More Edible Wild Plants

In my original post How to Survive Really Hard Times, I listed the most widely available wild food sources: pine needles, pine cone seeds, inner tree bark, dandelions, clover, poke sallet, and acorns. Please refer to that article for detailed information on how to identify each plant, which parts of the plant are edible, and how the plant should be prepared for consumption (raw, roasted, boiled).

I didnt mention the obvious wild plants such as wild onion, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries (or huckleberries) and crab apples because I figured everybody would recognize them as edible.

Before I chat about some additional wild food sources, I would like to make a few comments about wild plants in general. This is my advice for what its worth:

1. Many of these wild plants are growing near you right now. I strongly recommend that you go outside, find a specimen of each one, harvest a little bit of it, and prepare it according to the directions in my first article. For example, almost anyone can find a thin green evergreen needle growing on a pine, spruce, or other evergreen tree. Pick one green needle off a tree, pop it into your mouth raw, chew it up real good, and spit it out. Ive never met anyone that was allergic to pine needles, but now would be a good time for you to find out for yourself. If you develop a reaction (which is highly unlikely) then there are medical facilities nearby to assist you. My best guess is you wont be needing any medical attention but it is reassuring to most folks to know that medical care is available if needed.

2. A few day later, swallow some of the plant (dont just spit it out).

3. Why should you do this today? Because you will prove to yourself that you can digest these foods with no ill effects to your body. This will give you a high level of confidence later in life if you should have to eat these foods in an emergency situation. It also gives your system a chance to gradually become accustomed to digesting these foods over a long period of time under stress free conditions. If a stressful condition arises at some future date, your system will probably be able to process larger quantities of these wild foods with no adverse effects because you will have trained your body ahead of time.

4. Finally, taste is a very individual experience and varies greatly among people. When you eat a wild food you will gain first hand knowledge of how that food tastes in its natural state. You will also form an opinion of how to make it more tasty for you (hummmm, a little Tabasco sauce would really make this exceptionally good eating ... or Soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce or whatever). You can then go to the store and buy a little extra of this sauce for use in emergency situations later.

Now lets take a look at a few other natural food items that might be available in your neck of the woods.

Cattails:

The familiar cattail grows in almost any wet ground: ditches besides roads, beside streams, in swamps and marshes, and in low lands that are frequently flooded by a nearby stream. You can recognize cattails by their long thin stalks with a sausage (or cigar) on top that has a pointed tip.

In the early spring, peel the thin green leaves off the main stalk to reveal the inner white core. The core can be eaten raw or boiled (sometimes called Russian asparagus).

The roots of the cattail are high in starch (and they contain a little sugar) and can be eaten any time of the year, either raw or boiled like a potato. The American Indians would roast the roots over some red hot coals, wait for them to cool, chew them up really good, swallow the juice and spit out the tough parts that are hard to digest.

In the early spring, the Indians also ate the green sausage shaped seed head after boiling or roasting it. Although the seed head is nutritious, it has a slightly bitter taste regardless of how you prepare it.

Grass:

All the parts of bladed grass are edible. You can eat the leaves, stems, seeds and roots. They are an excellent source of both vitamins and minerals. However, grass doesnt contain many calories and it takes a long time to digest. For that reason, it is usually best to chew the grass very thoroughly in your mouth, spit out the fibrous pulp (which is the part that is hard to digest) and swallow the remaining juice which contains almost all the vitamins, minerals, and calories. If you eat grass in small quantities this way you wont feel bloated and uncomfortable afterwards.

The only grass seeds that arent safe to eat are ones that are black or dark purple. Green or brown seeds are fine. If you arent sure what color the seeds are, then roast them before you eat them to make them safe to eat.

Honey and other wild food sources:

When a honey bee flies close to you (you usually hear the buzz before you see the bee) quickly note which direction it is flying. Bees fly in a straight line between their hives and their food and water sources (this is the origin of the old saying: making a bee line towards something). If you can determine the straight line flight path you can follow it both ways. If possible, stop every 50 feet or so and listen for another bee. This will help you stay on the right path. Be sure to mark your way back to camp with some orange trail tape (or cut strips from an old white sheet) so you dont get lost. The orange trail tape also helps you determine the straight line when you look back and see several pieces of tape hanging from shrubs or trees. If you are successful, at one end of the path you will arrive at a source of water or a source of food (clover, berries, wild fruit trees, etc.). The berries or fruit have just been pollinated but if you note where the food source is you can come back later when the fruit is ripe. If you find clover, it is ready to eat immediately. The real bonus, however, is on the other end of the path. The bee hive with the honey inside.

First a word of caution. Gathering wild honey is very dangerous work. If you get enough bee stings you can get very sick or even die. A few folks (not very many) are allergic to bee stings and even one sting can make them swell up and get very sick. If you have ever been stung by a bee before, then you know how your body responds.

My second word of caution. Everything that flies and has a stinger is not a bee. You may also encounter wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets. If you cant visually distinguish a honey bee from these other critters, then visit a local library or book store and look them up in an illustrated book on insects. Commit their pictures to memory.

How to collect honey from the bee hive:

There are many ways to collect honey. I am going to tell you the safest way. My assumption is that the lives of your loved ones are more valuable than the lives of the bees.

Usually the hive is in a hollow tree or log or in a small cave. You will need to make a small hand torch that smokes heavily. You should experiment with a variety of flammable items that are near your camp site (dry leaves, dry pine needles, pine tar, green wood, slightly damp wood, etc.) When you have selected the material that give off the most smoke, secure some of it to one end of a long stick.

Wear several layers of loose clothing that is carefully tied off at your wrists and ankles. Also wear gloves and good boots, plus a hat and a mosquito face veil (secured to your clothing). Properly dressed you have a good chance of being able to harvest the honey without a single sting. (If you dont have a mosquito face veil, then you can make one with a few old pair of panty hose and a needle and thread. It has to fit loosely over your head - not snug against your cheeks and ears: the bees would sting right through that.) You can not leave any openings where your different pieces of clothing meet for bees to crawl through and get to your skin.

Then get within visual sight of the bee hive and wait until it gets dark. The safest time to approach a bee hive is at night when the bees are inactive. Light the torch and insert its smoking end into the entrance of the bee hive. Close off the entrance to the hive so the smoke fills the hive and kills most of the bees. (Depending on the size of the entrance, a handful of leaves or grass may do the job. If the entrance is larger, use your imagination and the materials available. This is a decision you must make before you put your smoking torch into the hive.)

Wait for the smoke to kill the bees. You can then harvest the honey with the fewest problems if you have a small tool (shovel or big long metal spoon). Scoop the honeycombs out of the nest. The honeycombs contain the honey (and some unhatched bees).

Leave the area and return to your camp. There may be some bees clinging to your clothing so dont just walk back into camp and let the bees sting your companions. Have someone waiting a distance outside of camp who is clothed like you are, and have them scrap the bees off your clothing and be sure to kill the bees (these bees wont return to their nest - their only mission in life is to punish you). Then check your companion for bees. Then you can both enter camp.

Cut the caps off the ends of the honeycombs with a very sharp knife and let the honey drain into a big pot. Strain the honey (which may contain some unhatched bees) through a clean pair of nylon hose. The empty honeycombs may be eaten with the honey or you can melt the combs for use as candle wax. However, since the combs are edible and are a good food source, I recommend that you taste one before you use them as candle wax.

Bee Stings:

Whether you go looking for honey or not, if you spend time in the woods sooner or later you will probably get stung. By a bee or wasp or something. If you get stung by a bee it will leave its stinger in your flesh. Dont try to pull the stinger out with your fingers or some tweezers - you will only squeeze the poison sack on the tip of the stinger and inject yourself with more of its poison. Instead scrap the stinger out using your fingernail or the blunt edge of a knife.

The next question is, How do you stop the pain? Spread some ordinary mud on the sting (regardless of whether it is the sting of a bee, wasp, or something else). If it aint rained lately, spit on the ground and make a little mud and rub it on the sting. Let the mud dry. The mud will relieve the pain and draw out some of the poison and therefore make the sting heal faster. Now I know wet chewin tobacco also works just as good, but I dont chew and when Ive been stung in the past I usually wasnt with anyone with a plug of tobacco in their mouth. But I was always near the ground so I could make a small batch of mud in a jiffy. It has worked for me my entire life. Have a little faith and it will probably work for you, too. And dont worry about the sting getting infected because of the mud. It wont. However, like most things in life, you will probably have to try it to prove it to yourself before you will believe it.

My last suggestion is what to do if you are suddenly and unexpectedly surrounded by a swarm of stinging insects. If there is any water over two feet deep nearby, run for it and submerge yourself. Come up for air as needed but dont leave the safety of the water until you are certain the danger has passed. If there is no deep water nearby, then run through a relatively thick area of the woods and grab and release as many branches as you can as you pass by. Run fast and far. Dont stop and look back. Keep running. Believe me the running will come natural but you wont think to grab and release the branches unless you have reflected on this ahead of time. Dont run into an open area because the bees can fly in a straight line and easily attack you. By running between the trees you make the bees change direction frequently which aint natural for them and by grabbing and releasing the branches you will disrupt their flight path and kill a few of them. Dont stop running until you are completely exhausted. Bees wont fly more than four miles from their hive but most folks cant run that far. Bees will usually give up a lot sooner than the four mile limit if they believe you are no longer a danger to their queen.

Chiggers:

I know this post is about edible wild plants, but if you go hunting wild plants you will probably get chiggers sooner or later. They bore into your skin at places where your clothes rub tight against your skin, such as the elastic in your underwear, behind your knees, and around the elastic in your socks. You can distinguish them from mosquito bites because mosquito bites swell up and get pink or red about 1/4 inch around the bite. A chigger just swells the skin at its place of entry and the surrounding skin doesnt get real pink or red.

How do you get rid of them chiggers? Dab a little fingernail polish on each bite. Any color will do but I prefer the clear polish if I have a choice. The itching will stop and the chigger will suffocate and die. Dont worry about digging the little fellow out of your skin. Your body will take care of the little fellow all by itself.

Ticks:

If you spend any time in the woods, sooner or later you will also be greeted by blood sucking ticks. When you find a tick on your body you will see that it has its head buried in your skin. You must resist the urge to grab its rear end and jerk it out. You wont succeed. All you will accomplish is to break the tick in half and its upper half will still be embedded inside your body to get infected.

The old fashioned way to remove ticks is with heat. You can use a match to heat the tip of a knife blade, or a lit cigarette if someone smokes, or a smoking stick from the campfire. Put the source of heat close to the ticks rear end (or touch it with the tip of the hot knife blade) and it will back itself out of your body so it can run away from the heat. (Dont kill the tick with the heat because its dead body will still be buried in your skin.) When the tick has voluntarily extracted itself, catch the little fellow and squish him. No mercy for these little fellows. They will just come back to get you or one of your companions.

Another way to remove ticks is to coat its body with alcohol, iodine, gasoline, or if you aint got nothing else, human spit. The little fellow will extract itself from your body so it can get that awful stuff off its body.

Conclusion:

There are many other edible plants in the woods. I sure would be grateful if a few of you other folks would share your knowledge about the edible plants that grow in your neck of the woods. All the folks who read this post and print out a hard copy for future reference would be very appreciative.

May God Bless.

Grandpappy

P.S. - If you would like to read my previous posts, please try the links below:

How to Survive Really Hard Times

Drinking Water Revisited

-- Grandpappy (Grandpappy@old-timers.hom), July 14, 1999

Answers

Thanks a load for all the good advise.

I just recently had ocassion to search out the latest advise on ticks. The majority of the advise out there in the medical communtiy seems to say that mechanical removal (pulling out) the tick is the best procedure. They do emphasize not jerking which, as you point out, will berak off the head. They say grab the little bugger (no pun intended) with tweezers, pull gently, and wait maybe as much as 2-3 minutes for him to let go.

I've tried this method and it does work. I've also tried the coat him with something method with less sucess.

Not sure which is the "best" method

-Geybear

-- Got DEET?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), July 14, 1999.

pitchers of wild eatable plants. --- http://chili.rt66.com/hrbmoore/HOMEPAGE --- http://www.macatawa.org/~oias/poison.htm

-- HD (home_dad@yahoo.com), July 14, 1999.

Another comment about heating ticks to remove: Have read somewhere that heating or squeezing them can cause any of their bacteria (diseases-- lyme ehrlichiosis (sp?) etc.) to basically be injected into the person/animal they are attached to. "Got Tick Nippers?"

This was an especially bad year for ticks where I was. Since May I have seen more ticks on me, our dogs and other people in a day than I have in an entire season. And more this season than in an entire lifetime. We're talking like killing anywhere from 5 to 10 a day.

Once they're unattached, kill them. Now's the time to set them on fire or drop them into a small closeable container of rubbing alcohol. I even resorted to a small container of liquid soap at one point. It's a longer, lingering dying process for them.

Don't squeeze them with your fingers or touch them after they're smushed. I have read that you can still pick up tick diseases from their smushed guts. (little book from library: guide to ticks or some such...). Also, don't flush them. (Realize this may not be an option for post y2k, but honest, flushing does _not_ kill ticks.)

Just checked to online library catalog and I think the book that talked a lot about this was _Ticks and What you Can Do About Them_ by Roger Drummond. Also lots of info on the web. Did you know you can get Lyme from the urine of infected rabbits? We're in a Lyme hotbed here...

-- winter wondering (winterwondering@yahoo.com), July 14, 1999.

printed all your posts!! thank you!!

-- eddy (xxx@xxx.com), July 14, 1999.

Grandpappy:

Eating grass: give me a break. Most of what you call grasses contain endophytic fungi which produce very toxic compounds [lysergic acid relatives]. That is why they persist so well. They are very hard on livestock under stress conditions. Do they effect people? Don't know because there aren't enough grass eating people to make a judgement. I certainly wouldn't do it unless I was starving. By the way, nail polish doesn't deprive a chigger of oxygen, unless you have none in your blo

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), July 14, 1999.

Grandpappy, My hubby has a question..... How about Hickory nuts? I would think they would be fine, am I correct? Do we need to roast them or anything? We have a large hickory tree and lots of nuts.

Thanks for all of your wonderful posts. We 'youngens' need informative posts like yours. Thanks again.

-- bulldog (sniffin@around.com), July 14, 1999.

Isn't there a vaccination for Lyme disease? If so, and if you are going to be bitten by ticks, you'd better get vaccinated. Lyme is a real S.O.B.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), July 15, 1999.

Peter --

It should be noted that current data on Lyme disease suggests that it can be contracted more than once.

LYMErix, the first vaccine against Lyme disease, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last December. A second vaccine, ImuLyme, is pending FDA approval.

-- Mori-Nu (silkenet@yahoo.com), July 15, 1999.

RE: LYME VACCINATIONS

Yes, lyme is a b----. But I wouldn't count on the vaccine much. We vaccinated both our dogs for it and used tick preventatives for them. They both got it anyway. And, you can contract the disease more than once. Of course, there are no tests at this point that can tell whether you've been re-exposed once you've initially been exposed. Test positive once, test positive for life. That is given the current tests available.

Vets have differing opinions about the effectiveness of the vaccines out there for dogs-- and face it, the vaccines have been out there longer for them. Some vets say vaccinate, some say the vaccines they have aren't so great right now, wait until the develop a better one. I guess after having given yearly vaccinations to the dogs that failed, I'm inclined to think that the vaccines that are out there for dogs aren't very effective.

Since I'm not a vaccine developer, nor do I have a medical background, I can only comment from personal experience with pets. But I can also wonder about the effectiveness of all vaccines for Lyme.

AN ADDITIONAL COMMENT: Lyme is only one of the tick borne diseases that is a problem:

Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis (or HGE, or ehrlichiosis) deadlier than lyme...

Q-fever

Rocky mountain spotted fever (not just in the rocky mtns!! throughout US)

Tularemia (Resevoirs: rabbits, hares, ticks. Also transmitted by direct contact with infected meat, inhalation, ingestion, animal bite, and bites of deerflies or mosquitos. )

Babesiosis

TBE (Tick borne encephalitis)

Relapsing Fever

Colorado Tick Fever (not just in CO; Disease occurs in mountainous regions of CA,CO,ID,MT,NM,NV,OR,SD,UT,WA,WY)

Tick Paralysis

and there are more. Some affect certain regions of the US (and world) more than others. If you're interested or concerned, you might want to do some further research. The book (booklet) I mentioned in an earlier posting on this same thread, might be worth checking out from the library. Its small, but it really did have a lot of interesting information. Or some web surfing might get you the info. you're concerned about.

Ticks. ick.

-- winter wondering (winterwonder@yahoo.com), July 15, 1999.

winter wondering --
Regarding your vaccination comments: Vaccination as prevention is actually a very controversial issue. Most medical professionals will swear by its effectiveness (since their career may be based partly on its legitimacy), but I have to agree that vaccination should never be considered an "immunity developer"!

-- Mori-Nu (silkenet@yahoo.com), July 16, 1999.

What weed is imported by the TON into the US as a food delite? THE LOWLY AND DESPISED dandelion. See http://www.drwnet.com/wings/dandrev.htm Peter Gail is personal acquaintance and recognized authority on this- he has spoken at several Survival Shows Etc-

-- Chuck's wife (rienzoo@en.com), July 16, 1999.

It's best to gather your goodies from a spot not too close to a road or highway. They pick up exhaust and road runoff, the ground is usually saturated with lead and other stuff you'd rather not have in your system.

-- flora (***@__._), July 16, 1999.

Incredible edibles are already under tremendous pressure, from aggressive exotic plants and loss of habitat. Please be wise and thoughtful in your collecting.

I tell people that each mountain lion needs 60 deer a year, 40 to consume & 20 to keep the heard ongoing. We're the apex predator, let's remember to think ahead.

How about some info on exotic nuisance plants that are edible like kudzu, or ice plant. What about loosestrife?

-- flora (***@__._), July 16, 1999.

Before raiding a wild beehive for honey, educate yourself thoroughly. Unless your name is Tik-Tok, you will need a smoker, a bee-keeper's veil, and tough cotton clothing (not wool!). If you're out in the boonies and develop Ana phylactic Shock from multiple stings you may not survive.

Anaphylactic shock is the most severe form of allergy which is a medical emergency. It is a type I reaction in Gell And Coombs Classification. An often severe and sometimes fatal systemic reaction in a susceptible individual upon exposure to a specific antigen (as wasp venom or penicillin) after previous sensitization that is characterized especially by respiratory symptoms, fainting, itching, urticaria, swelling of the throat or other mucous membranes and a sudden decline in blood pressure. Symptoms of anaphylactic shock include dizziness, loss of consiousness, labored breathing, swelling of the tongue and breathing tubes, blueness of the skin, low blood pressure, and death.

I understand that Africanized bees are now fairly common in the southern tier of states. These bees are extremely hostile to intruders and have been known to pursue people for over a mile.

Go armed in a situation where the social situation has deteriorated so far that you need to forage in the bush. Untended pets can go feral, and rabies in otherwise peaceable animals, wild or domestic, always has to be considered. Rabies is one disease you really don't want to contract, especially if medical facilities are not up to par.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), July 17, 1999.

Bulldog

In regards to your question about Hickory Nuts, my advice is to completely avoid them. I believe they contain poisonous substances and I personally know of no method which will cleanse the nuts of those substances. Therefore, my advice is to not eat them.

May God Bless.

Grandpappy

-- Grandpappy (Grandpappy@old-timers.hom), July 20, 1999.

:Bulldog In regards to your question about Hickory Nuts, my advice is to completely avoid them. I believe they contain poisonous substances and I personally know of no method which will cleanse the nuts of those substances. Therefore, my advice is to not eat them. May God Bless. Grandpappy :

You are correct. They do. But so does everything else you have mentioned. Eat them, if you can beat out the small rats that infest your trees. I have more than 10 mature hickory trees and I've never been able to collect one nut. From the reports, I've started to form some real questions about this poster. But then, it is your decision. So it seems.

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), July 21, 1999.

Birds and other wild animals eat many wild foods that are not safe for humans to eat. Just because you see a bird eat some berries please don't assume they are safe for you to eat. My advice is that if you don't know what the food is then it is best to avoid it. On the other hand, if you can correctly identify the food, and you know how to process it for human consumption, then it will probably keep you alive and prevent starvation.

Forest rangers (and other search and rescue teams) have frequently found lost persons who starved to death when edible wild food was all around them but the person didn't know it. They have also found people poisoned by eating stuff that wasn't fit for humans. Use common sense if you ever find yourself in a survival situation.

Concerning the eating of grass, I only know of a few cases where people have been forced to live off grass for a short period of time. In those instances the person had to walk a long ways to get to a place of safety, they only had the clothes on their back, and the area they were passing through was dangerous to them. However, that little bit of knowledge about grass being edible got them from where they were to where they needed to be. I hope none of you ever have to rely upon that knowledge.

May God Bless.

Grandpappy

-- Grandpappy (Grandpappy@old-timers.hom), July 26, 1999.

Re eating pine needles -- be VERY careful that you do NOT eat Yew needles, as the entire plant is very poisonous, with the exception of the sweet tasty pulp of the red berries on the female shrubs. And although the pulp is edible, the seed inside is toxic, so spit it out.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), August 16, 1999.

well i wanted to add to your list. see in my neck of the woods you can use the PALMETTO as a sorce of drinking water. Take the stalk of it and peel the bark like covering off and chew the inner part and suck out the juice. there is your suplly of water.. you can use this as long as you want with no clean drinking water around.

-- Donna Rodriguez (BAYOU_FLOWER@yahoo.com), January 13, 2003.