I remember in school we had some classes on what was edible if we were ever lost in the wilderness. I guess if I got hungry enough, I would probably start eating anything to survive, but some of the stuff out there is poisonous.
Knowing what is edible.
I remember in school we had some classes on what was edible if we were ever lost in the wilderness. I guess if I got hungry enough, I would probably start eating anything to survive, but some of the stuff out there is poisonous.
My husband and boys love watching the shows "Man vs. Wild" and "Survivorman." Both have some good information about survival. The guy from "Survivorman" even did a special showing what to do in the case of a natural disaster like Katrina. Very informative.
Never ever ever start "eating anything to survive" - thats a great way to kill yourself. Never eat something you can not positively identify (unless you are about to die anyway). There are plants out there that have a LD50 less than one bite. That means one bite causes death in 50% of healthy adults. This is also true of bright colored berries on a vine. Examples include fools Water-Hemlock and Nightshade.Originally Posted by trick-r-treat
Get a nice guide book. I would recommend "Peterson Field Guides - Edible Wild Plants" by Lee Allen Peterson. It has color plates (pictures), diagrams and explain what you need to do to a plant to make it edible. They also have a nice feature where they point out similar toxic species (so you don't eat nightshade thinking its a grape). Even better find someone who knows and can walk you through the environment and point stuff out to you or take a wilderness survival class where they do so with a survival angle.
Oh, I just noticed that the edible plants section here is also fairly good and detailed. Just be careful: the picture for the plant is always above its name. Sometimes it looks like its at the bottom of the section but that is the picture for the *next* plant.
I haven't checked out the edible plants section yet. In fact, I didn't realize it was there. Of course, if you know you're going into a wilderness area, it's always good to know the edible plants of the area. That doesn't help much if you're in a situation where you weren't intending to be in that situation, though.
I just watched "Man VS Wild" for the first time the other day. I was actually very informative. Like I would have never realized you could just eat a water snake without cooking it. I would imagine you would need to know what kind of water snake to eat first. But the show was really very educational I thought.
I definitely prefer Survivorman to Man vs. Wild, I find Man vs. Wild to be staged in many places... not that he doesn't give good information, but he isn't fooling anyone about being stuck.
Anyways, learning some plant lore is definitely helpful. One thing you can do, which isn't 100% but can help, is to first apply unknown plant material to your skin and seeing if your skin has a negative reaction. Then your lips, just a little bit, waiting hours. Etc. It is called the universal ediblity test and can be found on this site.
Also, remember, a plant's roots can be edible but the leaves can be poison, so treat all plant parts differently.
yeah just randomly eating stuff is a bad idea and should only be used as a last resort. If you don't know what to eat and face starvation you can test plants by first touching them, waiting an hour to see if you have a reaction, then maybe put it on your toung for ten sec and wait another hour to see if you have a reaction. There is an army book that has more detaled test. It's important to know what you can and can't eat before you go out. I think grasses are relativly safe if you must try something. I would recomend packing a book on plants you can eat and use for other stuff. Humans can go a long time without food so if your only lost for a month you should be able to get by.
I've actually been wanting to get a book about this very thing. I'm not nearly as knowledgeable on wild plants as I'd like to be.
oops, sorry i duplicated info, i didn't read all the replies above mine because i was at work at the time. sorry about that.
I have not yet seen Survivorman. I had never heard of the edibility test that is very useful information. Thanks. Also you are right about the roots of a plant being good to eat but not the leaves. I remember learning this in a camp I went to years ago.
Please note: not all roots of all plants are edible. Chris is only stating that not all parts of a plant are neccesarily poisonous. Also, not all poisonous plants are poisonous year round. Finally do not eat a whole plant if you know that one part is edible.
Examples:
Water-Hemlock (As noted in my earlier post under its nickname fools parsley) can kill with one bite *from the root* - thats for a full grown person.
The *leaves* of Tomato plants are poisonous *until* the fruit is ripe.
*All* parts except the fruit (but including the pits) of the Black Cherry is poisonous (cyanide).
Finally, just because another animal is chowing down on it does not mean that you are safe. When I was very young I ate some bright red berries growing on a vine. It had to be safe right? All the robins where eating them. I spent the rest of that night and part of the next day at the hospital. I now know that spear shaped leaf means the plant is Woody Nightshade.
I don't know if any of you remember Ewell Gibbons, who was a great naturist. He got well known from being the pitch guy for Grape Nut Flakes.
When he died, there were loads of jokes about the fact that he probably kicked from eating some of the wild plants he was always talking about.
I remember those red berries growing up. I used to think they were so pretty until a stern warning came to never, ever put one near my mouth.
This man speaks the truth. If you are serious about edible plants you should find a nature course that will point this stuff out to you on a hike or whatnot. You can probably go to an REI or similar place and find someone who can connect you to the right people. I'll also add learn the proper way to test if something is edible. Break it so the oils get out and rub it on a small patch of skin, after 30-60mins if no rash has formed than rub a small bit on your tounge hours later if there is no sickness eat a small amount, wait and if nothing happens usually it means it's safe to eat (This should be used with caution and in an emergency situation).
EDIT: Whoops someone above already mentioned this. I'll add though, look for things animals are eating. Yes some things animals eat are fine for them but are poisonous for us but usually what they eat is a good indicator of what is ok to try.
There's plenty of vegetation out in the wild without berries. Almost all seed berring grass is eatable and most aquatic life. Watch what the animals eat insects are better chance of nutrients than berries. If you must test something make sure it is plentiful. Knowledge is everything here.
One are to be cautious of is fungi. Wild mushrooms can be extremely deadly and can be difficult to tell apart from edible varieties.
you should watch it, its a very good show I can watch them over and over again and their is always something I missed the first time
dandilion leaves are very common and edible... but they stimulate hunger slightly so i'd only eat them if you aabsolutely had nothing else.
Edible or non edible??
OK, that's not too smart. (eating anything) This site has a nice selection of edible and poisonous plants. There are simple tests and things to look out for. For example, don't eat anything with milky looking sap, plants with pods (like peas) or bulbs as roots, no hairy, thorny, or spiney stems, and of course nothing with three leaves on each stem. There are some tests that can be done, but take all day. (ie you eat a small amount and wait 8 hrs for any effects, then do it again and wait 8 hrs again... ) Of course, for a test that takes a long time, make sire there is a lot (i mean like a LOT) of that plant around, not just a few bushes or something. No use in wasting time just for a fern or something small.
What I did was familiarize myself with pretty much all the most common poisonous and edible plants in my area. Once that's done, it's a piece of cake. (Actually, you should carry sketches very well drawn because some plants are totally different but have very similar appearances...
Like I said before, this site has a long list of edible plants as well as poisonous plants. And I do recommend you learn to recognize some common plants that are edible and how to prepare them.
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