wild foragers? doomsday preppers?

[Batch]

I have been studying as best I can the Seminoles traditional foods. I have also tried to learn some of the pre-columbian tribes food sources. Also the pioneers of the late 1800's and early 1900's down here in S Florida.

It turns out that all seemed to have passed over good eats on the misinformation that the meat or plant was no good or poisonous.

I grew up mullet was bait. Its also a delicacy in 10,000 islands. Gar was a trash fish, but, the Seminoles loved it and I have friends that swear by it. We through grunts back and then the Cubans tell us how good it is. Seminoles ate gator eggs and did not eat gator. We used to toss amber jack because they had worms. Till somebody made some smoked fish dip. Grouper heads went in the garbage. But, I got a buddy who spends hours cleaning the head and making fish head soup. Look at all of the stuff we throw away that used to get eaten. Pig ears are a delicacy. But you have to boil them for hours and hours first or they are inedible.

When I was up in Madison earlier this year we were picking Poke Salet. I was reading my notes and telling Uncle Robert that he is picking the wrong leaves. That we should only take young leaves. He rightly told me that I had never done this and he had done it his whole life.

Northerners eat the root and we eat the green. We can argue that the turnip is better then the turnip greens or vice verse. Or we can accept that both are damned good if you'll take the time to learn how to prepare it right. Though it does lend some credibility to our contention that yankees ain't all there that they don't eat collard greens! LOL

I think we have an incomplete view of foraging. I also, personally, don't think that if you actually ever have a SHTF TEOTWAWKI situation. That trying to grow cultivated plants is the way to go. You will fight more nutritional, disease resistant plants to grow things you have adapted to. There is some speculation that you will have eaten your last banana in a few years. Because a disease is devastating the one species of several thousand that we have taken a liking to. The other thousands of related fruits are still nutritional powerhouse. But are used differently. Also, we don't eat the plant or the flower and both are edible with some claiming the bud as the best eats and the stalks as a really good pickled food.

What else do we over look daily?

[hikingpeter]

Carp is a delicacy in Poland--a junk fish in the US.

Anyway, I think that foraging knowledge will give you a leg up against the competition, since it's almost completely unknown in our culture. Guns are more widespread than foraging knowledge--are squirrels going to go extinct after TSHTF??

[Graf]

I have been studing wild edibles and medcinal plants for about 4 years now, increasing my knowldege all the time. It amazes me the abundance of natures garden. Slowly teaching my grandson about this as well as trapping, fishing, hunting so he may survive long after I'm gone.
Will wild edibles sustain you in a SHTF senario? It will help with all the vitamins in wild ediles if they are avialable, not flooded, burned or contaminated. Planting gardens is also something I'm prepping for, however if your forced to leave your home and the garden has not produced yet you will wish you have some knowledge of wild edibles. To many folks focus on being able to stay put in a SHTF senario. Just look at what happens during natural disasters many times theres nothing left.

[jcullen24]

I've been reading Samual Thayer's Book: Forager's Harvest

I just ordered his other book: Nature's Garden

Very well written. Just like Hunter said, It's another tool in the kit. I've been noticing more edibles thanks to the book.
Thistle as an edible, who woulda thunk it!

I also like the SAS Survival Handbook by John 'Lofty' Wiesman.

[jcullen24]

Carp is a delicacy in Poland--a junk fish in the US.

Anyway, I think that foraging knowledge will give you a leg up against the competition, since it's almost completely unknown in our culture. Guns are more widespread than foraging knowledge--are squirrels going to go extinct after TSHTF??

Interesting statement on the squirrels. I read somewhere that during the Great Depression squirrels, and rabits were endangered around the cities because they were the first thing that came to mind when people were hunting for food.

[hunter63]

Carp is a delicacy in Poland--a junk fish in the US.

Anyway, I think that foraging knowledge will give you a leg up against the competition, since it's almost completely unknown in our culture. Guns are more widespread than foraging knowledge--are squirrels going to go extinct after TSHTF??

LOL, reminds me of a couple of older guys from Poland that worked in our factory, had come back with some carp, Stanislaw and Cassmier, came in with a bunch of carp.....One other the other guys says, "Hey you can't eat those'....and Stan says "Vell in my country we call trrout"....(had to roll the 'r's" a little).

[Celticwarrior]

I have made great strides in doing edible landscaping in both my 4 acre homestead and my 20 acre hunting plot. Both have a number of edible fruit trees, berries, grapes, ground covers, and various 'domestic' herbs like onion, garlic, chives, sage, basil, etc. Lots of edible weeds like chicory, lamb's quarter, purslaine, plaintain, dandelion, carrot, and so on. However, none of that would take the place of meat and starches. Hate to say it, but no amount of gardening is going to take the place of hunting or raising some animals for protein. Luckily, I have also grown various crops and green manures that also draw in animals like rabbit and deer and make them hang around until hunting season.

[Ted]

I have made great strides in doing edible landscaping in both my 4 acre homestead and my 20 acre hunting plot. Both have a number of edible fruit trees, berries, grapes, ground covers, and various 'domestic' herbs like onion, garlic, chives, sage, basil, etc. Lots of edible weeds like chicory, lamb's quarter, purslaine, plaintain, dandelion, carrot, and so on. However, none of that would take the place of meat and starches. Hate to say it, but no amount of gardening is going to take the place of hunting or raising some animals for protein. Luckily, I have also grown various crops and green manures that also draw in animals like rabbit and deer and make them hang around until hunting season.

I like your thinkin' .....why be weedin', when you could be eaten'...LOL!!!

[Adair]

That is one of the main reasons I joined this site, so I could survive after this upheaval that is bound to happen. that and I think it sounds like fun

[hunter63]

That is one of the main reasons I joined this site, so I could survive after this upheaval that is bound to happen. that and I think it sounds like fun

What part of an upheaval sounds like fun?....

Foraging, gardening, raising live stock, farming, hunting and fishing, is a life style that will help you no matter what......But to HAVE to do it to survive isn't gonna be fun.

[wareagle69]

does anyone know of anyone in real life that lives completely off of wild edibles? and that means anything wild, plant/ animal waht have you.....
i would think if there is anyone it is completly rare. look at history(not that i know much about history) but it seems more of the native peoples finally ended up farming, yes nomadic mooving where the food is, but from every thing i have studied about corn, they grew a ton of it, then taught the european settlers how to grow it, and they took it back home, as it grows in a multitude of climates.
I have studies wild edibles for about 7 yrs now, and they are an excellent supplement to my food stocks that grow w/o any effert on my part, so when i am out hunting/foraging for food, i can gather at the same time-economics of energy-still need to grow food- still need a village to harvest it.
what i think about is that i spend allot of time in my area, i know some good spots for wild edibles, and if i had to walk to all locations to gather, not sure if the effort would be worth vs gardening. Now if you do not live in the area and you are trying to live off wild edibles i would say your chances are greatly reduced. Just my opinion from someone who lives for wild edibles

[feral chef]

i have encountered people who live completly off the grid combining wild edibles with farming and hunting\raising livestock. but not yet one who only eats wild food. i believe god gave us a brain to be able to learn things like farming. while there may be some out there i know of no animal that farms plants though some creatures keep other animals as pets\slaves.

[wareagle69]

i agree with you feral chef, i use plants like mallow for starch to thicken instead of flour or make flour out of acorn and clover. My comment was/is directed at those doomsayers who think they are going to go rouge after shtf and live off the land, i don't think(in my limited brain capacity) that it can be done, is it possible? might be, but evry show i have ever seen ,every book i have ever read, the folks living way off grid have still had to have supplies of some sort.
I learn for many reasons, first and foremost the challenge of it, second, kind of sort of how i plan on eating when i retire, third, it fills me with great satisfaction to eat from the garden or the wild.

[oldsoldier]

ok so i think you have it wrong in a doomsday scenario there isnt high population density. People have either died off or i killed them off (j/k). But i think if you combine an exstensive knowledge of all aspects of wilderness survival (foraging making your own tool and weapons etc etc) with good hunting/trapping skills, and hard work. You could provide for a family, and quite well i think. Which i think goes along with what hunter said. "Foraging is another tool in the box, not an end all solution"

fc... like mentioned before, depending on the scenerio of "doomsday". If it's a world wide 2012 movie kind of scenerio, or an asteroid strike, ice age type scenerio then there likely won't be much left to forage.. But if it's a global pandemic type thing then yes it is possible. That being said I have been into herbal/medicinal/edible plants for over 40 years. Started with my cherokee grandparents when I was 7-8. Currently I am quite familiar with and use several dozen plants in my area and have working knowledge with a few dozen more. Would I depend on that knowledge soley in a survival situation? Not if I have other options. Same with counting on wild game to survive. I can and have made very servicable bows as well as the arrows for them, I can and have hunted with them as well, I can also make a useable black powder and cast my own ball for a muzzle loader as well but won't count on those for sole survival tools either. I agree that if these are added sources of supplies to strech what you have and offer some variety in your "tool box" as well. But having the seeds and supplies for gardening is a more likely long term thing you could better depend on.

[wareagle69]

Feral Chef just a thought / comment / suggestion, have you read my thread called "An Absoulte Must Read" its a sticky somewhere, i read it about 5 yrs ago and it made me rethink alot, just a suggestion mate.

[Crooked Bird]

feralchef, I'd say I'm sort of like you. A lot of why I do this is because it's cheap, and here I am living right up against the woods without a car for Pete's sake, "get out in the woods and learn whatever you can from them" is the cheapest, most accessible hobby I can go for! And it makes me feel alive to be outdoors. But I have doomsday in the back of my mind a little, and I agree with others that it would be smarter to have enough skills so if you have to leave your homestead you may actually make it. I'm nowhere near there yet but I am slowly building up my skills. And then, you know, doomsday may not be some sort of kaboom. It might be running out of oil, everything gets more expensive, our economy continues downward, sooner or later we're a Third World country. In that case I still need all those skills (and gardening's a big one, but wild edibles would help a lot with supplementing, people do it that way in Third World countries), maybe just to "get by" rather than "survive", but at some point it comes to the same thing.

BTW, everyone, y'all use acronyms a LOT. I figured out TEOTWAKI but what the heck is SHTF? Looks a little too much like STFU.

[Psalm25]

feralchef, I'd say I'm sort of like you. A lot of why I do this is because it's cheap, and here I am living right up against the woods without a car for Pete's sake, "get out in the woods and learn whatever you can from them" is the cheapest, most accessible hobby I can go for! And it makes me feel alive to be outdoors. But I have doomsday in the back of my mind a little, and I agree with others that it would be smarter to have enough skills so if you have to leave your homestead you may actually make it. I'm nowhere near there yet but I am slowly building up my skills. And then, you know, doomsday may not be some sort of kaboom. It might be running out of oil, everything gets more expensive, our economy continues downward, sooner or later we're a Third World country. In that case I still need all those skills (and gardening's a big one, but wild edibles would help a lot with supplementing, people do it that way in Third World countries), maybe just to "get by" rather than "survive", but at some point it comes to the same thing.

BTW, everyone, y'all use acronyms a LOT. I figured out TEOTWAKI but what the heck is SHTF? Looks a little too much like STFU.

s**t hits the fan.

[crashdive123]

@ Crooked Bird......here is a list of acronyms http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ions-and-Terms

[japs8944]

While I think that most of the people on that show are crazy, I am definaty of a fashion a prepper.

[Outdoorguy]

I am into wild eatables, but with it comes the study of food preservation. Gotta keep in mind if TSHTF in such a way, there's probably going to be no way to store food. Nomadic tribes were nomadic partially for that reason, they traveled to where the harvest was. In New England, there isn't much to forage in the winter time. You would need to not only harvest eatables (A majority of the best ones are found in the spring.) but also be able to preserve it to last through the winter.
Also, you could incorporate replanting into many of your foraging endevors. Horse Radish is an awesome example, because it is invasive, and easy to replant.