that would be safe or could that be a source of virus. I realize the meat will be safe once cooked. My concern is handling it.
Well, the best reference for eating berries and snakes is probably the US Army Survival Manual, FM21−76, which can be downloaded from
http://www.equipped.org/fm21-76.htm
That site is useful for other survival information as well.
The meat would be safer than what you consume everyday. At least you would know where it came from and how it was handled. Just use common sense wash your hands or use gloves.
Blue Gills are plentiful around here they arent big and they are boney but they fry up nice and you can just about grab them with your hand. Any type of spear would work.
I just have to add this. We have an abundance of wild turkeys around here, I hate the darn things they get in the road in herds and are to stupid to move out of the way they just stand there. You cant hit the darn things either cause they fly up and break your windshield. You can walk right up to them too Ive had em on my front porch. So anyway we have a turkey huntingseason where thousands of city hunters go out and buy exstravagant turkey callers and other assorted turkey hunting parafinalia. They trot out in the woods blow these silly turkey callers and hope upon hope they get a turkey. Met one of these city hunters in the local restarant He went on and on about how elusive these birds were, and how much of an art turkey calling was, To this day I dont know who the dumber was - the turkey or the turkey hunter. Sorry for being off topic, it must be the time change.
A garden is the best source of re-newable foods. Carrots, green leaf onions, spinach, several types of lettice, some turnips, Japanese Turnips, Japanese raddishes, lambs ear (for toilet paper & bandages), can be grown outside during the winter if temperatures don’t get below −15 C.
Other vegetables can be grown on window sills of south facing windows. Tomatoes, beans etc. can be grown in potted containers indoors in window wells facing south or by south facing sliding glass doors. (Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew) has ideas of how you can have two 2′x4′ planters indoors during the winter. (Enough space to rase enough vegetables for 1 person/yr.
You can also cover your vegitables with plastic bubble wrap to keep temperatures warm. (Refer to Square Foot Gardening for suggestions).
Look into raising rabbits - they currently don’t have H5N1. A couple of goats would be great for milk and possible eat. How about raising fish in a plastic swimming pool outside or even indoors in a spare bathtub. We have 3 bathtubs. I plan to fill up two of them with water to be used to pour into toilets and clean should the water be shut off. We’ll use only one bathtub to take a bath once a week if needed. You could even rase fish (Sicklets, Talapia) in a bathtub, or use the spare bathtub for a limited hydroponic garden. Use flourescent lights above the tub, when the lights and electricity is on.
I’m implementing all of the above ideas and I would even, I hate to say this, eat the dogs before eating tree bark.
I have taken some foraging trips with “Wildman” Steve Brill, who runs these educational daytrips in the NYC metro area (he began them in Central Park, showing Manhattanites how they could eat well from wild foods even in the middle of the city).
Steve Brill has written several books on gathering wild foods, always with an emphasis on safety. He also has authored a cookbook entitled “The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook.”
There are ways to store food that does not have to be costly. The biggest primary source for calories can be from beans and rice, and even though they are cheap all the time they do go on sale making them real bargains. These can be fed to your dogs too.
For enrichment, buy onions, carrots, and celery. All can be chopped finely, and then dried. You can dry them on baking sheets in your oven on a low setting. The carrots I would shred and then dry. Cornmeal and flour can also be stored, and because these are things you can use everyday they will be less likely to get stale or rancid. Dry milk is not too terribly expensive either.
Depending on what your financial situation is, you can begin a regular program for even $5 a week and in 2 months have a very plain and basic pantry built up for a small family to last at least 2–3 weeks. The most important thing to do is to start now because each day you wait is a day wasted. If you need advice, there are many here including me who would be happy to help you plan a way to get stores on any budget. Hang in there. *hugs*
Do an internet search for edible plants in your state. I did that and was amazed at the amount of stuff just growing out there.
Don’t forget the potato and the sweet potato. You can use one to grow several more. This can even be done with dirt in a garbage bag. Potatoes are also good winter plants.
Little Kahuna – at 23:05
“Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew” I have that book and love it, I’ve done square foot gardening all over the country! It’s a great way to grow lots of different plants when your moving from house to house every couple of years.
Nova – at 21:28
Was talking to my sis on the phone the other day and her husband had brought home a clutch of squirrels. She makes gumbo out of hers. I’ve caught chipmonks in humane traps. They run along the edges of the buildings so you don’t even need bait to lure them into the traps. I haven’t tried to eat them but I’m sure they taste like squirrel which hopefully taste like chicken!
silversage – at 23:36 - Squirrel gumbo crosses the line from ‘desperate food choices’ into ‘comfort food’. ;-)
squirrel, and wild rabbits are both wonderful fried up . had a lot of them growing up and I still love them. I will draw the line at eating the dogs. although when my brother was in Korea he ate dog meat, in some countries it’s a delicacy. but I’ll pass thank you.
Nova - Before you would have to resort to those extremes I believe you would see bread lines, soup lines etc. even during a pandemic. To think that community wouldn’t help at all is inconceivable. Bartering as well is an option; what do you have that I might need & vice versa. Or you knocked on my door and you were willing to work say in the garden you’d be fed. You may need to become a nomad and go to where resources are available. Companies may be looking for volunteers for key positions in exchange for food and lodging. Some may starve but it’s more likely they’ll starve because there isn’t anyone to take care of them when they get sick; that’s the greater concern. If you are healthy you have choices, lots & lots of choices.
How does the community help when the community is unprepared, has no supplies of its own, and are just as starving as you ?
Nova:
If you live near water - even a pond - you might want to get a cast net and learn to use it. It’s small (about 4 ft across), round and closes like a purse string. It can be used to catch bait, like minnows, or small crustaceans. You can also use bait to help fertilize the garden. Or use it to bait a submerged boxtrap for shrimp.
Nova,
Far better to have even a (cheap) bland store of beans, rice & flour than to try to make do solely by harvesting ‘wild’ food. While good to know about as a supplemental food source, always remember the rule of the wild - if it takes more energy expended than the return gained, you’re in negative territory.
That said, additions to a meager menu are to be had; many for the price of a stroll.
Simple ‘greens’ gardening can yield great results.
And I recall stories of (nasty!) carp live-caught which were kept in bathtubs for a week or so to ‘clean ‘em up’ and making for some pretty good eats. Be sure to cut of the fatty portions - that’s where most toxins reside.
Go to your local library and check out the books on the flora and fauna in your specific area.
If you have any national, state, and/or county rangers and parks seek them out for information as well. Tell them its a research project if you want to distract them from why. It certainly wouldn’t be a lie.
And I would still try and make room in your budget for a couple of bags of rice. While it isn’t going to be a balanced diet, it will temporarily at least keep you from starving. A 20 lb bag is around 6 or 7 dollars (US).
Here is a website for you. Bugs anyone?
After the page opens, scroll down to the good stuff. This is a very comprehensive and interesting compindium of edible bugs which the North American Indians ate. Folks on other continents will just have to read and weep, these bugs are ours to eat;-)
Thank you all. I think I’ll definitely go to the library and get that square foot gardening book you mentioned. Don’t live near any water sources. Don’t really want to be out and about much trying to barter for food. Regarding eating dogs and/or cats: be very careful. Mine, for instance, are on some medications that say on the bottle “Not for use in animals used for food sources…toxic to humans”. (Which would also be something useful to say if someone came demanding your pets to eat.) I do have some beans and rice. Am just very frightened the disaster will outlast the food stores. I suppose, in the end, the thing I should be more concerned will be water. But, we all do our best. By the way, was it here I read that someone’s farmer father used to put catfish in the horses water tank to keep the water fresh? A fish pond might have many uses if one had the means to create one.
Bugs are 60 percent protein if I recall from some survival class a long time ago. Larva are best. I recall an award-winning development project in Benin that I saw once that raised chickens by feeding them fly larva. Point being that grains don`t really grow in West Africa and apparently fly larva are clean if they are fed clean stuff. Don`t ask me what they fed to the fly larva I can`t remember some clean unedible wasteproduct maybe? The chickens loved the larva and grew exceptionally well. Ah found it (its below). In a real survival situation I think doing the bug thing is an important concept to try to get one`s mind around. Maybe worms too.
“”“The Songhaï Center. Animal Feed Products
In Benin, research into developing and recycling animal and plant by-products carried out by the Centre Songhaï shows that feathers, chicken droppings, and natural plants can be used to manufacture animal feed. These products include feather flour, a premix, and dried manure from laying hens.
Flour is made from poultry feathers that are taken from the Center’s slaughterhouse and heated for a long time. The flour is high in protein (about 84%) and also contains several mineral elements. Different classes of animals can be fed feather flour mixed with other types of feed. However, it is more readily digested by ruminants than by monogastric animals (pigs, poultry, and rabbits). The Center is carrying out tests on producing animal feed for rodents. Large-scale production of feather flour is easy for poultry farms where large quantities of feathers are available.
No Harm to Pig Health or Performance
The premix is a mixture of natural plants, wood ash, bloodmeal, fishmeal (or flour from maggots), and red peppers. It is very rich in proteins, minerals, and vitamins. It is less expensive than imported premix and can be fed to all types of animals, particularly poultry and pigs. The center incorporates very small quantities of premix into feed rations (about 0.3 %). Large-scale production is more feasible in areas where it is easy to obtain large quantities of blood from slaughterhouses. However, blood must come from healthy animals.
Dried hen manure, based on chicken excrement, contains 19% protein and 6% calcium. It is commonly used to feed pigs, sheep, and rabbits. The center recently carried out trials on two categories of pigs for two weeks: the feed given to the first group contained 10% chicken excrement and the feed given to the second group did not. The trials showed that low doses of manure added to pigfeed did not harm health or performance.
Contact: Eliot K. Wilson Centre Songhaï, BP 597, Porto-Novo, Benin Fax: +229 22 20 50 E-mail: songhaï.berlin@itnet.bj”“”
What else is edible? Here are some other protein sources I have seen smallholders use around the world. Guinea Pigs in Peru. Very useful. These were fed on grass or alfalfa and kept in a small cage in a very small backyard and then eaten. Main point being they reproduce quickly, don`t take much to feed, are not disease prone, and don`t bother the neighbors. It tastes fine but you have to eat all of it even the head to get any real meal out of it (which by the way was the best part according to the family I lived with.) In West Africa kids often catch lizards and eat them cooked as snacks to supplement their protein levels. Very large rats called Grass Cutters in Ghana are caught and sold and eaten — don`t know if eating rats would be a good idea or not as they are major illness carriers but I ate these Grass Cutters in Ghana with no ill effects ( in fact there were even companies that grew Grass Cutters for market). The meat tasted like ox tail. I would guess mice can be eaten too but not sure what nasties you can get from them. Smoked bat was another food in West Africa. I didn`t try it as smoking something is not the same as cooking it. Also the bats in Africa are much much larger than those in the new world. Snakes — all kinds as far as I know can be eaten but if you eat a venomous snake I think I recall being told to bury the head since the venom is still viable. Africa again — termites. However in Africa these have the advantage of being in huge mounds that are easy to spot. Piegons — there are varieties which are grown as eating piegons (although with the pandemic and avian flu probably would not be your first choice). Rabbits as someone mentioned above although a steady diet of rabbit is not recommended as they are too lean and you will have something I think I recalled being called fat starvation. Also I have heard of peasants in China in famine situations eating tree bark and I know that there are some edible lichens that American Indians used to eat (after boiling a long time I belive). All in all one can really see why we moved to a farming/ranching system as the world population grew. (Usual disclaimer on the information above — just from memory, not to be used in an emergency unless you did a lot more research, not provided by an expert).
In Never Cry Wolf, the author Farley Mowatt ate mice after he saw the wolves doing it. Native Americans made flour from acorns, after many soaks to remove the tannin.
I’m wondering about trapping squirrels in a Hav-a-Heart trap -would the squirrels taste bad after trying to get out of the cage for hours? Also, once it’s trapped it still has to be killed. It could be drowned, I guess, if there’s enough water to fill a barrel (garbage can?). That barrel of water could be used over and over. Probably the cage should be lifted with pliers or a rope or else the squirrel would scratch or bite your fingers as the water started to cover it.
Do guinea pigs scream when you kill them? I don’t mean that in a bleeding-heart sense, just that it might attract notice, as a poster once mentioned in regard to rabbits.
in yougoslavi they ate pigens during the war. cathed them with fishing hooks.. the wirus wold no be a problem if you wash hands, wars amask and glowes, and we dont know anything about animals getting the virus from humans during a pendemic, (it will make a jump, so taht doesent mean it will go back to birds) Probably animal will be just fine as tehy are to day in mots parts of the world.
but just forget about it, the energy needed to find wild food dont pay the energy catched. Unless you are a skilled hunter.
BEANS,PEAS, RICE, PASTA, POLENTA, TUNA, TOMATOS, OIL, SUGAR, BUILION, TEA thats all you need!.. dry beans, not cans, its dead cheap, and dont take much space. Start slowly, you will save money by rotating this and learning how to coock it.
Wow, some great ideas here for you Nova but the bottom line is, start now to get one or two food items extra each week and start putting them away. There are many (most) here who cannot afford to ‘buy up large’ and built our supplies by getting those few extra items each week with our groceries. You will be pleasantly surprised how quickly your stores grow.
As already mentioned so many times, if you expend more energy seeking food than eating it, you are not going to sustain yourself. Use wild plants etc to supplement your beans, rice and canned tuna.
See Chapter 8
Little Kahuna – at 23:05
A young farmer died locally about two months ago from rabbit flu - I’m not saying don’t eat rabbit, just be careful when you handle them. The poor lad had just picked up a dead rabbit on his farm and disposed of it, he was dead a few days later.
Worried - there was a recent outbreak on Martha’s Vineyard (off the coast of Mass.) - several people got sick not from eating rabbit but they tended to be lanscapers/gardners who worked in areas where rabbits had warrens.
One reason I’d consider getting a firearm is we have plenty of critters in our woods - deer, turkey, etc. I have no clue what to do with it and right now unless I got lcuky with a good rock throw it won’t be in my pot anytime soon.
Whatever you do - don’t eat any wild mushrooms unless you know what you’re doing. When I lived in former Soviet states, people died all the time from mushromm poisoning.
snares are very efficient ways to catch wild game, so much so that many locales outlaw them.
This is for nuclear war, but it has some very useful info:
Woodchucks and possums are supposed to be good eatin’ and so are porcupines… a few years ago here in Detroit a warehouse was busted for having a big stock of frozen raccoon carcasses, so apparently “if you’re raised on ‘em you hanker for ‘em” as the Southern saying goes. For the slower moving critters, a block of wood or an axe handle is used to dispatch them. Woodchucks and muskrats burrow, so a snare set up at the mouth will soon have your buck-toothed whistle-pig roasting on a spit.
(G) Did you know it is OK for Catholics to eat muskrat on Friday during Lent? It’s the webbed feet. Speaking in a roundabout way, they’re therefore fish. (BG)True story! I was raised Catholic!
Rat traps will catch squirrels, birds too, I hear — I wouldn’t worry too much about BF proper during a pandemic, it’s two different diseases at that point.
Garbage cans can be set up as drowning traps for rats and mice. Hey, I’d eat em.
Earthworms can be eaten: dried like bacon, dried and powdered to a high protien meal that can be added to soups or stews, or even baked in desserts. Seriously, I’ve seen a recipe for “Pineapple Upsidedown Surprise Cake.” (Guess what the surprise is!) I also have a Native American cookbook with a recipe for hornet soup. I can’t remember how you drive them out of the ground, though. I have to looki it up.
Udar-Norway, I’d love to know how you catch a pidgeon (“city chicken” around here!) with a fish hook! I’m figuring ways to create a drop net for birds out of an old sheet. Baited with seeds, I could get a nice amount jays and doves; baited with trash I could get some ravens! I hear they are very good eating.
Some hikers bring along kitty kibble for snacking — it’s lightweight, portable and high protien. So it _is_ edible. So is dogfood.
And speaking of dogs, and I’ll try to be discrete about my wording here, keep in mind part of their domestication was probably from humans accepting their helpful role as camp sanitizers — and I don’t mean just food scraps. I’ve had dogs who will eat anything, quite happily. There _is_ such a thing as a $#!+ eating grin! In fact, it’s a devil of a habit to break and I had one that was absolutely incorrigable. If times get really hard, they might be happy to recycle what you might have thoughtlessly buried. (s)
This is a really depressing thread.
I have to eat some ice cream now!
What, depressing? I thought it was fun! I have thought this all through long ago. It’s just a matter of how resourceful you can challenge yourself to be.
Nova and all —
Find a feed store near you. In every part of the US there’s one within an hour’s drive. They carry 50-pound sacks of whole wheat, oats, and corn. Amazingly cheap and wholesome, as long as they are cooked.
Borrow a minivan or pickup. Soon. On your way home, stop by Sam’s and get a couple of sacks of pinto beans and rice.
In time of need, you can live for months off an investment of a hundred bucks…
I really *really* want to move into a town with all of your resourceful people. Can’t we all be neighbors? We really would help each other. We won’t mooch off each other’s preps — but we will offer to can that squirrel gumbo if you’ve made too much!
And Northstar — the DOGS???? Eat that stuff????
ACM: I had one dog, a big Rottie mix, I tried everything and she was still a xxxx-eater. Special pills to put in the food to put them off it… no effect. I asked experts: they said feed pineapple, the enzymes break down the protiens that are attracting the dog. She considered it a Hawaiian variation. Another expert said Tabasco. So every time one of the dogs did their business, I am running out there like a madwoman to annoit the stuff with hot sauce. God knows what the neighbors thought. She developed a taste for Tex-Mex. Another suggested dish soap. You don’t want to know what that does to a dog. I gave up. To her dying day she was a happy xxxx-eater and I just said to people, PLEASE don’t let that dog lick your face! (G)
I have a lot more stories but would hate to gross you all out. However, in a real difficult time I would seriously investigate insects. According to the excellent page cited above by Okieman at 08:47 there are many times when gathering insects is very worth the energy. (Actually I am a pretty picky eater so I hope it doesn`t come down to this…)
I just read a book called “The Road” about a man and his son trying to survive in a post nuclear war world. The book is a pretty good size and I very much enjoyed it but the over riding issue in the book, the thing that drives their daily life (physically anyway) is food. There just isn’t any. Just reading the book will set even a low level prepper to thinking “Do I have enough?!” I know it’s fictional and it’s nuclear vs. PBF but the mind set and the issues are something that I know many on here will appreciate as they read.
Northstar, OMG, ROTFLMAO! The ****eating dog!! Saw that while sitting in a jeep in Bien Hoa, Vietnam, almost lost my lunch, but found out it is natural wild dog behaviour! Along in that regard, while in ‘Nam in 1966–67, due to not wanting to insult my counterpart, ate dog, paddy rat, saw Montegnard Indians eating larva out of rotten logs. No thanks, once was enough. To this day love Vietnamese foods, but not the above mentioned… Think I will boil my shoes a la Charlie Chaplin first!
“PLEASE don’t let the dog lick your face”! The tears are rolling down my face!!
Jane – at 11:36 asks “Do guinea pigs scream when you kill them?”
Well, not if you don’t miss with that first whack with the hatchet. As long as you break your game’s neck cleanly and with little fuss, it’ll be pretty quiet.
Native Americans had an elaborate process for processing acorns to make a flour to eat year round. If you are by oak forests, it would would probably be worthwhile to do, there are so many acorns there when they fall. You have to wash out some chemicals.
I would be interested in a very good mushroom book, there are so many by where I would hide out. I wonder if it could be safer food group by just sticking to a few very recognizable types. The mushroom hunters I talked to years ago always were looking for new exotic types and flavors. If they couldn’t identify one, they seemed to tend to think it probably wouldn’t be poisonous!
The Road—a great novel by Cormac McCarthy who is one of my favorite authors. Highly recommended, especially for us-preparing-for-the-end-of-civilization types.
Dogs are just gross-I have two and I love them, but they are just gross-I have one who would nose through the kitty litter box for a little snack…..
If there was a long term breakdown, an end of the world type scenario, I think all of us would be in trouble no matter how extensive our preps were. There are so many htings we just never think about anymore due to government regulations. Most of us do not really eat a healthy diet, one that includes all our daily vitamin/mineral needs. So many foods are fortified, and we almost all take supplements or eat supplemented foods that is TSHTF and we have to try to get all our nutrition needs met that most won’t be able to.
Our ancestors all had to live with nutrition deficient diets and diseases, and we would have to as well. I can’t prepare for 25 years or more of vitamin and mineral storage, nor can I store years of prescribed meds. I don’t think many of us can, so in that case we would all be in the same boat. I am looking for books to guide me on exactly how to eat in the event of a long term breakdown just in case though.
There are a number of good mushroom books out there - be sure you get one with colored pictures that identifies whether a given mushroom is edible or not. I eat only the ones that I can identify conclusively. There is a whole class (Boletus) that is non-poisonous (they have tubes on the under side of the cap rather than gills).
Roger Phillips writes great books on wild food (for the UK anyway, not sure about US wild foods), he has written ‘Mushrooms and other fungi of Britain and Europe’ and ‘Wild Food’ to name just two and the photography in both is wonderful. (No, I’m not on commision).
Supposedly grashoppers are actually tasty. I understand you should grasp the head and gently pull it from the thorax—this should remove the entrails. Then you need to cook them somehow, as, apparently, they can carry tapeworm.
I’m thinking those starving orphans who come begging for food will be quite tasty.
Goju at 20:27 - Ironically, I have two gallons of my favorite ice cream hidden away in the back of my freezer. I figure if I get the BF it would be something I’d want as a “Last Meal”. Of course, that’s assuming I get BF early in the game when there’s still electricity to keep in frozen.
So many wonderful suggestions from you all (except about eating dog…I’d rather starve). But, the primary point is that if the infrastructure (sp?) falls totally apart for a very long time these things would be valuable to know.
Am going to get “The Road” from my library asap. Might learn more valuable lessons.
One of the original questions I asked no one has directly answered yet (although it might be on one of the links I’ve not had time to access)…are pine needles edible? Is there enough nutrition to be worth adding to soups, etc.? Or would they make one sick? I ask, obviously, because I’m near a lot of pine trees and there are always needles in the dead of winter.
Please keep those clever, gross, and possibly life-saving ideas coming folks! - Nova
Being a vegetarian, most of the ideas on the thread are not for me! Here’s my ideas (most pretty well implemented), this is a partial list of good, CHEAP survival food:
Oatmeal - the 1 minute kind. Oatmeal is steamed, then cut, then toasted. All oatmeal except Scotch cut. So you can eat it “raw” easily, in fact I usually just pour boiling water, a pinch of salt and sometimes a little milk on it and it’s fine. Couldn’t be cheaper.
Of course lots of rice, basmati and brown. I buy in bags, 25# for brown, and 15# for basmati. I have 4 bags of basmati and one of brown, need another.
Mung beans - because they can be eaten sprouted or cooked. If they’re soaked, they take less time to cook. Home sprouted mung beans are much, MUCH tastier than the store kind and look (and taste) totally different. Have one 25# bag, but been eating it, need another.
Chick peas (garbanzo beans) - can also be eaten sprouted (takes one or one and half days, just until they get bigger and maybe a teeny bit of tail showing) or cooked. Sprouted beans can be sauteed in a few minutes. Have maybe 10#, need to order a bag.
Bulgar Wheat - Is another pre-cooked grain, is steamed and then dried. Can be just soaked and eaten as in Tabouli, soaked in boiling water, or cooked. Wheat is an essential grain for strength.
Whole wheat flour - stored in plastic containers (actually all my food is in plastic or glass containers). Regular yeast bread is easy to make, or if no oven, flat bread is simple once you get the hang of it. Tastes really good.
Powdered and/or evaporated milk. For taste (to help with appetite fatigue), strength and nourishment in general.
Some good kind of oil - I have jars of ghee (clarified butter) and a few bottles of olive oil. Oh, and a gallon of sesame (not toasted) oil.
Sweet - needed for cheer and instant energy. Whatever kind you can afford. Salt - can’t have too much of it, so many uses.
WIll be ordering (wholesale) a few bags of dried vegetables. Good to add to stuff. Also instant mashed potatoes.
Will be posting a website with this and more info. My gmail is MayAllBeWell@gmail.com, email me if you want the url when it’s up and running, hope to have it up soon.
I’ve made fir needle tea, pine needles must be kind of similar but from my knowledge of herbs (such as it is) I don’t think any kind of evergreen needles would be good as a main course, not only in taste but in digestibility. As a tea, probably most would be okay. Some kinds of fir needles (in the spring when they’re new) make very tasty tea with lots of Vit C. Never made any from pine, nor have I read about it.
One food I didn’t see mentioned, and which is widely available in the western US, is prickly pear pads. They’re actually GOOD to eat and are sold in the grocery stores.
Also available in many areas, girasole/jerusalum artichoke/wild sunflower has an edible root that looks something like ginger and tastes like, well, girasole. It grows wild in many areas.
Mesquite beans are edible but beware of them if you have allergies to mesquite pollen. (Note that cassia beans are NOT edible. Cassia and mesquite can be potentially found together, and on the grounds, cassia bean pods and mesquite bean pods look alike, though the plants don’t much resemble each other.)
Might consider a pellet gun for small game. They’re relatively quiet and a good one can easily kill rabbits.
Regarding the Pine Tree.
Edible Parts: The seeds of all species are edible. You can collect the young male cones, which grow only in the spring, as a survival food. Boil or bake the young cones. The bark of young twigs is edible. Peel off the bark of thin twigs. You can chew the juicy inner bark; it is rich in sugar and vitamins. Eat the seeds raw or cooked. Green pine needle tea is high in vitamin C.
Other Uses: Use the resin to waterproof articles. Also use it as glue. Collect the resin from the tree. If there is not enough resin on the tree, cut a notch in the bark so more sap will seep out. Put the resin in a container and heat it. The hot resin is your glue. Use it as is or add a small amount of ash dust to strengthen it. Use it immediately. You can use hardened pine resin as an emergency dental filling.
Young green tumbleweed plants can be used in soups. Also ferns that are just sprouting through the soil, they are called fiddleheads. Steam and eat like asparagus. Wild greens — wild mustard leaves, poke salad, dandylion greens. Collards. All very very good for you.
Water Cress. Sometimes you can find it wild near springs and small creeks in the spring and early summer. Eat like salad.
You can make a tea out of willow bark — it has a lot of the active ingredient found in aspirin and can be a pain killing tea. Too much will make you sick.
My great aunt used to gather wild herbs (this was in the Rocky mountains) to turn in to people who would buy them for medicines and what not. There was a bark — from the cascara tree, I think, that they called Shittem Bark. It was a pretty powerful laxative. So be careful with that tree bark stuff!!
If you are in a cold climate, there may be some sugar maple trees. You can drain out the sap and drink it, or boil it down into a syrup. It’s pretty thin and watery unless you do boil it down; you might want to save this in case you are sick or in need of a pick me up.
My great grandmother used to take her kids for a walk in the springtime, for a picnic, and bring just a cooking pot with a dozen eggs in it, and a loaf of bread, and some salt. Gathered wood and made a fire; gathered greens (usually dandelion greens or wild mustard) and cook them in the pot and boil eggs in it at the same time — they’d have a nice lunch of greens and hard boiled eggs.
One thing you might consider is buying food in quantity, by the case, in bulk, or in extra large containers, which will save a fair amount of money, and then using part of it for current meals and then repackaging the rest for long term storage. I just bought a gallon of mayonnaise; it was exactly half the cost of what I would pay for four quart jars of Mayo. My father used to buy gallon cans of ketchup and mustard, and then recan them into smaller jelly jars.
If you ordinarily buy fluid milk, you will find , depending on where you live, that powdered instant milk in a five pound bag is about half or even less. Of course, the initial outlay is higher; but long term there’s a good savings.
Look into textured vegetable protein — stores really well, is light and very compact, and adds in to just about anything to increase your high quality protein.
Fyi… Some churches have a meal program where you can go pick up an assortment of foods. Canned and boxed stuff. Also meat packs very cheap.
Nova, I’ve got the answer to your pine needle question but hesitated because I think I’ve already hit my gross-out allowance… (BG) BUT here goes:
You can eat the young green tips as a spice in food or a tea (think Rosemary leaves) but humans can’t digest the tough fiber of the needles as is.
Now on a more serious note: anonymous up there makes a joke about eating stray children. Historically — and perhaps even currently, as widely rumored in North Korea, canibalisim happens in starving populations and vulnerable children are targeted first. (If you want a gross out, Google “North Korea Cannibalisim” and read some of the stories.) Those “Hansel and Gretel” stories didn’t come out of thin air. I remember a decade or so ago, a Russian Jefferey Dahlmer type criminal was executed; he blamed his crimes on growing up in such an impovrished, starving area he was always afraid he would be eaten like some of his peers were.
My point is, hold your children close, if worst gets to worst. There be monsters here.
OK, so _that_ was a thread-killer!
Okay folks. I appreciate the ideas. Perhaps I should have mentioned I am a vegetarian. I originally asked regarding meat-related foodstuffs for feeding my dogs. But, I’ll definitely not feed them children!
Seriously, Northstar, I do understand you were offering a legitimate warning. I agree we are going to have to keep our children and pets close from the monsters.
When I lived in Southern California my most beloved cat disappeared. We discovered a Vietnamese family had eaten her. It was one of the most horrific experiences I’ve been through. God forbid someone should eat one of the chidren. Yes, there be monsters here…
just one simple trick, but dont tell anyone.. FOOD for animals… there is two types, one is pellets that is a mixture of differnt crap.. dont.. the second is ordinary corn types like Barley, its used mainly as food for horses, it perfect fine corn, The reason why its animal food is politcal.. BUT the tests and hygiene regulations are not as good as for human food. You can buy a big bag like 10 gallons for as litle as 10 $ (thats here in norway) as long as you heath it properly when baking and cooking it as rice its safe.. Some other types of corns and wheat as well can be found in stores for farmers, Read the content!
The roots of water lillys can be eaten as potatoes, hard work, it was done during the war in norway, The bark on trees was used to make flour last longer.. The black flat leafy thing growing on stones and cliffs that is not a plant (sorry dont know the term) is also as good as potaoes, but it take days to collect..
but you need proteins, and that is simplest to catch as a fish..
Then some is farming snails. in cases in the cellar. they eat salad and green stuff from garden, you eat them,, but remeber it a delicacy, and eaten in very small volumes.. Learn french and try it out. You can also eat the snailes in the sea..
The city pigeons was eaten in Yoguslavia because of snipers, they used fish hooks with bread out of the windows. In real crisis you dont care about polution..
get some beans and rice…! For you, and feed the dog with the fish and birds etc.. And if some asians tries to eat your dog, feed them to it.. nooo, just kidding :D
Nova, sorry did not payenough atention, pine seeds are the wonderfull italianl dish we call pesto… YEP! a vegetarians dreamfood, all you would need was parmesan cheese, olive oil and garlic. mmmm !
I often just quick fry pine and put on many pasta dishes. Dont know if you can eat it for months but its healthy food.
mcjohnston92 – at 19:04, I’ve heard (not tried:-) that grasshoppers are quite tasty if roasted or smoked over a fire. An acquired taste no doubt, I guess if you’re hungry enough you’ll eat just about anything.
Nova, regarding grass- don’t eat it raw, you’ll get really bad stomach cramps- there’s a reason why cows have 4 stomachs:-) I think you tolerate eating it if it’s cooked, though it might taste pretty nasty.
Pine needles are a great source of vitamin C, something that all of us will have to think about if SIP’ing for any length of time. Alot of early settlers died from scurvy literally surrounded by coniferous forest, they didn’t know that tea made from the pine trees could save them.
Sumac berries, the type with the red seeds, not the white. The white sumac is poisonous. Red seeds good, White seeds bad. You can suck on them (they are very tart) or make a drink out of them. I believe this was something the indians used as a drink. They are high in Vitamin C. I routinely grab a handfull during deer hunting season to suck on while trapesing around the woods not seeing deer.
Again, red seeds good, white seeds bad.
I bought a 300-page book called Edible Wild Plants, Eastern/Central North America, one of the Peterson Field Guides. Cattails have lots of edible parts, depending on the time of the year.
Suburbs are tough, though. (I just reread your first post.) Dandelions, violets are 2 possibilities; their leave can be eaten in salads or put into soup (when young, anyway). Check out the book-it’s packed. There are symbols in the margin for salad, roots, soup, tea, candy, (or poison) so you can check things quickly.
Okieman, you may already know this but the best way I’ve found to find deer during hunting season is to find where the does and yearlings are grazing frequently- often in fields surrounded on a couple sides by bush, around where I live anyway. The bucks are usually just a bit back behind them in the bush where you can’t see them easily. If you circle around and are careful you can usually get the bucks while they’re concentrating on watching the does- they don’t much like to let them out of their sight during mating season. I’ve found that helpful anyway.
Here in central Manitoba some of the easiest game by far to get are what we call prarie chicken. Technically, they’re some kind of small grouse I think. In any case they are extremely tasty and, like the turkeys mentioned by janetn above, thank God- dumb as a post:-) You can drive right down the road and they won’t move a muscle. Don’t run them over, far from being a hazard to motorists- there won’t be a thing left to eat:-) You can easily shoot them with a 22, aim for the head so you don’t spoil the breast meat(the rest of the bird is mostly feathers). If you don’t have a gun you could make a loop snare(or a rock- they really are dumb), we did this as kids. Get a good long stick and a long piece of sturdy stiff twine. Tightly knot the twine near the end of the stick, make a slip knot and leave the loop about 6″ in diameter in size, let the rest dangle down. When the birds are roosting in the trees near dark you just put the snare in front of ther heads, slide the loop over and pull quick and firmly on the end of the twine. Be sure to wring the birds neck quickly so it doesn’t suffer more than necessary. Field dress by placing the bird breast-down on the ground, grasp wings and pull up firmly. The breast meat can be pulled out easily at this point, I leave the rest of the carcass where it is for scavengers to eat. When you get it home soak in water(add a tsp.salt) for a couple hours or overnight. Fry, roast or stew as you prefer, yum!
MaMa – at 22:10
It’s the beginning of rutting season here in Oklahoma and you are right about keying in on the does. Finding a good scrape line and hunting it is a good tactic during this time of the rut.
We don’t have prairie chickens in my part of the state of Oklahoma. They are farther up north. But I think what you are calling prairie chickens in Manitoba is different from what is called a prairie chicken in Oklahoma or Kansas. Our prairie chickens are not easy to hunt or get close to. I haven’t hunted them, but I have spoke to those that have.
In this part of the country qual hunting is very popular. Northwestern Oklahoma has pheasants. I used to hunt pretty much everything that was legal to hunt, but anymore I mostly stick to just deer hunting. If a pandemic occurs I reckon I will get back to hunting squirrels. As we say in Oklahoma, we have “gobs and gobs” of them all over the place. Where I live, meat will not be an issue. If worst comes to worst, we’ve also got gobs and gobs of grasshoppers, but that will take a bit of getting used to. But hey, they eat my garden, I eat them, it all works out in the end;-)
I do know how to spell “quail”. Fingers are quicker than the brain.
Okieman- ‘If worst comes to worst, we’ve also got gobs and gobs of grasshoppers, but that will take a bit of getting used to. But hey, they eat my garden, I eat them, it all works out in the end’
LOL! I guess it does. We’ve got plenty of grasshoppers here too. You never know, maybe they do taste fine and we just don’t know it…
I believe you about the quail:-)
OK…got to share this since we are on the subject of eating bugs.
Within the last year or so I had an abandoned chick that I was rearing in lieu of it’s true mother. I was trying to teach the little chick to eat crickets but she was really scared of them alive, so I would crush the head of the cricket and help the little chick dismantle it into more manageable pieces. OK. So nature isn’t always pretty, but this is what a mother chicken does.
Anyway, I was in the process of doing this with a cricket when I noticed something emerging from its “behind”. :) It reminded me very much of the movie “Alien” and what transpired truly took my breath away. The cricket was dead and about a six inch, writhing, whipping worm came out. I had never seen anything like it in my life. It must have taken up 99% of the insides of the cricket.
I did some research and discovered the culprit is actually a “mind controlling parasite” called a “parasitic Nematomorph hairworm (Spinochordodes tellinii) develops inside land-dwelling grasshoppers and crickets until the time comes for the worm to transform into an aquatic adult. Somehow mature hairworms brainwash their hosts into behaving in way they never usually would - causing them to seek out and plunge into water.”
I kind of lost my appetite for crickets and grasshoppers after this experience. :)
Just thought you guys would want to know about these things before you put a bunch of grasshoppers on the barbie. >;) Oh here is a picture of one, it is the second article down.
Bayou Bill … not to be confused with our own Bronco Bill <grin> … has some interestined information on stuff that you would find around Indiana and similar areas.
You will note in my post at 19:04, that I did clearly state to cook your grasshoppers, as they can carry tapeworms. Although the visual might still be disgusting, once thoroughly cooked, even an infected grasshopper would be safe and nutritous to eat.
Snowhound1, eewwww! Not suprising though, lots of animals get parasites, even the ones we eat. Hence my liking for well-cooked pretty much everything.
I have to show my kids the site you linked to - they’ll love it!
mcjohnston92- yup, cooking would render them safe as long as you can get over the yuk factor:-)
For those who are worried about parasites remember to always wash produce carefully before eating, especially lettuce and other leafy greens. A little dirt probably won’t hurt you but plenty of parasites can have eggs lain in the soil that will be harmful to your health if you eat them- they’ll hatch and set up housekeeping. Happened to me once, it was a eye-opening experience to say the least!
My solution to needing fresh vegetable matter has been to stock up on seeds intended for sprouting - alfalfa, clover, etc. For about $20, I got enough seeds to produce about 75 pounds of good fresh greens - I may well be able to forage for some if necessary, but I’d prefer to put off the foraging aspect as long as possible!
Hey Mama…In case you want to do a science section on mind controlling parasites for your homeschooling, here is a really cool video… http://tinyurl.com/8938b
which I linked from this also very informative site: http://tinyurl.com/df9t4
I managed to get the video to play in English by clicking on the Real player button.
Snowhound1
Thanks Snowhound1! That’s very thoughful of you. Right now we’re studying the human circulatory system and some interesting mosses and lichens we found out in the bush near my Dad’s place. We’re always on the look-out for new ‘cool’ topics though- I am sure the kids will find it very interesting (me too:-)
I like this thread actually!
I also got “Petersen’s Guide to Wild Edible plants of Eastern N. America:. There is also one for the west. I am sure there are books like it for other parts of the world…you want a field guide with lots of pictures. Also Google “edible plants” and where you live, or look on Amazon…I’d recommend getting a field guide like that and also a book with more local stuff.
Part of my preps, as we all have talked about, is getting used to doing things differently. Like baking my own bread, using a solar oven, grinding grain. And, I want to be prepared…whereever I am, whatever happens…to be able to NOT be like those scurvy-suffering pioneers surrounded by pine forests…to eat whatever food is in front of me.
Walking around my urban neighborhood, I was able to identify eight edible plants growing in abundance. Starting with Dandilion, red clover, burdock,rose hips. Lots of acorns, I was able to wash out tannins from those of white oak with repeated soakings (red oak acorns took forever, I gave up…native americans put theirs in mesh bag in running stream I can see why…don’t want to waste the water). Tho I live in urban area, there are also many green spaces, parks, also abandonned lots and by the edges of small side roads littlet thickets of woodsor plants abound…I find cattails, milkweed, chicory, queens anne’s lace (root is wild carrot…but be careful the foilage resembles a poisonous plant genus…I know QAL because I grew up with it all around). I will not eat anything unless an emergency of course because of pollutants. But I have tasted.
I look at being able to find edible plants as a good safety backup…kind of like knowing first aid. You never know. It’s fun too to know the names of plants as you walk by.
waves hello at jplanner there are a lot of edible plants around, (but, I tried and gave up on acorns once, years ago; be sad if I have to fight the squirrels for those - might be worse to have to start eating squirrels instead :-()
Snowhound1 – at 10:13 :-/ how had I missed those posts? That’ll teach me to not get online when I wake up in the middle of the night…
Prepping on no budget :( It’s actually a little less scary if you do the math. This is a perfect time to prep. (Stores have loss leaders during the holidays!)
First- A 25 lb bag of rice yields 200 cups, so 200 generous servings for ~ $7.00. One pound of dry beans yields 5 cups cooked. So you can get 125 cups of beans for $7.00. So…325 total cups of food for $14.00. Salt, 3/$1.00, and a giant cheap can of pepper.
2- Canned corn. It’s the holidays. Search grocery store papers each week for 4/$1.00 corn. Also get some different kinds of beans. For instance, black eyed peas are high in folate, and black eyed peas are virtually free, used as a loss leader around New Years!
3- Kool-Aid (vitamin C source), 10 envelopes for $1.00. Sugar is high right now, but someone will run it in a grocery sale paper for CHEAP over Thanksgiving.
4- Generic Crisco, or lard. Cans last much longer than oils. Cheap!
You can survive and stay reasonably OK on just these items:
Rice Beans Corn Kool Aid with sugar for vitamin c and a little sweetness. Fat
Then begin to add, for example: Hard candy Big bags of pancake mix (Krusteaz) and big jugs of cheapo syrup Oatmeal Spices More canned food Giant pasta bags, like a monster bag from Costco for $3.18! Ragu on sale, sometimes 10 jars for $10.00 Canned pumpkin will be cheap, and is nutritious
Whatever is on sale for cheap! Best investment is a pressure cooker, an amazing fuel saver. Like this: Bring rice and beans to a boil. Soak overnight. Heat to boiling, then turn off fuel. When it cools, heat up to boiling again. Keep doing it till food is cooked. You will learn timing after a few tries.
You can do it.The strong and resourceful will survive. You have the heart of a survivor, or you wouldn’t be here at all. You’d be watching Tv and picking your nose like most others.
“Native Americans made flour from acorns, after many soaks to remove the tannin.
Do guinea pigs scream when you kill them? a poster once mentioned in regard to rabbits. “
I used to raise rabbits, and Guinea Pigs. “SOME” rabbits will scream if they are scared. ( By anything ), Guinea pigs squeak & squeal if they think you are coming with food. But to kill either; takes a certain “mind-set”.
When I had fryers that needed to be dressed for the freezer; it took me a day or two to get there….I literally made myself “not think” that day, until it was done. I used a steel pipe to do the job; and there was only one time I missed. Well, I didn’t MISS…the fryer moved at the last second, and pulled MY hand into the line of fire ! Yep, broke 2 bones in my hand….try to explain THAT to a vegetarian Doctor ! ( He told me I deserved it. ) ;-P But the point is, even then, the rabbit didn’t scream…just jumped off the table and ran off aways. The point is, on any butchering job, is to be quick and humane. And DON’T NAME THE FOOD ANIMALS !
Cat tails — are edible all year long, which parts—depends on the time of year. The dry fluff was collected for diaper lining…and pillow stuffing…so it can be used for other things as well.
Cactus pads are edible, and very good ! Especially if you are partial to okra slime, and vinagar stuff. Now don’t let that fool you ! You must remove the spines, ( I use the tip of a vegetable peeler ) , then wash and slice the pads into strips about 1/4″ x 3″…You will be seeing them exuding some clear slime…no need to try to wash it away, you can’t…and it cooks up different. Do a stir-fry or a regular fry, I fry some sausage balls and when done, add the strips, salt & pepper, and onions, cover to steam for about 15 minutes. They taste a little vingery like when you add it to spinach…and “feel” like okra.
Those who are lucky enough to live near the lakes where wild rice grows…lucky you !
Some thngs are an aquired taste; but I’d eat alot of plants & animals before I’d EVER eat a bug !
Well if you folks can talk about bugs, how about The Opposum Cookbook?
Wild varmints generally have to be cooked slightly differently than their domesticated counter parts to deal with “game-y” taste and/or glands that could ruin the meat.
I’m sure there are lots of other sources out there for wild foods and their proper cooking. I’ll see if I can’t find some to share.
Scalloped Cattails (recipe from USA)
Scrape off 2 cups cattail flowers and put them into a bowl with 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 t sugar and nutmeg, a 1/2 t also of black pepper. Blend well and scald 1 cup milk which is added slowly to the cattail mixture and blended. Pour the mixture into a greased casserole and top with 1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese and add a dab of butter. Bake 275 degrees for 30 minutes.
Cattail Pollen Biscuits (recipe from USA)
The green bloom spikes turn a bright yellow as they become covered with pollen. Put a large plastic bag over the head (or tail) and shake. The pollen is very fine, resembling a curry-colered talc powder. Pancakes, muffins and cookies are exellent by subsituting pollen of the wheat flour in any recipe. Try these Cattail Pollen Biscuits. Mix 1/4 cup cattail pollen, 1 3/4 cups flour, 3 t baking powder, 1 t salt, 4 T shortening, 3/4 cup milk. Bake, after cutting out biscuits, in 425-degree oven for 20 minutes. For an even more golden tone, you may add an additional 1/4 cup of pollen.
Cattail Pollen Pancakes (recipe from USA)
Mix 1/2 cup pollen, 1/2 cup flour, 2 T baking powder, 1 t salt, 1 egg, 1 scant cup mik, 3 T bacon drippings. Pour into a hot skillet or griddle in dollar, 4-inch pancake amounts. They are better yet when topped with an elderberry syrup or when a few dried elderberries are added.
Cattail Casserole (recipe from USA)
Combine all ingredients in a casseroles dish and place in an oven set to 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Serve when piping hot. Feel free to add sliced hot peppers or bell peppers for a contrast in color and flavor. Anything that will go good with corn will make a good addition to this casserole. Extra casserole freezes easily and stores for 6–8 months.
Cattail Flour (recipe from USA)
Dry the peeled roots (peel roots while they are wet—they are difficult to peel if allowed to dry). Chop roots into small pieces, and then grind or pulverize them. When the long fibers are removed, the resultant powder can be used as flour.
This interesting website has a lot of recipes for using flowers. I’m not sure how many of them are practical for emergency situations, but they should at least give you an idea of what you can use flowers for.
“Wildman” Steve Brill has a couple of cattail recipes up at his website … stir fry, pasta, etc.
More Steve Brill recipes for wild food.
Not exactly the right thread but this is as close as I could get.
I am reading through some of my “Harvard classics” (just got a set at a library book sell- I try to get 15 min. of literature exercise each day). Anyway- in vol 21 “I Promessi Sposi” Manzoni volume page 450- 460, (Chapter XXVIII) there is an account of the plague in Milan in 1629. It talks about the food profiteering and who shops were stormed for food and how the city council tried to fix rates and such. They ordered bakers to make bread but they could not get the material. I would suggest that history lovers might want to read at least that section.
“The point is, on any butchering job, is to be quick and humane. And DON’T NAME THE FOOD ANIMALS ! Cat tails — are edible all year long, which parts”…
ROFL - didn’t switch my brain fast enough for the new paragraph/topic!
I’ll have to ask my cat if he would mind becoming a manx if I want to try some “cat tails”. >;)
Kathy in FL: I’m still rolling over the Opossum Cookbook! Now, I admit I had my doubts because everybody knows that the only people that put an “O”in front of “possum” are the folks who don’t know they’s fine eatin’! But once I read the Cookbook I knew I was back with raal’ Southern folk (I grew up gator bait in rural FL)… reading that felt bettern a Florida vacation!
But now they need a ‘diller cookbook… first instruction would have to be: “Reach down the hole and grab your ‘diller by the tail and pull on ‘m _hard_… or just run over one. Or easier yet, get one just run over…
Snowhound1: Thanks for getting me off the hook as grossest poster with the hairworm pics! (G) Now _my_ kids are totally geeked to do a “mind controlling parasite” unit!
Ya, them thar `dilers sure make a bump when you run over one. :-) Loved the possum cookbook. I tried Vegamite whislt in Australia. yuk. Someone just ruint a perfectly good possum.
One magazine I would recommend is Backwoods Home Magazine. They also have a website with tons of food info available. Most of the readers are the goofballs that like to rough it as a way of life, but they have ideas about making solar showers, solar hot water heating systems, building your own houses and canning everything from common vegetables to wild meats. They have a firearm expert give reviews on guns as well. Another would be Countryside magazine. Much less intense in their information as it is written by regular people who send in their personal information. They routinely include survival topics and have recently had a series of articles on becoming self sufficient in raising and storing food. The Firefox books are a wealth of information and a book called Stocking Up as well as Putting Food By are both awesome inthe preparation department.
I couldn’t find an armadillo cookbook, but I did find a recipe for armadillo in mustard sauce. <grin>
ARMADILLO IN MUSTARD SAUCE
Mix all ingredients of marinade and add armadillo. Marinate about 8 hrs., turning meat occasionally. Remove armadillo and reserve marinade. Melt butter in deep skillet and brown armadillo pieces. Pour in marinade and bring to a boil. Stir in seasoning, cover and simmer until tender (about 1 - 1 1/4 hours.) Remove skillet from the fire and place armadillo pieces on a warmed platter. Mix mustard and cornstarch, then mix in cream. Return skillet to low heat and stir in this mixture a little at a time. Stir sauce until hot, but not boiling, and thickened. Pour sauce over armadillo. Serve with steamed rice.
Other recipes for armadillo:
Also,
My mother-in-law taught in Alaska for a few years and brought back a cookbook from Bethel, Alaska. It is call “Camai, Welcome To Our Feast” Bethel Moravian Church Cookbook. Most of the recipes sound very appetizing and are the type that could be found in any cookbook, but they also have a few native Alaskan recipes. Here is one that I would have to be desperate in the extreme to eat:
Tipet
(Stinkheads)
Dig hole in ground (not permafrost) three feet deep and 2 feet in diameter. Line hole with cardboard. Place fish heads and white parts of male fish (parts shaped like eggs). Pour fish blood over them. Cover hole with plywood. Cover wood with mud. After one month, remove heads from pit, wash and eat.
Think I’ll take my Oklahoma grasshoppers instead thank you.
More wildgame recipe locations:
The other area you might want to research is if your area, or the area you are planning to bug out to, has a fish and/or hunting club. Contrary to popular thinking, most of the folks in these clubs are not just sports hunters, they consume their catch as well and are some of the best environmentalists as they are very close to the land they hunt. They might even have some free and/or inexpensive publications you can order … or can point you in the direction of the right kind of “expert.”
Out of that same book is another recipe that my wife thinks is tremendous. It is for Marinated Beluga (yes, whale).
You’ll need:
343 cloves of garlic
38 whole ginger roots
50 gallons of soy sauce or tamari
1 medium beluga whale
1 bilge pump
Mince or press garlic cloves. Grate ginger root. Add these ingredients to a 50 gallon drum of soy sauce and allow to sit for 24 hours. Meanwhile, gut and rinse thoroughly the beluga. Hook bilge pump to the drum of marinade and insert nozzle into harpoon hole. Pump until the drum is empty. Place beluga in ovenproof dish and bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes to the pound or 40 days. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve immediately. Serves 3000–4000.
We’ll be serving this for Christmas dinner. All of you are invited.
You beluga trumps my armadillo any day. LOL! Don’t know if I could eat one though. I keep hearing that children’s song …. “baaaaby beluuuuuuga”.
Uh, sorry folks, I’m going to have to back up on my invitation. I just checked the 2006–2007 regulations and they have closed the Oklahoma Beluga season. Something about low populations in Oklahoma this year. Oh well. Guess it’ll be “stinkheads” after all. BYOS (Bring your own stinkhead)
Singalong: “Fish heads, fish heads,
roly-poly fish heads
fish heads, fish heads,
Eat them up - Yum ! “
Kathy in Fl
I have eaten many of the animals on your list, i.e. bear, elk, moose…and a few others including bullfrog legs and rattlesnake, which I used to cook on the grill and serve like salmon. Makes a pretty impressive “presentation” particularly when you leave the rattles on. :) (Wrap in alum. foil to preserve them during cooking.) Fresh bullfrog legs have been known to jump around a little on the bbq pit, no kidding. But I haven’t ever eaten armadillo…Did you know that they can carry leprosy…Like tularemia in rabbits, it would be something to consider when our food choices become desperate.
Leprosy in Armadillos…an exerpt
While suspected instances of ‘dillo-to-human transmission have been reported, leprosy remains uncommon in the U.S. and Canada (6,000 U.S. cases) and is in long-term decline worldwide—an estimated 2.4 million cases as of 1994. Fewer than 5 percent of wild armadillos have it, though I grant you that 5 percent of 30 to 50 million is a lot of armadillos.
The disease is not especially contagious; researchers think that 95 percent of humans are naturally immune. Leprosy is treatable, and a vaccine (not totally effective) is currently available. While one doesn’t wish to minimize the consequences of this disease, it’s not the certain nightmare it used to be. Equally important, there’s no need for people who have it to be treated like, you know, lepers. http://tinyurl.com/ygnw7y
Do you know why lepers don’t play hockey? Too many face-offs :)
should be excerpt..
I was talking with a group of WIC moms last week, and avian flu came up in a question. When I cited the official ‘ 2 weeks’ line, one mom told me that she couldn’t afford to buy 2 extra weeks of food. I asked how many of them couldn’t afford to buy 2 weeks worth of food, and every hand went up.
Then I asked how many of them had their nails done in the past month, how many of them smoked, and how many of them had bought any alcoholic beverages in the past month. Lots of sheepish looks.
I’m convinced that anyone smart enough to think about eating wild foods, is smart enough to squeeze $10 out of their budget each month to buy rice and beans.
On the other hand, I’m going to start printing out wild food guides ASAP!
Snapping turtles. Someone described a big one lumbering out of the pond. He asked if anyone knew where the almost fully grown cygnet was. He assumed the snapper got it. Just watch out for your fingers.
Snowhound1 – at 11:36
At the site that I posted that claimed to have 600 wildgame recipes I’m beginning to copy out recipes for animals indeginous to my area.
I’m not too thrilled with the possibility of having to resort to trying to put meat on the table from game hunting … 1) I’m a terrible hunter/shot with little practice and 2) we would have to be in fairly catastrophic circumstances before I think I could force-feed even the idea of that kind of diet to my family. But “plan for the worst and pray for the best” and “better safe than sorry” are two mottos that I grew up on.
But what you mentioned has given me another something to think on. Along with recipes for each animal I need to gather information on the risks associated with consumption of a particular animal … not to mention any special handling when dressing the meat. I think it is racoons that you have to be careful with as they have a gland that if cut will ruin the meat.
And I’ve eaten snake and froglegs as well. The snack was OK … kind of had a funny texture to me. But I didn’t care for the froglegs though my grandmother fixed them all the time … my uncle and male cousins loved them … because they had a funny/fishy taste. It might have been that they were pond frogs. My uncle would go hunting for them at night and Memaw would cook them up for lunch the next day. The skin looked similar to the meat on chicken legs but I guess I was never hungry enough to appreciate them. <grin>
After all, “hunger is the best sauce.”
baltimore anonymous – at 11:55
Its going to be a feat of gigantic proportions to get people to reprioritize their spending cash. Cigs and drinks are not “mandatory” budget items, they are luxuries. Most people don’t treat them as such however.
If a pack of cigs runs $2 - $3 per pack … and that’s probably cheap in some areas … and a person smokes at least a pack a week that takes away $8 - $12 or more out of their budget each month that could go towards prepping. Add in a few cheap beers … and even cheap beer isn’t truly cheap anymore … and even a low income family can come up with at least an extra $20 per month to spend on prep foods. Skip a nail/hair appointment and that will really jump.
I know it is stereotyping to make the assumption that all low income families spend money on those types of things, but statistically it is true much more often than not. Admittedly some don’t.
I know there have been threads on what kind of prepping can be done on an extremely limited budget … as in only have $10 - $20 per month to go towards it … and we might want to revisit those threads for ideas to share with those afraid of not having enough money to prep adequately who believe they may need to resort to desperate food choices somewhere down the line.
I’m afraid those habits will not be forgone to buy prep items. I see people spending lots of money a weekly basis for stratch offs, beer, and smokes. I was standing in line one day, and this woman, (whom is there in her p.j.s in the middle of the day feeding that machine dollar bills like a mad woman), and she won 50$ on a stratch off. Well, didn’t she turn right around, and blow 40$ of that on more tickets! I just looked at the floor and shook my head. This woman has two children, that desperatly needs looking after.
I had thought about looking into some basic trapping, (didn’t tell hubby because he would think they are for him!). We have turkeys, deer, squirrels, rabbits by the tons, and I was thinking trapping the rabbits. I figured it would be relative easy, and a safe food to eat. Lord knows the supply isn’t going to dry up. I will not raccons, or possuims. Possuims are just to hidious looking for me to even consider it food.
Racoons carry rabies; however, they must taste pretty good because they are an underground delicacy around here.
Prarie dogs in the midwest are one of the great bastions of bubonic plague in the world. Wouldn’t it just suck to survive the flu just to catch the plague?
Speaking of delicacies, I had an old boyfriend, a Native American, who just loved fish heads. Especially the eyeballs. I am not making this up.
Wonder what gohper tastes like? Anybody had gopher?
Nova, Beans and rice are certainly cheap and nutricious, you can’t go wrong there. But be aware that beans need a good long cooking-how’s your fuel situation for SIP? I live in a small appartment with only a camping cookstove if there’s no longer gas available, I’ve also planned for solar cooking but first the sun gotta shine! I’ve therefore prepped canned beans- in a pinch they can also be eaten cold.
Try googling bean and seed sprouts. They need clean water and frequent rinsing but are super nutricious and acceptable to people with eating disorders (the beans sprouts are easy to digest). I’ve eaten sprouts for years without any problems, even rinsing with tap water. If you can’t cook (lack of fuel, broken cooker) or it’s too cold outside try growing your “vegies” indoors, it’s always worth a try. Lentils, radish seeds, chick peas, alfalfa seeds are some good ones. I grow sunflower seeds in small pots with shallow soil and eat after 4 days.
In late spring and early summer I like to collect stinging nettles and cook ém up like spinach. Early on they don’t sting and they’re high in minerals nad vitamins. I also like eating comfrey leaves raw- you see them growing everywhere (only here I really have to watch out for free-running dogs, so I always have a couple of plants on my sunny balcony.
“Baked Young Woodchuck in Sour Cream and Mustard” sounds better than fish eyeballs, I must admit… and I have too many squirrels, chipmunks, voles, deer, eating my plants…
If you’re going to make sprouts - this thing is AMAZINGLY easy - just got one, tried it out, LOVED it, and bought a second to make a giant sprout condo:
(I’m not affiliated with the seller or manufacturer in any way - just a super happy customer)
Have only sprouted lentils so far, since I had them on my shelf already. Very tasty and super nutritious. When they get big you can take the lid off and let them green up for salad.
Tried some barley but it didn’t grow. Will try some other seeds after the current crop is gone…
crfullmoon – at 10:48
Our tastes are the same.
I took my fish head to a movie, didn’t have to pay for him, got him in free.
I wished I lived in Tiajuana, eating barbecued iguana…
This is from the coloumn Notes From the River, by Glenn Ayers in the Smith Mountain Eagle, 09/06/06.
The excerpt that I’m transcribing deals with snapping turtles:
…Fill a tub with boiling water, put a .22 slug through the turtles head, then dump the whole in the water. Some people put it in alive, but it can scald you sloshing around alive till it dies. The bullet stuns and paralyzes.
Once scalded, a thin, dark outer skin on the neck, legs, and tail can be slipped off, leaving a heavy, white inner skin that must be removed. This starts the hard part.
It takes a very sharp knife to cut that skin off, having already detached the named parts from the shell. Another matter that makes it hard is that the turtle’s neuro-muscular function seems to continue after death. Often, a leg in your hand that you are skinning will kick.
Inside the shell-top are two long strips of meat, which are, more or less, the tenderloin. To remove it, you must saw or break the shell connectors — it’s a plated deck, remember. You bet it’s worth it — don’t throw it away with the shell.
[paraphrased to shorten]Once par-boiled, the meat can be rolled in flour and fried in pieces or made into soup.
Note to self: Sell furniture and buy more TVP and rice….
I think I’ll eat blackbird pie before I’ll eat turtle soup. <grin>
Seriously though, its not necessarily a bad idea to know what is edible in our particular geographic areas even if we would never eat it. Even if we don’t use the information, someone else in desparate circumstances might be able to use it.
If this thing doesn’t happen … assuming it will happen … I am developing plans for a more edible landscape for our primary location. I already have two grapefruit trees in our yard, great for vitamin C when they are ripe … but I want to plant some edible greens and some quick growing, fruiting vines of some type.
At our secondary location, part of the year we get blackberry, wild blueberry, sparkleberries, passion fruit vines, and some very small fruit trees.
But the problem in both locatons is that we have wildlife that would munch on an edible landscape as readily as we would.
The other thing I’d like to figure out is a flatbed planter that I could move in and out of our lanai … out during the day, in at night … that I could plant cut-and-come-again greens of some type, like mesclun.
Kathy in FL: Could edible landscape be considered as baiting the wildlife? He smiles.
(Nods vigorously at Fatboy) There’s salt licks for deer, too, right?
(Mind y’all; I haven’t eaten land animals in a couple of decades)
Kathy in FL: re your trolly idea: they make little 4-wheel planter dollys for just such an idea. Maybe just up here in the north; lots of people wheel their roses in and out to extend the bloom. Check at Kmart. (s)
Hi guys! I’ve been reading this VERY AMUSING thread but just haven’t had anything to add. You all are so funny.
If you would excuse a tiny bit of thread drift — I just want to post my question here because I am sure if the answer is anywhere it is in your resourceful and knowledgable minds. (I mean, I have tried searching the forum first but I can’t find the answer).
Does anyone know FOR SURE if those white plastic buckets they sell for paint at Lowes and Home Depot (5 gallon, made by Encore) are food-grade? I know I saw this question a few times on the forum about 6 months or more ago and can’t remember if anyone definitively answered yes. (I know food grade is different from the type of recycling number you find on the bottom of plastics. I also know that dyed plastics and those with perfumes (such as kitty litter has) are not considered food grade.) Just wondering if anyone can help me before I run off and actually contact Encore.
And yes, this means Average Concerned Mom actually has graduated to the next level of prepping — storing food in buckets. Talk about desperate food choices! See it wasn’t thread drift after all! (-:
Regarding Turtles
The box turtle is a commonly encountered turtle that you should not eat. It feeds on poisonous mushrooms and may build up a highly toxic poison in its flesh. Cooking does not destroy this toxin. Avoid the hawksbill turtle, found in the Atlantic Ocean, because of its poisonous thorax gland.
Average Concerned Mom – at 10:31
I believe the consensus was that the white buckets are food grade.
To save money and to be sure, buy used ones or get them free, from your local doughnut store, or supermarket deli.
A block away, the Dunkin Doughnuts sells their used 6-gallon buckets with lid for $3.
I don’t have time to read all posts, but about pine needles…
I’m not sure about a pine needle salad, hehe, but I have read many places that a tea of pine needles will supply plenty of vitamin C to keep you going, if you can’t get citrus. The inner bark should work, too. Rosehips (the fruit left after the roses fall off) are also excellent sources of vit C, and were used by many areas in Europe during WW2.
waprepper – at 15:13
I really shouldn’t visit this thread; being a vegetarian some of the discussion is…not pleasant!
I used to grow sprouts for a living, and have grown them on and off since then. I just use quart mason jars, and usually use screw on plastic lids with holes made for the purpose. A lot of natural food stores have them in packs, 3 different colors of lids with different sized holes. Tiny holes for alfalfa, clover and other small seeds, bigger ones for when they get bigger or for bigger ones like lentils etc.
Couple points for people who may not have had as much experience with sprouts:
1. Soak them long enough. How long? Depends on how old/young the seeds are; your climate and kitchen temperature. Sometimes if you get a low germination rate, try soaking a few hours longer. Some legumes always need longer than others. Lentils about 12 hours, mung can go 24 hours, azuki also. Garbanzos up to 24 hours. In hot weather or really warm weather, soak them in the fridge.
2. Rinse really well, drain well, and keep in a dark place until you want leaves to get green.
3. Legume sprouts are MUCH more edible when you only let the tails get very small - about half the length of the bean itself, or as long. Once they get long with root hairs they’re bitter and not very good. They are tasty raw, and sautee up very fast by themselves or with other stuff like green onions (hey - they might be easy to grow out of an onion top!), peppers, anything really.
4. Legume sprouts are usually ready with one or two days of sprouting. Seeds like alfalfa, clover and radish take longer because you want leaves on them. They take careful rinsing, esp. in dry climates, and good air circulation in damp climates.
5. Mice and rats seem to like them (at least they did in Hawaii) so keep them safe from rodents.
I am counting on sprouts since i have too many trees to garden (plan to garden at someone else’s place but that might not work, depending on what happens). I plan to buy pound bags (actually going to order this week) of every sprouting seed there is. I’ve always hated sunflower sprouts but I may try them anyway. At least they’re green. They need pans of dirt to grow in.
Regarding Turtles; please find out for your area which species are rare or endangered or special concern and leave those alone. They can live for decades, if they can cross roads without getting run over, too. (And have a healthy habitat.)
:-) Now, any edible, non-native invasive plant species (or, non-native invasive animal) for your area, learn to identify and - get menu-planning!
oremus @ 13:58
if I get near a Dunkin Doughnuts, it won’t be to get buckets! ;-)
cottontop – at 07:37
Get buckets full of doughnuts.
Since a pandemic could start at any time, it is very important to empty those buckets so they can be used for other items. It is a terrible sacrifice, but someone has to eat those things. Remember, you are saving the world here. Eat up!
3$ for a 6-gallon bucket with lid. Any excuse to go to D.D.! Then I’ll take Okieman’s advice. ;-)
cottontop — well they would charge more if they filled the bucket with donuts. Still, if it is for a good cause….
Average Concerned Mom-
LOL!! I love it when I can start my day off with a good laugh. I’m pitiful when it comes to my sweets, I know. But I can live with that!
Have a great day. ;-)
Be Well: I did not know sunflower sprouts needed to be grown in dirt…no wonder mine never amount to much (I’ve been using the jar method and they have been turing out totally yucky) Could you give me exact instructions? I actually have an indoor garden space for growing herbs and salad greens so dirt would not be a problem. Thanks!
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